Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Alright. We are live. Alright, everyone. Welcome to the House of Government Operations and Military Affairs. It is Friday, April 10, 1PM ish. We are starting continued work on f two zero six, an act relating to licensure of early childhood educators by the Office of Professional Regulation. Witness testimony today, we'll just go right down the punch list in order and start with, doctor Leslie Johnson from the, Rarvi Community College of Vermont joining us via Zoom. How are you?

[Dr. Leslie Johnson]: Good afternoon. I'm doing well. How are you?

[Chair Matthew Birong]: I'm doing well. Thank you.

[Dr. Leslie Johnson]: All right. Are we ready to begin?

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Please, the table is yours.

[Dr. Leslie Johnson]: Thanks. Good afternoon. For the record, I am Doctor. Leslie Johnson. I am Associate Academic Dean of Behavioral Science and Education at the Community College of Vermont. Part of my role at CCV is to oversee our early childhood education curriculum. The faculty who teach in our early childhood education courses, and the Northern Lights at CCV team. So thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony as related to S206. I understand that the committee had interest in hearing about the education opportunities that we have at CCV, particularly for early childhood educators interested in pursuing licensure as outlined in the bill. So I have provided some written testimony for the committee to review where I've gone into more detail about what we offer at CCV, but I thought today I could highlight our academic programs and also talk a little bit further about prior learning assessment, which is a very popular option for our early childhood education students. It's a mechanism for them to document and describe their professional learning to gain college credit at the college. So I'll go ahead and just start with our academic programs at CCV. So CCV is Vermont's second largest institution of higher education. We serve over 10,000 students each year at our academic centers around the state and through our online offerings. Early childhood education is among the most popular programs that we offer at CCV each year. In our last academic year, which was the twenty four-twenty five academic year, we served seven twelve students in our degree program and our three certificate programs in early childhood education. CCV students live very rich and complex lives, and that is also the case for our early childhood education students. The average age of a CCV student is 26 years old. 90% of our degree seeking students at the college attend part time, and 74% of them are working full or part time jobs. So we do our best to really acknowledge this complexity in the lives of our students and provide really robust support to help meet them where they're at in their lives and help encourage their success. So that includes flexible modalities for attendance, including online and in person options for coursework. We provide robust academic career development and support services for students, and we have affordable tuition with many scholarship and grant opportunities for our early childhood education students. So in fall twenty twenty five, it is the case that ninety five percent of our early childhood education students who took coursework at the college had no debt associated with the coursework that they took at CCB. If we dive in to talk about our academic program specifically, our coursework at CCB has a really rich history in early childhood education. CCB has been very committed to supporting early childhood educators really back to the inception of the college in the early 1970s. We currently offer a degree program called the Early Childhood Education Associate Degree and three certificate programs. They are the Child Care Certificate, the Early Childhood Educator Administrator Certificate, and the Afterschool and Youth Work Certificate. All of our courses, certificates and degree programs at CCV are aligned with the National Association for the Education of Young Children's Professional Standards and Competencies, and they create a stackable pathway from courses to certificates to the degree program that aligns with the ECE one and two licensure levels as proposed in the bill. The Early Childhood Ed associate degree is a is the most popular degree program or the most popular early childhood Ed program that we offer at the college. It is a 60 credit program for students and students experience coursework that allows them to develop competency in areas such as child development, family and community, teaching and learning, health and safety, professionalism, and program organization. In addition to that deep learning that happens in early childhood education, our associate degree students also complete CCB's 33 credit general education curriculum. The general education is designed to support students' development of skills like critical thinking, written expression, quantitative reasoning, communication, digital and computing literacy, and then also provides breadth across the areas such as arts and the natural sciences. So the real beauty of the general education at CCB is it allows students an opportunity for choice in the coursework that they take. And we encourage all of our students, including our early childhood ed students, to take coursework in the gen ed that's going to give more depth to their early childhood In education addition to the associate degree, as