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Connecting Hope is a production of the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Join us as we explore the people, policies, and programs that bridge the gap from hopelessness to hope for Mississippians, young and old.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the Mississippi Department of Human Services. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. The "Mississippi Department of Human Services" name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.
Connecting Hope Episode 3 Updated Transcript
00;00;00;02 - 00;00;25;07
Mark Jones
Hello and welcome to Connecting Hope. In today’s episode, I will be talking with Doctor Chad Allgood of the Division of Early Childhood Care and Development. The Division of Early Childhood Care and Development helps families access the best possible care and education for their children, as well as supporting providers in the services of child care across the state of Mississippi.
00;00;25;09 - 00;00;32;26
Mark Jones
We hope the information that we share today will not only enhance, but equip you to better serve children and providers across the
00;00;32;26 - 00;00;43;24
Mark Jones
state of Mississippi.
00;00;43;27 - 00;00;47;25
Mark Jones
Welcome, Dr. Allgood to this episode of Connecting Hope.
00;00;47;27 - 00;00;50;26
Dr. Chad Allgood
Thanks, Mark. Thanks for having me.
00;00;50;29 - 00;01;13;17
Mark Jones
I appreciate you joining us for our chat regarding child care in Mississippi and specifically how the Division of Early Childhood Care and Development works to administer the Child Care Development Fund. So let’s get right to it. What is the child care development fund? And what does it mean to children and families in Mississippi?
00;01;13;20 - 00;01;34;00
Dr. Chad Allgood
Well, bottom line, any family that has working parents, they need child care and there are families out there that even though they’re working full time, or maybe they’re in school full time, they still need a little bit of help. They need help with child care. It’s very expensive. Child care, tuition, can take up a large portion of any family’s budget.
00;01;34;02 - 00;02;00;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
So, the child care development fund, it’s a, pot of money that, states are given that we use to help families afford child care. It is, it’s it’s federal funding that comes down from the federal government. Each, each state gets a certain allotment of funding. It’s based on a few different things. It’s based on the number of children in the state that are younger than the age of five.
00;02;00;11 - 00;02;21;08
Dr. Chad Allgood
That's one of the things that goes into the formula, as they call it, that determines how much money we get. They also look at school lunches, which is kind of funny because we're talking about child care, but they still use the number of, children that qualify for free and reduced lunches. And, then they also look at what the state's per capita income is, you know, as a whole.
00;02;21;15 - 00;02;30;17
Dr. Chad Allgood
So all of these things come together and, there's a magic formula. There's a number that the states given and we use that money to support child care.
00;02;30;20 - 00;02;55;23
Mark Jones
I think that’s a misconception that, as is with a lot of the programs that MDHS administers...there, many people believe there’s just this, infinite number that we receive. But as you explained, there’s some, there’s a formula and that number is kind of limited each year. And so the division of early childhood care and development...make sure I say that right.
00;02;55;26 - 00;03;06;19
Mark Jones
One of our longer titles in the division. But you must work within a, the constraints of that, that funding coming down from the federal government and the state.
00;03;06;22 - 00;03;35;06
Dr. Chad Allgood
That’s right. And with that, you know, with that money there’s always rules, right? Nothing is, you know, nothing is free. when we do get that money, there are certain things that we’re allowed to do with it. There we have, service percentages, as you will, that we’re required to hit. I will point out that of the money, we’re only required by federal law to use 70% of what we get, for what we call direct services, which is child care, tuition assistance.
00;03;35;08 - 00;03;49;08
Dr. Chad Allgood
Mississippi is actually using 85%. and we do that, “A” because the need is there. And “B”, because we’re trying to ensure that as many families...that we can help as many families as we possibly can.
00;03;49;10 - 00;04;11;22
Mark Jones
As I’ve gotten to know, you just brought up something that we can kind of chase a little bit, as I’ve got to know you and your team, I’ve been impressed by the, the child and family focus of your work and your efforts to, to strengthen and enhance child care, but also to support, child care providers to make sure that there is a program.
00;04;11;22 - 00;04;41;21
Mark Jones
And we’ll get to some of those things that you’ve done over the last four and a half years. But to be commended is, is the focus of children. I mean, that’s in your first name in many cases. But congratulations for what you do. Prioritizing, 85% on direct services. Let’s go in there because there’s a dollar amount in there, but even more so, a purpose by which y’all make sure that the division is administrating, administering those dollars.
