Please consider making a donation. Any amount is greatly appreciated. 

This month, we met with several members of Congress from Louisiana to urge them to join the bipartisan support for substantial investments in early care and education. We are hopeful that Congress can include a significant investment in early care and education, in the reconciliation package to both increase the supply of and expand access to high-quality early care and education programs and extend the expanded child tax credit to help more families afford necessities for their children.

As you may know, the United States Senate recently approved a $1 trillion infrastructure package. Last week, the House passed a $3.5 trillion budget framework and plans to vote on the infrastructure bill that already passed in the Senate on September 27.

Right now we are gearing up to conduct the fifth survey of child care providers this September in order to gauge the state of Louisiana’s child care sector. This survey is part of a series of surveys that we have conducted since March 2020 and survey results will be released later this fall.

Finally, we are excited to support Ascension Parish with its efforts to invest juvenile justice dollars in early care and education programs. We recently released a fact sheet about how investments in high-quality early care and education programs can help prevent future crime which can be found here.

As always, we offer our organization as a resource to answer questions related to our research around early care and education in Louisiana. Thank you for your commitment to Louisiana’s youngest learners!

Best,

The Louisiana Policy Institute for Children is collecting donations to provide Louisiana child care providers with financial assistance to aid their recovery efforts in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ida. Your donation will help ensure that child care providers in Louisiana can quickly access short-term recovery funds in order to meet the needs of families as they recover from Hurricane Ida. Please consider making a donation by clicking here.

Child care providers, who have already faced significant financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are essential to our communities. They ensure that young children receive crucial early learning experiences, allowing parents and caregivers to go to work or advance their education and businesses to have a reliable workforce. They are critical to Louisiana's ability to recover from Hurricane Ida.

Our team is seeking a highly motivated individual with excellent project management and writing skills to serve as an Operations & Communications Associate. They will support LPIC’s internal operations and stakeholder communications to promote increased access to high-quality early care and education for Louisiana children ages birth through four and their families. Key responsibilities include administrative and operations to a nimble, fast-paced organization, communications and outreach, and supporting policy projects and advocacy campaigns. Click here to read the full job description.

This is a full-time, remote position with an expected start date of October 1, 2021. If you know anyone who would be an asset to our team, please encourage them to apply!

LPIC recently released a fact sheet about how investments in high-quality early care and educations programs benefit children and their communities in multiple ways including lesser involvement in violent crime and the justice system. These benefits translate to millions of dollars in community savings over the course of a single child’s life. Click here to read the fact sheet.

“Nurses, medical technicians and other essential hospital workers now have access to subsidized child care in Louisiana, the state’s department of education announced Monday, citing “critical staffing shortages in acute care hospitals.”

- WWNO (New Orleans Public Radio)

“Especially as the Delta variant spreads, many parents of young children — those under 12 who cannot yet be vaccinated — say they're unable to return to workplaces or apply for new jobs as long as there is uncertainty about when their children can safely return to full-time school or child care.”

- The New York Times

“Child care providers all over the country, regardless of their state or setting, are experiencing the strain of being understaffed. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), a nonprofit that represents the full spectrum of early childhood educators, surveyed 7,500 providers from mid-June to early July and found that more than half of respondents are experiencing greater difficulties with recruiting and retaining staff now than before March 2020."

- EdSurge

For more information, contact Libbie Sonnier, Ph.D. at [email protected].