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The context for child care and early education (CCEE) changed rapidly in March 2020 as the global pandemic caused the closure of child care programs and schools, widespread job loss, and negative impacts on the broader economy and family life. Black and Latino families and families with lower income experienced disproportionately negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of structural racism and a history of inequitable systems. Many of the negative impacts of the pandemic have directly impacted families' access to high-quality CCEE. As leaders in CCEE consider the implications of COVID-19 for children, families, policies, and programs, a research, evaluation, and data agenda that identifies key questions, research methods, and data needs will be a critical tool. This research, evaluation, and data agenda can (1) alert decision makers to racial and economic inequities in outcomes and promote tracking of key equity indicators, (2) encourage the development of new projects and data initiatives, (3) support the synthesis of information across projects, (4) identify key topics for consideration that may be otherwise overlooked, and (5) promote the application of knowledge to planning and development. The goal of this report is to get input on high priority questions that can inform the field's understanding of the pandemic's impact on the CCEE landscape, including children, families, CCEE programs, the CCEE workforce, and the broader system of agencies, local organizations, and institutes of higher education that support CCEE. The purpose of this work is to develop and revise a research, evaluation, and data agenda that can be used by a wide range of stakeholders (state administrators, policymakers, advocates, funders, etc.) to prioritize research questions that need to be addressed and identify potential data sources to answer these questions. [This report was produced through the Child Care and Early Education Policy Research and Analysis (CCEEPRA) project.]

Home visiting is an important component of the early childhood (EC) landscape. However, states often fail to prioritize home visiting data when developing their early childhood integrated data systems (ECIDS). Home visiting represents a range of services, models, and programs, each with different data requirements, so integrating the data can be challenging. Often, home visiting data is disconnected across different models, as well as from other EC data. To address this challenge to data integration, states can take an incremental approach, integrating one aspect of home visiting data at a time, rather than tackling it all at once. The advantages to taking an incremental approach when integrating home visiting data with other EC data include the following: (1) The process of integrating home visiting data into an ECIDS can be managed more easily when it focuses on one piece at a time, such as a specific model or geographic area; (2) States can treat the incremental integration as a pilot phase, learn from any challenges or policy barriers that arise, and apply that knowledge when scaling up to integrate other home visiting data; and (3) Incremental integration allows states to achieve small wins and demonstrate success on data integration. By showing why integrating home visiting data with other EC data is important and worth the investment of time and resources, states can build buy-in from stakeholders. The purpose of this resource is to provide states with examples of various ways to integrate their home visiting data into their ECIDS over time. This resource will highlight five examples of how states can approach this incremental integration of home visiting data.

Evidence-based home visiting programs exist in over half of the counties in the United States. Because home visiting programs aim to improve the health, education, and life circumstances of pregnant mothers and their children, they are a critical piece of the early childhood landscape. However, the data collected about these programs are siloed, making it difficult for policymakers to answer questions about programs' short- and long-term benefits. Data within and across home visiting models are fragmented because each program uses different methods for storing and reporting outcomes. To address this problem, state leaders, with input from early childhood stakeholders, are developing integrated longitudinal data systems to connect data from home visiting and other early childhood programs, which will lead to a better understanding of the collective impact of these investments. The purpose of this resource is to provide examples of policy questions that state leaders can answer when home visiting data are combined with other early childhood data. These sample questions are organized according to the type of integration of home visiting data needed to answer them. Depending on the policy question(s) to be answered, home visiting data can be integrated in one of three ways: (1) Across home visiting models; (2) With data from other early childhood services; and (3) With longitudinal data, to examine impact on both short- and long-term child outcomes. The sample questions highlighted in this resource are intended to help spark conversations with stakeholders and inform planning efforts to integrate early childhood integrated data, inclusive of home visiting data at the state level.

There is evidence that early care and education (ECE) teachers and caregivers share common challenges, it is not clear whether their challenges differ by geographic location. That is, are there any regional characteristics that may affect the ECE workforce differentially? To better understand the pressures facing the ECE workforce and whether geographic location of the ECE workforce might be associated with variations in ECE workforce outcomes related to well-being, Child Trends examined the Nebraska ECE workforce using data from a comprehensive statewide ECE workforce survey; for this study, Child Trends partnered with the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska. The purpose of this brief is to examine characteristics of the ECE workforce to see whether they vary regionally across the state of Nebraska. Specifically, this brief addresses two main questions: (1) Does the ECE workforce in Nebraska vary by region with respect to what teachers and caregivers report about their well-being, the economic pressures they face, and their education levels? and (2) What contextual factors might be contributing to variation in the characteristics of well-being, economic pressures, and education levels within the ECE workforce across Nebraska?