00;04;41;24 - 00;05;10;21
Dr. Chad Allgood
So, the people that are on my team and that’s everybody from those on the leadership team to those that work our applications, to those that are doing training. All of these people, they’re connected to a child, just like, I mean, everyone is connected to a child, and they understand how vital our child care industry is. And so for them, it’s not just work, it’s...it’s a mission.
00;05;10;21 - 00;05;35;29
Dr. Chad Allgood
And it’s and they do realize that what they do not only affects our clients, but it also affects them also, it affects their children. It affects the children that they’re connected to. And so all of that, you know, kind of, kind of comes together. And because of that commitment, we have seen the number of children that we’ve been able to serve increase dramatically over just the last couple of years.
00;05;36;01 - 00;06;09;21
Mark Jones
I want to hit that. But within that, the as you started to serve more children, those funds you talked about, that funding module hasn’t astronomically or significantly kept pace with the number of children that MDHS is serving. So again, congratulations to you, to your team. How have you done that. Because some in a day of, of increasing costs and and other factors that, that limit access to maybe some of these programs, your team has grown this program and so hit that number.
00;06;09;21 - 00;06;13;11
Mark Jones
But let's talk about how y'all have maximize those dollars.
00;06;13;14 - 00;06;39;00
Dr. Chad Allgood
So, you know, I would say probably, a couple of years ago, back in 2022, we were serving on average around 22,000 children per month. Now we’re serving, our last count, we are actively serving 34,000 children per month, which is, you know, almost 12,000 more children than we were serving two years ago. How do we do it?
00;06;39;01 - 00;07;04;28
Dr. Chad Allgood
Well, there’s several different factors that go into that. First of all, we try to keep our administrative costs as low as we possibly can. And we we’ve tried to trim, you know, like at our office, we try to automate as many things as we can. We’ve made a lot of improvements to our online application process. So, the, the amount of people that have to touch those applications is, is, is reduced.
00;07;05;00 - 00;07;32;02
Dr. Chad Allgood
We have also done a lot to try to streamline the training, support that our child care providers are receiving. our trainers are working their tails off. You know, they’re in the field every single day supporting, supporting them. So trying to trim back those administrative costs is very important. But we’ve also tried to really partner with our childcare providers in, helping them understand what it means to provide the best possible care and education to children.
00;07;32;03 - 00;08;04;11
Dr. Chad Allgood
They have a huge lift as well. And I feel like educating them, but then also allowing them to educate us on what their needs are and us trying to be as responsive to that. I think all of that plays into everybody just giving that little bit extra, which allows us to, to really tap into all the existing resources that we have to try to allocate as many of as, as many dollars as we possibly can with what we get.
00;08;04;13 - 00;08;32;09
Mark Jones
So, to tag along that, you sent me some statistics and I’ll just share those 70% of the money that we received. And, and again, I’m teasing a dollar amount. We’re not going to hit there. but 70% must be spent on direct services. As you mentioned earlier, Mississippi is spending closer to 85% on direct services. But there’s some other requirements and percentages that you must spend some of the child care development fund on.
00;08;32;09 - 00;08;44;09
Mark Jones
So let's touch a little bit on those. You've already mentioned partnering with child care providers, but also those are...some of those are part of the funding mechanism that you have to reach out and touch.
00;08;44;12 - 00;09;19;29
Dr. Chad Allgood
Right. So with the money that we receive, we do have the 70% rule. in addition to the 70% rule, we have to spend 12% of our money on what’s called quality improvement activities. And the reason that the feds require quality improvement activities is because it’s a fundamental tenet of the Child Care Development Fund program that any family, regardless of their socioeconomic status, have access to the best possible care and education for their children, high quality early childhood education and so we are required to use 12% of what we get.
00;09;19;29 - 00;09;47;12
Dr. Chad Allgood
And then of that 12%, we actually have to focus 3% specifically on infants and toddlers. it’s important to use that money wisely. And it’s important, you know, I mentioned us educating child care providers and in families, but also letting them educate us. We’ve done a lot of work to try to really open the window of communication with our families and providers.
