Infrastructure Support
We recommend that lead agencies, in partnership with other state agencies, implement the following provisions in support of the early care and education workforce: (1) Ensuring federal child care relief funds reach individual early care and education staff in the form of direct cash payments. (2) Ensuring health coverage and guaranteed paid leave of at least two weeks for all staff working in regulated early care and education programs. (3) Adjusting eligibility requirements for public safety net programs utilized by early childhood personnel until the period when all state ARPA funds related to child care are liquidated. (4) Prioritizing equitable distribution of funding to programs located in communities with the most need, which have been impacted most acutely by this pandemic. (5) Improving systems administration and technical assistance to facilitate accessible, simple application processes. (6) Establishing essential, yet simple data collection protocols to examine the utilization and impact of ARPA funding in order to inform future policies and resource allocation. (7) Prohibiting the use of quality ratings as a determining factor for eligibility to receive ARPA funds or to condition levels of payment.