Insights to Action: Lessons from the Early Childhood Field

Hi and welcome to New America. I'm Cararaclar, director of New America's early and elementary education policy program. At New America, our mission is to generate big ideas and bold solutions for a new America. And that's what our events about today. We're grateful to partner with the Saul Zance Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. We created a series of briefs that highlight bold solutions from states and localities to strengthen early learning systems. In a time of diminished federal capacity and leadership, states and localities are leading the way on improving early childhood funding and making strides to improve educator compensation and development. Today, you'll hear from leaders across the country who've made these big investments. Our hope is that our audience can learn from their efforts and adapt their strategies to your own communities. Our agenda for today uh first you'll hear an overview of the research. Then we'll have three panels featuring the state and local leaders featured in our briefs on funding, compensation, and professional development. And we'll wrap up with a question and answer period from you. Note for our audience, there's a Q&A chat box to the right of the video. So, please enter your questions there. I'll also note our events being recorded uh and you'll be able to watch this later when it's posted to our website. And now, let's get started. I'll invite Emily Wicklan Hayhurst, the assistant director of learning design and communications from the Saul Zance Early Education Initiative to provide an overview of our research. Emily Thank you so much, Cara, and thank you to your team um for hosting this event and for being such great partners in developing this brief series. Um my name is Emily Wickland Harst. I am part of the Zance team at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Um before I came to Harvard, I was an early childhood educator in Washington DC. Um, and before we dive into the panel discussions, I'll just provide a brief overview of the series um, in the hopes that you all who are joining us will have a chance to check out the briefs um, afterward if you haven't already. Um, so for us, uh, this project was really a way to build on the work of the Zance Navigator, which is a digital tool that we launched in late 2023. Um and that tool came out of our work and conversations with lots of others across the field um that showed what many of you know which is that um there really is so much work happening at the state and local level to strengthen early childhood systems. Um and so we divi designed the navigator to really lift up many of those examples um so that others could learn from them. Um, the navigator is organized around kind of five core categories that range from expansion and workforce supports to data systems and cost modeling. Um, and the briefs kind of follow a parallel structure. Um, through the brief series, we were able to go deeper on select strategies. Um, we looked at written documentation and also were able to conduct interviews with leaders involved in design and implementation. So I'll just kind of briefly go through the five uh briefs uh before we launch into the discussions. Um so we can go to the next slide, please. So um our first brief focuses on physical space and facilities. Um this is a topic that doesn't always get as much attention as some others, but it is a really critical ingredient to providers being able to open, expand, sustain their operations. Um and there are some kind of concrete barriers. often there's um sort of a the high startup costs involved, capital costs, rent costs, and on the flip side, a lack of funding. Um there are also some kind of land use restrictions, zoning restrictions, things like that that can be at play. Um and for this brief, we uh looked at two main case examples. the first in Hawaii um where the legislature um authorized the use of unused and underutilized public buildings um including things like public schools facilities um for early learning programs. We also looked at San Carlos, California, which is in the Bay Area. um they uh now assess new development, so tech or biotech or other industrial development in the city um with a a fee that is dedicated to supporting um child care or physical space and facilities across the mix delivery system. Um you can go to the next slide please. Uh so the next brief focuses on funding uh dedicated funding streams. Um, the first example we focus on is Connecticut, which as many of you know, created an early childhood education endowment, which is funded through state budget surplus funds. Um, it currently has a valuation of over $700 million, which is incredible. Um, and those, um, each year, uh, money can go towards, uh, supporting expansion efforts, supporting the workforce, and lowering costs for families. Uh we also looked at Kent County, Michigan, um who we'll hear from in just a little bit. Uh they have a an early childhood um mill which is a property tax levy um that generates funding for early childhood programs. You can go ahead to the next slide, please. Thank you. Uh our third brief focuses on the topic of workforce supports. Um in this case, more specifically on compensation and benefits strategies. Um, we looked at a few core examples in this brief. The first is San Francisco, California, who we'll hear from shortly. Uh, they have a couple of really robust um, salary support programs uh, that support educators from homebased family child care programs, midsize centers up to very large uh, centers as well. Uh, we also looked at Iowa, who we'll hear from uh, as part of this conversation today. they um expanded child care assistance eligibility to include early childhood educators. Um and that was something they tried as a pilot, learned a lot from and were able to codify into law um just earlier this spring. And then finally, we kind of rolled it back to one of the original wage support programs, which is the wages program um based in North Carolina. It's an education linked compensation model, so kind of a tiered model. Um, and it has been in North Carolina for over 30 years. Um, and has since expanded to many other locations across the country. You can go to the next slide, please. Our fourth brief uh focuses on data infrastructure and data systems, which is another topic doesn't always get uh the full treatment that we think it probably should. um given the critical role that data can and should play in um helping lawmakers and others make really strategic decisions about how to spend limited resources. Um and also tell us more about where kids and families are. Um what works for whom and under what circumstances. Um we looked at a couple of main examples for this brief including in Kansas and Chicago. Um we looked at the integrated data systems in both places and both offered lots of lessons in linking data across agencies and providers that are often as all of many of you know well um tend to be quite siloed um and lessons really in some of the sort of um relational and like adaptive leadership components of leading data work. Um you can go to the next slide please. And then finally, our fifth brief focuses on cost estimation models. So, as many of you know, this is how states and local communities are increasingly using models to calculate to better calculate the true cost of and to um pay for subsidize the true cost of offering highquality early education and care. Uh we looked at two core examples here as well, including in Virginia um and in Massachusetts. Um, and so across all of these, I would really encourage you to check out the briefs um to dig into some of the uh crosscut cutting lessons, implementations lessons um that we learned that hopefully will be helpful for you all in your work as well. Um so without further ado, I would love to transition to our first panel. I am very thrilled to have here today with us two local experts. Um, first we have Jennifer Hedley Norman Nordman who is president of First Steps Kent which administers Kent County, Michigan's Ready by Five Early Childhood Village. Um, which is a voter approved property tax levy that generates nearly $8 million annually for programs serving children from birth to age 5. Um, and so she will dig into what it took to build and sustain that really impressive community investment. Um, and second, we're joined by Lissa Wilkinson, who is the former former deputy CEO of PreK forSA, uh, which is the San Antonio program created after 53% of voters, um, more in later years approved a dedicated sales tax for highquality pre kindergarten um, originally in 2012. Um, so she'll share share lessons from building and running that city level um, early childhood funding model. So, welcome Jennifer and Lissa. We're so thrilled to have you here today. Um, to start, I'd love to have you just kind of paint a brief picture of what the funding landscape looked like when you started this work. What were you trying to change and why uh why was the existing approach uh why wasn't it working or sufficient? Um, let's go ahead and start with Jennifer if that's okay. >> Thank you for having me. Our landscape was very similar to probably many of those who are viewing today. We had amazing organizations that were doing some high quality early childhood work. So we had dedicated professionals. We had a community that is very philanthropically minded and was investing private dollars. But we did not have a coordinated or dedicated or sustained funding model. And First Steps started this work in the late 1990s 2000s. And our goal was really what could we do to coordinate efforts beyond just collaboration and make sure that we had a dedicated and sustained funding model that our