Monthly Income	Hourly Rate if One Person Works Full-Time	Number in Subsidized Care
		1	2
$850 or Less	Up to $4.91	$0	$0
$851-$900	Up to $5.20	$72	$72
$1250	$7.22	$780	$570
$1500	$8.66	$1,260	$810
$2425	$14.00	$2,268	$1,356

Accounting for the copayments paid by parents and the donations made to Head Start and pre-Kindergarten, the gap in funding between subsidized licensed child care and Head Start further increases. Specifically, the average copayment per child per year is estimated to be about $600 which increases subsidized child care’s funding shown in the prior figure by 15%.[8] The donations of Head Start, however, result in an increase in the funding shown in the prior figure of at least 25%.

Accounting for Hours of Operation:
Even though they receive less public funding, child care programs tend to operate full-day for the entire year yet pre-Kindergarten and Head Start tend to be only partial-year and partial-day. Specifically, pre-Kindergarten and Head Start programs typically operate 175 days of the year, which is only about two-thirds of the weekdays in a year. Additionally, pre-Kindergarten is only 2 1/2 hours per day for half of the existing programs and 6 ½ hours for the other half; About half of the Oklahoma Head Start agencies are 6 hours or more each weekday when in operation, over one-third are less than 6 hours each weekday; the remainder are less than 5 days per week when in operation.

After accounting for days of operation, licensed child care programs are estimated to receive less than 40% of the funding received by public school pre-kindergarten and Head Start programs. The table below shows the total funding for the three programs per operating day assuming the public funding shown in the prior chart plus: (1) a copayment per child per year of $600 for licensed child care programs[9], (2) donations to Head Start and Pre-Kindergarten programs equal to 25% of public funding, and (3) pre-Kindergarten and Head Start Programs operate 175 days of the year while child care programs operate 260 days of the year. This gap would be even if the hours of operation were taken into account.

Consequences of Limited Funding

A consequence of child care programs receiving relatively less funding is that, on average, the quality is not as high as it is for pre-Kindergarten and Head Start. For 4-year olds, one teacher can at most teach 15 children in an Oklahoma child care program, yet the most children this teacher could teach in pre-Kindergarten and Head Start is 10 and 8 respectively. Similarly, the maximum number of 4-year children in one group, or classroom, is 30 in Oklahoma child care programs, yet it is 20 for both pre-Kindergarten and Head Start.[10]

The teacher requirements for licensed child care programs are also not as stringent as pre-Kindergarten and Head Start. Teachers in licensed child care must be at least 18 and have a high school degree or GED or be in the process of obtaining a GED within 12 months. Indeed, the most common degree held by Oklahoma child care providers and directors is a high school diploma. A child care provider typically earns just above minimum wage, which makes it difficult to hire and keep quality staff.[11] Pre-Kindergarten classrooms, however, must have a bachelor-degreed teacher who is paid a state teacher salary and benefits. Currently for Head Start, at least half of teachers must have an Associates, Bachelors, or advanced degree in Early Childhood Education or a related field with preschool experience.[12]

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services uses a child care rating system called “reaching for the Stars”. Each licensed child care facility is reviewed and given a star rating that reflects its quality of care. The ratings range from one-star, where programs are only meeting the minimum requirements, to three-star, where programs meet further quality criteria and must be nationally accredited. In 2005, almost half of Oklahoma licensed child care facilities were 2-star and 9% were 1 Star.

Benefits of Increasing Funding for Licensed Child Care

Credible research supports that high quality child care helps children enter school ready to learn.[13] Indeed, William Gormley of Georgetown University has shown that Tulsa’s Prekindergarten program and Tulsa’s Head Start program boost school readiness.[14] Specifically, a child with one year of one of these programs is several months ahead in skill level of where they would have been without the one year program. Other quality studies have shown that a child’s brain develops most dramatically through the first few years of life and that quality early childhood programs have long-term impacts on educational attainment and behavior.[15] James Heckman, a Nobel Laureate economist, posits that investments in young children are among the best investments a society can make and that early intervention is crucial.

It is likely that subsidized child care does not provide the benefits that Head Start and pre-Kindergarten do given that their funding does not provide them with the needed resources to provide high quality care. Licensed child care would benefit from a large increase in funding. The funding increase could be spent in a variety of ways in order to improve upon the quality of care, such as further support of 2 Star facilities working to become 3 Star facilities and by increasing the state subsidy - the payment made by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services to the child care provider – for high quality, 3 Star, providers.[16]

There is wide public support for an increase in funding for child care. Indeed, nearly 8 in 10 parents in a nationwide poll said they would favor a $10 increase in taxes to improve the quality of child care.[17] The desired and likely impacts of the increased funding would include:

More 3 Star facilities
Increased teacher pay and qualifications and decreased turnover
Improved teacher-child ratios and smaller classroom sizes; leads to teachers having the time to implement better curriculums and class and individualized plans
More eligible children participating in the subsidy program as quality further improves and access eases
More children ready for Kindergarten and long-term impacts on educational attainment

[1] Estimated multiplying the total capacity of licensed care in Oklahoma by the percent of DHS subsidized children who are under five.

[2] “National Study of Child Care for Low-Income Families”, Abt Associates and the National Center for Children in Poverty, November 2000.

[3] State income eligibility limits for child care assistance range from 34 percent to 85 percent of State Median Income with an average of 61 percent in 2006-07. See the Oklahoma income eligibility limits at http://www.okdhs.org/NR/rdonlyres/6C1E2B9A-A97A-45E3-BF42-7E0BB6360209/0/C4.pdf.

