View this email in your browser

Health Care Coverage for ECE Professionals

Welcome to the special December issue of Workforce Wednesday, an Eblast disseminated by the National Early Care and Education (ECE) Workforce Center and developed in partnership with the Workforce Wednesday Collaborative that includes leaders in states and local communities, schools, Head Start, and center- and home-based child care. This month’s Eblast is focused on health care supports for ECE professionals!

To receive updates from the National ECE Workforce Center, please sign up for our email list:

Sign-up here

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

The ECE workforce deserves affordable, accessible health care. During Marketplace Open Enrollment, please join us in taking action to ensure that early care and education professionals maintain or have access to health coverage and utilize resources available from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

ACF created a toolkit with guidance for ECE staff, administrators, and partners on navigating the Health Insurance Marketplace® Open Enrollment Period (November 1 – January 15), highlighting potential savings and support available.

The toolkit includes five tasks that you, as a leader, can do throughout Open Enrollment to help ECE professionals in your community understand the affordable health care options available and support them in enrolling in health coverage. Learn more through these toolkits and resources: ACF Health Coverage Outreach for Early Care and Education and CMS’ Marketplace Open Enrollment Theme Week Toolkit and graphics.

Last week, the National ECE Workforce Center engaged in CMS’ Early Care and Education Workers Week of Action on social media! We invite you to reshare the posts on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and LinkedIn (and follow the National ECE Workforce Center accounts while you’re there!).

Innovation Spotlight

Learn about a promising initiative in the field to inspire ideas and innovation for your unique context.

The Nevada Registry provides access to free health benefits for members who are employed in a child care setting (including school age child care) or other early childhood-related program in Nevada. The benefits are available through February 2025 (with continued eligibility) and include:

Unlimited telemedicine calls for the member and the member’s family with no copay
10 free teletherapy sessions per year, per household
A prescription discount card
Employee Assistance Program (EAP)—including short-term therapy for the entire family
Dental and vision coverage for the member, with an option to add additional family members at a minimal cost
A voluntary whole life insurance policy

Services can be accessed by phone, via video call, or with a mobile app in any language, and the average wait time is only six minutes. Funding for the project is through Nevada’s Department of Health and Human Services, the Division of Welfare and Supportive Services (DWSS) and is thanks to federal relief funding. This project is a partnership between the Nevada Registry, DWSS, Optima Benefits & Payroll, and AllyHealth. Learn more about the program components and efforts to launch and sustain this important resource for educators in the National ECE Workforce Center’s recent Foundational Series webinar.

Upcoming Events

The National ECE Workforce Center is offering a series of webinars designed to support ECE leaders in transforming policies and programs in support of the workforce. The webinars, titled the Foundational Technical Assistance Series, will continue on January 22 from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. (EDT) Find more information and register here.

For the latest information on the ECE workforce and to sign up for upcoming events, please visit the National ECE Workforce Center website.

If you have questions or requests about the National ECE Workforce Center, please email us at workforcecenter@childtrends.org.

This work is funded by The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) through a financial assistance award (Award Number 90TA000004-01- 00) totaling $30 million over five years (2022-2027) with 100 percent funded by ACF. Resources and products developed by the National ECE Workforce Center do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, ACF, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit the ACF website, Administrative and National Policy Requirements.