I mentioned, we offer three certificate programs. Each of our early childhood education certificate programs, they are each 24 credit credentials. They are aligned with current workforce outcomes so that someone could complete that certificate, get depth of knowledge in early childhood education that aligns with a specific role that they want in the field currently. In addition to getting that depth of knowledge, the idea with a certificate is that it also provides a bridge for students who would like to continue their learning at the associate degree, and it does that by fueling academic success and encouraging momentum from students. So the idea is you might start at CCV taking a few courses, build to the certificate, and then further on to the associate degree program. Once students complete their education at CCV with an associate degree, they could then capitalize on many of our transfer pathways that we have to four year institutions, both in the state of Vermont, at Vermont State University and at the University of Vermont, or in some of our other partners in the Northeast region of the country. So we have very robust options for students on the academic side. We also really recognize that is the case that early childhood educators who work in the field have rich college level learning that they may have learned or gained through their experiences working with children and families in their roles outside of the classroom. So we support students to gain credit for prior learning through the Vermont State College's Office of Prior Learning Assessment. So in the Office of Prior Learning Assessment, we help students describe and document their college level learning for credit or college credit. There are multiple pathways for students in the Office of Prior Learning Assessment or options for prior learning assessment activities. They include credit by examination, an individual course challenge option where students can document their learning for a specific course in the catalog, or a portfolio course. Portfolio courses are opportunities for students to be supported by a faculty member to document and describe their learning for multiple college courses at one time so they can gain multiple course credits through the portfolio options that we have. Prior learning assessment is a very popular option for our early childhood educators. In fact, since 2017, early childhood educators have accounted for about 50% of the students who have gone through the prior learning assessment process. If we look at the routes that are most popular for early childhood educators, the course challenge option where they focused on one course at a time is the most popular route, and we see a success rate of ninety seven percent for early childhood educators in that course challenge option. In our portfolio courses, we have great success for early childhood educators too. So since 2020, we've had nearly 150 early childhood educators go through our portfolio courses, and it has resulted in 2,811 college credits earned by those students. These awards have resulted in an average of $5,000 in tuition savings per student and two fifty hours of time saved in the classroom for those students. So I just want to emphasize that prior learning assessment is an existing option for students, and our early childhood education students are very successful. In fact, we see that students who've had as little as one year of experience in the field can be successful in prior learning assessment. And we have multiple scholarship and grant opportunities specifically for early childhood education students who want to go through the prior learning assessment process. I also just wanted to mention our Northern Lights at CCV program. I understand that Deputy Commissioner Janet McLaughlin spoke about this program yesterday in her testimony. Northern Lights at CCV is a grant funded program in partnership with the Child Development Division. This group of 15 staff members at the college actually works to support the field early childhood educators in the state in multiple ways. One mechanism or one function of Northern Lights is the workforce registry support that the deputy commissioner spoke about yesterday. We also provide other supports for the field, including offering very robust catalog of professional development trainings and communities of practice for early childhood educators and after school professionals in individualized career advising through our Northern Lights resource advisors who are positioned throughout the state at our CCV academic centers. In summary, I'll just say that CCV is very committed to our early childhood educators in Vermont, and we do this in lots of different ways. We have our flexible course offerings, we have wraparound support services, our affordable tuition and scholarships, and we also have our robust career supports for those students. So I think I'll stop my remarks there, and I'm happy to take any questions that you have about CCV and what I've had to offer.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: No, thank you so much for that. Questions from the table? Representative Hango.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Thank you very much. I appreciate you coming in and telling us about this. One of the questions that I had is how many different locations are your courses offered throughout the state? Where are they geographically? And could a student living in one part of the state complete their entire degree at their nearest CCB location?

