Starting at Zero Podcast is LAUNCHED!

Author: admin

27 Jan

Posted at 21:14h in News by

Bloomberg
By Alice Kantor, Yuko Takeo, Ella Ceron, Catarina Saraiva, Leonardo Lara, and Abeer Abu Omar
January 27, 2024
Around the world, rising inflation is pushing child care costs up to unprecedented levels. Average day care fees went up 6% in 2023 from the previous year, according to mobility company ECA International, while in the US, costs jumped by 9%. Reversing this trend is key to pulling economies out of recession, promoting growth and creating more equitable societies, but so far, many governments...

26 Jan

Posted at 20:49h in News by

Associated Press
By Margery A. Beck
January 26, 2024
Nebraska is looking to follow in the footsteps of Kentucky in implementing a program that covers the costs of child care for child care workers. The idea, presented Friday by Omaha Sen. John Fredrickson to the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, is that the benefit will draw more workers into the child care industry, which is experiencing dire shortages across the county. Nebraska’s bill would cover 100% of the child care costs for child...

19 Jan

Posted at 22:41h in News, Press by

Berkeley Film Foundation
Media Contact: Andrew Neilly, Nancy Amaral
BERKELEY, Calif., January 18, 2024– The Berkeley FILM Foundation (BFF) has received a $1.5 million grant from the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation (SZCF). The funding over a three-year period will augment BFF’s current grant program to fund local independent film projects, establishes new educational programs focused on filmmaking, and inaugurates the first annual Saul Zaentz Film Festival to be held September 14-15 at the Smith Rafael Film Center in partnership with the California...

16 Jan

Posted at 00:21h in News by

Mass.gov
January 16, 2024
MALDEN — Governor Maura Healey today laid out her administration’s agenda to make early education and child care more affordable and accessible for all families across Massachusetts. The Governor will highlight these programs in her State of the Commonwealth address tomorrow and propose the funding in her Fiscal Year 2025 budget next week. The “Gateway to Pre-K” agenda includes four key components: Delivering universal, high-quality preschool access for four-year-olds in all Gateway Cities by the end of 2026. Every...

10 Jan

Posted at 00:32h in News by

Mass.gov
January 16, 2024
MALDEN — Governor Maura Healey today laid out her administration’s agenda to make early education and child care more affordable and accessible for all families across Massachusetts. The Governor will highlight these programs in her State of the Commonwealth address tomorrow and propose the funding in her Fiscal Year 2025 budget next week. The “Gateway to Pre-K” agenda includes four key components: Delivering universal, high-quality preschool access for four-year-olds in all Gateway Cities by the end of 2026. Every...

19 Dec

Posted at 19:09h in News, Press, Zaentz Initiative by

Early Learning Nation
By Mark Swartz
December 19, 2023
Imagine you work for an advocacy organization in one state and you want to find out how other states are raising revenue to support early education and care. If you Google child care tax revenue or daycare tax payments, almost all the results pertain to the tax credits that individuals can apply for when they file their taxes. Refining your search terms might give you better results, but it might take hours to track...

07 Dec

Posted at 18:48h in News, Press, Stanford by

Stanford University
By Vincent Ingram
December 7, 2023
A generous gift to the Stanford Center on Early Childhood will advance the center’s work in early childhood and accelerate the exchange of expertise among researchers, policymakers, and front-line practitioners. The Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation is providing funding to expand a valuable large-scale data collection tool called the RAPID Survey, which tracks the experiences of young children, their families, and caregivers and is used by practitioners, government systems, and other stakeholders to address critical challenges for...

05 Dec

Posted at 19:59h in News by

KVOA.com
By Myles Standish
December 5, 2023
TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) — A recent study shows Arizona is losing an estimated $4.7 billion per year because of the limited child care for children up to 5 years old. ReadyNation Arizona released the report Tuesday at The Sandbox Early Learning Center in Tucson. It was funded by the Helios Education Foundation. The lack of available, accessible, affordable child care wreaks havoc on parents’ work lives, with 70 percent of parents surveyed reporting that access to child care...

05 Dec

Posted at 19:53h in News by

Chalkbeat Colorado
By Ann Schimke
December 5, 2023
Much of the federal relief aid sent to Colorado’s child care providers during the pandemic helped keep doors open and businesses solvent. But one small stream of federal COVID funding — $23 million — was used for innovation in the sector rather than its survival. That money was distributed through the CIRCLE Grant program and helped fund more than 200 projects around the state. The projects included weekly bilingual preschool classes for Armenian-American children, a training...

04 Dec

Posted at 19:50h in News by

WTNH.com
By Tina Detelj
December 4, 2023
HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — A new state program hopes to get more people involved in Connecticut’s child care industry. Green World Family Child Care in Hartford was the backdrop for Gov. Ned Lamont’s announcement of a new registered apprenticeship program. The program is being hailed as one of the first in the nation for family child care. “Today, I feel that we are no longer alone,” Maria Amado, who owns Green World Family Child Care, said through a...

