Elaina Holley, Project Analysts at San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools.

Elaina is one of our early education and development teammates, who plays a big role in the building of early educator workforce. She brings with her a huge heart for all things, little people, and the adults who work with them .

EETD/QCC Tuition Reimbursement Support Program: https://sbcss.instructure.com/courses/2427

Early Education and Development webpage:
https://www.sbcss.k12.ca.us/index.php/en/ess-2019/early-education-and-development

Music by lemonmusicstudio from Pixabay - Where the Light Is

Transcript

Ana  00:05

Hello, and welcome, everyone. This is Ana Garcia and

Nancy  00:08

Nancy Sherod. And thanks for tuning in to our Early Education and Development podcast. Tomorrow's readiness starts today. We're here for another episode to share more about how the early education and development department at San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools is supporting initiatives for the youngest learners throughout our county.

Ana  00:26

Today, we have one of our early education and development teammates, who plays a big role in the building of early educator workforce. She brings with her a huge heart for all things, little people, and the adults who work with them. We know this episode is going to be one that you'll want to share with others. Can you please say hello to our listeners, introduce yourself and share a little bit about how you've been a part of early education in your career. 

Elaina  00:49

Thank you for that warm welcome. My name is Elaina Holley, I am a Project analysts here at San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. And I'm also the local planning council coordinator.

Nancy  01:00

And what have you done with little people in the past.

Elaina  01:04

So I started my career when my children were little. And first my degree was in psychology. And then I really enjoyed the child development classes that I was taking. And I just seen that pathway was more for me than the degree that I was working towards. And so my heart just really opened up to being in the early education field. And so I started working as a home visitor, and eventually just transitioned more into administrative roles. And that's kind of how I got to be where I'm at now,

Nancy  01:43

I love it. And they always hook you with your heart, the littlest people are super fun to be with. And they're not something to be scared of, for those of you that are afraid of those little tiny people. Well, we're excited to have Elaina with us today, because she's going to share with you some of the important pieces that are happening with our workforce. But before we dive into the workforce pieces, we have to give you a little bit of background about universal pre kindergarten or UPK, you might have heard those initials. California launched UPK in the 21-22 state budget by putting into action recommendations laid out in the California master plan for early learning and care through a dramatic expansion of TK for all four year old children with universal access to TK for the four year olds by 2025 -2026 school year. What this means is four year olds are now going to be able to jump on to elementary campuses and be eligible to be there before kindergarten. And not just what those are earlier birth dates like they used to be for the last few years. It's definitely causing a big shift. A major goal of UPK is not only to increase access to early education, but to provide quality and joyful learning experiences. And then my favorite part of that is the joyful learning experiences. But with this brings a few bumps along the way. And so this is where I'm going to hand off to you Elaina, because we definitely are here today to talk about the current state of early childhood workforce.

Elaina  03:09

Yes, that's a that's a great thing to discuss today. Thank you, Nancy for bringing that to the forefront. The impact of UPK has created a need for transitional kindergarten teachers. The early childhood workforce has seen a shift of preschool teachers leaving the preschool settings. They're obtaining their teaching credential and shifting over to the TK classrooms.

Ana  03:31

Wow. So with the preschool teachers shifting into TK classrooms, Elena, how is this impacting our pre K.

Elaina  03:37

This in turn has created a need for preschool teachers, we have seen a shortage in teaching staff at the preschool level. And in turn, this has caused a need to close classrooms, not because there isn't children that are needing to be served, but rather because there just aren't enough qualified preschool teachers to meet the ratio requirement to keep the classrooms open.

Nancy  03:57

Which leads to all sorts of roles, shifting and openings being being out there for people tell us a little bit more about those roles and those consistent openings. Well I'm excited about that workforce, because I've been sitting in on those meetings, and we are doing some really great ground level conversations on how we can support high schoolers in getting the units they need to be an ECE teacher as soon as they graduate as a senior move into those preschool roles. We have all sorts of ways for funding to get them their degrees and and their credentials to move them into that next level at the districts. And then we start all over again with our high schoolers.

Elaina  04:07

 Yes. So through the San Bernardino County Early Education and Development local planning council, we started an Early Education Workforce Committee. And we are evaluating as a county how we might be able to make some connections and build bridges to support and grow the CTE early education programs. So that we can expand the current pipeline for high school students to obtain the needed experience and education that will allow them to enter the early education field, right out of high school. ,

Ana  05:06

So, Elena, I hear the word pathways a lot. Can you talk a little bit about the different pathways educators can take? 