00;09;47;15 - 00;10;08;17
Dr. Chad Allgood
We do a lot of what we call, town hall information sessions where we listen to child care providers, we listen to families about what's working, what's not working, and we try to use our quality money as strategically, but also as, smartly as we possibly can, being responsive.
00;10;08;19 - 00;10;35;06
Mark Jones
So, Chad, let’s speak dollars. specifically the amount that the Division of Early Childhood Care and Development receives each year from the state appropriations through the legislature, the federal funding, cycle, as well as kind of some grants that you administer, maybe a time limit in 2 to 3, four year periods, as well as any remaining, Covid-19 related dollars.
00;10;35;09 - 00;11;00;13
Dr. Chad Allgood
So, the way that it works with our federal allocation, the federal government has a formula for every state, and we get a percentage of, of what’s called the child Care Development Fund, which I think I’ve mentioned before. So Mississippi, for this year, we received $129 million dollars. That’s, that’s the combination of federal dollars and state dollars.
00;11;00;20 - 00;11;15;18
Dr. Chad Allgood
Of that, about 6 million is, state dollars. And now we are required to, appropriate a certain amount of money to draw down our full federal allocation, which is where the $6 million in state funds come from.
00;11;15;18 - 00;11;17;27
Mark Jones
So that’s our maintenance of efforts state match.
00;11;17;27 - 00;11;42;02
Dr. Chad Allgood
Correct. So, we are required to do a maintenance of effort in matching, every penny of our state money goes for direct services. We don’t use that for anything else. The federal money that we get also goes for direct services. And then, we also offer other support services for early childhood education, just to make sure that our parents are getting the best possible care and education for their children.
00;11;42;05 - 00;12;04;11
Dr. Chad Allgood
So that’s our regular federal allocation. from the pandemic, we did receive quite a bit of federal funding, relief funding from different pieces of legislation. There was the CARES Act, and there was the CRRSA Act, and then finally the American Rescue Plan Act, which was the biggest, bulk of, of the funding that we received.
00;12;04;14 - 00;12;29;11
Dr. Chad Allgood
In total, we got over $700 million in a in combination of those different, those different, pieces of legislation. And we used all of that money, to directly support child care. We did a variety of different things. Again, we, expanded the number of, subsidy vouchers. So we are serving more families now than we ever have.
00;12;29;11 - 00;12;53;17
Dr. Chad Allgood
And a big reason for that was because of the additional funding that we got. We also invested a lot of money in the workforce...in the, childcare workforce. We provided, bonus incentives to teachers that were working very hard to continue to care for and educate these children. We also provided, scholarships for teachers.
00;12;53;19 - 00;13;27;29
Dr. Chad Allgood
They could use that scholarship money to get, a credential that specific for early childhood education or, to get their associate’s degree. We also, have expanded just the in-service professional development that, they receive. MDHS has, has making...made a very good decision to allocate the maximum amount of our TANF funding that we get. We’re allowed by federal law to allocate a percentage of the TANF funds that Mississippi gets for direct services for child care.
00;13;27;29 - 00;13;32;06
Dr. Chad Allgood
And we are, we are using the total percentage allowable.
00;13;32;08 - 00;14;07;09
Mark Jones
There’s not enough time to get to all the questions that your statements are actually creating. In my head, especially you mentioned and within that quality coaching, that training, usually, as we’ve seen as entities, have automated some of their workflows, the more disconnected they have become from the customer service or even the clients or customers that they serve, that fewer touch points in many cases, by freeing up some of that, using some of that automation, you freed up staff to do just the opposite.
00;14;07;12 - 00;14;26;14
Mark Jones
Another statistic you gave me talking about your training workshop, workshops and your onsite coaching sessions. I think you know those numbers. So let’s talk about those. But also how that training affects Mississippi’s long term capacity to educate and, and retain children from education.
00;14;26;16 - 00;14;48;22
Dr. Chad Allgood
So yeah, I think, you know, we tried to automate where we, where we should automate things that, things that need to be automated. But at the end of the day, child care is still a human service function. And I think to properly support that, we can’t lose the human service component of the support that we’re giving to our child care providers.
00;14;48;22 - 00;15;09;11
Dr. Chad Allgood
And so, it is important that we have people out in the field that are going to child care providers, that are providing training, that are providing onsite coaching. We’ve done, we’ve done pretty well. I will say with that number, just in 2024 so far, which we’re just in July, so we’re a little over the halfway mark.
