Why does the educational attainment of early childhood staff matter? A wealth of national research shows that the long-term benefits of early care and education programs are greater when program staff hold four-year degrees and have specialized training in the field.

Why does the educational attainment of early childhood staff matter? A wealth of national research shows that the long-term benefits of early care and education programs are greater when program staff hold four-year degrees and have specialized training in the field.

Thus, for Connecticut to provide high-quality early care and education for our youngest citizens, we must attract and retain well-educated, trained early childhood staff to our State.

Recognizing the importance of a highly-qualified early childhood workforce, Connecticut passed legislation in 2011 which established degree mandates for early childhood staff in state-subsidized early childhood programs. Specifically, the legislation mandated that, by July 1, 2015, at least 50 percent of classrooms in state-subsidized programs have one teacher with at least a bachelor’s degree in the field, with the remaining classrooms to have at least one teacher with an associate’s degree, also in the field. It also required that by July 1, 2020, 100 percent of classrooms in state-subsidized programs have at least one teacher with a bachelor’s degree in the field. These teachers are deemed Qualified Staff Members, or QSMs.

During the legislative session, legislators amended this statute, extending the initial deadline from 2015 to 2017. This choice was largely in response to concerns voiced by child care providers that they would not be able to meet the existing deadline and would be forced to close their doors.

So how close are we to meeting the mandate? Our recently updated Early Care and Education Progress Report Data Tables, which include data through the end of Fiscal Year 14, contain the best information available on child care staff qualifications. Unfortunately, the state’s data do not yet differentiate between those designated teachers who must meet the requirement and all additional staff in the classroom, so we are unable to determine what percentage of the relevant population currently has bachelor’s or associate’s degrees. Nor does the state yet have data available on what percentage of classrooms contain at least one QSM, which would be a more accurate measure of our current standing with regard to the mandate (since some classrooms may have multiple teachers with the requisite degrees, and others none). In the absence of this data, we look at the entire universe of staff in early childhood classrooms – that is, all program administrators, teachers, and assistant teachers.

We find that in publicly funded centers, 72% of program administrators, 51% of teachers, and 10% of assistant teachers held a bachelor’s in 2014. This represents a two percentage point increase in program administrators, a six percentage point increase in teachers, and a one percentage point decrease in assistant teachers with a bachelor’s from 2012. We also find that in publicly funded centers, 7% of program administrators, 23% of teachers, and 11% of assistant teachers held an associate’s in 2014. This represents a one percentage point decline in program administrators and a two percentage point decline in teachers with an associate’s in comparison to 2012. The percentage of assistant teachers with an associate’s in 2014 is the same as in 2012.

Qualifications of Early Care and Education (ECE) Staff in Publicly Funded Centers, 2012-2014

Even allowing for the fact that only a portion of the universe depicted above needs to meet the 50/50 degree requirement, it seems likely that the percentage of state-subsidized classrooms with a Qualified Staff Member falls short of the statutory requirement (an assumpti