Issue Briefs
Iowa Leads the Way: How Modern Technology Can Improve Access to High-Quality Child Care
By Louise Stoney | July, 2023
NEW Issue Brief on ground-breaking work in Iowa that links billing and reporting for publicly funded child care to the automated Child Care Managment Systems providers use everyday to manage their businesses.
Retirement Planning: How Shared Service Alliances and Intermediaries Can Help
By Louise Stoney and Gary Romano | March, 2023
Retirement benefits are an important part of any compensation strategy, yet this benefit is rarely available in child care settings, and rarely included in systemic strategies to boost teacher compensation. This issue brief describes potential retirement strategies for staff in center- and home-based care along with ways that Shared Service Alliances can serve as change agents.
The Early Childhood Workforce and the Urgency of Now
By Sharon Easterling | December, 2022
Addressing the workforce crisis in ECE is our greatest challenge. This Issue Brief identifies strategies for addressing compensation and benefits while exploring the roles of both practitioners working in programs as well system reforms.
Innovation for Home-Based Child Care: A National Organization Pilots Technology Transformation
By Louise Stoney | October 2022
With support from Opportunities Exchange, the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), a national Community Development Financial Institution, launched a project to help home-based provider networks access and leverage the power of Child Care Management Software (CCMS) business management tools. The pilot underscored the power of CDFIs to encourage use of CCMS and also revealed an intriguing potential pathway to scale technology among home-based child care providers—tapping CACFP sponsors as change agents.
Bridging The Data Gap: Diverse Delivery Requires 21st Century Technology
By Louise Stoney | January 2022
Successfully scaling ECE hinges on what the field calls diverse delivery—tapping services available in a wide range of locations, including schools, community-based settings, workplaces and private homes. Implementing this important goal will require linked, 21st century data systems that include a wide array of services in diverse settings. This issue brief underscores the challenges and opportunities of forging a new approach to strategic, comprehensive and linked ECE data.
Staffed Family Child Care Networks: Lessons from a National Community of Practice
By Amy Friedlander | December 2021
Building Staffed Family Child Care Networks (SFCCNs) is a complex task. Through a year-long Community of Practice with 7 SFCCN teams, OppEx gleaned important lessons learned and best practices to guide scaling and replication of this work. As described in this issue brief key issues focus on Network flexibility and adaptability, data collection and analysis, use of automation, value proposition and ongoing communication, advocacy, collaboration, and provider voice.
A New Day for Health Care Options: Affordable Health Insurance for all ECE Practitioners isNow Possible
By Louise Stoney | October 2021
Making sure that early care and education practitioners can access health care is a top priority. This issue brief describes three ways that Shared Service Alliances and other intermediaries can help.
Spearheading Systems Change: the Oregon Story
By Martha McDonald | August 2021
Boosting the supply of high-quality care for infants and toddlers is a multi-faceted process. A host of changes—in state-level policy and finance as well as program-level administration—are needed. Opportunities Exchange has worked closely with public and private sector leaders, funders, and implementors to shepherd change across the field. Over the past two years, we have provided significant support to leaders in the State of Oregon. A recent case study, Building Back Better: Reinventing Oregon’s Child Care Industry, by Martha McDonald, describes this effort.
Viewing Compensation Through a Shared Services Lens
By Louise Stoney | July 2021
National, state, and local organizations are united behind the goal of increased compensation for the ECE workforce. Addressing this vexing challenge will require a new level of thinking, one that goes beyond calls for increased rates, better payment practices or wage subsidies to reach the root problem of scale. In short, if we want teachers to earn decent wages and have meaningful jobs, we need to challenge some long-held beliefs about program structure, roles, and responsibilities and embrace lessons from Shared Services.
POLICY DRIVES PRACTICE: Building the Roadmap for Staffed Family Child Care Networks
By Louise Stoney | February 2021
How do we reinvent the early care and education (ECE) sector
in a new world? And what role can home-based care play? Opportunities Exchange (OppEx) believes that home-based child care is essential and that policy that bolsters provider networks—commonly referred to as Staffed Family Child Care Networks (or SFCCN, for short)—is a foundational strategy to ensure the ongoing supply of quality home-based care.
STAFFED FAMILY CHILD CARE NETWORKS: An Opportunity to Reimagine the Kentucky Child Care Landscape
By Linda Dunphy and Louise Stoney | January 2021
OppEx helped the Prichard Committee for Children explore a range of strategies to support Staffed Family Child Care Networks including modeling the likely cost of care.
RATE SETTING IN REALITY: Moving Beyond the Myth of Market-Based Pricing
By Louise Stoney | September 2020
A deeper look at rate policy underscores significant systemic problems that must be addressed, most especially inequities for infants and toddlers and rural or under-resourced communities.
REINVENT VS. REBUILD: Let’s Fix the Child Care System
By Louise Stoney | April 2020
With smart, strategic investments, recovery dollars can help reinvent the child care industry. Opportunities Exchange has been focused on ECE system reform for over ten years, and our experience suggests that addressing key issues could be game changers for the field.
AGE MATTERS: Examining the Cost and Supply of Care for Infants and Toddlers
By Louise Stoney | February 2020
The United States has made noteworthy strides in improving the affordability, quality and supply of care for children over the age of three. Our challenge is caring for infants and toddlers.