Just read this on another site.
The (Federal) Office of Child Care (OCC) has asked the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to re-define child care workers (and preschool teachers, teacher assistants, education administrators) as "teachers". The OCC requested this official change "emphasizing in their rationale new changes in the CCDBG legislation, increased education of these positions and the professionalism of the workforce." But the BLS has denied the request. Now the OCC is appealing and there is a comment period that ends September 20th.
It sounds to me like if the OCC gets this new definition, child care workers will need to have the same degree as teachers. That will seriously decrease the number of qualified workers, not to mention raise prices.
Here are their talking points:
The child care worker classification should be removed from the service occupations. All ECE teaching classifications should be under education.
The job title should be early childhood teacher.
The US Department of Health and Human Services is proposing that early childhood teacher have two categories, birth to three, three to kindergarten. (Another potential option might also be birth to kindergarten for those working with mixed age groups.) Teachers of older aged children are classified into categories by age so early childhood teachers should be classified similarly.
Child care and education cannot be separated.
The early care and education field does not see itself in the current categories. They see themselves as teachers and respond accordingly in surveys already being conducted by the federal government on these occupations.
This change will allow the federal government to gather more accurate statistics that separate Kindergarten and Prekindergarten teachers in school settings.
Current data is very difficult for researchers and policy makers and creates challenges for states who want annual data that is reflective of the early care and education sector. Most do not have resources to do regular salary surveys or do not have registries that encompass the whole workforce.
You can make comments by sending an email to
soc@bls.gov with "2018 SOC" in the subject line
You can read the entire statement here:
https://first5fundametals.app.box.co...aiz6nrfjeif4d0