TKW Consulting

Helping parents feel comfortable with child care
By LuAnn Harris

Being separated when a child enters child care is a big adjustment for most parents and children. It's important for parents and child care providers to recognize that no matter how carefully they prepare for the difficulty of separation, there is bound to be some discomfort. Often, this is because parents have mixed feelings about leaving their child in the care of someone else for much of the day, particularly when the situation is new or the child is very young.Parents wonder if the child care provider will love their child. They are concerned about the quality of care the child will receive, the lessons the child will learn, and how the child will be treated.

Parents also worry about the safety of their child. Parents naturally feel anxious and guilty when they cannot personally provide the care they want for their child during their work hours, or guarantee the child's safety.

Other parents feel uncomfortable sharing their personal, private life with a child care provider. They may fear they will be criticized or judged, or worry that they may be made to feel stupid about child rearing. Some parents are afraid that their child will become more attached to the child care provider than to the parent.These feelings and emotions are very powerful and can sometimes lead parents to appear aggressive, demanding, and clingy. Parents and providers can ease these anxious feelings by considering the following tips:

• Recognize that these feelings are normal and something that nearly every parent experiences.
• Encourage open and frequent communication between parents and child care.
• Be honest. Separation is hard and no one should pretend that it is not.
• Become knowledgeable about the behaviors to expect from children during the early days of separation. This will help parents feel better about crying or clinging children.
• Share feelings. Both parents and providers may be feeling some anxiety.
• Share observations that show the child is happy, healthy, and being well cared for.
• Keep a positive, supportive attitude.

Parents and providers want child care to be a good place for children. Everyone can reach a point of comfort if these difficult emotions are accepted and by understanding the protective urge that both parents and providers feel for children. For more information contact Child Care Resource & Referral.

LuAnn Harris is the director of Child Care Resource and Referral.

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 6:58 PM 0 comments

Businesses advocate investing in early childhood education
BY PATRICIA LOPEZ
MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

MINNEAPOLIS - Picture an educational system for preschool children in which parents can figure out at a glance whether their child care will help prepare their child for school.

Imagine a program that would give even home child-care providers the tools to foster early learning.

Consider what it would mean if kids were tested for readiness gaps before they started to fall behind.

Whose starry-eyed daydream is this?

Oh, only about 200 of the most hard-nosed, bottom-line businesspeople in Minnesota.

"In business you're trained not to look at symptoms, but at root causes," said Al Stroucken, president and CEO of H.B. Fuller, a $1 billion-a-year manufacturing giant, and chairman of Minnesota Business for Early Learning.

When Stroucken and others look at root causes, they see a large pool of younger children who could be the next generation of skilled, motivated, socially adaptable workers. Or not.

"We have too many kids who get in trouble, who don't get ahead, don't get turned on, become a drag on society," said Malcolm McDonald, a retired banker and businessman who has become an advocate for early learning.

"From the business perspective, it's absolutely essential to reach those kids," he said.

To reach at-risk kids, business executives would like legislative help. But they're not holding their breath. And they're not waiting.

Businesses already have added several million dollars in contributions to the $1 million given by the state last year to create the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation.

Duane Benson, a former legislator who now heads the foundation, said the organization needs about $20 million to set its plan in motion. "We hope to have a partnership with the state," he said. "But our intent is to raise as much as we can on our own -- maybe even all of it. We might have to.

"The political process has become too difficult to depend on," Benson added. "We're intent on getting the job done."

Why so much determination? "If we don't," McDonald asked, "where will the qualified workers come from?"

"What's lacking is targeted, effective funding and a measurement system," said Charlie Weaver, head of the Minnesota Business Partnership, an organization of Minnesota CEOs, and former chief of staff to Gov. Tim Pawlenty. "We don't really know what works."

But the need for answers, Weaver said, becomes apparent among adolescents. "The dropout numbers just knock you for a loop," he said. "We're losing 15,000 kids a year."

Not only does society lose the benefit of their talents, Weaver said, but "some of them will go to prison or wind up on our welfare rolls." Intervention programs in high school are well-intentioned, Weaver said, but years too late.

The lineup of heavyweights behind this effort reads like a Who's Who in Minnesota business: Cargill, 3M, Target, Best Buy, Ecolab, General Mills, Hormel and a host of others large and small.

