Delaware leaders have coalesced around early literacy in recent years, adopting a state plan, enacting legislation, and drawing national speakers to support the momentum.

The state’s scores on national reading assessments have been stagnant and remain low, with less than half of third graders reading on grade level—an important predictor of later success in school and life. With a focus on this statistic, Gov. John Carney released the Delaware Literacy Plan in 2019 and allocated ongoing state resources to support teacher training, classroom materials, and summer learning supports. Some of the exciting progress underway through that plan includes:

• About two-thirds of all districts and charters have adopted high-quality instructional materials (curriculum, assessments, and other learning tools that rate highly according to national research). This means educators in those districts and charters can access those materials, and the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) provides support for professional learning to support these materials. (Although adoption across classrooms and fidelity of implementation likely varies.)
• The state has launched competency-based professional development for educators called microcredentials that offer opportunities for educators to learn at their own pace and advance once they have demonstrated mastery of a topic. Educators are paid a stipend to participate, and the state is exploring a pay increase associated with the achievement of several microcredentials.

In 2021, leaders in the General Assembly took on policies to ensure all future teachers educated in Delaware had a solid evidence-based preparation program. “We have seen the transformative impact of this approach in the states that have adopted policies that empower educators with that information,” said Sen. Sarah McBride during a 2021 Senate Education Committee hearing. Led by Sen. Laura Sturgeon, a retired high school English teacher, Senate Bill 133 requires all teacher preparation programs (colleges of education including University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Wilmington University, RELAY Graduate School of Education, and soon Delaware Technical Community College) to have a grounding in the science of reading through the program curriculum. The bill stipulates  faculty must participate in associated professional learning as well. SB 133 passed last session and was signed by the governor.

In March 2022, the Delaware Literacy Summit convened local stakeholders and national experts from other states who have adopted policies to strengthen literacy. Delaware’s reading scores have dropped from sixth in the nation to 37th since 2002, while states like Mississippi (that adopted a comprehensive plan and invested significant resources in coaching and schoolwide training) have surpassed us.

In April, Sen. Sturgeon and Rep. Kim Williams introduced Senate Bill 4 and House Bill 304.  SB 4 provides standards for the materials educators use to know the needs of their students and to teach them how to decode words, sound out multisyllabic words, learn vowel teams and provide all the important foundations of how the human brain learns to read. It requires that districts and charters provide time for educators to learn these materials, and it creates reporting requirements.

“We know reading is a complex process, more than just saying words out loud,” said Mark Holodick, Delaware’s secretary of education, who supports both the shift in reading instruction and making it universal. “We need evidence-based research on how to promote language development.”

HB 304 establishes standards for universal screening tools and practices, ensuring that students are screened for potential delays three times during the school year in grades K-3, and establishes reporting requirements.

Parents and educators have motivated legislators from both sides of the aisle to work on these issues, informed these bills, and spoken up in support of these efforts—reading specialists and parents of dyslexic children testified on the importance of these policies at Senate and House Education Committee Hearings.

A few important issues were raised during these discussions:

1. How can we support educators with the right tools, training, and time? The bills were amended to clarify that training or PD activities must happen within the school day—and districts may select multiple methods for ensuring teachers are trained, either through district-offered professional learning or by earning microcredentials.
2. What about local control? Delaware districts and charters should able to choose their own curriculum. The bills recognize and support local control—they allow districts to select from a curated list created based on national research—and establish a process where applications can be made to the DDOE for alternatives not on the list. Seventeen other states have curriculum adoption policies at the state level, and eight have adopted literacy-related standards in recent years, according to Education Commission of the States.
3. But what about exposing kids to concepts and print-rich environments—can’t we just read to kids? While reading to children and exposing them to core knowledge, vocabulary, and concepts are important, without the essential decoding skills, students will not have the skills to sound out words in third grade or in their high school chemistry textbooks. As Dr. Burk says, “reading to children and expecting them to learn how to decode is like playing Mozart music and expecting students to know how to play the piano.”

