The pandemic has put more stress on the early child care and education sector, which was already suffering from high demand and low supply even before the pandemic. K-12 educators and working parents rely on high quality early learning to support school readiness for young children of color and to support working parents. However, the workforce that is essential to ensuring we are both preparing young learners and supporting working families, is suffering from challenges in compensation and training. More than 1/3 of early care and education educators reported they were considering leaving their professions within the next year (this is 55% of minority owned businesses) . Together we’ll hear from experts about why early care and education is so important and learn about the barriers and solutions to supporting the early care and education workforce.

We know that the advancement of communities of color is about not only education, but also economic advancement, child care, healthcare, immigration and more. The barriers to opportunity are interconnected; we can’t tackle them independently, nor can we do it alone. Join us to hear from experts about what we need to do to address the barriers to improving the system.

During this webinar, attendees will:

• Learn about the current state of the early care and education workforce

• Learn some real life workforce solutions that local governments and school systems have taken to address some challenges facing the early care and education field.

Who Should Attend:

• School & School System Leaders

• Non-profit Leaders

• Equity Leaders

Panelists:

• Brandy Jones Lawrence, Senior Analyst, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, UC, Berkeley

• Miriam Calderon, Chief Policy Officer, Zero To Three (member)

• Beatriz “BB” Otero, President, Otero Strategy Group