Early Learning Workforce

Early educators are essential to providing children with a high-quality early learning experience that will lay the foundation for their growth and development.

Early education is in crisis.

Early education programs are struggling to stay fully staffed, with many closing their doors or enrolling fewer children. Low pay leads to early educators leaving their jobs, which creates a shortage of programs that working families (and our economy) depend on. Many early educators in our county make an hourly wage that is one-third of what is needed to make ends meet; and yet, these professionals are responsible for educating the next generation of learners.

High-quality early learning programs are critical to positive child development, and the lack of available and affordable programs leave families scrambling. With fewer spaces in early learning programs, parents struggle to stay in the workforce. Recent estimates show that insufficient early education in California costs parents, businesses, and taxpayers $17 billion each year.

 

Innovative wage enhancement program for early educators to start in early 2025.

Thanks to ongoing efforts to support the local early care and education workforce, stakeholder engagement, and a planning process led by First 5 Contra Costa, the proposed Contra Costa wage enhancement program for early educators will be implemented in the early 2025.

CocoKids will be implementing the Contra Costa wage enhancement program for early care and education providers, called the Child Care Boost Initiative, using county Measure X sales tax funding allocated by the Board of Supervisors. The initial pilot program will provide approximately $1,000 per month for 18 months to 120 child care professionals in direct care roles in Contra Costa County. The program aims to retain child care professionals who work in child care deserts, or areas of our county where families have too few options for child care. By supporting child care professionals, this program will also be providing stability for the hundreds of families who depend on those child care programs to go to work.

Learn more about the Child Care Boost Initiative by downloading the flyers about these January 2025 informational sessions:

First 5 Contra Costa will be leading an evaluation of the pilot of the program. We are currently seeking an evaluation partner. To learn more, please visit Evaluation of a Wage Enhancement Pilot for Early Educators (RFQ).

Sign-on to Support Enhanced Earnings for Early Educators

If we don’t act, we risk more early educators leaving the profession, fewer early learning programs for families who can’t keep their jobs without a quality program for their children, and less access to early care and education for families.

Click here to view the many individuals and organizations who support a wage-boost solution for our local early educators

Want to show your support for this pilot effort that will provide stability for hundreds of families and early educators in our county? Click here to add your name.

 

Learn more about the research behind this new wage boost pilot for early educators

First 5 Contra Costa has commissioned several efforts to inform the development of this new pilot program:

Download the Designing a Wage Increase Pilot: A Framework for Supporting Early Educators in Contra Costa County report which provides an overview of the proposed wage boost pilot program and the research from 25 similar program programs nationwide that informed the design of the proposed pilot.

Download the Wage Enhancement for Early Educators: Developing a Pilot Model for Contra Costa County report to learn about the process First 5 Contra Costa used to center early educators and stakeholders in the process to develop the pilot model.

Download the Summary of Stakeholder Input Sessions report to learn what local early educators shared about their fiscal challenges and ideas about how an enhanced compensation approach might support the field.

Download The Early Care and Education Workforce of Contra Costa County report (or its executive summary) which summarizes the findings from a survey of more than 500 early educators in our county and provides a snapshot of their fiscal and holistic well-being.

Want to stay informed about First 5 Contra Costa’s efforts to support the early educator workforce? Click here to sign up for updates.