Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care

Support a Diverse and Culturally Competent Workforce

Policy Ideas

What policies can states use to move toward this recommendation?

To move toward this recommendation, states may use multiple policy levers, starting from different points. Potential state policies include the following:

Licensing

Train licensors and monitors in cultural competency to ensure that they understand infant/toddler care practices in cultural contexts and the ways in which diverse care practices meet licensing rules.
Increase language access by translating licensing information, regulations, applications, preparatory materials and classes, and examinations for licensing; hiring bilingual staff; and using qualified interpreters.
Provide training and technical assistance in languages other than English to LEP providers working towards licensure.

Subsidy

Pay differential child care subsidy payment rates to centers and family child care homes that serve ELLs.
Create incentives, including differential payment rates, for providers who complete coursework or training on cultural competence or have a bilingual endorsement.
Target efforts to increase access to higher education for LEP and diverse providers to those caring for babies and toddlers in the subsidy system.
Ensure that child care subsidy intake procedures and materials are linguistically appropriate, culturally sensitive, and accessible for those families living in immigrant communities.

Quality Enhancement

Include representatives of immigrant serving organizations and providers from language-minority communities on state early childhood councils and decision-making bodies.
Include measures of cultural and linguistic competence in state quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) to encourage the recruitment of bilingual and bicultural staff and the implementation of culturally and linguistically appropriate practices; and provide financial supports to help programs meet these goals.
Ensure that all providers receive training in cultural competence relative to the populations of infants and toddlers they serve. Trainings should be designed based on available research and in partnership with community-based organizations or representatives of diverse communities.
Identify and support existing infant and toddler family, friend, and neighbor caregivers in low-income communities. Through collaborations with community-based organizations, ensure these caregivers' access to linguistically appropriate training, professional development opportunities, and family support programs.
Offer culturally and linguistically appropriate trainings for caregivers in multiple languages, in language-minority communities, and during non-traditional hours.
Develop early learning standards for infants and toddlers that encourage cultural competency with input from diverse providers; and provide accessible guidance to all providers on working with children from various ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds.
Support the professional development of racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse providers through scholarships and stipends, access to professional development opportunities, and information in multiple languages.
Work with child care resource and referral agencies to create community-based professional development plans that incorporate culturally and linguistically appropriate training on child development, health and safety, and the basic components of state licensing.
Partner with community-based organizations and institutions of higher education to offer culturally and linguistically appropriate trainings for providers in multiple languages.
Work with state higher education officials to
- Build the capacity of the state higher education and training systems so that professionals training infant and toddler child care providers are culturally competent and language diverse.
- Eliminate higher education structural barriers, such as limited allowance of transfer credits from two-year programs to four-year programs and the lack of early childhood coursework in languages other than English.
- Evaluate and recognize infant and toddler providers' educational credentials and transcripts from relevant coursework completed in other countries. This should include paying the costs of translating foreign degrees and credits.
- Collaborate with community-based organizations to recruit new infant and toddler providers that represent the ethnic and language diversity of children under age 3 and their families.

Related Project Recommendations

Visit page: http://www.clasp.org/babiesinchildcare/recommendations?id=0005