Elaina  05:12

Yes, absolutely. One of the programs that has been created under the Quality Counts California Workforce pathway is designed to align with the QCC professional development system and to focus on local workforce needs across all care setting types. The Quality Counts California Workforce Pathways program is funded by the California Department of Social Services, and administered by the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, early education and development local planning council. This program is open to early learning professionals, teachers and family childcare providers, working directly with children ages birth to five years old, which includes infants, toddlers, preschoolers. To be eligible for this program, you must be working in a program that accepts some form of California Early Learning subsidy through direct contract. So for example, a CSPP, a CCTR, or for our family childcare providers, they may be receiving AP funding for a student that is in their care, and then that would qualify them to participate in the program. 

Nancy  06:22

So I'm going to stop you there for a second because I want to kind of define this because this is exciting. So we're offering money for individuals to continue their education to continue working towards more really acknowledge more early gains. And we're doing this not just for current preschool teachers, we're doing it for family childcare is is that what I heard you say?

Elaina  06:40

Yes, yes, absolutely. Private centers, family childcare? Pretty much as long as they're receiving some sort of state subsidy for what for their children in their care, then they are deemed eligible to participate.

Nancy  06:53

Excellent. And so we're reimbursing what are we reimbursing for?

Elaina  06:57

So there's different programs that fall under the cucc workforce pathways. One of them being a program that offers tuition support, we call it the incentive program. This program offers tuition support to those that are enrolled in an accredited college or university working on an associate or bachelor's degree in early childhood education or child development, or taking classes to attain or upgrade their California Child Development permit. So that's one way and then another piece of that program is the stipend formerly known as AB212. And this is designed for our permit holders that are participating in professional development for them to attain, maintain, maintain or upgrade their California Child Development permit. And then we also have been working towards building professional growth advisor capacity here in San Bernardino County. And what that is, is folks that hold a permit, they have to meet with their professional growth advisors to gain support on identifying their academic goals and what they're working towards annually, so that they can have a focus on what they need to either gain their associate's degree, their bachelor's degree, or if they're wanting to upgrade their permit. .

Nancy  08:26

Excellent. And it sounds like you've found some new information recently about the funding.

Elaina  08:32

Yes, we have recently learned that this funding will be available for the next three years, and will not be an annual grant. So we're very excited, because this will allow us some additional opportunities to serve additional folks and different and explore different capacities of how we might be able to support their, their goals as they're moving forward in their career goals,

Nancy  08:55

which is all in the same mission to fill those positions so we can get more three year olds in the classrooms and more four year olds in the classrooms and build that equity across our districts and our early ed platforms.

Ana  09:07

Elaina, so we talked a lot about preschool educator opportunities. Can you speak about TK educator opportunities?

Elaina  09:15

Yes, I'm glad you asked Ana. We received funding I believe it was last program year and it's called the Early Education Teacher Development Program. It's also known as EETD. It is intended to support pre get pre kindergarten teachers paraprofessionals and multiple subject teachers to prepare for teaching in a transitional kindergarten classroom. It is funded in combination with the California pre kindergarten planning and implementation grant. The entirety of the California pre kindergarten planning and implementation grant program was established as a state initiative with the goal of expanding access to classroom based pre kindergarten programs at local educational agencies and planning for the increased number of teachers needed to fully implement universal pre kindergarten. 

Nancy  10:06

That was a ton. So I'm going to wrap it up and you're going to stop me if I mess it up because I might mess it up. So it is a grant that's put out there to support teachers or paraprofessionals, who are wanting to specifically move towards that TK classroom. 

Elaina  10:21

Yes. 

Nancy  10:21

Okay, so it's working. So who specifically can we support with this?

Elaina  10:27

The purpose of this grant is to increase the number of early educators available to serve California State transitional kindergarten programs by supporting the attainment of up to 20 for early childhood education, or child development units, with also with their multiple subject, teaching credential, or P3, ECE Specialist Credential when available, in addition to increasing specific competencies for CSPP, TK, and kindergarten programs. So with all of that being said, what the hope is, is that we will have some of our permit holders that are teaching in the preschool settings, that they'll go out and get their credential and move up into that TK teaching role. Or we might see that we have some K through 8 or K through high school that may obtain those 24 units, and then move into that TK role. So it's kind of a mixed bag of folks that have that opportunity, if they're interested in becoming a TK teacher,