00;15;09;14 - 00;15;39;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
We’ve already offered over 1,600 training workshops. Now that’s when what you think of like a traditional training, folks come, you know, in a in a classroom setting or sometimes they’re done virtually, but over 1,600, of those. And then we’ve also done over 3,300 onsite training sessions, which is where we have someone that actually goes into a child care program and works side by side with the teacher and with the director.
00;15;39;09 - 00;15;58;07
Dr. Chad Allgood
And let me, let me stress the importance of the side by side component. It’s important that my folks, when they’re out there in the field, that when they’re out there working with child care providers, I tell them all the time, you have to respect what these programs are doing. No two child care programs are alike. No to children’s needs are alike.
00;15;58;07 - 00;16;21;26
Dr. Chad Allgood
And we don’t want to lose the, the specialization that these programs offer. We don’t want to lose the expertise that these teachers have, because no one knows these kids better than the teachers and the directors in these programs. And for us to properly support those programs, we’ve got to listen like when we go in, it’s important that our folks, you know, ask the director what are the issues that you see?
00;16;21;29 - 00;16;41;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
I’m here to help you. What are the things that you see that we need to work on? Same things with the teacher. So it truly is a partnership. Like we say, our parents are our clients, our child care providers are our partners. So our parents are the clients that we serve. Our child care folks, they’re our partners in helping serve those clients.
00;16;41;05 - 00;16;58;23
Dr. Chad Allgood
And it’s important that we that we not only respect, what childcare providers are doing day to day, but also respect the perspective that they have on the CCDF program and how we can constantly evolve it to better meet whatever their needs are.
00;16;58;26 - 00;17;23;00
Mark Jones
I like that focus on customer service, but also, recognizing that the people in the trenches that are serving parents and children every day are partners. And it’s coming alongside, not leading or dragging someone, from, from a point of authority. And so we appreciate all that you’re doing. And there’s so much more that you guys do.
00;17;23;02 - 00;17;31;17
Mark Jones
And again, I keep on teasing this dollar amount, but the way the conversation is, is kind of leading me...DECCD
00;17;31;19 - 00;17;58;13
Mark Jones
does some amazing jobs. They’re some other programs that you’re offering within that funding context. So it’s not only the training. I mean if I do it right, I’m not a mathematician, but you’re coming in at about eight trainings, training workshops a day. In the first part of 2024. You’re looking at about 16 onsite coaching sessions per day.
00;17;58;15 - 00;18;13;08
Mark Jones
and you’re that’s about and correct me if I’m wrong, that’s about, that’s touching almost every provider during the year with some type of onsite, onsite coaching training based on the number of childcare providers that are registered.
00;18;13;15 - 00;18;24;09
Dr. Chad Allgood
And that’s the goal. You know, that’s the goal. Any, any of our providers that are out there that want the help, that need some support, that want to be involved, you know, we, we want to provide that to them.
00;18;24;09 - 00;18;50;10
Mark Jones
So we’ll stop there and give a chance to you to pitch that program. If there is a provider that’s listening or an advocate in a community, that may have a new economic development program or has struggled with a childcare, desert. And that’s one thing we’ll talk about either in this upcoming episode of the next one. They’re, they’re wondering how they can connect their childcare industry in their community to these quality controls or quality supports, not controls.
00;18;50;17 - 00;18;53;12
Mark Jones
Excuse me, what would they do?
00;18;53;14 - 00;19;14;11
Dr. Chad Allgood
The best thing to do is going to be to find their local resource in referral site. We're also about to...we have four mobile resource and referral sites that are getting very close to hitting the road. And if you go and you visit one of these resource room referrals or we call them R&Rs, kind of like when you hear R&R, you think rest and relaxation.
00;19;14;13 - 00;19;36;29
Dr. Chad Allgood
Well, with R&Rs stands for Resource and Referral, but it's also a place for anyone that is connected to a young child to come in and receive some support. When you go in, we hope that they find a very restful, peaceful place, a fun place to be. And these are, these are support hubs for our early childhood field across the state.