The Montana Early Childhood Apprenticeship Program (MECAP) aims to support and increase retention of early childhood education (ECE) providers through on-the-job training, mentorship, and college coursework. Upon completing the program, apprentices are awarded the Child Care Development Specialist Certificate from Montana's Department of Labor and Industry and reach Level 4 of the Montana Practitioner Registry. MECAP is a Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP). The traditional RAP model combines four core components: (1) Facilitating employer involvement to allow apprentices to be paid while they develop their skills through on-the-job learning; (2) Providing career-related educational instruction; (3) Offering incentives for skills gained; and (4) Awarding a nationally recognized occupational credential upon completion. To develop a RAP targeting the ECE workforce, Montana's Department of Labor and the Early Childhood Services Bureau combined their expertise to create MECAP. This project aims to understand how state policies, funding, and practices support the strengthening of the early childhood education (ECE) workforce.

Early Learning Indiana is a statewide nonprofit that advocates for early childhood education (ECE) services in Indiana. Their work includes operating and connecting families to high-quality child care centers, strengthening and supporting the ECE workforce, and advocating for expanded access to ECE services for families across Indiana. Partnerships for Early Learners established a goal of helping 300 or more ECE professionals pursue and earn higher education degrees and credentials. They set out to achieve this goal through a series of strategies and initiatives. These strategies and initiatives offered through the Partnerships for Early Learners are described in this report.

In early 2017, Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) was awarded $2 million in funding from the governor of Georgia to be used for infant/toddler (I/T) language and literacy activities. DECAL used this funding to create Project LITTLE (Lifting Infants and Toddlers Through Language-rich Environments). Project LITTLE was designed with the goal of supporting and fostering early language and literacy among infants and toddlers through a variety of coaching and professional development supports for I/T providers over a two-year period. Project LITTLE was also created with the goal of developing an I/T workforce pipeline that helps teachers advance their knowledge and skills while improving the quality of education for infants and toddlers across the state of Georgia. Following a six-month planning process, DECAL launched Project LITTLE in August 2017. The first cohort of Project LITTLE included 13 early childhood education (ECE) centers in targeted counties across the state that received support during the 2017-18 and 2018-2019 fiscal years. Counties were identified using data on selected risk factors including child poverty, unemployment, premature birth rates, and chronically failing schools serving elementary-age children. Project LITTLE is now in its third year of implementation. The second cohort (30 ECE centers) of Project LITTLE began receiving support during the 2018-19 school year, and the third cohort (40 ECE centers) began receiving support during the current 2019-20 school year. Currently, Project LITTLE supports approximately 400 I/T teachers across the state of Georgia. Successes and challenges are provided, and Next Steps are included.

In 2012, the state of Louisiana set out to create a unified system of education from birth through grade 12. During the initial planning phase, it became clear that a critical piece missing from this system was training and education for the early childhood workforce. To address this, in 2014, the Louisiana Department of Education passed a policy requiring that, by July 2019, all lead teachers in child care centers that receive public funding must attain a new educational credential called the Early Childhood Ancillary Certificate (ECAC). Prior to 2014, a clean criminal background check was the only requirement to be a lead teacher in a child care classroom in Louisiana. There was strong support for establishing a minimum education and training requirement for lead teachers in child care settings. To develop the ECAC as a way to support and retain a qualified early childhood workforce, the Louisiana Department of Education partnered with Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies, technical colleges, universities, school districts, and non-profits interested in designing and implementing high-quality professional development programs for child care lead teachers. These ECAC program partners provide flexible course offerings, onsite coaching, and CLASS™ observations for lead teachers working in publicly funded child care centers in Louisiana. To incentivize teachers to obtain the ECAC, Louisiana developed a system of scholarships, incentives, and special recognition for completing trainings required for the certificate. The ECAC requirement was phased in over a five-year period, which allowed for time to coordinate quality improvement efforts, create a financial incentives structure, and align all aspects of the policy work with Louisiana's outcomes framework for children and families. Some of this initiative's successes and challenges are described in this report.

Arkansas is implementing a partner-driven approach to build business knowledge and practices around basic principles of fiscal health for licensed and registered early childhood education (ECE) providers. The overarching goal of the initiative is to gather input from established ECE administrators and directors in centers and from owners of family child care (FCC) programs in Arkansas to identify the scope and sequence of skills needed to strengthen ECE business operations and reduce the number of program closures. This work, referred to as the fiscal health initiative, is part of Arkansas' larger workforce development effort to promote data-informed policy planning and oversight, including the creation of an education and workforce development system, or B-12 pipeline, connecting professional certification to higher wages for infant through high school teachers. The workforce development effort is led by Arkansas State University (A-State) Childhood Services and funded through the Child Care Development Block Grant, which is administered by the Arkansas Department of Human Services, Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education (DCCECE). In 2019, Arkansas was awarded a grant from the National Governor's Association (NGA) to improve supports for the ECE workforce. After identifying a need for more training on basic business practices for ECE administrators and owners opening a new program, the NGA members created a fiscal health initiative committee to build upon DCCECE's previous experience in designing and implementing a series of professional development courses. The sections that follow describe DCCECE's iterative process of developing various courses that served as the basis for the work of the fiscal health initiative committee.