Art Rolnick, senior vice president and research director of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, has led the efforts to bring business on board, noting that the latest analysis show a $17 return for every dollar invested in high-quality early learning.

But, Rolnick said, the key is not to pour money into some top-down planned system. Instead, Rolnick and others favor a bottom-up, market-based system that would foster well-trained providers, low teacher-child ratios and extensive parent education and involvement.

His dream? A prototype that would target at-risk populations, use public-health nurses to work with parents before their children are born and provide parent mentoring afterward, along with a scholarship to proven, high-quality child care centered on school readiness.

"We don't want to fund programs," Rolnick said. "We want to fund mentors and scholarships and let the market work."

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 4:42 PM 0 comments

May 2006
Quality Child Care: Recognizing and Supporting the Best for Your Children

All parents with children in child care want their children to receive the highest quality of care. One definition of quality child care reads:

“These programs or providers offer engaging, appropriate activities in settings that facilitate healthy growth and development, and prepare children for or promote their success in school.”*

How do you define quality child care? Most parents would agree with the above definition, but of course as parents the care of your children is much more personal than that. Parents want their children in a safe environment, with a “warm” caregiver, in a program that provides lots of activities and learning opportunities for their children. All of these qualities are part of an engaging and appropriate setting that many parents consider when choosing child care.

What Determines High Quality Care?
When considering a child care setting, parents naturally are looking for a warm and nurturing caregiver. But, equally important are two other types of measures that also indicate a quality environment.

The first is the process – what goes on in the program, their procedures, activities and so on and, the second is the structure – the physical environment, the number of
providers and teachers and children, the safety features. Both are equally
important.

When you are considering a child care program, whether it is center-based or a family child care home, here are some questions that you could ask the programs (and yourself) that would help determine if the program provides high quality care**

• -What kind of program is provided? Do they follow a curriculum?
• -How many children are in care? What is the ratio of staff to children? If it is a center, how are the children grouped?
• -What kind of training and certification does the child care staff have?
• -Is the program or center accredited?
• -What are the program’s policies regarding discipline? Children being sick? Late pick-up?-Does the program have policies that they give to parents?
• -Is the program environment safe for children?
• -Are the child care programs licensed (by the local jurisdiction – county, state)?
• -What kinds of activities do they do with the children?
• -Do the daily schedules have opportunities and activities that promote social interactions? Learning? Physical activity?
• -How do the child care providers relate to children? Do they listen and respond to the children? Are they warm? Attentive? Positive? Expressive?
• -Are parents welcomed at any time? Can you come by any time? Are they always accessible by phone?
• -What’s your gut feeling (parents) after visiting and talking with staff? How were your questions answered? Are you encouraged to visit again?

Quality Child Care Equals Providers and Parents Working Together
Child care is ultimately about the relationship between the provider (or teacher) and the child. Once you have chosen a child care program where the environment is safe and appropriate, it’s up to the providers to make the program come to life. It’s really all about the person providing the care. You and all parents instinctively know that. And one of the most important aspects of any quality child care program is the relationship that the providers or teachers form with parents. When parents and child care providers work together, everyone benefits. In a beneficial parent-provider partnership, both work together to develop and achieve goals that are best for the child within the program setting.

Child care programs that support positive parent and provider partnerships will have some of the following qualities:

• -Parents and providers communicate regularly, on a daily basis
• -Parents trust and feel at ease with the child care program
• -There are many opportunities for you to be involved in activities in the program
• -Providers ask parents for input and feedback into the program
• -Children in the program are happy, well adjusted and progressing

One key way to have a positive relationship with your child care provider is to have consistent, ongoing communication. Ongoing communication will foster a sense of trust and provide a way to share goals and expectations. Your good working partnership with your child care provider will support your child as he or she develops and learns. Together, you and your child care provider will make sure your child receives high quality child care.

*Child Care Aware, www.childcareaware.org.
**Adapted from A Parent’s Guide to Choosing Quality Child Care, www.childcareaware.org.

Published: May 15, 2006 12:28 am
Our View -- Support Early Childhood Programs
The Free Press

The voices most affected by the proposed legislation aren’t always heard. They’re awfully high-pitched and squeaky.

But if a recent Minnesota poll is a solid indication, louder voices, those of voters, are ready to stick up for those squeaky voices.