local organizations could use so that they had predictable funding in the future and could braid that with other private dollars or state and federal funding. >> Thank you so much. Um, Lissa, can you just give us a similar kind of picture of what the landscape looked like pre um prek4s? >> Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me as well. Really excited to join the conversation and again sort of echoing some of the things that Jennifer has just mentioned. We also had a really robust early childhood advocacy community, fantastic providers that were already doing this existing work. Um and then at the time in 2012, our then mayor Julian Castro really had a big vision for the city. And so he convened um well he launched an initiative called SA 2020 which was essentially a strategic planning and uh visionary effort where he asked uh thousands of local residents um what do we need to become a worldclass city in the future? and their resounding um voice really identified one big priority which was improving our education system. And so rather than jumping into a quick solution, he convened what was the brain power task force which was a group of both education and business leaders who came together and for a year studied several different education initiatives. So from uh high school graduation rates to career uh readiness and what this brilliant group decided was that the best investment that our city could make to really improve the trajectory of our future was in early childhood. So um they decided uh that they were going to focus and create what has now become prek for essay. But what they were really uh focusing on was beyond an education initiative. how can we really um establish early education as the foundation for both a workforce development and economic initiative as well? And so that is really what the foundation of prepares essay was established on um was that it was going to improve uh educational attainment but also workforce development and economic opportunities for generations to come. >> Great. Thank you so much. Um, so each of you and each of your organizations made um deliberate choices about both the mechanism um and the scope of your investment. Um so Lissa, starting with you, you all chose a sales tax model that generates funds for public prek specifically. What shaped some of those decisions around the funding mechanism and the kind of overall design? And what might you tell someone who's working through those decisions? right now. >> Yeah. So, fortunately at the time in 2012, um Texas had passed what was called the Better Jobs Act, which allowed municipalities to dedicate 1/8 of 1 cent of a sales tax revenue to workforce development initiatives. And this included uh early education. So, San Antonio really leveraged an existing policy that was already in place to allow us to use uh sales tax money. And again, what was really underlying this decision was that city leaders recognized that um early childhood could really be a long-term workforce and economic development strategy. So, um, rather than funding the initiative through the city's general budget, they took the proposal directly to the voters in a ballot initiative. And in 2012, uh, San Antonio residents, as you've mentioned, approved the sales tax initiative with 53% support for an 8-year investment, which really enabled San Antonio to join this handful of cities that had established a voter-approved uh, sales tax for early childhood education. And one of the things that we sort of discovered in terms of using a sales tax is sales tax is a small incremental tax over many many people. And unlike property taxes or some other taxes that people can really feel, sales tax tends to not have as much of a of a backlash. Um so it really became this very protected dedicated source of sustainable funding for the city. But what's really been exciting is to watch how community support has built throughout the years. And so in 2020, um we went back for reauthorization and voters uh renewed the initiative for another eight years with a 73% support. And this took a lot of um really demonstrating the efficacy of our program, baking in longitudinal studies, ROI studies from the beginning that really demonstrated the the efficacy. Um, and then just in the past couple of weeks, what has been pretty exciting is that we have had a very supportive and eager mayor and city council who have now just voted again just in the past week to bring the measure to this November rather than waiting for the renewal cycle two years later. and then also to go up not just for an 8-year reauthorization, but actually to extend the initiative for an additional 20 years. Um, so as you can imagine, this is a really exciting time in San Antonio, but uh the organization is really trying to work strategically and quickly to stand up both an election and campaign in the next two months. So that was kind of an unprecedented um uh support that happened uh over this past month. Um, but to me that says a lot around how the conversation has significantly changed since 2012. And the question that San Antonio is asking um in 2012 was really should we invest in early education? But now the question has really become how do we make sure that this investment lasts for future generations. So again the conversation has shifted significantly over the years and that has been um really exciting. So we are waiting with baited breath to see how this will all wrap up over the next um coming days and couple of months and I know PreKSA is working really really hard with a mentality of of cautious optimism as we go up for our next renewal. >> That's great. Thank you so much. A very exciting pivotal moment um for you all. Um Jennifer, similarly or by contrast I should say um you all have a slightly different uh property tax mechanism um that funds a slightly broader set of early childhood programs and supports. Can you talk about the decisions you all made um around that and you know thinking about what you might tell someone who's working through those kinds of of decisions? >> Absolutely. I think this speaks to how every community is able to find their own solution that works for them. In Kent County, there were a few factors that really helped us decide on a property tax. And so in Michigan, we have something called levying mills. And so, a mill is representative of a percentage or how many dollars per every $1,000 of assessed property tax. And for us, an average um home is around $360,000 and we currently have a 0.25 mil for Ready by Five. And so that means families are paying about $90 a year to support the Ready by Five early childhood fund. For us, we were able to look at some historic precedents in our community. There is a senior services millillage that started in the late 1980s and through data and information they've been able to show our community that that dedicated and sustained investment for seniors has made a difference and has been able to move the needle in a positive way in our community. So, we were able to lean on that example as well as um Kent County and the greater Grand Rapids area has been on an upward trend. Our population is growing. We've seen a lot of interest and investment in businesses and individuals wanting to relocate to our area. Families who are getting started or have small children wanting to make Kent County their home. And so for those reasons, we knew that we had a population that was okay with property taxes so long as they were transparent and reasonable and we were able to provide proof of that return on investment. And in a short period of time, we were able to show that the investment was changing and making things better in terms of healthy outcomes for young children. We also have some preliminary information showing that the kindergarten readiness has improved in our community, especially in the area of literacy for this investment. So for us, it made a lot of sense to look at a property tax. That was something that when we first passed in 2018, passed cleanly, and when we renewed in 2024, similar to what Lissa described, we showed an increase in the number of voters that were willing to support and sustain that investment. >> That's amazing. Thank you so much. Um, so I think you're kind of you've alluded to um some of this like proof of concept idea of like showing people that this is promising, that it works, that it delivers for kids and families in the community. So on that note, turning to sort of the lessons learned um starting with the bright spots like what has worked well or better than you expected and also maybe on the flip side something that didn't work as well as you hoped or offers sort of a constructive lesson for others who are um following in your footsteps or doing this work. Um we can start with Lissa this time. >> Yes. So, one of the lessons, one of the biggest lessons that I think that we had at PreKaper essay, and this was truly an evolutionary lesson that we got better at over time, was really understanding that public funding is really just the beginning of the story. And the real st story along long-term impact is the ability to create uh cross- sectoral partnerships with the philanthropic and the business community. And I think this is something across the nation that many local early childhood initiatives are pursuing quite quite vigorously. And I think that the reason for this is because we really want to um magnify our impact in our in our public investments. And so one of the things about San Antonio that I don't think is specifically unique to our city, but I think it's one of the better advantages is that we have a very civic-minded and uh civically engaged business and philanthropy community. And so over time, we've been able to build very deep