The Early Childhood Action Network, part of the Education Partnership of the Permian Basin, has started laying the groundwork for a study of daycare availability and quality.
The landscape analysis was mentioned as part of an ECAN meeting at the Region 18 Education Service Center Wednesday.
Education Partnership Program Coordinator Mike Mills said childcare is directly connected with workforce. He added that there are a lot of desert areas throughout the Permian Basin which are directly impacting the economy, the job market and small businesses and large businesses.
“So it’s a big piece of information … to understand what’s going on,” Mills said.
Development Coordinator Becca Myers said other items to be covered in the analysis are the number of child care centers, their capacity and how many are Texas Rising Star quality certified.
Myers said this will set a baseline “and then we can set goals for how many to add … or help the existing ones get their credentialing for quality and certification.”
Also, find out how many 3 and 4 year olds qualify for prekindergarten and how many are currently being served in the largest school districts, Head Start, Early Head Start numbers, the prekindergarten partnerships that the Texas Education Agency and Workforce Commission have put out, formally or informally.
“We’re assessing those. An example of both of those is the Midland College Pre-K Academy and the Odessa Y Early Learning Center. Right now that’s our baseline … so we can always increase and add on; the wage gap analysis for childcare centers and staff down to director certification and all of the components that go into certifying for good childcare directors,” Myers said.
She added that the information will be part of a research study.
“There will definitely be several community conversations once we have the findings publicly and probably on various platforms,” Myers said.
“We’ve started the initial research so December through April, so by May at the latest the community conversations should be ready to be had,” she added.
Breaking up into small groups, the Early Childhood Action Network went through several scenarios of families and people who needed help and discussing what agencies they could use.
Those attending in person worked together and those attending via Zoom also worked together.
Mills said the idea was to raise awareness of all of the resources available in the Permian Basin.
Separately, Mills said since Educate Midland and the Education Partnership have merged, they are now working on a strategic plan that those who attended the ECAN meeting may be contacted about.
The organization will also be moving into the Region 18 annex building across the street from the main complex, hopefully in January, Mills said.
The 1,500-square-foot building is being built out now.