Nancy  11:27

Okay, so Elena, you talked about that 24 ece units, those early childhood education units. So let me explain that a little bit to our listeners. So with UPK, we're looking to have teachers teaching TK that are highly qualified. So what that means is, if you're new to TK, if you're just starting in a brand new TK classroom 24 early childhood education units are expected. Some of the districts are grandfathering their current teachers that have been teaching it for a few years, they've been spending a lot of time with those littles they're grandfathering them in, which means they don't need those units. But other districts, this is something that they're working towards. And then anyone new is for sure, taking those ECE units. The other pieces, this is also a way that we're trying to help operators, we have some eighth grade teachers, some seventh grade teachers, even some high school teachers that are finding that their heart is towards those little people. And so they want to go back to school and get these 24 ECE units. And so again, they fall into these grants, they fall into this funding, so that we can support them and going back to school to get the units that are now a part of the requirements to teaching our littlest learners the most developmentally informed practices, and just looking at the theory for little people. Yeah, so it's exciting to see these teachers running back to get some of this new learning there. They've been doing it, they've been watching them working through the pieces, but now we have this whole new world of education that's really at the forefront of these credential programs.

Ana  12:56

That sounds like a great opportunity Elaina, is the funding going away anytime soon for any of these grants. 

13:01

No, Anna, actually, for the early education teacher development program, we anticipate that that will be through year 2026. And then for the QCC workforce pathways, which is for our preschool permitted  with the California Child Development permits, and those that are continuing to work towards upgrading their permits or working towards their associate's or bachelor's, that one we just found out is going to renew and it'll be a three year grant. Typically in the past, it's been an annual and so we are super excited. This will be the first time that it's actually three years. So no, it's gonna be here for a while

13:47

That is fantastic. Okay, so we've got candidates who are interested, they're in school, they are like, that sounds like me, what can they expect, what's the potential for these grants and those reimbursements that they're going to put in to receive, 

14:00

So it's very much dependent on which pathway that they're working towards. So for example, for the Early Education Teacher Development program, that one is focused on teachers returning and getting those 24 ECE units that you just shared about Nancy. And so for those, it is dependent on how many units they take, how many participants are participating and funding, of course, so it could be a certain amount per unit. And that is typically based on if they're at if they're taking those courses, let's say at a community, junior college level, or if they're taking it more at the four year higher ed level.

14:49

That was gonna be my next question. Does it matter what school they go to so there is options and they can take those different pathways? 

Elaina  14:54

Yes, absolutely. So dependent on that will determine that They're how much support they receive. There's a lot of like ifs and variables, yes for that go along with that. And then for the cucc, workforce pathways, that also depends on their pathway that they're participating in. And then, for example, like their stipend for the stipend formerly known as AB212, that's dependent on their stipend level. For the next three years, we anticipate that we will align with the early education and teacher development program EETD. Yes, EETD. So we are looking in previous years, it was a full tuition reimbursement, but we're looking at shifting to align with the EETD program and following that unit model. And so that will, that's what's anticipated in on the horizon.

Nancy  15:54

All right. But that means that no matter what they're getting some money back into their pocket

Elaina  15:57

 Absolutely. 

Nancy  15:58

So take the time, look into this.

Ana  16:01

And for more information, check out our website in our show notes.

Nancy  16:04

Okay, so the website. So Elena, when they go to the website, what are they going to find?

Elaina  16:13

So once they get to the link that takes them to the Canvas page of the EETD and QCC workforce pathways information. It'll give an overall general description of both programs together. And then if you scroll down to the bottom, you'll see the EETD and the QCC have separate links that you click on. Once you click on those, it'll give you more information regarding eligibility requirements, timelines, we do the application process for both of these programs through the California ECE workforce registry. So you want to be sure to create an account. That's probably a different podcast in its own. So we won't get into the California ECE workforce registry, but I would definitely encourage you to check it out. Because the application process does go through there. We are very mindful of the timeline. So you definitely want to check out the timeline because because of grant funding, you know, certain applications have to be processed within certain fiscal years on so I would encourage you to check out the website as soon as you can to get that information. So you know where you stand on. On both programs, because you may qualify for one you may qualify for both, depending on your educational goals.

Ana  17:42

Awesome. Elaina, thank you so much for sitting down with us today and sharing all these wonderful resources. For anyone who would like more information. You can email us at earlyeducationanddevelopment@SBCSS.net. 

Nancy  17:55

Perfect. Thanks, Ana. Well, that's a wrap for another episode, but I am very excited because next month's episode is going to be me sitting down with my co host Ana, and we're going to talk about her work she's leading for our department QSSB another acronym or Quality Start San Bernardino. We have family child cares and preschools working extra hard to raise the quality of the early learning programs. And we want to share with you how this impacts your little ones. 

Ana  18:23

We have come to the end of our episode and we thank you for listening. Make sure to join us next month when we will continue to share a message that

Nancy  18:30

tomorrow's readiness starts today.