relationships with the business and philanthropic community. and they've been able to fund some of our biggest innovations and some of our initiatives that not only have helped to impact prek for essay but also the broader early childhood ecosystem across the city. Um, one example is this of this is through our T4T program. And this is a program that uh was really born out of the fact that um infant toddler teachers do not get the compensation and do not get a lot of the of the quality supports that they need to really maintain uh a level of high quality in particular centers. And so, um, it started off as just a simple $25,000, uh, philanthropic donation to provide $1,500 stipens for these infant toddler educators to obtain their child development associates degree and then also retain their position at the center that they were working in. And that $25,000 investment has now blossomed over five years into over a million dollars of philanthropic funding that has helped over 200 infant toddler educators throughout the community. And that's just one example of how we've amplified our public investment through these additional dollars. Um likewise um uh we have just built over this past year a brand new beautiful state-of-the-art uh southbuilding facility and PreK Forsa really operates as demonstration sites. So for training for other educators around the community but also as a way to bring in public officials uh business leaders philanthropic leaders to really see what high quality early learning actually looks like in real time. And that has been very persuasive into the community to be able to point them to some model programs. And I think that communities across the nation have fantastic model programs that they can really bring folks in to really um understand this idea of what high quality looks like. And our new south building um was an incredible build and that happened through a public private partnership with a local construction company Halt Cat. And uh they have been an incredible investor and also business champion in the community for early childhood education. And I think this kind of political will, this support, but also the additional funding from philanthropic and business communities has been something that San Antonio has leveraged really well. And I think we're seeing the impact of that even as we go up for reauthorization and how excited the community is to get this on the ballot in such a um unprecedented timeline as before. So I think really leveraging those partnerships across uh communities really thinking outside of the box of who can join us in our in our fight in the city is some it's an incredible lesson for leaders um across the across the country. >> Thank you so much Lissa Jennifer. lessons learned, bright spots, or harder lessons either. >> There's often a little bit of both, right? So, the bright spots are how quickly our investment became this beloved component of our community infrastructure. And we know that through the data that I had um alluded to earlier that we're already seeing positive gains when it comes to maternal health, when it comes to healthy development, when it comes to school readiness. But I also have the benefit of getting to hear those stories from our parents and our families who have really been our champions throughout this process telling me what a difference the programs and the services that are supported by ready by five had made for their child and for their family. I would say lessons learned are taking time to really think about not just shortterm but long-term the type of data that you want to collect and for us in our renewal cycle we're really looking at in the beginning I think we had a wide net and we're asking all kinds of information and trying to collect all the data that we could because we were getting started and now in the second phase we're able to pull back a little and really determine are these questions necessary for us moving forward and as we live in a time where individuals feel a bit surveyed out I think we're able to refine that approach moving forward and to be able to continue to have high success rates when we reach out to our providers and our families to get information because that information really drives where the gaps are and where we need to continue to invest in our community. >> Great. Thank you so much. We have just a couple minutes left. Um, so any final closing thoughts? Something you maybe wish you had known, you know, hindsight being as it is, um, wish you had known going in that others might learn from moving forward. Um, I'll open it to either of you. Yeah, I'll just say that um one other lesson that I think we learned which is also um an evolution over time and I think this really tease up um the panels that are going into uh this next section of this conversation is really this idea of um that the funding really starts the process. It really gets the public investment really gets things going. But once you get the funding, really having a solid plan on how you're going to build the systems, as Jennifer mentioned, the data infrastructure and just the infrastructure generally um the quality supports that are going to be necessary to sustain this public investment. And that was something that we learned over the last nine and a half to 10 years working alongside and in collaboration with providers. And uh so I know yall are going to talk about this in the next panel but really ensuring that you are funding the right quality supports and the right initiatives and really thinking about the ecosystem holistically. I think a lot of programs ours included at the very beginning we're thinking okay we'll put these dollars towards uh facilities. will put these dollars towards increasing pay wages. And those are very important things. But we also have to consider that when we were working with providers that we needed to wrap them around these supports of business coaching, instructional and pedagogical coaching, um these reducing the silos for them to work in communities together. Um, so one of the things that was brilliant in the conceptualization of PreK for ESA was not just that we would provide direct services and have these model demonstration sites, but that we would also provide we uh roughly $4.2 million annually um into the ecosystem and other programs um in addition to free professional learning for any educator birth through third grade. And it was these types of quality supports they think that has really benefited not just prek for essay but the city as a whole and providers from birth through four throughout the city. So really thinking about where do we want to uh invest in these quality supports with professional learning, workforce developments, pay wages, shared services. There are a lot of highlever strategic options that we can put this funding. And I think understanding how we're going to build that infrastructure, how we're going to build those systems around providers is is incredibly important just as much as obtaining uh sustainable funding and revenue pathways as well. Thank you so much. Um, unfortunately, I know there's so much we could say beyond that. Um, but we'll have to for time sake leave it there. I appreciate you both and the insights you've shared. Um, and I hope everyone will follow up with the relevant brief. Um, and uh, to be able to learn more. Thank you both so much. I will turn things back to Cara. >> Great. Thank you, Emily. and our last panel. It's my pleasure to introduce our panel on educator compensation. Uh joining me for this panel will be Ryan Paige, director of child care and code childcare development fund administrator for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, and Susan Jung, manager of workforce initiatives for the San Francisco Department of Early Childhood. And while they join me on the virtual stage, I'll just remind our audience, please send your questions to us. uh we will answer them at the end of the panel. So welcome Ryan and Susan. First, could you each give a give a brief picture of what the compensation landscape looked like when you started the work? What wasn't working of the existing approach that you were trying to change? And we can start with Ryan. >> Good afternoon. Thank you for having me. Um so you know Iowa has been uh funding teach and wages uh for a very long time. We also um help support uh CDA navigators. So we're doing some uh compensation and education enhancement. And then we have done um some solutions funds which are localized um matching funding for uh our early childhood educators to increase wages um at the local level with public private partnership investment. But despite all of those kind of ideas, um one of the things that we really were recognizing is that people in the early childhood workforce themselves, uh while most of them traditionally could even meet, um eligibility requirements because of low compensation, we had a group or a population of people working in the early childhood workforce that um would not qualify. and and those were typically our two income uh families when our typical subsidy family is a single parent household. And so we really wanted to um take an opportunity to see what would happen if we started paying or making them eligible for child care regardless of uh their income. And so we uh for 3 years we have done a pilot which we were then able to codify um just this last year through uh through the legislature which I'll uh talk a little bit more about. But you know some essentially despite some of the compensation packages that we already had identified we were able to um this was a gap that we wanted to just see what would happen. Um and it turned out well. So I'll I'll talk more about that as we get into it. Great. Susan, >> thanks