With the passage of SB 4 (and imminent passage of HB 304), Delaware is making strides toward the important foundation of literacy—often called “reading to learn”—that all students deserve.

In the coming weeks, early childhood workers will be able to access the supplement or “bonus” pay committed in November by Gov. John Carney through American Rescue Plan Act funds. Each early educator will be paid $1,000 upon completing their online profile—which will help the state create its first professional registry, or data system on the workforce. For longtime advocates and educators, it’s gratifying to see this segment of the care economy, who worked through the pandemic to keep families and our economy afloat, receive this recognition of their incredibly hard and important work.

As we have outlined in previous posts, child care workers make minimum wage and often don’t receive benefits; about one half quality for public assistance. One in six early childhood educators have left the field during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving 96 percent of Delaware centers with staffing shortages.  These bonuses will begin to offset these low wages and represent another step toward the long-term goal of paying all educators a livable salary and a career path.

Workforce development is another key topic under discussion in the General Assembly. HS 1 for HB 377 would create a “comprehensive support program for early childhood professionals including those employed by a public school,” codifying efforts that have been in place in different forms in recent years. These include scholarships and wage supplements tethered to earning credentials and degrees. Other supports for early educators, to be delivered in partnership with institutions of higher education, include tutoring, counseling, coaching, substitute coverage, and community-based delivery of training, such as on site at a child care center to reduce demands on time and transportation.

One priority remains establishing more alternative routes for educators who have a degree in a field other than early childhood education to become certified. Another goal is to assess which scholarship programs can be leveraged to support the workforce, such   as   the   SEED, SEED+   and   INSPIRE   scholarships—which have not traditionally been utilized by early educators—and create support to increase utilization of these.

The new bill would also require the creation of a workforce study based on new data from the professional registry. This public report would capture basic data on the number of individuals working in child care, their qualifications, and demographics, helping lawmakers prioritize initiatives and resources.

Another bill recently introduced, HB 410, proposes a refundable tax credit to child care workers, including family child care (home-based care). The bill would provide eight-, 10- and 12-percent credits to child care workers based on their attainment of industry credentials and degrees. It is modeled after a similar policy in Louisiana that saw success with an eight-fold increase in attainment of higher credentials over seven years. Nebraska and Colorado also have implemented a workforce-investment credit to boost wages. For Delaware, this legislative session might produce a strategy to supplement low wages until child care workers can make a livable wage (as recommended by the state target compensation scale, similar to that of K-12 educators, released last year).

Long term, Delaware and other states, in partnership with the federal government, must invest in early care and education at the true cost—and serve many more children with public funding. A significant part of this investment—about 70%  of any educational endeavor—is the people who care for and educate our youngest. Thank policymakers for supporting these essential workers and for investing in the future—and tell them to vote for HS 1 for HB 377 and HB 410.

“No one’s income should affect their child’s outcomes. We have to fund child care in Delaware at the cost of care, so that providers don’t have to sacrifice to serve their communities.”

As advocates, lawmakers and community members gathered virtually across the state to rally legislators around Delaware’s youngest learners, comments by Sen. Kyle Evans Gay got to the heart of the occasion.

The event underscored the growing consensus—among local parents and providers, as well as the local and regional business community—that child care is essential infrastructure to our state and community.

Last week brought Early Childhood Education Advocacy Day (hosted by The Delaware Association for the Education of Young children, or deaeyc), as well as results of a new statewide public opinion poll on child care topics.

Advocacy Day brought those topics to the forefront—first, with a deep-dive into the thoughts and opinions of Delawareans; followed by a panel conversation featuring some of Delaware’s top voices in government and education.