00;19;37;02 - 00;20;07;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
People that go in, they will, see, games, learning toys, books, teachers can make things for their classroom with these resource from referrals. But also with these resource, referrals, they will find staff there like if you're a family, if there's something that you need, whether it is childcare or if it's something else, you know, you need help finding a job or you need help navigating to other support services that might be in your community.
00;20;07;07 - 00;20;30;20
Dr. Chad Allgood
These resource and referral sites are where you should go. You're going to find staff. They're going to help navigate you in the right direction. You're also going to find a connection to early childhood specialist, training specialist, if you will, that can help with like if you're a parent and you have something going on with your child, we have folks that can help you with that.
00;20;30;22 - 00;20;45;09
Dr. Chad Allgood
Or if you're a child care provider and you need help setting up your classroom or if you're a director and you need help setting up your budget, we have folks that will help you with that. So the best thing to do is of course, to find your local resource referral. The easiest way to do that is to go to our website.
00;20;46;01 - 00;21;03;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
You go to mdhs.ms.gov and you navigate to the Early Childhood Care and education website, our site, web pages. And there's a resource, referral tab. It's easy to find and you can type in your address and it will show you whatever your closest resource and referral is.
00;21;03;08 - 00;21;22;26
Mark Jones
So along those lines, Dr. Allgood. You mentioned the sites across the state. How many do we have? And then what have you done over the past few years? Because in, I think even as soon, as recent as 2022, that number was.
00;21;22;26 - 00;21;23;09
Dr. Chad Allgood
Low.
00;21;23;11 - 00;21;25;00
Mark Jones
Low.
00;21;25;02 - 00;21;51;16
Dr. Chad Allgood
Historically we've had about usually between 16 and 17 sites for the whole state. We have 82 counties. We have using a portion of the funding that we've gotten and realizing how important it is to have these hubs in as many communities as possible. We are dedicating, more of our quality funding to expanding the resource and referral.
00;21;51;19 - 00;22;00;06
Dr. Chad Allgood
We've had historically about 16 or 17. Right now we have 28 with the goal of hitting over 50 before the end of the year.
00;22;00;08 - 00;22;17;27
Mark Jones
Hence the idea of, of you, you're moving and creating more because they need to be closer to where the parents are. The mobile R&Rs, that's kind of one of your, your babies, one of your, your brain children out of your team. Talk about those are where they will primarily be working.
00;22;17;29 - 00;22;48;17
Dr. Chad Allgood
So these will be when the same mobile they were, they will literally, literally be rolling resource referrals, rolling R&Rs. We are working with with Mississippi State extension service to outfit for transit vans with the resources and the whole and all of that. These mobile resource and referrals will go out to those even more remote areas where there's not a stationary R&R site, very rural areas.
00;22;48;19 - 00;23;08;06
Dr. Chad Allgood
And there will be a schedule that they'll follow. The plan is they will hit those locations about every two weeks. And on a rotating basis. And we will go out to communities where there are young children and where there are adults that are trying to, serve these young children in a variety of different ways.
00;23;08;06 - 00;23;16;19
Dr. Chad Allgood
And that's just another way that we can offer some additional support, take the resources to people that can't necessarily get to get to the resources.
00;23;16;21 - 00;23;48;24
Mark Jones
One of the things that I think impresses me about the resource referral centers is toys for children, developmental toys. And, I'm not an expert on this, but I've been around a teacher for the better part of my life. When children are at play, when children are experiencing and touching, their learning. So one of the, I think, the blessings that I see coming out of the resource referral centers that people may not avail themselves to is that they can check out, parents and providers can check out these resources.
00;23;48;24 - 00;24;00;17
Mark Jones
Plus, as you mentioned, making, lesson plans and arts and crafts, for their class and getting the resources there. Let's talk a little bit about that, because that's a powerful tool that's available.
00;24;00;19 - 00;24;30;07
Dr. Chad Allgood
So when you when you talk about educating young children, play is the essence of early childhood education. Children, young children, they have to explore, discover, they have to use their senses. And they can't do that if they're trying to just write on a worksheet or color a coloring sheet. It's kind of funny because even my mentors would say coloring sheets and ditto sheets, as we call them.
00;24;30;07 - 00;25;00;29
Dr. Chad Allgood
Those are ugly words. You know, we don't talk about that. So, yes. So providing, providing high quality learning materials, toys, games that these children can use to enhance the environment where they're getting down, they're discovering they're, you know, they're, they're discovering their surroundings. They're exploring through learning play... through educational play is important. And we provide all of those resources in the resource and referral site.