[Dr. Leslie Johnson]: Yeah, thank you for that question. So CCB has 12 academic centers around the state of Vermont. So we have a very wide geographic reach. We are currently not offering in person courses at all of those academic centers. And those, the courses that we're offering in early childhood education specifically are offered at even a smaller subset of our academic centers currently. So a student at this moment in time would have to complete part of their degree program online at CCV if they wanted to pursue an early childhood education associate degree. Most students could drive to an academic center near them to complete their general education courses. If you lived near our Winooski academic center, you could take some of your early childhood education courses in the center in Winooski. But if you wanted to complete the full degree program, you would have to expect to complete some of that program online.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Okay, thank you. So if a student is not particularly keen on or well versed in online learning, they would have to find a location, a CCV location that offers in person. Do you offer any in person other than Winooski for the entire degree or don't you even offer it there?

[Dr. Leslie Johnson]: Yeah, so the thank you for that clarification. So for the for the associate degree, would have a student would have to take some of their coursework online no matter where they live in the state of Vermont and that we recognize that many students have hesitancy about online learning and it might not feel like that modality is the best option for them. So we do offer academic supports for students, including tutoring, peer mentoring to support their online learning. And we hope that over time students can grow towards online learning throughout their curriculum. We see at CCV that success in our courses across modalities is actually equivalent. So students do just as well in online courses as they do in in person offerings across the college. So we've built out many ways to help support students grow their confidence towards online learning.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Thank you. I guess one last question that I have is if a student is learning all virtual,

[Representative Lisa Hango]: how do they do their practical work? I would imagine early childhood education involves a lot of hands on learning. So how does that happen for a student?

[Dr. Leslie Johnson]: Yes, that's a great question. So we have applied learning throughout our curriculum at CCV. Oftentimes online coursework asks students to rely upon their experience in the field as a way to practice what they're learning in the classroom. We also have a required course that is an internship course as part of the Early Childhood Ed associate degree and the childcare certificate program. It's called Professional Field Experience. It requires that all students do an eighty hour internship in the field before they can graduate with either of those programs. We do see that many of our early childhood education students come to us already having been working in the field. And so for those students, we have options for them to document their current work experience to help meet that requirement in the program. But we support students in finding internship placements and leverage our partnerships with organizations across the state to do that. So there's an in person experience for all students in the program.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Thank you.

[Sharon Herrington]: Absolutely.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Rep Stone.

[Representative Mary-Katherine Stone]: How much does the program cost? And can you get into how many scholarships you offer? Are they partial? Are they full? Just a little bit more about the cost of the program.

[Dr. Leslie Johnson]: Certainly, so I can give you some details that I have here and then I'm happy to follow-up with our director of financial aid, Ryan Dulude, for more information that you might like. So currently at CCV, tuition is $290 per credit for an in state student, and it's $580 per credit for an out of state student. So the cost of the program, if you were to have to pay full tuition and fees, would depend upon which program you were pursuing. As I said, in the 2025, ninety five percent of our early childhood education students attended CCP debt free, which means they took out no loans for their experience, so they received scholarships or grants or some other funding mechanism to cover that coursework. We have several scholarship and grant opportunities for early childhood educators right now. One of the most, I think the best opportunities we have for CCV across the college is the eight zero two opportunity grant, which many of you may be familiar with, very familiar with. So that opportunity allows students who have a family income of $100,000 or less to attend CCV for free. So it's at no cost to them. In addition, we have specific grants. The Child Development Division offers a grant to support tuition for early childhood educators. We have philanthropic partners who support early childhood educators as well. So there are probably, I think maybe nine or 10 current scholarship opportunities for early childhood education students. So many opportunities. We also have the TEACH Scholarship Program in partnership with Vermont AUIC in the Child Development Division, which is a very robust scholarship program for students currently working in the field. So, lots of great opportunities.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Anything else for this guest? Okay. Thank you very much for the input and the time. If you want to hang around in case there's other questions that pop up that are relevant to you, please feel free.

[Dr. Leslie Johnson]: Certainly. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: No, absolutely. And we are going to move next to Megan Sullivan, but I am actually going to take a point of personal privilege and run to the little chairs room. I will be back in two seconds.

[Megan Sullivan]: Own well. Saunter? Move your own hands. Or an animal, actually. Okay. Hello. Thought it was a pretty nice saunter. Man.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Thank you for your patience. Welcome. Thank you.

[Megan Sullivan]: For the record, Megan Sullivan, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. Appreciate the opportunity to be here. Thank you for the invitation. I think this is my first time here this biennium event. So lovely.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Maybe correct. Think, yeah, I think we've seen Amy a couple of times. Welcome.

