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EEC uses federal Preschool Development Grant to form Family Advisory Council and publish statewide needs assessment
Summary
EEC described work funded by the federal Preschool Development Grant (PDG): formation of a Family Advisory Council and a statewide family needs assessment that documented parents' search experiences, priorities and gaps in access, including regional differences.
The Department of Early Education and Care used federal Preschool Development Grant funding to create a statewide Family Advisory Council and to commission a birth-to‑12 family needs assessment, presenters told the board at the April meeting.
The Family Advisory Council, still in formation, is intended to elevate parent and caregiver voices across the Commonwealth and to bring geographically and culturally diverse family perspectives into EEC policy and program design. Hajai Sherr (EEC Family and Community Supports) and Ayesha Rodriguez (EEC access team) outlined a timeline for public stakeholder engagement and an equitable application process to recruit members from each EEC licensing region.
The needs assessment — a mixed-methods study conducted by MEF Associates and Tufts’ Tufts Interdisciplinary Evaluation & Research (TIER) team — collected a large statewide survey and multiple multilingual focus groups. One finding from the research team summarized caregivers’ motivations for searching: “No daycare, no job. It's that simple,” a researcher quoted from a focus group. Key takeaways included:
- Many caregivers actively searched for care during the prior year; 56% of survey respondents said they sought a new child‑care arrangement in the past year. - The primary reason families searched was employment (72% cited work). Other priorities were program safety, cleanliness, cost and location. Availability and up‑to‑date information about openings were frequently missing. - About 42% of caregivers who searched could not find a childcare option that met their needs; families often cobbled together mixed arrangements (center, family care, relatives) or parents stayed home when care was unaffordable. - If child care were free for their youngest child, roughly 70% of respondents said they would choose center‑based care.
Presenters said the study produced regionally representative findings and that briefs summarizing the results are posted on EEC’s website. Arjun Shah, EEC’s PDG manager, told the board the results will feed directly into the agency’s next five‑year strategic plan. A related pilot — an EEC staff priority program that offered CCFA to eligible early‑education staff — served more than 1,500 staff by September 2024; the project’s small evaluation found about one third of participating educators changed their childcare after receiving CCFA and reported positive effects on recruitment and retention.
Why it matters: The needs assessment gives EEC family‑voice evidence to shape policy choices — from improving online search tools to targeting affordable options and supports for families near CCFA income cutoffs.
Ending: EEC said it will use the PDG deliverables to inform strategy and the Family Advisory Council will provide ongoing family input as work continues.