so much, Cara. Hello, everyone. Susan Jong from the Department of Early Childhood. Really excited to be here today. I would say I don't think I wouldn't say that the earlier um efforts in San Francisco were not working. Um uh they were essential and helped build the groundwork and foundation we rely on today. What we didn't have yet um was the sustained investment needed to significantly change the educator wages that we see today. Um for two decades, San Francisco demonstrated a sustained commitment to early education compensation coupled with access. So initiatives like preschool for all along with the city's investment in cares wages plus and c wages really underscored the principle that expanding access to early education must go hand in hand with supporting the educators who make it possible. So with today's increased resources, what San Francisco is able to do um beyond making these modest wage supplements is really approach compensation as a foundational element to building an early education system and infrastructure. >> Thanks. And then for each of you, what worked better than you expected? And then the converse, what didn't work the way you'd hope? Uh we can do the same order again for continuity. >> Sure. Um so we had huge bipartisan support um which we just aren't seeing uh always right now. And so that certainly exceeded expectations. Passage of this uh project was nearly unanimous. All of our advocate um all of our advocates were supportive of this. Over three years, we've seen 2400 families get served. Um, specifically related to the subsidy pilot itself. Um, we've got multi-year retention. 37% of our educators um were then eligible for a second year. Of those, 70% into the third year. So, we we have had a lot of recruitment and retention efforts. Um, we also work really well with our childcare resource and referral partners. They carry messages um to our directors who relate information to staff and families. They communicate directly with providers. Um we did have a couple of unexpected challenges uh more around like the realworld eligibility questions and the implications of you know the work is nuanced and we have uh minimum work hour requirements and who qualifies and who doesn't qualify and and does it include the person uh working uh kitchen staff? does it include the director or the on-site supervisor and how many hours do they need to work in ratio? And so, um, there were definitely things that we had to navigate and work through, um, and do multiple rounds of not only conversations, but, uh, iterative policy development, um, and rounds of clarification to stay aligned with the intent of the program. Um I would say for San Francisco just to paint a picture of like the current wage support program that we have is in its fourth year. So I I would say that it remains still to be in its early stages of of implementation and we're learning a great deal and this learning will continue to provide valuable insight as we um continue with our implementation. at the onset of um in terms of what worked was we saw a 50% wage increase for a good majority of our early educators which was significant that was life-changing for many early educators. Um while that 50% was significant for the field, um something that we had hoped for that we're still struggling with is that our wages continue to lag behind compared to other cohorts in education such as K12 um and frankly compared to many other skilled sectors. So these wages while um are making a significant difference, uh the lesson I think we would learn in San Francisco is that compensation does require significant additional funding and we still have a great deal of work behind uh ahead of us um as we look to uh have our wages compete with other sectors and also to be in line with other education cohorts. Thank you. Um, so you're coming from very different contexts, different political environments, different cost structures, different policy landscapes. What is your environment made possible? And what is it made harder? What might you want someone who is working in a similar context to take away from your experience? So, we'll go Ryan and Susan to give. Okay. Um, yeah, Governor Reynolds uh has been a huge champion for uh child care in particular and we have, you know, we favor pragmatic solutions. Um, we're always helping to move the program forward. We have a lot of strong trustbased relationships with um within Health and Human Services and our our partners, childcare resource and referral and providers. Um, and so birectional communication has really been possible as we've worked through some of these different things. Um, we are a state that has moderate cost structures uh to RCCA eligibility and and because of those moderate cost structures, the child care subsidy for the workforce was financially feasible for us. Um, because so many of our people are over 85% of the state median income. There is a a large state investment um to make this work. We aren't able to use federal funds um based off of CCDF regulations. And so um you know really finding uh this was an easy win for for everyone when we were able to really show the data that says um these pragmatic solutions uh that are financially feasible also work and improve outcomes for the workforce themselves which incre you know improves the stability for the uh the classroom and then uh children and families. I would say um takeaways for for similar states is uh prioritize relationships and use transparent messaging. We um are always firm uh to maintain the core intent of the program. Uh but you you've got to have that collaborative uh partnership and engagement to be successful with this. >> Um I would say in San Francisco this work did not happen overnight. for many others as well. But um this was a two decade effort and I think the two critical elements to this longterm investment um made possible was by through the voters as well as the early educator community. So in San Francisco um this recent measure was passed because the voters saw the value of early educators and the important role they have in supporting uh young child's development. And our voters in San Francisco are not new to taxing themselves in order to support u further investment of early education in the city and county of San Francisco. What was different is about this particular measure recently that allowed us to focus specifically on compensation and that um may be due in part with our decades of engagement with our early educator community. our early educator community from homebased providers to center-based educators to administrators themselves. They are highly engaged um in the civic process. So they are actively involved and participate in budget hearings in commission meetings and are often um in conversation with city leaders. So what that means for us in San Francisco as we're rolling out implementation of wage support initiatives is that the implementation as well as policy and program designing does require significant um community engagement. That is the cornerstone to the work that we have as we're looking to continue to build and reform. Um that does mean that we are in continuous conversation and refinement and that is the strength of our of our community is that engagement and it does take time. So that means that policy and program shifts does take time because it does require um continued engagement with the early education community. >> Thank you. And as people in the audience want to think about this in their own context, they can benefit from your experience. Uh similar to the last panel, our final question for you. What do you know now that you wish you'd known going in? >> Um gosh, such a powerful question. Um you know, I think there there's strengths um for doing things as a pilot. Um there's also limitations to it because you're always looking to refine. Um so you know I mentioned an iterative process before. Um certainly uh iteration is not a sign of failure but just a necessary part of refining policy and matching lived experience and you know do better when we when we know better. And so uh we really needed to take directors real world feedback um that was essential early on in the process uh not just during implementation but kind of through the whole thing. um we ran a pilot uh based off of the best intent of what we were trying to achieve and then with that we got all of these nuanced questions. So then when working with the legislature and we're talking about um what is the proposed actual uh legal the code language? What do we want it to say and what does that mean? Um we had to have a lot of really really important conversations. What type of cost limitations do we have? How far can we stretch the dollar? we have to look at it pragmatically while also being able to serve as many people as possible and recognize what a strength it is to um bring people into the workforce and keep people into the early childhood workforce. And so we just had to have a lot of really frank and honest conversations about what is our true intent, who are we trying to serve and what are we trying to achieve. Once we can get there, then we can start crafting the policies um the best way possible. I would say for San Francisco, it's becoming increasingly clear that the structures that we establish today really determine what's available to us in the future. Um, what I had wish I had known early on is just how much those or structural choices shape what we're able to do later. So, at the beginning, we're very focused on solving immediate problems, getting the basics in place, such as setting wage targets, rolling out requirements, and really, frankly, um, quickly getting those resources out the door as quickly as possible to early educators who've been waiting