[Megan Sullivan]: So this is our first time being asked to weigh in on this bill. And I want to be upfront. I'm not an expert in childhood education, early childhood education. This is important. Obviously, child care is important for our workforce, for the ability for employers to ensure that their employees are able to have dependable, accessible, and affordable childcare so they can go to work. And I think the goal of this bill is clear and important, professionalization for this workforce to establish a more formal pathway and increased wages, in the field that they're working, is valid and worthwhile objective to be looking at. So in preparing for what we thought we might be able to bring to the table today was some analysis of the data around labor markets to see what does happen in other labor markets when a profession, if it's professionalized, if there's licensure, what does the data say about what that can do to a labor market? Because we know this industry, like so many industries, are suffering from Vermont's very challenging demographics and labor shortages. And I think what we found is there are pros and cons to both sides, like anything. So in Vermont, sectors with higher levels of licensing consistently experienced significantly higher vacancy rates, often ranging from 15 to 29% compared to roughly 4.9% in the broader labor market. And that is what economists describe as the vacancy paradox. So wages go up, career pathways become more structured, but the number of unfilled positions increases. That's why they consider it a paradox. That's because licensure isn't creating new workers. It's more restricting the pool of individuals who are legally able to enter the field. We have a, not a finite number of workers, we would love to recruit more people to Vermont, but at this point, we're not adding workers, but we're creating sort of a smaller pool when you create this sort of licensure expectation. So that's what we've seen in other labor market areas when there is professionalization. It also changes how the labor market functions. In non regulated sectors, employers can hire based on potential and provide training on the job. In regulated sectors, that flexibility is more challenging. And employers have to rely on a pipeline of preventable workers, can take longer to develop, creating supply inelasticity in a system that can't respond quickly to workforce demand. There's also some evidence from what we found that entry level roles in licensed professions experience higher churn, not lower churn. And I'm going to talk about those higher levels as well. In Vermont, some credential entry level roles see separation rates as high as 15.2% because people are getting into this workforce and then exit to get that credential. That entry level position sees that higher level of churn. People aren't necessarily going into that entry level position looking to stay there as a career. Again, this is the data that we have found, and it's something, I think, considering what the pros and cons are. But at a system level, it's resulted in shortages in anti love net positions, even as the profession becomes more structured. On the sort of pro side is professionalized occupations tend to have an overall lower separation rate. So workers are more likely to stay once they've obtained credentials. In Vermont, separation rates for professionalized occupations are approximately 8.12% compared to 11.5% in the general labor market. The Vermont Futures Project has a larger deep dive into data on this that we can also share with the committee, but didn't want to hit you with a lot of data and numbers in a Friday afternoon after lunch. So I think the broader economic implications are something we looked at as well. So when a supply of workers is constrained, employers raise wages for a smaller pool of credentialed workers. At the same time, they're taking on additional administrative costs related to licensing, continuing education, and compliance. Those line pressures, create what's known as a cost push inflation, where the cost of delivering services increases, and those costs are passed through to consumers or absorbed through funding. For small businesses, these additional requirements can introduce ongoing friction costs that are difficult to absorb, particularly in rural areas. Over time, this can contribute and has contributed to market consolidation and the loss of smaller providers. Again, talking about what has already happened in labor markets with professionalization Obviously, it's something being considered for early childhood education. Also important to recognize that in a state with limited and aging workforce, professionalization and additional occupation does not expand the labor pool. It relocates it. Workers pursuing credentials in one field are not entering another, which can intensify competition across already strange sectors, such as health care, education, and skilled trades. This is something we see across Vermont, right? We are just turning people into different professions. We would love to see a really focused effort on how we bring more people into the state. So that's sort of labor market data research generally. Any questions on that before I sort of go into 02/2006 specifically?

[Chair Matthew Birong]: No, I think that's a good primer for me. Any questions from the table right here? I see a hand from representative.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Thank you. Hi, Megan. Thanks for being here. And thanks for the kind of dry analysis of the labor market because we don't usually get that in our committee. So that's really helpful. And yes, if you can pass on the Vermont futures charts to us, that would be great. Their statistics. So I guess specifically, I wanted to ask what other types of fields have you looked at that have a similar trajectory that you're that you're proposing that this might take? What other fields were not professionalized so to speak, then became professionalized and experienced this vacancy paradox and the cost push scenario that you talked about?

[Megan Sullivan]: I can get that from the futures project, Kevin Chew, who did the data analysis looking at department of labor statistics around professionalized versus general market.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Okay, that would So be we

[Dr. Leslie Johnson]: can have

[Megan Sullivan]: that and follow-up, absolutely.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Yeah. And I mean, if the committee has any interest in diving into that, we could always invite Kevin in to talk to

[Megan Sullivan]: He is a data guru for sure. Definitely. He's charming.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Great, thank you. I won't take up any more of your time. Thanks.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: All right.