A poll sponsored by the Every Child Matters Education Fund points to voters in Minnesota thinking more should be done for our state’s youngest children. Most of those polled ranked health, education and well-being of children and youth as their top priority. Forty percent also said that during the past five years or so the conditions for children in Minnesota have deteriorated.

You don’t have to be an educator to know the impact that sound child care and early childhood education have on a child. And it’s about more than kindergarten readiness. A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis showed early childhood programs save the government money in the long run — in criminal justice costs, social services and special education funding.

In Minnesota in 2001, Early Childhood was funded at $120 for each child younger than 5 in the school district. In 2003, that funding was slashed to $96 per child, chopping $4.5 million in funding from those programs by 2005.

Even when things looked better in 2005, the state never increased Early Childhood support to 2001 levels. Funding in 2005 was only partially restored to $104 per child. To be investing in children at levels below what we invested in the 1990s is not “bettering the next generation.” Now it’s up to the state’s lawmakers to find the money to adequately support and expand early childhood programs.

Gov. Pawlenty proposed $10 million for early childhood programs in his budget plan but makes the spending contingent on some changes to the programs. His bill stalled in the House.

The DFL-dominated state Senate put more than $23 million into early childhood programs out of a $127 million supplemental spending bill passed last week.

Lawmakers have to act fast to make sure the Legislature doesn’t end this month without funding in place. They might have an incentive if they keep in mind voters’ opinions on childhood issues.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if at the end of this legislative session, we’d be left with three new stadiums but no new classes for preschoolers to learn the sounds of the letters that spell B-A-L-L.

Paid sick leave is crucial for child care providers
By Ruth Schmidt

Passing the sick leave ordinance would have a positive impact on child care and education programs.The issues inherent in the proposed sick leave ordinance affect child care providers in Dane County in competing and compelling ways.

As small businesses, a majority of child care centers operate with little to no profit margin or as nonprofits with no reserves. In theory, providing paid sick leave to their work force has the potential to further financially stress a system already woefully underfinanced. Yet we know that most child care centers in Madison already do provide this benefit. Why? Because the early childhood community understands that adequate paid sick leave is critical to sustaining the public health of our city, which in turn sustains families, children and those who care for them.

Child care providers see the personal face of this issue, and they see it more often than is acceptable in this city today. They see the face of a worried parent bringing a sick child to care, hoping they will not be turned away, forced to choose between staying home to care for their child and losing a day's wages, perhaps a job, because of absence. They know the personal struggle of a low-income mother or father who cannot make the best choice for a sick child because of economic constraints imposed by a business climate that disproportionately disadvantages the low-wage work force.

Family child care providers and centers alike know this all-too-familiar scenario. More than any other sector, it is perhaps the people who provide child care and education and the children themselves who are affected by employers' decisions not to provide paid sick leave.What are the ramifications to the child care work force when one analyzes this issue from a public health perspective? It is helpful to peel away layers of factors that complicate this issue.

First, we know that children in early childhood programs are often sick. Illnesses such as colds, flu, pink eye and diarrhea are some of the most common brought into child care centers, family child care homes and preschools. Not only does this expose other children (most with still-developing immune systems) to these illnesses, it exposes every child care worker.

Second, we know that individuals in the child care work force in Wisconsin are less than half as likely to receive employer-provided health insurance benefits compared to the general Wisconsin work force 24 percent vs. 67.7 percent.

The result is that workers who are frequently exposed to illnesses lack adequate health insurance to get medical attention when they are ill. It is documented that uninsured individuals receive fewer preventive services, less care for chronic illnesses and poorer hospital-based care. The stark reality is that uninsured adults tend to be sicker and at higher risk of premature death: 25 percent higher mortality rate at age 65 than insured
adults.

Add to these factors the fact that the child care work force in Wisconsin earns only 64 percent as much as the state work force as a whole (the median hourly wage for a child care worker in Wisconsin in 2001 was $8.31), and you can begin to understand the crisis that early care and education professionals face routinely in performing their jobs.

Passing the sick leave ordinance would have a positive impact on child care and education programs. Sick children would not need to attend child care or school, making it less likely that other children or staff would get sick. This could reduce the spread of illnesses in the city and could actually reduce the need for child care staff to take sick leave.

Child care programs that do not currently offer paid sick leave to their staff will incur costs to implement such a policy, a cost that is likely to be passed on to parents. This is a justifiable trade-off to protect the health of individuals in our community.

