Supporting high quality early childhood education in northeastern Minnesota

High quality early childhood education is a triple win for health, education, and employment outcomes

Nancy Reing, a childcare provider in Cook, in northeast Minnesota, considers her 38-year career as having two parts: before Parent Aware and after Parent Aware.

“Parent Aware is what keeps me going,” she says. “It’s wonderful to have this type of support, which I never had before.”

That’s music to the ears of Lynn Haglin, vice president and KIDS PLUS director of Northland Foundation, which supports Parent Aware, a state-run training and quality rating system for childcare providers. She understands that early childhood education is a health issue not just an education issue. What happens in the first five years of life is closely correlated with lifelong health outcomes. And since up to 90 percent of brain development happens before the age of 5, those early years are crucial. “Childcare providers have such an important job caring for Minnesota’s greatest treasure—our children,” she says.

For many years, the region had been struggling to retain childcare providers, with retirements and demographic shifts taking a toll. A report from the Center of Rural Policy and Development found Greater Minnesota lost more than 15,000 spaces at childcare businesses between 2006 and 2016. The result: “childcare deserts” which leave families with few options. It had become a crisis. And it needed long-term solutions.

“For a long time, providers were given instructions on safety, for licensing requirements, but very little on how to work with children,” she says. “That’s why the state developed Parent Aware, to provide this type of professional instruction. Private funders like the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation stepped in to help support statewide program expansion. Now that the program is here in the northeast, the providers are really responding.”

Are they ever. Since its launch, 36 percent of licensed providers in northeastern Minnesota have become or are in the process of becoming Parent Aware rated.

Reing, who runs a childcare center for 19 preschoolers and six toddlers, says providers like her have been thirsty for such professional support.

“Parent Aware gives you encouragement, which you need because this line of work can be thankless. Parent Aware can also help with grants and funding, if you need to make improvements to your center. But the biggest thing it teaches is professionalism. When parents come in, they know they’re not just dropping the kids off to play with toys. We have guidelines and a curriculum designed to bring out the best in the children,” she says.

But that’s not all that Northland Foundation does to support quality early childhood education. The Foundation also administers Minnesota Early Learning Scholarships in the seven counties of northeastern Minnesota. With nearly $2 million from the state, Northland awards scholarships of up to $7,500 per child, per year, to help families pay for high-quality, Parent Aware-rated childcare or preschool programs. Through this funding Northland Foundation has been able to support 250 children. Scholarships are critical for helping families afford high quality care for their children and enable them to fill local job vacancies. That’s a win for the entire community.

Northland Foundation also conducts business-training workshops, covering everything from writing a business plan to managing staff. It partners with First Children’s Finance to offer trainings, which have proven to be a big hit.

 

“Many providers went into the business because of their heart, not because they were thinking they were starting a business. But it is a business and we help them see it that way,” says Haglin.

Zane Bail, director of development and special projects of Northland Foundation, adds, “Childcare providers work 12-hour days and for little money, so we want to make it as easy as possible for them to access trainings and resources,” she says. “We’re shooting for long-term staying power for providers.”

Investing in high quality early education for children and training and development for childcare providers is key to the health and vitality of the northeast region. The Northland Foundation is a long-time grantee partner of the Blue Cross Foundation, and a shining example of what can be achieved when community members pull together to make a difference.

 

Related reading: Blue Cross MN Foundation focuses on Minnesota’s childcare shortage.