[4] Children in foster care or with professionally diagnosed disabilities are Head Start eligible regardless of income. Head Start Reauthorization in December 2007 allows up to 35% of children served to have income between 100 and 130% of FPL if the grantee can demonstrate the children with family incomes below 100% of FPL are already being fully served.

[5] Child care is primarily funded by the Child Care and Development Fund block grant. Beginning in 1996, states have been allowed to transfer up to 30% of their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grant to their child care subsidy program. States may also spend a portion of their TANF funds directly on child care services. Oklahoma has made use of these allowances. In fiscal year 2006, almost $30 million was transferred from TANF to fund their child care program and almost $46 million of TANF funding was spent directly on child care services; together, these funds accounts for almost half of the $161 million spent on the child care program for all ages.

[6] http://sde.state.ok.us/Programs/ECEduc/pdf/Report.pdf

[7] Certain funding may not be excluded. For a list of federal and state funding for early care and education, see http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/poptopics/ecarefunding.html.

[8] Oklahoma Department of Human Services estimates that $25,000,000 is given to licensed child care providers as copayments in a given year; using the number of subsidized children of all ages, the average copayment per child per year is about $600.

[9] OKDHS estimates that $25,000,000 is given to licensed child care providers as copayments in a given year. Given that the average monthly count of subsidized children of all ages is roughly 40,000, the average copayment per child per year is estimated to be about $600.

[10] For centers, see Appendix L-$ in http://www.okdhs.org/NR/rdonlyres/C9944354-C005-45D1-A40A-F5AE980D5573/0/8408_LicensingRequirementsChildCareCenters.pdf

[11] 2008 Children’s Agenda, Item 7, Oklahoma Institute of Child Advocacy.

[12] In Head Start, all teachers must have an Associates degree or higher by 2011and half of all teachers must have a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education or a Bachelor’s with coursework equivalent to a major relating to Early Childhood Education and experience teaching preschool children by 2013.

[13] “Head Start Impact Study”, Westat, June 2005; “Early Childhood Education Programs” Janet Currie, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2001; the literature review in “Early Childhood Care and Education: Lessons and Puzzles” William Gormley, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2007.

[14] “Preschool Programs Can Boost School Readiness”, William Gormley, Deborah Phillips, and Ted Gayer, Science, June 27, 2008.

[15] To name a few related papers, “Lifetime effects: The High Scope/Perry Preschool study through age 40”, Schweinhart, L. J., Montie, J., Xiang, Z., Barnett, W. S., Belfield, C. R., & Nores, M. (2005); “Longer Term Effects of Head Start”, Eliana Garces, Duncan Thomas, Janet Currie, RAND, December 2000

[16] The 2007 child care market rate survey results can be found at http://www.okdhs.org/NR/rdonlyres/5CF324DB-A95C-4B39-AEEE-67E592499279/0/2007stateplanrates_occs_07022007.pdf.

[17] “Parents’ Perception of Child Care in the United States”, National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.

Unequal Opportunities for Preschoolers:
Differing Standards for Licensed Child Care Centers and State-Funded Prekindergarten Programs

This 2009 report compares state licensing regulations for center-based child care and early learning programs with standards for state-funded prekindergarten initiatives. As a basis for comparison, it uses the quality standards checklist developed by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). The comparison also includes information about Head Start program standards and Department of Defense (DoD) regulations for military child care.

The report highlights the gap between state standards for child care and standards for state-funded prekindergarten. Differing standards for licensed child care centers and state-funded prekindergarten programs result in unequal opportunities for the majority of young children. Children in state-funded prekindergarten programs were more likely to be in classrooms that met NIEER benchmarks for quality than were children in center-based child care and early learning programs licensed by the states. The state in which a child lives, as well as the family’s income level, determines the child’s chances of benefiting from state-funded or federally-funded programs.

To learn more, download the following:

Full report: http://www.naccrra.org/policy/recent_reports/docs/unequal_opportunities/UnequalOpps.pdf

State Fact Sheets has the most recent child care data by state. http://www.naccrra.org/randd/state_by_state_facts.php

We Can Do Better state sheets lists state child care center standards and oversight. http://www.naccrra.org/policy/recent_reports/scorecard.php

Leaving Children to Chance state sheets list state standards and oversight for family child homes. http://www.naccrra.org/policy/recent_reports/fcc_report.php

The Dawn of A New Era: Investing in Early Childhood Helps America Recover and Grow

Joan Lombardi, Ph.D.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will provide an important opportunity to help the United State get back on its feet by creating new jobs and supporting programs

which provide essential services to young children and their families while contributing to the economy of the country. This transforming moment needs thoughtful planning. Community and statewide planning groups must assess need and create a vision of what they want to accomplish, detailing expected outcomes. The good news is that states have been serving as

laboratories of innovation over the past few years so new ideas are emerging every day. The bad news is that state budgets have been stretched and quality and expansion

seriously threatened.

Working across levels of government and funding streams, a plan of action should be put into place with input from a wide range of stakeholders. Investments should be

tailored to the needs of children and families most affected by the economic slowdown and in ways that provide long term and sustained impact.

A new era calls for acting on key principles. For example we should:

- Move to common standards and supports across early childhood programs

- Recognize that low income children need more intensive and comprehensive services that start earlier to prevent the achievement gap

- Provide expanded support for teaching staff

- Reach out to parents as a core part of all early childhood services

- Design services to meet the needs of working families

- Assure continuity across programs serving children 0-8

- Link health services to early childhood programs

On this page: Early Care and Learning Introduction Definitions Quality Rating and Improvement Systems vs. Tiered Reimbursement Programs Early Childhood Guidelines Governance Funding Early Care and Learning Unequal Opportunities for Preschoolers The Dawn of A New Era: Investing in Early Childhood Helps America Recover and Grow

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