[Megan Sullivan]: So S206 moves early childhood educators into a formal licensure structure with the fine tiers, educational requirements, fees, and ongoing compliance obligations. The bill includes thoughtful elements such as transitional licenses and recognize recognition of prior experience. And those are, important considerations that we're happy to see in the bill. But the reality of Vermont is that we are in a very constrained labor labor market supply. And in order to achieve greater professionalization, we hope the committee will consider several important questions about the implementation, including even what the labor market data tells us broadly, digging into how these changes could impact small, rural, marginalized, and community based providers that are already operating on thin margins now and in the long term, And how will the additional costs associated with licensure, education, and compliance be absorbed in the system? If costs increase in one area without being reduced elsewhere, it creates a squeeze on provider margins. And we have concerns that this could lead to closures or reduced capacity. So I think we wanna be clear of which expectation, which outcome is expected. If the long term answer is an increased public investment, what is the sustainable funding strategy? We have concerns that creating upward cost pressure without structural cost relief will create challenges down the line. Margins in this industry are thin. Families cannot afford to pay more. And so if the only future solution was to include increased government subsidy, I wanna be transparent upfront at this stage that an increased payroll based financing mechanism on employers and working Vermonters is not something we would support. Vermont employers are already navigating significant cost pressures, and additional payroll taxes would have broader implementations for wages, hiring, and competitiveness. So the goal of professionalizing this workforce and increasing wages is one that we respect. And the question we would ask the legislature to dig into is whether this approach will strengthen the system without further constraining the workforce that depends on it.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Okay. Any questions there? In the chat. Alright. Thank you very much. And he will toss around the idea of bringing in the data friend as well as we keep poking at this one. I got Friday brain going on. Yeah. Alright. And our final witness of the week, Sharon Harrington. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Can you see the part of that? I think I have my contacts with my eyes right now. He's totally throwing no. I'm serious. I'm totally throwing me off. Yeah. Taking it. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. I

[Sharon Herrington]: don't know what's worse. For lunch or after lunch, I'm guessing. Yes. On private.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Yes to both. It's a tough slot, but I know you'll own it. It'll be great.

[Sharon Herrington]: Thank you. I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to come back again. Want to make sure that, before I start, Sharon Herrington, for the record, from the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children. And I felt like the last time that I was here, it was the grounding of what the bill was and is, and sort of getting the sense of it. And now you've heard a lot of testimony, and I wanted to make sure that there was an opportunity to answer some questions if you have them, and maybe address some of the things that you're thinking about as you're considering this bill. So thought yesterday I was coming. I'm grateful. And so you may or may not have my testimony. I did just send it to Nick after I got here. So apologies for being late.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Yeah, no problem. We'll he'll post it as soon as he gets it. Oh, it's there? Oh, I'll just hit the refresh button.

