Financing & Financial Incentives

This interesting research paper produced from the Milwaukee-based Public Policy Forum comments on the change in child care from a welfare to work program to a school readiness initiative within states.  May state leaders, policy makers and advocates will recognize a parallel story within their states as this Wisconsin piece reflects on the history, unintended consequences and provides conclusions and questions for consideration.

CLASP’s guide aims to help states look beyond the major sources of child care and early education funding and consider alternative federal financing sources to bring comprehensive services into early childhood settings.

Report - Putting It Together Financing Johnson-Staub.pdf

Often states reference “parental choice” and “OCC requirements” as to why they cannot limit use of child care subsidy for children in higher star levels in a QRIS.  As can be seen from this Policy Interpretation Question issued by the Office of Child Care in 2011, they have clarified that the CCDF parental choice requirements do NOT prevent a state from establishing quality requirements for recipients of child care subsidy, in

Report.pdf

This policy information memo from the Office of Child Care provides guidance and state examples of polices to promote continuity of eligibility for child care subsidy in support of continuity for children and families.  Continuity of subsidy is also important to the financial sustainability of providers.  It is one way that states can begin to think about how their policies can strengthen provider capacity to effectively work the "Iron Triangle".

ReportOCCMemo2011.pdf

Anne Mitchell, co-founder of the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance, has created an Excel workbook called “GenericCostModel-Center2012”. This memo provides information on the workbook, which is a cost modeling tool for a center-based ECE program.

CostModelWorkbookMemo.pdf

Anne Mitchell, co-founder of the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance, has created an Excel workbook called “GenericCostModel-Center2012”. This workbook is a cost modeling tool for a center-based ECE program.

CostModelCenterWorkbookTool.xls_.xls

In April 2012, Louise Stoney, co-founder of the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance, served as a guest blogger for Sara Mead’s “Policy Notebook” blog that appears in Education Week.

LouiseStoneyBlogs.pdf

This brief powerpoint presentation created by Louise Stoney, co-founder of the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance, provides illustrations for aligning finance with standards in a quality rating and improvement system.

Aligning Finance with Common Standards.pdf

This brief provides updated information on financial incentive strategies used by states under their quality rating and improvement systems and the impact of those strategies.

Approaches to Financial Incentives in QRIS.pdf

Written by noted consultant Louise Stoney, this brief explores the ideas and trends related to QRIS that state leaders included in their Race to the Top/Early Learning Challenge applications.  It is designed to provide not only useful background information for state policymakers, funders, and nonprofit leaders, but also to stimulate discussion within the field about opportunities to advance high-quality 

LouiseStoneyMemo.pdf