When did it become acceptable to expect child care workers to sacrifice wages, health benefits and a healthy workplace to care for our children, even our sick children? Child care workers have historically shouldered this burden, and as an industry we have struggled to calculate the cost of this sacrifice.

Paid sick leave does cost money. No one disagrees with this. But it makes so much sense for the sake of children, working parents, child care providers, centers and schools trying to provide loving, healthy, safe environments. Therefore, the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association supports the proposed sick leave ordinance.

Ruth Schmidt is executive director of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association.Published: May 12, 2006

Child programs await deal
Poll; Programs are popular politically
By Mark Fischenich - The Free Press
published: May 12, 2006 01:31 am

State lawmakers and the past couple of governors of Minnesota have been told by wide-ranging groups in recent years there are good reasons for making a higher priority of investing in programs for little kids.

Educators said kids do better throughout school if they’re physically and mentally healthy and ready to learn when they reach kindergarten.

Social scientists reported that pre-school kids who have high quality early childhood education programs and day care are less likely to commit crimes, suffer from addictions or become pregnant as teenagers.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis did a study showing it saves the government money in the long run — in criminal justice costs, social services and special education funding — to spend more on kids when they’re toddlers and pre-schoolers.

Business groups recently joined the chorus, saying spending on early childhood programs is a good investment because it makes for a healthier, more productive workforce later.

This week, politicians were given another reason to support early childhood programs: It’s good politics.“People care about this stuff when they think about it,” said Marc Kimball of the Children’s Defense Fund of Minnesota after the release of a statewide opinion poll. “It’s above the economy. It’s above jobs. It’s above a lot of things.”

The Children’s Defense Fund is part of a new association — the Minnesota Children’s Platform Coalition — that hopes to translate the academic and business support for early childhood spending into support from the Legislature and Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

The poll of 625 likely Minnesota voters, conducted from May 1 to May 3, found that the health, education and safety of children topped all other issues including taxes, homeland security and immigration. More than 90 percent of respondents said a candidate’s stand on children’s issues would be an important factor in determining who they vote for Nov 7.

The poll was done to help garner support for spending on early childhood programs — one of the major issues to be resolved in the final 10 days of the 2006 legislative session.

The DFL-dominated state Senate put more than $23 million into early childhood programs out of a $127 million supplemental spending bill passed earlier this week. The money would go for Early Childhood Family Education programs and for reducing the waiting list and the co-payments for subsidized child care for low- and middle-income working parents, said Sen. John Hottinger, chairman of the Senate Early Childhood Policy and Budget Committee.

“The House, on the other hand, didn’t do anything,” said Hottinger, DFL-St. Peter.

Rep. Bob Gunther, R-Fairmont, said he wishes more money could be put into early childhood programs. But Gunther, chairman of the House committee that handles child care programs, noted the Senate budget is relying on revenue from the “health impact fee” approved by lawmakers a year ago but that might be thrown out by the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The Senate bill assumes victory in the court case and spends the money, while the House bill holds off, Gunther said.

“I don’t think we should spend money we don’t have yet.”

Pawlenty sits somewhere in between. He put $10 million into early childhood programs in his budget but makes it contingent on program changes.

“The system is not very streamlined,” Pawlenty said. “... We need to fix the system so it works better.”

Hottinger said the Senate has worked with Pawlenty administration officials to address the real problems and to improve accountability, but he sees some of Pawlenty’s proposals as unwise.

Both Hottinger, who is in his final session before retirement, and Pawlenty, who will seek a second term as governor in November, expressed optimism that early childhood programs would be among the winners when a final budget deal is negotiated.

“I think I have a reasonably good chance because it was one of the top three priorities of the Senate this session,” Hottinger said.

Pawlenty, while cautioning that he would not accept increased funding without changes in the system, said he expected a deal to be worked out by a House-Senate conference
committee.

Gunther said the House — which is limiting itself to $88 million in new spending, the bulk of it focused on prisons, sex-offender programs and programs for the mentally ill and dangerous — would insist on fiscal responsibility with any budget deal. Besides, he said, Minnesota funds child care better than all contiguous states.

Kimball, meanwhile, said the Children’s Platform Coalition — an alliance of 30 religious organizations, youth groups, children’s advocates and education associations — will be working to inform voters about which candidates support investments in kids.

“If candidates and lawmakers don’t, they may do so at their own peril,” Kimball said.