for that wage increase for decades. So, um, that was that was the landscape. But over time, what we're seeing is that the framework and principles that we set up um is really defining the boundaries and the path we have ahead. And we see this firsthand as we examine operating a stipen based stipenbased wage support system alongside our payroll wage um support system. So stipens have served an important purpose in San Francisco for many years. Yet they differ fundamentally from compensation that is integrated directly into wages and payroll. When a structure such as stipens have been in place for so many years, changing changing that structure becomes increasingly complex. Our educators have come to rely on it. Um our administrators and providers organize their operations around it and expectations are built upon it. So I would say if given the t given the luxury of time I would have focused on designing an initiative that on the outset would be aimed towards long-term structure and sustainability so that we're not having to attempt to retrofit it after the fact. >> Great. Thank you so much to this panel. appreciate the insights that you shared uh and we'll look forward to the Q&A when I'm sure more questions will come for you. Uh now I'd like to welcome up our next panel. Uh this panel was about teacher compensation and this panel the second panel on the workforce is about how do we support teachers once they're in the classroom? How can they better support the children from their community? uh and we'll home in on social emotional learning, trauma-informed care and support for multilingual learners in this panel. Uh it's my pleasure to welcome to our virtual stage Dr. Lupe Haime Milm the deputy director for child care and development division for the state of California's department of social services Maria Sios the executive officer for early learning in Fresno Unified School District and Paige Tomlin the co-director of Oakland Starting Smart and Strong. So our first question is for you Dr. Haime Mumm first. Over the last decade, California has made significant policy changes for the early childhood workforce, both in the school-based and community-based settings. Can you tell us about a couple of those state level strategies related to educator development or support that were especially impactful >> and good afternoon and um thank you for having me. Um, one of the areas that I'd like to be able to focus on is around supporting our multilingual supports. This point we have not had some investments in the state really support um the workforce that is children who are multilingual. As a result of looking at not only the innovation that was happening in some of the communities connected with the star smart and strong backward initiative we saw that both the data supported this as well as the field was interested in receiving more of this. So we were able to make some investments uh to pilot what we had um worked through personified to how to scale the professional development support meaning they would doing a trainer trainer through trusted meers which is the resource but also we make sure that they got access. So many of the course which we um label as both the uh center staff as well as the last but most importantly also the family friend and neighbor care would be able to access to this. And so that was just one example of how we were able to really look at new pilot and they do have reach across the state of California. Thank you. Uh and our next question will be for uh Maria and Paige, both representing districts. So like many in our audience, uh you work in districts with tens of thousands of teachers and students and you want to improve early childhood outcomes, but there's so much to do. How do you decide which thing you want to focus on? and how did you incorporate input from educators or families to inform the strategy that you landed on? And we'll start with uh Maria from Fresno. >> Hi everyone. Um thank you for inviting me. I'm excited to share what we have done here in Fresno. Um and Lupe was part of it. Um she was uh one of the first ones that um came together. So the way we did it was our focus grew out of um both data and strong agency partnership. Um in Fresno uh approximately 60% of our children ages 0 to five or dual language learners or more more bilingual learners. Um child assessment uh we were seeing the the difference. Uh we were seeing that our um dual language learners were not doing that well. Uh we recognized that in Fresno our children were being served across many different settings including um school district, family child care, private centers, community based programs um and informal care settings. So we wanted to make sure that um we all came together as a community as an agency to be able to address this need um that was greatly in our community. And we also were able to recognize from the beginning that there was no single agency that was going to be able to address this alone. Um we needed to um have a collective approach u that could reach educators and caregivers across all the early learning system. Um so this led uh this led us to the focus on um strengthening the ability for our educators to be able to work with our u multilingual learners. Thank you. And Paige from Oakland. >> Yeah. Hi. Good. Good morning here. Good afternoon in other parts of the country. Um I'm Paige Tomlin and I am the co-director of Oakland Starting Burn Strong and we are an early childhood collaborative that um was started with a 10-year grant from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation back in 2014. And um today we have about 40 organizations that are make up our collaborative um nonprofits uh government agencies um but most significantly parents and families and family survey organizations. And as far as um how we decided our focus at the beginning was very specific. Um we had um several different pillars that we concentrated on and they were focused on the Oakland Unified School District preschools. So Oakland Unified um has about over 20 preschools that serve a thousand children and this is before transitional kindergarten. Um so this is you know 10 years ago. It's a significant number of children um who were in preschool in Oakland were being served by OSD. Um and also a significant number of children were being um served in their homes by family friend and neighbor care what we call informal care. So those were our focuses in the beginning. Um and we really were trying to think of things uh that could have real concrete results. Um partly because as you mentioned the system is so big and there are so many kids and we really wanted to have some concrete results that everybody could see at the beginning. Um hoping that once we did that then we could build off that to do bigger and bolder things. And that is the trajectory that we've been on for the last um almost 12 years. Um a really good example of that is um when we first started um the they really wanted to make sure that all children who were entering the preschools uh had um some kind were screened for developmental concerns using the ages and stages questionnaire and they really wanted to be able to give this information to teachers um and parents um when their children were entering the school system. And so in the beginning it was a little bit rough. it was on paper. Um it was only in English and the first year or so um you know we really had some mixed results but um over time it was great because the um questionnaire actually was put online making things a lot easier for parents and was also offered in five different languages and really kind of expanded from trying to get folks to fill it out as they were registering their children from in preschool to really um going and using the family engagement activities. All right, extra time for you, Maria. Uh, Fresno is particularly well known for the language learning project that started in Fresno, but it grew across the state and across to other states around the country. Um, many communities around our nation have growing populations of multilingual learners and they want to support and strengthen multilingualism as an asset. but the incumbent workforce may not be adequately uh prepared to do so. So in terms of a district level strategy, how is the language learning project supporting early childhood educators to support young multilingual learners? >> Thank you and thank you for the for that question. And I think one of the most important things that uh we can talk about when it comes to our educators um and any of our caregivers that are in front of children is really shifting the mindset around the beliefs of our dual language learners or or multilingual learners. Um before educators um used to before they can use any type of strategies um instructional strategies that are going to be used in the classroom um they must understand and internalize that multilingualism is an asset not a barrier to learning and that took a while uh for for us to be able to get there. Uh when we think back at the at the beginning when we started with the language learning project and then we went into the personalized oral language learning strategies, those were the specific strategies that um educators were using. Um, thinking back is like we spent a lot of time about shifting their beliefs because our our teachers or educators or providers were very well intended but they did not know or had that information that um being bilingual was uh was a good thing was a good thing that our students were speaking another language. Um so we help educators see children's home language culture and family experiences as a resource that can support the learning um relationships and then also as well as the early literacy development right. Um