[Read the press release: Delaware Voters Want Increased Investments in Child Care, Poll Finds]

The survey, conducted by GBAO Strategies, in partnership with Rodel and several early childhood and community organizations, showed local voters view early childhood education as a critical area in need of state resources. The poll, which captured opinions of a representative sample of 500 registered Delawareans, revealed strong support for increased state investments in early childhood education. Respondents considered early childhood education on an even playing field as other public goods and services provided by the state that benefit society overall, like roads, parks, and K-12 education. Delawareans showed support for increased investments across political and county lines.

With 2022 General Assembly elections and an impending governor race in 2024, respondents across all counties and political affiliations said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate for office who supports investments in early care and education.

[Read Delaware Public Media’s coverage: Survey shows Delawareans back increased funding in early childhood education and care]

When asked to rank the importance of state investments in various public amenities—from libraries to transportation—59 percent of Delawareans characterized early childhood education as “very important,” ranking it alongside public amenities such as road maintenance and police.

The subsequent panel discussion (moderated by Rodel’s Madeleine Bayard) saw Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, Sens. Kyle Evans Gay, and Laura Sturgeon, Rep. Rae Moore, Matt Denn, co-chair of the Redding Consortium, and Lauren Hogan, managing director of policy and professional advancement for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) cover topics ranging from early literacy to finance.

Said Sen. Sturgeon: “My constituents are telling me child care is equivalent in cost to a mortgage payment. To pay a mortgage plus child care plus saving for college … the money doesn’t stretch that far.”

Rep. Moore, a middle school teacher who has sponsored legislation this session to pave the way for better compensating early learning professionals, said she knows firsthand what happens when students don’t benefit from quality early learning. “When we don’t invest, what happens at middle school is there are pieces missing. So we need to prioritize this from birth. And we need to make sure we’re prioritizing these professionals: They’re responsible for educating the world.”

Advocates are requesting at least $40 million more in sustained state dollars starting in Fiscal Year 2023, which would help cover basic needs and increased costs for providers. That ask to lawmakers is part of a long-term strategy toward Delawareans’ aspirations for early learning.

As a reminder, Delaware uses a faulty system to fund “Purchase of Care,” the subsidy that covers child care tuition for low-income families. Although that may soon change thanks to new legislation and cost estimator tools. State lawmakers would need to invest 12-86 percent more per child just to pay for the basic legal requirements established by the state–and 282-342 percent more to fund quality, researched-backed care.

Last year, Delaware committed to changing how it calculates payment rates for “Purchase of Care,” the state subsidy that helps cover child care tuition for low-income families. The legislature passed HB 250, which required:

1. The Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) and the Department of Education (DOE), in consultation with the Delaware Early Childhood Council (DECC), to create a cost of quality child care estimator tool.
2. Apply to the Administration for Children and Families to be approved for alternative methodology for rate setting by July 1, 2022, when the state would begin using this approach to set rates.

In order to address No. 1, a working group supported by Prenatal to Five Fiscal Strategies came together and recently released a report and estimator tools for child care centers and family child care. These tools will enable the state to determine the actual cost to child care providers for subsidy-eligible children—which currently covers children in families under 185 percent of the federal poverty level and whose parents are working, in training, or have a medical need.

Why does this matter? Purchase of Care is critically under-funded, in part because the state relies on a clunky method for determining the rates that go to providers in the form of reimbursements. This approach will provide budget-makers with a more accurate cost of providing the care, compared to the previous, problematic approach known as  a “market rate” study.

While the new approach doesn’t guarantee a higher subsidy rate (and has not yet been funded), this tool provides much more transparency on the gap between what’s truly needed and what is provided today.

What costs are considered and what do we mean by quality?

The tool calculates the total cost of child care—which is primarily driven by the educators in the classroom: their qualifications and salaries, and the size of the group of children and role/responsibilities. Typically in education, early childhood or K-12, personnel comprise about 70 percent of costs.

Research demonstrates that adults with professional qualifications (AA/BA degrees in child development or a related field) that have smaller group sizes (three children at infant age group, up to 15 in preschool settings) are the most successful in supporting child development. Another key element is providing time for these professionals to plan, assess, engage with families—and partner with other experts like behavioral health consultants, occupational therapists, and curriculum coordinators.