[Sharon Herrington]: Thank you. That's great. It's okay. It's okay. I heard you Friday night. So before I jump in, I was debating about if it's helpful for you to know a little bit about my background. Typically, I just come in with, here are the key points. But I wanted to just share that I have been in early childhood education. I was a career changer for about twenty five years. And I started out providing literacy visits to family childcare programs in Bennington County. And so I would go to the programs and we would provide them with books and model literacy skills. And then, from there, I started working in an accredited center based program with two year olds for eight years. And what I will say is, my experience was as a mom with two kids who were thriving. And I thought that I understood early childhood education. And when you show up every day with 10 or twelve two year olds from all different backgrounds, all different developmental stages. In the time that I was in my program, I worked with families that had a child that was deaf, lots of physical disabilities, lots of speech and language delays, lots of things that helped me realize that I didn't have experience or knowledge of trauma informed care. I didn't understand special education needs for young children. And I quickly realized that I was struggling. And so that is part of the reason that I am so passionate about this bill, because I quickly realized that to do best for children, I really needed to be prepared. Working with children that had experienced trauma. So I started trying to navigate the professional development system. And I started taking workshops and courses. And I did that for many years. And then I also did, as Leslie was describing, prior learning assessment. And I, through that process, earned 30 credits. Because I was a career changer, I actually ended up with with 100 credits. Which is problematic, because that is not the way to have stackable credentials. And the other thing about that role is that as I advanced and became a lead educator in this program in Arlington, I had two assistants. Because when two year olds enter your classroom, they don't have any self help skills. And so, your day is busy. You can't take your eyes off them. You're helping them with every little thing. And then a year later, they leave as preschoolers. It is the most incredible time to watch the development of young children. It's that window between two and three. There's no such thing as terrible twos. It is the busiest time. And you are watching them absorb everything. And so, I had a revolving door of assistant teachers. They would think that this was the place for them, and then they would struggle because they were not prepared. Speaking of young children. And so I just share that as firsthand experience. I eventually was first generation college graduate. And then I went and worked in a community based childcare resource and referral agency. And I helped families find childcare that matched their needs, which you can imagine was challenging because there was not enough. And then offered professional development for other early childhood educators. And now I have two grandchildren. They're also wonderful. And I live in Rutland. And I spent another eight years working with a team of offering coaching and mentoring and technical assistance and grant making to childcare programs in the five Southern counties of the state. So when you talk about rural communities, I was there. I have a good sense of what the landscape looks like in the southern part of the state. And now at Vermont AUIC, we have a team that's covering every corner of the state. We have boots on the ground every day, all over the state. And so that's just a thought that sometimes we get so caught up in the language of the bill that sometimes it's nice to have a sense of, Who are we impacting? And it's about money and it's about all of those things. But the bottom line that I want to I'm going get to my notes here, is that this is long overdue. This is something that OPR has definitely made the case. This is about the health and safety and well-being of young children. And so, that's their analysis. And so I want to talk about what the workforce thinks about it. This work is as you see, I'm a little passionate about it. Vermont AUIC fully supports this legislation because it will strengthen our early childhood educator workforce. And most importantly, it's what the workforce itself has asked for. And they have also helped design it. The things that were highlighted that are good about this bill from our previous witness, that is what they asked for. They asked for a bridge. They asked for opportunities to have time to live into this new system. So, if we're serious about growing our workforce, we should start by listening to the people who are doing the work. As the state's largest membership organization for early childhood educators, our role is to elevate their voices. And this bill reflects their voices. We can all agree, Vermont is expensive. And we need to welcome business. And Vermont needs to welcome families. And both of these rely on childcare. And that's why we need a bill that will protect and grow our early childhood education workforce. And this bill is a solution to issues that we can all agree upon. So the interesting thing about how we got here is this started ten years ago, when Vermont Early Childhood educators got together to figure out how to save this workforce. Educators were leaving the field because career pathways weren't clear, coursework didn't lead to degrees, and qualification requirements weren't consistent. And I can speak for myself, it was very expensive. There weren't the resources and supports for advancing a degree like there are now. So over the next decade, Vermont AUIC housed a workforce led initiative. And it was an effort to protect and grow early childhood educator workforce for the future of our state. And of course, for children and families. And the way through, they determined, and OPR agreed, is professional recognition through licensure. So, This is already a workforce that we have not had enough of. And that people continue to show up because they are committed to this work. And so I just think it is an important piece to remember. We heard some witnesses yesterday, Chris Nelson and Jen Olson, talking about how committed they are to children and families. And I think that that is an important piece. People choose this work, this field, this profession, because they're passionate about it. They didn't come here for the $18 an hour, which is big increase. Some of the data that was shared about compensation has improved since Act 76. So Vermont is regarded as a leader by our national colleagues because we have ensured our workforce is centered in shaping policies that impact them. We had a task force of early childhood educators from across every setting all over the state that worked on this effort for outreach. They had a motto of nothing about us without us. And that is the lens that they wanted to have a voice for their profession. So I just want to be clear that this work in Vermont is happening in parallel to what's happening nationally. The framework for this bill comes from recommendations from the Commission on Professional Excellence in Early Childhood Education. And other states are making strides towards advancing the commission's recommendations. And states now considering investing in childcare are asking for Vermont's playbook on workforce engagement. Recently, states, including New York and Delaware, have met with us to inform their next steps on how to elevate the voices of those most impacted. As Vermont made historic investments through Act 76, the workforce was designing what accountability and professional standards would look like. Between 2018 and 2022, more than a thousand Vermont early childhood educators helped design this framework with 89 to 98% support across key components. The level of workforce alignment is rare. And it's why Vermont is looked to nationally as a model. So, as you can say, this bill is the result of years of direct workforce engagement. Early childhood educators, the people doing the work every day, shaped how they would like to be accountable for that public investment through Act 76. Our workforce engagement was so thorough that the Office of Professional Regulation not only agreed that licensure was necessary to protect the public safety, but they adopted our workforce's recommendations almost completely in their Sunrise report to the legislature, which is what prompted S206. So when I say the workforce engagement, I mean this is not top down regulation. This is bottom up design. Since Act 76, the regulated childcare workforce has increased by 8.5%, and the number of educators with a degree has grown by over 22%. That tells us something important. When we invest and create pathways, this workforce responds. Our early childhood educators want to be their best. And they want this. S206 proposes a license early to license early childhood educators in home and center based child care programs regulated by the Child Development, and the Department of Children and Families, which I know we spent a lot of time talking about. And we know that this bill is focused on the regulated workforce already entrusted with Vermont's youngest children. This bill is especially important for family childcare educators, because the current system makes it harder, not easier, for small businesses to grow in Vermont. Licensure creates clearer, more flexible pathways. So I just want to say that childcare programs are businesses too. And I'm going to share a story in a minute about one of those businesses that has expanded. And we know that childcare is necessary for our economy, for everyone to work. And that there already is, we've heard that there already are some professional development requirements and some preparation requirements. It's really complicated.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: And