00;25;00;29 - 00;25;26;16
Dr. Chad Allgood
That's why, that's the resource part of the of the resource, referral. And when you go in there organized by age group, they're organized by type of materials. So it's easy to find. So let's say that you're a toddler teacher. It's easy for you to go in and find materials that are geared for toddlers. But even more than that, we also, dedicate materials to children that have special needs.
00;25;26;18 - 00;25;49;20
Dr. Chad Allgood
And so when you go in, you can also find materials for, for children that may have, some sort of developmental delay or learning delay because they're materials that are designed to support their learning, to support their development. So you can, you can find all of that. And it's important that we continue to offer those services...
00;25;49;24 - 00;26;14;16
Mark Jones
I'm sorry. I hope I didn't interrupt, but we're going to have, have to probably do two, two, three episodes on this because there's so much wrapped into what you guys, what DECCD is doing. One of the things you mentioned is those developmental resources for children, that may have, developmental disabilities. That's not where it stops.
00;26;14;19 - 00;26;25;09
Mark Jones
The R&Rs also have the ability to move people about, and help child care centers and providers as well as parents with, with that resource as well.
00;26;25;11 - 00;26;46;26
Dr. Chad Allgood
That's right. So, you know, I mentioned, I mentioned the resources, but I also mentioned the training. Mississippi, we, we're very fortunate because one of the things that we, we have the Mississippi Early Childhood Inclusion Center, which is at the University of Southern Mississippi, they've been a long time valued partner of this division and of this agency.
00;26;46;29 - 00;27;17;07
Dr. Chad Allgood
And they offer exclusive training for working with children who have special needs, both for parents and for childcare providers. We also offer free developmental screenings through them, all free of charge. Those are done at the resource and referral sites. If it's discovered that a child may need a little bit of additional support, they can help route that family to, to the proper, proper early intervention services that may be necessary.
00;27;17;10 - 00;27;49;23
Dr. Chad Allgood
And yeah, it's, it's all designed to be holistic in nature. So whoever comes into a resource and referral or whoever contacts this division or whoever contacts, any of our partners that we have out there, I've mentioned a couple. There's several others that are out there, anybody that taps into that network. And that's why we call it a network, whether it's a parent, a teacher, a grandparent, an aunt and uncle, or just someone that wants to know more about how young children learn, they're going to get directed in the right way for whatever their needs are.
00;27;49;25 - 00;28;15;16
Mark Jones
I do want to hit something because we're going to be back in a couple weeks with another episode, talking with some providers, but also talking about the growth that you've done, using some one time dollars and, collaboratives and relationship building through that. But you mentioned we've we're using roughly $107...$109 million to serve roughly 34,000 children a month.
00;28;15;16 - 00;28;41;11
Mark Jones
And you add that up each month. Child care is a very expensive proposition, not only to fund and sustain and equip centers, but also to provide the services to children that are quality. And, I believe when you start looking at that, what you guys are doing, y'all have been able to maximize and do some of the expansion work with some one time dollars.
00;28;41;11 - 00;28;52;09
Mark Jones
Let's touch there and then we'll start to segue into next episode. But you've done some powerful work using over the past four years. Some, some, Covid-19 money.
00;28;52;11 - 00;29;24;04
Dr. Chad Allgood
We the pandemic was a horrible thing. And there was a lot of loss there. Absolutely. One of the good things that did come about, of because of that terrible event was we did receive, some one time...historically unprecedented amount of funding for early childhood education. It started with the CARES act. It continued with, a couple of other pieces of legislation.
00;29;24;11 - 00;29;54;01
Dr. Chad Allgood
The most recent was the American Rescue Plan Act, which was the largest investment, in early childhood education. And we did it. We we did several things with that funding. It began with sustaining child care. Yes, because child care was classified as an essential business. You had folks that cannot shelter at home because they were working in hospitals, or they were working in food service, or they were working in garbage collection, or they, you know, all of these different services that had to continue.
00;29;54;01 - 00;30;17;21
Dr. Chad Allgood
These were, these were, working parents that could not shelter in place because they had to get out there and serve, you know, continue to serve society. And so we started. But the problem was childcare, you know, childcare also was taking a hit because there were families that were staying at home. And so the money began as an investment to keep childcare from completely tanking.
