Addressing Hawai‘i’s Child Care Needs Through Data and Collaboration
Carol Wear, interim executive director at People Attentive To Children, or PATCH, has dedicated over 30 years of her career to the early childhood sector, and is passionate about helping families navigate the child care system. In recent years, however, Wear has witnessed the system become more challenged and strained, with data reported by PATCH showing a significant shortage of available child care providers in the state today. While the current shortage is concerning, stakeholders of the early childhood sector – including PATCH – have mobilized to respond to the issue through innovative program design and cross-sector partnerships and collaborations to begin working towards ensuring all children in Hawai‘i have access to quality child care.
Since 1976, PATCH has provided child care referral services for Hawai‘i’s families in need of child care, and continues to do so through its contract with the Department of Human Services (DHS). As the operator of the State of Hawai‘i’s childcare provider registry, PATCH evaluates and records provider qualifications so that families seeking child care services can then refer to this registry to find the support they need. In addition to providing this registry service, PATCH makes comprehensive child care service data available to early childhood stakeholders, and the public (in aggregate form) to support a data-guided understanding of child care service needs and opportunities.
Photo credit: PATCH
With a mission “to support and improve the quality and availability of care for the young people of Hawai‘i,” in addition to child care referral, PATCH works to enhance the child care ecosystem in Hawai‘i through their programs and services for families and providers. For families in need of financial support for childcare, PATCH assists families through the Preschool Open Doors subsidy program. For providers, PATCH helps recruit new providers under the DHS licensing program, offers free trainings and support in early childhood career advancement through credentialing, as well as workforce recruitment. Undergirding this work is a commitment to quality data to ensure that information is available to guide important decisions in the child care sector.
While Wear’s team is doing everything they can with the capacity and funding they have to support and enhance the child care ecosystem in Hawai‘i, given the severe shortage in child care across the state – Hawai‘i lost 850 providers from 2018-2020, representing 20% of the child care workforce – only exacerbated by the pandemic and rising demands on providers, Wear aspires for PATCH to do more, and believes it starts with collaboration and partnerships.
The Importance of Data for Understanding Childcare Need
The data for the full picture of the child care ecosystem in Hawai‘i come from disparate datasets. “There is a need for a better understanding of the child care ecosystem in Hawai‘i because PATCH is only [capturing] DHS-licensed and registered providers, we’re not capturing everybody.” Wear estimates PATCH captures 80%-85% of registered providers, though they are only one piece in understanding the child care ecosystem in Hawai‘i. The remaining pieces of child care data needed to round out the landscape of the child care ecosystem include public pre-K data collected and maintained by the Executive Office on Early Learning (EOEL), public charter school data collected and maintained by the State Public Charter School Commission (SPCSC), and the data for children whose families have opted out, which isn’t collected (but could be estimated using the rest of the available data).
Wear feels it is critical for this data to be housed in a single database, as it supports data integrity, offers families a single source in finding childcare, and because decisions on policy and legislative rules are based on this data. Wear is open to centralizing this data under PATCH, emphasizing it would require stakeholders to partner and collaborate to ensure the necessary funding and capacity are in place to do so.
Addressing the Childcare Shortage
An example of PATCH’s Point-In-Time Child Care Data by County
Though the data sit separately, when looking at data from PATCH, EOEL, and SPCSC together, we can see the shortage in available providers – and, it is significant. The Ready Keiki initiative – a multi-faceted statewide plan to provide access to preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds in Hawai‘i – estimates about 7,054 or 26% of 3- and 4-year-olds in the state are underserved. At PATCH, Wear and her team see the impact the shortage has on providers, “...the pandemic really worsened the amount of workforce that’s available, we’ve lost a lot of seats, so there’s a lot more support that’s needed.”
“There’s just [fewer] folks coming into the workforce than what we’ve seen 10 years ago, and a lot of it has to do with stress, overwhelm – a lot of providers are working over 10 hours a day, and often without any breaks...it’s just not very lucrative, and it’s really about the pay.”
Guided by data and their unique perspective within the child care network, PATCH offers programs designed to increase the child care workforce pipeline, as well as balancing those efforts with more support and opportunities for existing providers. “We’re providing them with a lot more opportunities and forms of support,” Wear says, “because we understand the importance of not only recruiting new folks, but also retaining the providers we have. We can’t afford to lose any folks, and these guys have the knowledge and skill set and history to provide care.” For recruiting new providers, PATCH offers credentialing for the Child Development Associate (CDA) designation for those who are uncertain about pursuing a college degree in early childhood (although PATCH still encourages pursuing a degree, and offers scholarships through DHS support), or those looking for a quick pathway to the workforce. Additionally, to increase the qualified workforce in Hawai‘i, in partnership with the County of Maui and Kamehameha Schools, PATCH launched a pilot last fall designed to prepare high school students for career pathways in the early childhood sector, with plans to expand statewide come July 1st of this year. Wear adds that PATCH would like to do more to help, so long as the necessary funding and capacity are available to do so.
Looking ahead, Wear is encouraged to see the momentum and energy around addressing the state’s child care shortage generated by the partnerships and collaboration born of the Ready Keiki initiative. As a member of the Ready Keiki Outreach Committee, PATCH is excited to be a part of the outreach efforts and has been in conversations with government partners and other stakeholders on how best to move forward together. “It’s going to be a lot easier if we continue to work together, because I think we’ve come a long way with these partnerships, and I think that provides a better support structure for everybody.”
The views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the person interviewed, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Hawai‘i Data Collaborative.