[Sharon Herrington]: this particular, the amendments that have come to this bill, have made it so that there are pathways for everyone to enter. And I think that that is part of this intentional design. With some of the amendments, there's a permanent amendment that people can come into this field, an EC1, and move wherever they want to go. So I think that that's important to think about. So there are workforce members not impacted by this bill, including public educators, after school only educators, and unregulated childcare, unregulated caregivers, such as parents, relatives, and nannies. That was some of the confusion that I've been sitting in the room and I've been sitting in as many committee meetings as I can throughout the last session and this session to hear the concerns so that we can be thinking about that. This bill does not impact unregulated caregivers, parents, grandparents, nannies, people caring for one or two other families. So early childhood is already a complicated system involving multiple agencies. And I just want to say directly, no one in the field is asking for more regulation for its own sake. They're asking for the right size regulation, because the current system is fragmented and inefficient. S206 creates individual licensure and a governing board of early childhood educators with expertise specific to their field. This is about simplifying the system over time, not adding complexity. So, the question about why a license to practice. And we believe it's really aligned with clear career pathways. Licensure strengthens the workforce. We need to recruit and retain by creating clear expectations, shared standards, and professional recognition. The current system is complicated with multiple titles, unclear requirements. And I was listening to some of the testimony about additional administrative burden when you implement a new profession. But what we heard yesterday from the director saying, actually, this is going to save them time when they're in the hiring process. They're going to be able to have a better understanding of the qualifications of who applies for those positions. And so that is a cost savings for the program. So I just think that we need to look at the full picture compared to what we currently have. So, the confusion is not neutral. It drives people out of the field. Licensure creates clarity, improves mobility across settings, and supports fair compensation. When vocations become professions, their workforces get stronger and better qualified, and the public understands their qualifications. For example, we've talked about this before, if you walk into a setting where you see a nurse, whether it's a hospital, primary care, an assisted care facility, a summer camp, you see RN or LPN on the name tag, and you trust that person's qualifications. Every other essential workforce clearly ties qualifications to scope and practice and accountability. Early childhood educators should not be an exception. We've seen what happens when early childhood educators have clear pathways and support. This is the story I was telling you I was going to mention. Vicki Gratton is an early childhood educator in Franklin County who started by taking care of neighborhood children. Then she opened, we think about that family, friend, and neighbor care as a potential pathway to explore if you want to pursue a career in early childhood education. And Vicki then opened a registered home program and realized this was her calling. Vermont AUIC administers TEACH Early Childhood Scholarship Vermont, a scholarship program that helps educators earn their degrees while they continue to work in the field. And Vicki is one of those educators. As she put it, teach made my dream possible. The longer I take classes, the more I want to learn to provide children with a safe, loving and positive learning environment. So this is what the impact was for her community. Vicki and Michelle Marchant Sheldon, who also ran a family home childcare program, leveraged their qualifications and access to grants and resources to open Swanton's first childcare center, Spark Academy, tripling the local childcare capacity and creating new early childhood educator jobs. Six months later, they opened Baby Spark, an infant and toddler center, to serve even more families in their community. That's the kind of growth that should not be an exception. Right now, the system makes that path harder than it should be because our system has lower expectations for family child care than center based care. And we have under resourced those educators. The intention is we aim to correct that with this bill. Like family child care educator Chris Nelson said yesterday, WALL E does not depend on the door you walk into. Vicki is a driven person who took advantage of resources to grow and meet her rural communities' need. Licensure makes what she did accessible. So more educators can grow their programs, respond to community needs, and strengthen Vermont's child care system. So, I want to talk about the workforce pipeline

[Megan Sullivan]: a little bit.