00;30;17;24 - 00;30;44;08
Dr. Chad Allgood
When the pandemic was probably at its deepest, Mississippi lost all but 30, well, not lost, but Mississippi, childcare programs, all but 30%, all but 30% of our childcare programs, closed their doors, whether temporarily or permanently. We didn't want to lose those. There were closing, and some of them were sheltering in place because they were doing what they needed to do to keep themselves safe, to keep their families safe.
00;30;44;10 - 00;31;16;26
Dr. Chad Allgood
And we wanted to also support them in that. And so the money began as a way to sustain childcare. But as we continued through the pandemic and as we started to sort of see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, the money was still there. And at that point, the money became not just sustainability about sustainability, but about taking childcare to the next level, because we knew it may be a long time before we saw this amount of money again.
00;31;16;26 - 00;31;39;29
Dr. Chad Allgood
And so, we try, we started to think through, okay, how can we implement this funding, put some supports in place that are going to be sustainable over a longer period of time, but then also can address some of these real issues that childcare has seen. The first thing that we did was we launched a grant program called the Childcare Strong Grant program.
00;31;40;02 - 00;32;06;14
Dr. Chad Allgood
And, it was designed to again sustain those childcare providers. We actually, dedicated over $350 million that went directly to childcare. That didn't go anywhere else. 300. It was actually 355 million that went directly to childcare programs. And then after, after that program, we launched a few other things with some, some of the additional money that we got.
00;32;06;16 - 00;32;31;03
Dr. Chad Allgood
We, partnered with Warner School, which is, a company that, has helped us to develop the first ever statewide substitute teacher pool exclusively for childcare. You know, your K through 12, they have a substitute system. Teacher sick, you know, they've got someone that can step in. Childcare doesn't have that. There's a lot of infrastructure
00;32;31;05 - 00;32;51;04
Dr. Chad Allgood
that's missing in supporting childcare. Substitute teachers, it seems like something simple, but it's not. And so the substitute teacher pool has been something that we've been able to offer, which has been monumental, in helping it helps childcare provider, you know, when, when a teacher calls in sick, there's someone that's there. That person is already going through all their background checks.
00;32;51;04 - 00;33;14;23
Dr. Chad Allgood
They've been oriented at basic child development. So they're not going to go in and tape a child to the wall because, you know, they're acting up. Whatever. Which has been fantastic. We've also because we did lose some child care programs, but it also helped us to really, it gave us a moment to pause and look at where in the state we need to strengthen our childcare industry.
00;33;14;23 - 00;33;37;25
Dr. Chad Allgood
We need more capacity. And so we realized that there are certain counties where there are more children that need childcare than there were actual childcare slots. And so we've also launched some training on start up and starting up a childcare program, also done through winter school. And along with that, we're offering start up grants to those programs, whether it's traditional childcare or some folks, care for children in their home.
00;33;37;28 - 00;34;04;10
Dr. Chad Allgood
So that's family childcare. So we're also supporting that. And with those training programs, we're trying to target more services specifically for infants and toddlers because we have a, a lack of infant toddler slots, children that have special needs. It's always a, it's, that's always something that we could use more support for. And then extended care hours for parents that work third shift, etc..
00;34;04;13 - 00;34;30;27
Dr. Chad Allgood
And again, we're trying to focus on recruiting in those, in those childcare deserts. If you are, in addition to that, we've done some other services. We launched a teacher incentive, a teacher bonus program. Turnover has always been a big issue in childcare. And so we have issued, bonus payments, over 6,500 teachers in the state of Mississippi.
00;34;30;29 - 00;34;45;23
Dr. Chad Allgood
They're receiving this bonus incentive. So far, we've paid out over $38 million just to teachers. And that's getting money in the hands of those that are making the biggest impact on these children. Would you like me to keep going.
00;34;45;25 - 00;35;14;03
Mark Jones
One of the things that I, my mind is boggled at the scope of what you guys have been able to do. And we're talking, yes, large amounts of money, but we're also talking about...I'm going to and we're going to talk about partnerships a little bit deeper in our next episode. But one thing I think our audience needs to understand is it's expensive, but it's also time consuming to get quality childcare workers.