so we collaborated across departments um to be across department and agencies in our community to be able to support or dual language learners and it was not an isolation of um within one team or one initiative. Uh really Fresno came together that agencies were Fresno County Office of Education. Um Lupe was leading that. Um we had resource and referral and head start and Fresno Unifi. So really coming together to be able to say this is important for us. This is important for our community. How are we going to support educators? We're going to start with this is important. This is important for our community. we need to shift that those beliefs or those myths um that they might have about our young dual language learners. >> Thank you. Uh and Paige, we'll come back to you and the question was how did you decide which strategy to employ and how did you get input from educators and families? >> Um yeah, hopefully you can feel hear me okay now. Um so uh when we had a we decided we wanted to have a big um early childhood conference because you know the system is really fragmented and you have a lot of folks who um in Oakland who are providing care through OSD and also City of Oakland Head Start and um so many different systems as you all are aware family child care providers um and a lot of folks just did not get a lot of chances for professional development opportunities um and so we really wanted to bring everybody together and that back in 2019. Um but when we did that, we were really purposeful about making sure that we were including um folks from all across the ecosystem in deciding on our topics um our format um and our speakers and we really have it now as a value that when we have events and when we um do absolutely everything that we involve um not just um you know site um administrators but teachers on the ground and family childcare providers who are actually providing care in homes um just to really get their their feedback and input. Um, and the result has been amazing because we've had um, you know, folks really bring tools to the table that you can use, you know, right away um, in your classroom the next week. And we've had really great feedback from folks that they love our conferences because of that element. And in addition, we've then kind of moved on from that and we have a whole online um community called Let's Talk Early Learning and it's every month and it is led by OSD teachers um but also a family childare provider um and they decide the topics and they lead the discussion um and really give a lot of time for the educators to come together and hear from each other in small groups um because they can learn you know they are the experts and really making sure that um we are elevating them as the experts. Um and in the end um you know we really have had great um you know turnout and really great support for these programs. Um and we also you know for the folks who are our leaders we always make sure we compensate them. Um you know if we're being paid to be at a meeting or we're being paid to be at an event um so should the the educators. >> Thank you. Uh and Paige, while I've got you and your audios working, I'll ask you one more. Uh we're happy to lift up Oakland's work around trauma responsive uh training for teachers. Uh and there's a lot of nations or a lot of people in our nation working in districts uh where the communities has a lot of challenges that it's underresourced. A number of children and adults are facing trauma. Uh so what strategies are particularly helpful to both educate and support the holistic development of children? uh and the well-being of the adults in the programs. Uh and now in Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> No, go ahead. >> I should ask you four different parts of one question. >> Um yeah, back in 2017, you know, as our collaborative um you know, was really coming together and we were hearing a lot from teachers. um the issue of trying to um kind of build an Oakland response um something that really came from our teachers to um making sure that they had the tools that they needed um in the classroom around social emotional development um came up and so we brought a group together and it in um to really address the issue and they initially called it the um the Oakland trauma-informed practices but the group didn't like that they felt like it was a little too um you know really didn't kind of get to the strengths based way of describing the program. So, it's called the Resilient Oakland Communities and Kids, Rock. So, um when when we put together the Rock program, we really brought not just just as we've done in the past, we brought educators who are in the classroom, but also um all kind really thinking about it holistically. Um and so it's not just a curriculum. It's thinking about what you need um as a teacher to really be um your full self in the classroom. And so we had everyone from you know um uh psychologists but also we had uh yoga instructors and we had um folks who were really um helping us focus on um you know well-being and really um self-care. And so that's how the rock curriculum and the rock um program came together. Um and we really uh the whole point of it is that if you um yourself as a teacher, you know, you need to put yourself first. And if you um uh you can't pour from an empty cup. So you have to be um you know, really thinking about yourself first and then um working with um the kids in your classroom where they're at. Um so to date, um we've had about 400 early learning professionals go through the Rock, um program in Oakland, and we estimate that's about 2,700 kids, um who've experienced Rock. Um and it's really changed the way that they um view view themselves and really improved um their their um you know, job performance, but also how they feel about the job their job and their children in their classroom. >> Thank you. And our next question is for Dr. Haime Milo. You previously led early childhood policy at the district level and now you work at the state level. What have you learned about how the various levels of the system can support or get in the way of each other? >> Thank you for the questions. I think it's important to understand that um it what is happening at a local district level or a local county level can really inform state policy and how that practices you know I sometimes we assume that it's very unique to a certain county and in reality it's not it really skilled across the state so as I reflect on with the uh the language lab and how we were able to innovate and work now forming policy and driving the professional development assets. It really does is a full testament of what that full circle look like. So um I'm appreciative of that work. Um but most importantly now we're able to start looking at further child outcomes making sure that those mental domains scores in the areas that this development is really showing um positive growth uh as we are continuing to scale it throughout the state. So you just I guess cost multi- um um fund approach to scale it um with other counties and a professional development and other workforce. >> Thank you. Uh and pausing briefly to remind the audience if you have questions for us, please drop them in the Q&A. We'll be getting to our Q&A shortly. Um, and then the final question for this panel, similar to the others, what do you know now that you wish you'd known going in? How can our audience learn from your experiences? Okay. So, one of the things that uh we reflect back that we wish we would have known is um that there has to be that time to be able to practice, reflect and learn along the way and to always create that space to be able to learn from our educators. Um and that it is going to take some time. It is going to take some time especially when it comes to uh mind shifting uh around what our young children are capable of doing. Um but really being able to have that um that opportunity and and we had it through this morning strong um starting morning strong initiative um which was multiple years that we had that opportunity to be able to practice, reflect and um gain the the feedback from the educators to be able to start here locally, then go county and then go statewide. And now being able to um share a toolkit that can be used um in any um any provider or any school district or informal setting um that can be used to be able to support young dual language learners. >> I would really second what Maria said. I think you're hearing it a lot today about time. Um I think especially in the early childhood world where there are so many different systems partners um building relationships is really important and it does take time. Um something too to think about is you know there's leadership transitions people leave um you know child care providers we had one who was great who retired um you know so and building new relationships takes a long time but it's really worth it and I think you heard it from Susan too talking about how um how many years um you know you know we too in Oakland and Alama County have two ballot initiatives that were you know took a long time to um you know go go through the court system that are finally in play and it's been amazing and hard um but really worth it and so I think it's just really that perseverance um and being the early continuing to be the early childhood voice in your community um is really important um and making sure that um you know folks know that it continues to be you know can continue to be a priority even through change and and over Wonderful. Thank you. Okay. Well, we've gotten to our audience question and answer period. Um, first I'll thank all of our panelists for sharing information about the solutions you put forward and the strategies you chose. and