01 Dec

Posted at 21:42h in News by

Early Learning Nation
By Mark Swartz
November 29, 2023
Vanderbilt University’s Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center (PN-3) just issued its annual State Policy Roadmap, exploring ways that the states (and D.C.) can improve conditions so infants and toddlers can thrive. The Roadmap focuses on 12 solutions (see sidebar) shown to enhance well-being and to reduce the stubborn disparities in access to evidence-based programs. “We are constantly trying to figure out how to make the Roadmap more useful and more used,” says executive director Cynthia Osborne,...

27 Nov

Posted at 23:30h in News by

ParentData
By Emily Oster
November 27, 2023
The other day, my friend Jon asked to have coffee. He and his wife were expecting their first child and he had some questions. Or, really, he had one question, which went something like this. I’ve read your books, and you’ve convinced me that most of the individual behaviors people obsess about — breastfeeding, sleep training, stuff like that — do not matter for how kids turn out. I believe you that many of the data findings...

21 Nov

Posted at 23:27h in News by

Diverse Education
By Marcus Bright
November 21, 2023
The early learning sector plays a crucial role in shaping the foundation of children's education and future success. However, the shortage of qualified professionals poses significant challenges, hindering access to quality early learning programs and impeding economic growth. To address these issues, it is imperative to focus on building a thriving workforce through higher education. By equipping individuals with the necessary knowledge and skills, we can transform early learning into a vibrant industry that offers...

21 Nov

Posted at 23:15h in News by

Nursery World
By Caroline Vollans
November 21, 2023
How many of us feel upset when we see a parent responding aggressively to their child? Or sad when a child is desperately trying to please their parent to no avail? Parents are only human, so not all interactions with their children are going to be understanding and considered. Indeed, it could be worrying if they were. Having said that, parent-child interactions are highly significant: they impact the child more than any others. The National Association for...

17 Nov

Posted at 23:09h in News by

The Journal
By Tom Joyce The Center Square
November 17, 2023
U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján and U.S. Representatives Teresa Leger Fernández, Melanie Stansbury, and Gabe Vasquez, all Democrats from New Mexico, recently announced that the state will receive $10 million in federal funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to improve early childhood education. The state will get the funding via the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five program. The program “empowers state governments to better leverage...

14 Nov

Posted at 03:38h in News by

Delaware Online
By Kelly Powers
November 13, 2023
Delaware families are still struggling to find child care. Middle income families face the brunt of inaccessibility, according to the results of a new parents survey, as many struggle to afford care but earn too much to qualify for any state-funded programs. In brighter news, a Wilmington student is among 27 nationwide to receive a Sallie Mae’s Bridging the Dream Scholarship for High School Seniors this year. And, Delaware State is prepping technology for the moon. In this...

09 Nov

Posted at 23:07h in News by

WBUR.ORG
By Nik DeCosta-Klipa
November 9, 2023
While all of us in New England look longingly at the weather the rest of the East Coast is getting, here’s what we have ahead today: Head Start headaches: For decades, Head Start has provided thousands of low-income families in Massachusetts an escape hatch from the state’s notoriously expensive child care costs. However, as WBUR’s Emily Piper-Vallillo reports, recent staffing shortages have forced Head Start leaders across the state to permanently cut slots for children — putting...

06 Nov

Posted at 21:32h in News by

MPR
By Angela Davis and Maja Beckstrom
November 6, 2023
The cost of child care takes a huge chunk out of parents’ paychecks. But at the same time, many child care workers make barely enough to support themselves. And, now the costs are rising. Families across the U.S. today spend 30 percent more on their average child care payments than they did in 2019, according to new data from Bank of America. In Minnesota, child care centers are having trouble paying competitive wages...

06 Nov

Posted at 20:59h in News by

NPR
By John Daley
November 6, 2023
At the Isabella Bird Community School in Denver, preschoolers rumble around a playground as John Opp arrives to pick up his 4-year-old daughter, Giuliana, who's been diagnosed with autism. Opp's family relies on Colorado's new universal pre-K program to help cover her tuition. "It's kind of scary to think how much farther behind she would be if she didn't have this," he said, noting the support teachers and therapists provide. "I got a full enough plate as it is,"...

02 Nov

Posted at 22:28h in News by

By Khristopher J. Brooks
November 1, 2023
The cost of child care has risen so high in recent years that some parents can't afford to work. As of September, the average household spent more than $700 a month on child care, up 32% from 2019, according to a recent report from the Bank of America Institute. The sharply higher costs are driving some parents to leave the workforce in order to look after their children. At the same time, many families laying out for child care...