November 2024 Newsletter
Engaging Our Community: The Family Child Care Perspectives Report
The Children’s Opportunity Alliance is pleased to share Montgomery County Family Child Care Perspectives: MSDE Blueprint Pre-Kindergarten Expansion. This new report offers a look at the experiences, challenges, and opportunities of family child care educators in Montgomery County, particularly in the context of Pre-K expansion.
The report was created to gather valuable insights from educators to help to inform strategies that enhance support and resources for their vital role in early childhood education. It includes quotes from interviews with educators discussing barriers to participation, which include:
Complexity of the grant application
Administrative burden
Financial implications
Degree requirements for teachers
EXCELS level and participation
The report also shares educators’ ideas about how to break down some of these barriers. It serves as a complement to our previous report, Montgomery County Center Director Perspectives: MSDE Blueprint Pre-Kindergarten Expansion.
Working Toward a More Equitable Future: The Alliance’s Racial Equity and Justice Statement
The Alliance recently published a Racial Equity and Justice Statement, available in full on our website. As part of ensuring that our work advances equity and inclusion, this statement highlights our commitment to eliminating racial disparities among communities we serve and places families and community at the center of all we strive to do.
Watch the Replay: Fiscal Map Webinar
This fall, the Alliance published Montgomery County's first fiscal map report on early care and education (ECE) investments. The fiscal map is intended to build an understanding of public and private investments in the County's ECE system, and it will ultimately help us identify funding gaps and make progress on the vision of a well-resourced early care and education system.
We recently hosted a webinar to engage in discussion with stakeholders about the data and its implications for the County. We are grateful to all who engaged and shared their thoughts.
Sharing the Latest: Update on ECE Workforce
The Alliance joined partners during a recent update to the Montgomery County Council’s joint Education & Culture, Health and Human Services, and Economic Development Committees to discuss the early care and education workforce. We shared data that paints a picture of the current workforce landscape and the many current challenges the workforce faces.
Alliance Updates: Meet Our Newest Board Members
The Alliance recently welcomed four new members to our Board of Directors, who bring a wide range of experiences and expertise to our collective mission. Our new Board members are:
Erica Williams, Montgomery County Public Schools
Kenia Reinoso, Kenia’s Family Child Care
Danielle Edmonson, Parent representative
LaTisha Gasaway-Paul, Minds in Motion Child Care
To learn more about our Board, visit our website.
Opportunity from Our Partners: RFP for Shared Service Alliance Vendors
Montgomery County is issuing a request for proposals for a vendor to lead a Shared Services Alliance. A Shared Services Alliance is a concept where groups of licensed childcare programs (defined as Family Child Care, Large Family Child Care, Centers, and Letters of Compliance) come together through a central hub to form a network and pay dues to achieve economies of scale in purchasing goods and services.
A Shared Service Alliance would provide a system that licensed child care programs can use to lower costs associated with supply procurement, technology support, accounting, training and technical assistance, human resources, and billing support.