Workforce Wednesday Eblast: News and Innovative Recruitment Strategies

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Welcome to the September issue of Workforce Wednesday! We are excited to share that the National Early Care and Education (ECE) Workforce Center will now be sending regular Workforce Wednesday Eblasts and hosting quarterly webinars developed in collaboration with other ACF-funded Technical Assistance and Research partners who support the early childhood workforce. This Eblast shares resources to support the recruitment of the early care and education workforce. For information about upcoming webinars, future Eblasts, and other updates from the National ECE Workforce Center, please sign up for our email list:

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What We're Reading Now

Recent Analysis of Child Care Sector Jobs by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment highlights continued growth, however employment in child care remains below pre-pandemic numbers.
States and locales are reporting widespread impacts of the critical shortage of early educators, including closed classrooms and families who are unable to access early care and education (see studies focusing on Kansas City, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania).
Revisit a report on Virginia’s RecognizeB5 program to note that ECE leaders reported the program helped recruit new teachers.
Interviews with DC Child Care Directors highlighted the difficulties in recruiting lead and infant/toddler teachers and provided suggestions for helpful support from district and state leaders.

Innovative Examples

As many programs are seeking qualified candidates, we know that no single strategy is sufficient to meet the need for attracting educators to early childhood programs. Here are a few tools and approaches for increasing the number of qualified applicants to early childhood positions that you can consider for your context.

Tools directors can use now to support recruitment

The Louisiana Department of Education released The Early Childhood Workforce: Recruiting & Hiring Toolkit, designed to provide support for early learning center directors and principals to recruit, interview, hire, and onboard new staff members.
The Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center outlines phases of an effective search strategy and provides a roadmap for hiring. Program directors and human resources managers may find this a valuable resource to enhance their search strategies for hiring qualified staff.

Other innovative city, county, and statewide approaches

Humboldt Child Care Stabilization Fund is a cross-county collaboration providing hiring bonuses to the child care industry and families in Humboldt County, California.
A Milwaukee program is structured to make it as easy as possible to explore early childhood as a career.
Colorado included ECE in this zero-cost training program through its community college system, so for the next two years students can earn an Associate degree in ECE at no cost.
Oklahoma is offering financial incentives to attract new people into the early care and education field with their Care for Kids Campaign.
The Virginia Early Childhood Foundation announced it will provide paid training and bonuses to over 60 early childhood educators in their Early Educator Fast Track Initiative.

Upcoming Events

Workforce Wednesday Webinar: Sustaining Compensation Investments Beyond the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funding, September 13th, 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. (EDT). Click here to learn more and register.
Foundational TA Series Informational Webinar, September 26th, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. (EDT) Click here to learn more and register.
The National Early Care and Education Workforce Center will be launching a Recruitment and Retention campaign in October. In addition to webinars spotlighting successful recruitment and retention efforts, the Center will release a Recruitment and Retention Toolkit.

Please visit the National Early Care and Education Workforce Center website for the latest information on supporting the ECE workforce and to sign up for upcoming events.

If you have any questions or requests, please email us at workforcecenter@childtrends.org and we will connect you with a team member.

This work is funded by 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.