The number of licensed, high-quality programs offering full year, full work-day care in Detroit. Licensed early care and education programs are defined as those programs in good standing with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. High-quality programs are those that have achieved 3 star or higher in Great Start to Quality. Full year is defined a full calendar year, including summers. Full work-day care is defined as offering care during a traditional work-day window such as, Mon.-Fri., between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Link to Definition Source: LARA (https://www.michigan.gov/lara/0,4601,7-154-89334_63294_5529---,00.html) and Great Start to Quality (https://www.greatstarttoquality.org/). Data is self-reported by early care and education programs via their licensing applications and reports and Great Start to Quality application. In some cases, self-reported data may be incomplete.

According to research conducted by IFF in 2015, Detroit has approximately 54,000 children, from birth to 5 years old, 43,913 of whom need childcare. Of these children, 20,674 have access to a seat in a licensed child care facility. These licensed childcare centers and licensed group child care homes, which count as supply for the purposes of this study, comprise 84 percent of Detroit’s total seat. Family child care homes, the majority of which are unlicensed, make up the remaining 16 percent, and are not counted as supply for the purposes of this study.

Pre-pandemic, Detroit needed approximately 23,239 additional licensed provider seats to serve all of its children, from birth to 5 years old, who need access to early childhood care and education. This is the citywide service gap. 51 percent of the licensed provider seats needed (11,793 slots) are concentrated in 10 neighborhoods, the highest-need neighborhoods.

Though we do not yet know the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Detroit’s early care and education sector, many researchers have warned that Michigan could permanently lose up to 40% of its 420 licensed child care providers during this pandemic, without sustained government relief.

As of January 2021, only 47% (8,524 seats) of Detroit’s current licensed child care programs offer high-quality programs, full-year and during the full work-day. Compounding the citywide service gap, since January 2020, Detroit has experienced some decrease in the supply of licensed, high-quality programs offering full year, full work-day care: decreasing from 227 programs with 10,024 seats to 175 programs with 8,524 seats in one year. Though this decrease is not as severe as researchers warned, the full impact of COVID-19 is not known yet.

Hope Starts Here Imperative Three and our Action Team partners are working to help stabilize a fragile childcare sector during the pandemic and beyond by:

1) Developing high-quality evidence-based, in-home resources to assist families and caregivers while a multitude of [artners continue to work to increase equitable access to high-quality care that better meets families' needs year-round in Detroit.

2) Working to build the supply of early childhood education professionals by launching the Michigan Early Childhood Career Pathway- a web-based interactive career ladder that allows users to understand career advancement opportunities, the exploration of other advancement opportunities using their transferrable ECE-related skills, training for credit and ladder rung promotion opportunities. 

3) Building the demand for early childhood education creating stronger partnerships between ECE and K-3 educators, developing transition tools for families, and creating more about how ECE positively impacts K-12 success.

Several of our partner organizations are working on strategies to support child care programs as they improve quality, measured by star ratings through Great Start to Quality. That 261 Detroit programs have maintained or increased their quality rating during the pandemic is to be applauded. Partner organizations are working with over 150 Detroit programs that are not yet rated high-quality to provide professional development, technical assistance, coaching and facilities improvement support to help these programs increase their quality.

The lack of sufficient high-quality early childhood education programs offering full-day, full work-day has been exacerbated by the pandemic. According to research, nearly 30% of parents in parts of our state are child-care dependent and report having to scale back hours or quit their jobs to take on caregiving full-time.

Strategies to increase the supply of high-quality opportunities must help fill this gap by supporting families without access to formal care, helping existing providers improve the quality and expand hours of their current operations while also working to expand our system in the future. 

Access & Quality- What is It?

https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Special-Report-Access-to-High-Quality-Early-Education-and-Racial-Equity.pdf

Access & Quality- What has worked?

National Research- http://ceelo.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ceelo_pdg_P3systems_AligningEarlyEducFINAL.pdf

New Orleans- https://www.wwno.org/education/2019-01-30/louisiana-state-commission-asks-for-major-pre-k-expansion

Denver- https://co.chalkbeat.org/2021/5/5/22421691/colorado-leaders-roll-out-plan-to-create-new-early-childhood-department-expand-preschool

New York- http://ceelo.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/NY_District_P3-Report_CEELO2018.pdf