I'll invite everyone uh on screen to start our questions and we'll have Emily come back and moderate the Q&A. So, Emily, over to you. >> Excellent. Thank you so much um to everyone for such thoughtful um insights. Really so much to learn from. Um so, to kick things off, we'd love to just kind of look across all of these panels, these conversations. We spent time hearing about funding, recruitment, compensation, professional supports. Um, and of course, none of these things exists in isolation. Um, so as you all think about what you heard across all of the panels today, um, what's one thing you might want most want the folks in the room with us today to carry into their work? It could be a lesson, a caution, a place to start, um something you heard from other panelists or a call back to something you shared and I will just open things up. You know what? I will um I'll go. I I think the the message that I try to um put out into the universe and what I hear everybody else also saying is collaboration is key. partnerships are key. Um, and also that there's no one right solution, right? So, we've got state level initiatives, we've got local initiatives, and we've got people working together and trying to be innovative. And I think that those are the best um ways because there's there's no one answer. There's no one state strategy or local strategy that is that's going to work for everyone. You're hearing from Iowa, you're hearing from California, you're hearing from Kentucky. And so, um, just making sure that we are all coming together to the table and we're not trying to reinvent wheels, um, but stronger together. >> Thank you. I think I would also add building on what Ryan has has just said around uh partnerships and community and collaboration is to um one of the other themes that I think I'm hearing and is definitely a point of a lesson in San Antonio is this idea of thinking about the infrastructure that you really want to build from the beginning. And one of the things that I think really set San Antonio apart and um I was actually building my career in Washington DC and was there for 12 years before coming to San Antonio which is my uh hometown in Texas. And the reason why I I ended up coming down to San Antonio is because um in 2017 and in 2012 they really started with this idea of quality first and really built an initiative around quality supports and that was very different from I think other folks uh across the nation who were really starting with access. Um, so I really one of the things that I would uh put out there to cities and counties and and states that are looking to push a new initiative is to think about the infrastructure and systems and quality um before they start going after the funding so they know what they're building uh from the beginning and really starting with quality as a guiding northstar. And I think we've heard a lot of folks on this panel talk about what some of those quality supports can be in terms of workforce compensation, but also professional learning. Uh ways to bring uh silos together, whether it's family providers, uh family, friends, and neighbors, uh um district public school partners, child development centers, and and really thinking about how we can bring more equity supports across the ecosystem. And I think we we can really get innovative with the way that we think about funding in terms of how we uh build a framework around how to allocate that funding towards these highquality supports that are really going to impact sustainability. >> Thank you, Lissa. Any other final kind of cross panel thoughts before I turn to audience Q&A? I would add one other thought and it's in addition to what everyone has shared already but those of us that are part of this panel this afternoon or this morning depending on where you are please reach out to us and utilize your resources. We are here because we want to be able to share the knowledge that we have gained as we've gone through this process over the years and over decades. There are communities of practice. There are toolkits that some of us have mentioned and I don't know any of us on here that would not accept an email or a phone call from any of you to help you out. If we're able to help you avoid some of the missteps and things that we have learned over time, we want to be here as a resource to you. And I would say that's true for any community that has a sustained and dedicated fund to do this type of work. >> Thank you so much. That's so generous, a very generous note to pass to transition us to the Q&A. I appreciate it. Um, and so on that note, um, our first audience question, um, is, uh, what is, and I think this is directed primarily at the funding panel folks, but maybe also Susan, because I know you have knowledge of dedicated funding streams in San Francisco. Um uh what is the most impactful investment you made with the funding source? So program service subsidy other thing >> I'm happy to go first. I think so San Francisco has two decades of um funding uh specifically for access. So it's uh it's been long time to that San Francisco offered what we consider local subsidies. So a little different from state subsidies. So it's a local subsidy that actually looks at um affordability in the region. And so that's been over two decades. I think what's significantly different is um what San Francisco offered which was a wage support for um for early educators. So, um what I think we a big lesson learned is that um when you are investing in local subsidies um and you are providing these grants similar to what the state is the state of California is looking at now um to say okay here's here's a lump sum that you can allocate to address access issues um affordability issues as well as compensation. when you're looking at um asking administrators to make the decision, what we're seeing, what we did see is that they choose to focus on the quality aspects of both environment as well as child um and families. And so often compensation is last. And so what's left over is not enough to raise wages. And so the lesson learned for San Francisco is that there needs to be a dedicated source uh that's focused specifically on compensation. um and not only compensation but also workforce development. Um ensuring that the incumbent workforce has access to professional learning as well as recruiting new educators into the field and on work conditions which is our third um kind of pillar of work that we're currently developing um to support educators to ensure that they have positive and well-resourced work environments. So I don't know if I totally answered the question but I I would say that when we are looking at fund sources it's critically important to consider um compensation as a set of like focused compensation efforts um as it relates to funding. >> Thank you so much Jennifer and Lissa. Did you have anything to add um when thinking about priorities >> for us in Kent County? Navigation and outreach were priorities. I had talked about siloed systems and what we're finding over time is not only does it help in terms of the early childhood ecosystem to connect families with the services that they need more quickly, we're able to then connect to other systems. And as we know, early childhood does not exist by itself. Families are often looking for additional resources, whether that's housing, whether that's food insecurity, whether that's support through a health system. And by us creating funding to support a navigation system, we have been able to continue to build as a community off of that and to be able to connect to other systems to better support the families who live here. And I would just add the one thing that we uh focused our money on towards the middle towards like four or five years in um because this was a lesson learned was um bringing the community of providers together through a shared services model. This is a national model. A lot of different regions um implement this. But what that is is really just a network of providers that are coming together uh across different silos. the um community is really led by provider voice and I think we heard a lot about that over the panels. how can providers actually have a voice and how the funding is also being allocated. And so they came together and PreK Paressa really focused as the backbone organization that helped with things like HR um facility support coaching and it was really a tiered support model over time that looked at several different types of initiatives within a framework that really helped build provider capacity and sustainability. So, uh, that was one initiative that has been highly successful in San Antonio was really this idea of shared services and bringing providers together into community with one another and um, really leading the initiative through provider voice. >> Great. Thank you so much. Um, several speakers today have um, talked about building bipartisan support or support kind of across lines of difference um, whatever those might be. Um, it sounds like cross-system collaboration and clear demonstration of ROI are important. Um, what are some other tips for creating bipartisan backing and I'll leave that open to the to the group. >> I will start with um in in Fresno what we did it was really um and Paige talked about it a little bit as well. Um it's building that trust among the agencies. Um knowing that not one agency is going to be able to serve uh the children that we have in our community that we really need to be able to come together and we're not competing. We are offering services to our family. We're trying to reach as many children as possible and also being able to recognize. I mean, we do have the largest uh preschool program here in our county, but at the same time, Fresno