00;35;14;06 - 00;35;54;22
Mark Jones
It's not that you just go off the street and go to someone and say, come work. You mentioned the background checks, the trainings, but also availability, willingness. And so that substitute teacher pool, having that available goes back to the heart of what you guys did in 2000, 2001 to first stabilize the industry. But even on a day to day basis, these substitute teacher pools, some of the other, tools that you have created are stabilizing the industry, because if people can't go to work, Mississippi's workforce comes to a grinding halt.
00;35;54;24 - 00;36;19;15
Dr. Chad Allgood
Well, that's the thing, you know? Yeah, we're out of the pandemic, but no one should get it twisted in that childcare is stable. Child care is still a very delicate, very fragile industry. And childcare providers, you know, our childcare, those that only child care programs, we ask a lot of them, we ask them to take care of our most precious resource, our children, our babies.
00;36;19;18 - 00;36;40;29
Dr. Chad Allgood
We ask them to provide not only care but also educate these children. But we also ask them to do it at a price tag that allows parents to continue to afford it. You're basically asking the impossible because it is very expensive. We've seen the costs of everything go up, you know, since the pandemic. And child care is not cheap.
00;36;40;29 - 00;36;47;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
It's not cheap to do. And...but the problem is.
00;36;47;08 - 00;37;27;09
Dr. Chad Allgood
It's such a necessary commodity. Every working parent, every working adult that has a child has to have childcare to continue to work. And without our childcare industry, our workforce would fail. It would fail. And childcare needs help. Because again, when you look at providing these wonderful services to these children, it's it comes at a cost. And childcare providers can't really charge what it really costs them because if they did, parents wouldn't be able to afford it.
00;37;27;11 - 00;37;45;27
Dr. Chad Allgood
And that's kind of our, you know, that's something that we're seeing nationwide. You know, as a, as a real issue, how do we continue to build childcare? How do we continue to, how do we continue to strengthen it? And to me the answer is very, very simple. We have to invest. We have to invest in childcare.
00;37;45;27 - 00;38;09;22
Mark Jones
So that speaks to kind of where we're going to come to the end of this, this first session. On connecting hope. If there's one piece that we could leave our listeners today, the floor is yours because we don't want to leave a touch point and somebody may miss the next episode. So the floor is yours. Give me give me something that's important to you.
00;38;09;22 - 00;38;13;18
Mark Jones
You want our listeners to understand?
00;38;13;20 - 00;38;49;25
Dr. Chad Allgood
I think, so I think back to my, my history with this field. It was an accident that I got into this field. It was not an accident that I continued in this field and I have seen, I have seen, you know, in the time that I've been around, as I've moved from teacher to director to working in training, and now, you know, at a policy level, I think the thing that resonates with me the most is when they say it takes a village to raise a child, it's not a joke and it's not just the saying, it's, it's the fact.
00;38;49;25 - 00;39;23;26
Dr. Chad Allgood
It's, it's fact. We are at a crucial pivot point with early childhood education right now. This field has finally received some of the attention that it deserves. And at this point, we can either continue to build on the momentum around this and really support this field to become what it has to be, has or we can fail and we can say, this is too complex, it's too difficult.
00;39;23;28 - 00;39;57;09
Dr. Chad Allgood
But the question is, are you willing to bank on not seeing the right investment? Are you, are you willing to bet the future on that? Because with childcare, we say that childcare is the backbone of our workforce. It absolutely is. But this isn't just about supporting today's workforce. This is about supporting tomorrow's workforce. What is more important to invest in than our future, which is our children.
00;39;57;11 - 00;40;35;27
Mark Jones
So in the next episode will not only have providers, but we're going to dig deeper into the impact that childcare has for our future workforce. That is one of the issues of childcare facing for the next century, and probably beyond. I appreciate your time coming today. My, again, my head is based on the amount of knowledge, but also thank you for the work that, that you do, the dedication that your team and under your leadership has brought to childcare in this state, because it's not just making a difference in this agency.
00;40;35;29 - 00;40;55;00
Mark Jones
We believe it's making a difference in the industry across the state. So thank you for joining us today. We look forward to seeing you in a couple more weeks for our second piece of this discussion about childcare and early childhood care and development in the state of Mississippi. Thank you for joining us.