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The Prolonged Battle to Increase Education for Educators

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Beginning Dec. 2, many D.C. child care providers will be required to earn certain credentials in order to continue working, according to new education requirements set by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. OSSE’s increased education regulations apply to those who care for children ages 0 to 3. The requirement is kicking in at a time when many education centers have only just entered their post-COVID recovery zone, frustration over the contested regulations is mounting. 

The new regulations, published by OSSE in December 2016, require child care providers to have advanced certifications based on their positions. Caregivers and assistant teachers will need a Child Development Associate Credential, teachers will need an associate’s degree, and center directors will need a bachelor’s degree. Caregivers who have “continuously served in the same (or comparable role/position) for the past ten years (since 2006 or earlier)” can be granted exemptions from the requirements, but the waiver must be renewed every three years, in conjunction with the license of the childcare facility where the educator is employed, according to Kathryn Lynch-Morin, OSSE’s director of communications.

After they were announced, the regulations received backlash from parents concerned about the impact on child care costs and educators frustrated with the new demands in an already difficult industry. Seven years later, many of the same concerns remain.

Alyson McGee is a parent and the board president at a child care center in downtown D.C., which her second child currently attends. The center’s board of directors is largely made up of enrolled children’s parents. McGee calls it a “glorified PTA,” but her role has given her “a front row view to the business and what goes inside.” 

“You need to use a little bit of common sense here,” McGee says. “That’s what’s missing with this regulation. They’re not taking COVID and these equity issues into account. They’re not close enough to these people or the centers themselves.”

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