Unified is not going to be able to reach every single child because a lot of the children are with our family, friends, and neighbors or in a home care um setting. So being able to collaborate and knowing that um that that we can trust that that we can trust each other that um even when it's Fresno Unified, hey we're not we might not be able to um provide the services that you need or accommodate that needs that you need for a family, but here is resource and referral or here is head start. Always being able to see each other as a partner and that we are working together um in our community to be able to provide high quality programs. And it goes back to what's being offered um in the settings uh what's being offered for the for the educators. Um but we know that one agency is not going to be able to do it all. Uh we need to be able to um collaborate and fully um trust that our intention is um to support our families and children and our community which we know that trust takes a while but once it's there you can do so many things. >> Thank you. You know, I think um most of us are are all wanting the same thing and that's to serve our communities, our children and families in the best way possible and at the end of the day there are always going to be finite resources. Um and so we need to start really thinking pragmatically about what solutions we're we're try like what problems are we trying to solve and what are our solutions. Um and so you know as the CCDF administrator I'm looking at direct service funding. I'm also looking at quality initiatives, infant toddler dollars, and how are we stretching out what we're able to provide as a subsidy for families, but then how are we investing in the infrastructure itself, childcare resource and referral partners, workforce supports, business supports and and uh financial uh professional development, building those hubs, creating parent referral services, right? And so it's looking at the infrastructure as a whole and seeing how can we move just like a little bit forward. I've been doing this for 12 years. I can tell you Iowa's infrastructure with childcare looks substantially different almost flipped it on side in the last 12 years because of this small like incremental approach that we've been able to take. And I would just add in terms of building bipartisan support and going across the aisle, especially in a conservative space like Texas. Um, two things. Uh, you know, someone had really really building the argument around why child care is necessary and connecting early childhood to many different um, social policy opportunities. And what I mean by that is in Texas, what reigns is business. And I know I keep hearkening back to this, but the business relationships have really been able to push early childhood onto the forefront of the political agenda. And so having champions in both the business and philanthropic sectors has been incredibly helpful. But I think beyond that, San Antonio is really a great example of how you can build a program off of economic and workforce development as a workforce and economic development initiative, but also from a lens of high quality uh early childhood development as well. It's a program that significantly serves children and families. that's doing a great job in terms of what we talk about in terms of high quality supports and why early education matters for children and brain development. And so we talk about that a lot when we're speaking with uh lawmakers and policy experts. Um but really, you know, what people care about is how early childhood connects to the economic opportunity pro uh prospect. And I think in San Antonio and in Texas, that has been the forefront of how we have gotten early childhood past. But I think that they can both coexist together. >> Great. Thank you so much. Um, some of you, I think maybe all of you have at some point touched on this idea of sustainability, but I think it's an important one. Um what um what's one infrastructure investment maybe even like a very unglamorous one that you've made or wish you'd made um that made a difference in terms of whether the work could survive a leadership change, budget cuts or gaps because we know those are coming virtually everywhere right now. Um or just time passing. How do you kind of build in that sustainability piece from the start or midway? >> For us, the sustainability and the professional learning was that it was not a one-time thing that it was going to be embedded in the system that already exists. So, if leadership changes, it's already embedded. Um it's not something that it was just once and we did the training and then we move on to the next day. No. um it's embedded within our system that will continue um beyond my time here. >> Yeah. Similarly, I think um you know at Oakland Unified in particular with the preschools, it's a little bit of a culture, you know, um that that this is an expectation now of the preschool teachers um that they're going to be getting high quality professional development and you really see that um you know being sustained. we have had um some leadership transitions over the last few years. Um and also um you know one thing that we haven't talked about as Californians is the as much as um we probably should is transitional kindergarten and how that has come on the scene here in California. It's a universal preschool um initiative by Governor Nuomo. And so now every four-year-old in um California can go to um TK is what we call it. So um that has really changed things too. But I think it's also really elevated preschools in um the now we have to call it the TK through 12 system. So um I think that um that's really helped too. It's really um elevating the whole early childhood conversation in our state. Um we we added a grade um it's really a big deal and it's really wonderful. results had some unintended consequences um for the rest of the system. But I think that um now um really seeing those teachers um you know who are in that in those TK classrooms treated as um professionals equal to others um in the K12 system has gone the long has gone a long way. >> Thank you. any other sustainability pieces that you haven't already talked about? If not, um, one of our next questions is about, um, sort of sequencing. I think we have some folks in the audience who are maybe earlier in starting the work. Um, and so they're thinking about of all the kind of concepts we t talked about today, finance, compensation, educator supports, um, or maybe others, what might you recommend kind of starting with or funding first when developing an initiative? If you had to start somewhere. >> Wow. Um, >> maybe one or two things. >> Yeah. No, I I I mean, I hate to say this, but I don't think there's one right answer. I think it's going to depend on where your investments are already and within the resources that you have and you're going to have to just start like stretching the dollar and maximizing wherever. So, one area that we had found, you know, we we'd been investing in professional development and subsidy and um CCR and our supports and then we went, "Oh my gosh, our childcare providers really need business support. So let's start investing in an infrastructure on um professional development for for financial fidelity and business fundamentals and how are we using childare management systems to support the business model because that creates sustainability. So it's not always about infusing money into like this direct system for families. It's about taking money and finding ways to wrap those supports around the programs themselves. >> Yeah. and even a first step of like mapping what you have and where the gaps are and what you can lean on um before jumping in. Anyone else? >> Yeah, I I really um uh want to underscore what Ryan has said because one of the things that came out in several of our landscape analysis studies in San Antonio was that as folks were expanding access, we actually didn't have enough quality seats. So, we're expanding all of this access, but we don't have enough seats for the children to be able to children and families to be able to attend highquality centers. So, I really underscore that you have to think about what is the capacity. Um, and really doing a landscape analysis to to the point that was just made of what already exists and where can we build and fill in the gaps is is essential in starting um any initiative. Um but really thinking about before we start building access what what is the access what is the capacity of providers and where they're at right now so that we ensure that as we expand access for families we are also enabling them to go to places that are high quality that are going to be beneficial for their for their children. >> Great. Thank you so much. Um on that note I will close things out. Thank you all so much. I will pass things over to Cara to um close our event our event. Wonderful. Thank you so much to our audience for joining us. Thank you to our panelists for sharing your wisdom and our partners at the Saws Dance Initiative. A special shout out to our New America's events and productions team, to Carly, Trent, and Claire for this professional quality uh webinar you've put on. Uh, and I'll close our event by sharing a quote from former New America senior fellow Rubik Takadishi who wrote, "It's time to put our own generation to the test by designing a system that will help all of our youngest learners realize their educational potential." So, thank you, our audience, for the difficult and necessary work you're doing to make progress towards the better system our children and communities deserve. And please let New America and the panelists today be a resource to you as you enact your bold solutions. So, thank you and best of luck.