The tool incorporates Delaware’s increasing minimum wage, as well as the new target compensation scale, which aligns early childhood workers’ pay with K-12 educator compensation, adds benefits, and provides a pathway (and incentives) for educators to reach higher levels of qualifications. Child care deserts and shortages are driven by low wages paid to educators—in many cases minimum wage–which are driven by low state reimbursement rates.

Other costs in the tool include occupancy costs, insurance, taxes, food, classroom supplies, inclusion supports, reserves for capital costs, screening (developmental, vision, hearing). And, the tool assumes other sources of revenue for eligible programs, including CACFP food program.

(Not included are all the systemic supports needed to achieve these goals, including scholarships, professional development, quality improvement systems, monitoring, and more.)

One key recommendation of this working group was regional rates should be discontinued. Today, providers in New Castle County are paid 40 percent more per child (ages two to five) and  50 more for infants, compared to Sussex and Kent counties.

What did the group find?

How much more is needed to truly fund the cost of care—and the cost of the quality care all children deserve? A lot! Delaware needs to invest:

1. More per child – to reach the quality level recommended by Delaware experts (certified teachers, paid a fair wage, and with small group sizes), we need to invest 12-86 percent more per child just to pay for the basic legal requirements established by the state–and 163-181 percent more (or 263-281 percent of what we pay today) to fund quality, researched-backed care.

Center Based Child Care Example – Annual Child Care Subsidy Reimbursement Rates Per Child (Purchase of Care)

* average among three counties (Kent/Sussex are paid at a lower rate than New Castle County); Centers are open about 250 days/year; about 70 percent of centers in Delaware participate in Stars, which provides additional funding for reaching higher quality levels, at ~10-30 percent more.

** state licensing requirements – includes benefits and paid time off.

1. In four times as many children as we are today (and based on their needs). Today, Purchase of Care  supports only 22 percent of eligible children. And only about 15 percent of three- and four-year-olds are served in Head Start, state pre-K (ECAP), and district special education programs. That means Delaware is not investing in at least 75 percent of children’s participation in educational programming before Kindergarten. State funding for children with special needs is extremely limited, and additional funding for English learners is nonexistent.

Recent proposals, including Build Back Better, proposed covering child care for families earning under 2.5 times the Delaware median income and no families would pay more than seven percent of their income on high-quality child care. These types of proposals require state investment.

The majority of a child’s brain is developed before Kindergarten. How do our investments compare with K-12 education? In Delaware:

When federal, state and local dollars are taken into consideration, we spend $2.5 billion per year on K-12 education. But many costs are greater during birth to five–early learning requires more adults, more consumable goods (diapers, wipes, etc.), and more equipment (cribs, cots, separate sanitary toys) per child than in later years – so we expect costs to be larger per child.

What’s Next?

Part 2 of HB 250 required the state to apply to ACF for approval to use this approach to set rates going forward; New Mexico and Washington, D.C. were approved in recent years.

As the state moves in this direction, it will be important to consider governance changes that will streamline funding to ensure programs are as accessible to programs and families as possible – for example, merging funding streams and funding incentives for quality, pre-K programs, and others that will be considered this year as regulations are aligned as required by SCR 55.

This process does NOT mean that rates will automatically increase–it does mean that we will better understand the gap between today’s rates and the actual costs to demonstrate the need for policymakers.

State revenue strategies may need to be explored– and a number of states are pursuing these to support early childhood investments. For example, just in the last 2 years several states have increase revenue measures to pay for early learning. Maryland taxed “big tech” digital advertising sales, New Mexico taxed natural resources, D.C. taxed high-income individuals, and many states use statewide property tax or sales tax to fund public services, which are not in place in Delaware.

This study is the beginning of a huge opportunity and long-term movement–for Delaware to provide foundational services that all children deserve, that are the strongest investments government can make, and that most developed countries already provide.