[Sharon Herrington]: So our future workforce is young Vermonters. And we can all agree we want to keep them here. They're excited to join a recognized profession, and they're earning qualifications right now. Growing our early childhood educator workforce has been on our legislature's mind for a long time. The COVID shutdown made it clear to everyone how essential this workforce is to our state's overall workforce, business health, and of course, our economy. So the legislature had this good idea to fund a pilot program, which I was directly connected to, that is now actually a flourishing youth apprenticeship program for students in high school career and technical education centers who are interested in a career in early childhood education. And there are CTEs across the state that are utilizing this program. This program has more than tripled since its pilot year in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. Youth apprentices get paid for work experience in community childcare programs, and they graduate high school with transferable college credits. They're well on their way to a career in ECE. Three quarters of last year's youth apprenticeship class received summer or permanent job offers from their sponsor programs. And programs love having a feeder program where they're shaping their own workforce. And so that's how they can recruit and train their future staff. Youth apprenticeship and other pathways are growing and connecting people to this field. A former youth apprentice, Alora Zargot, is now a freshman at UVM. Last year, her senior year of high school, she testified on this. She provided public comment to OPR during the public comment period, and then she also provided testimony last year on the Senate side. She said, I'm graduating high school, qualified for ECE one licensure. Licensure creates a pathway for students like me to envision a lifelong career in early childhood education. The future workforce is there. Youth apprenticeship is just one pathway. And when we invest and create pathways, people enter and stay. If you build a profession, people will join it. And what we heard previously is that this actually has positive impact on retention. And I think that we have heard some testimony talking about continuity of care. So when young children have different caregivers, It's unsettling for families, and it's also not what's best for young children. And so when you have people that are choosing to be prepared for this, they're more likely to stay in this field. So why license to practice? And we've talked about it a little bit about accountability for public investment. So I just wanna be really clear. One of the things that is a concern is that this bill is intended to raise taxes. The public investment has already been made through Act 76. One of the things that I just wanna clarify is that in the most recent data, we are seeing the positive impacts of that. And those family childcare programs that we are particularly concerned about for our rural communities, they receive the highest increase in their childcare financial assistance subsidy rates than center based programs. So that's how we're balancing this out. But we also know that public investment does require public accountability. And so licensure will provide that accountability. For our workforce, increasing qualifications does have And that's why there are strong financial supports already in place. We are not asking educators to do more without support. That was built. Those builds were built first. Those supports were already built. And you heard Leslie Johnson from CCB talk about a lot of those supports already exist. So I just want to remind us that the educators shaped the recommendations of how this would work. Recommended an extended implementation timeline and resources to help educators meet those requirements. And those resources already exist. Many program directors plan, have we've heard, already are planning to cover the cost of licensing fees for educators because they have a qualified, stable workforce that's so important to them. The workforce is already moving in this direction. The question is whether we support them. Vermont businesses depend on stable childcare system, and that system depends on a stable workforce. This bill is about protecting that workforce, and by extension, the state's economy. I mentioned I'm a career changer who went through Community College of Vermont's assessment process and became a first generation college graduate. And I share that because in my work every day, I encounter people who have the same anxieties that I did. And so I do understand. And one of the things that from my AEYC is we've always invited people to the table to share what's on their mind, what they're concerned about, what do they need. And so the critical piece to support and to overcome those obstacles, the financial aspects, the time, the fear of not belonging, that's where Vermont has excelled, investing in resources and building pathways, putting a strong emphasis on mentoring. A 22% increase in individuals with degrees already is clear evidence it's working. People want to join this workforce, and they want to be well prepared to do this work. Every early childhood educator who enters or continues in the field thanks access to these preparation programs means a classroom or program is opening or staying open. There are many reasons to support the bill. The most important is really simple: it's better for our children. Research shows that higher qualified educators lead to better outcomes for children. And those outcomes have long term impacts on education, health and economic stability. This means children are less likely to need specialized services, are more likely to graduate high school, less likely to be incarcerated, and more likely to own their own home, have savings, raise their own children, and experience better health. This is not just a workforce policy. It is an economic policy. The quality of your child's early experiences depends on the person who is teaching and caring for your child all day. Their qualifications matter. Early childhood educators know this. Recent data proves what we build, the supports, early childhood educators increase their qualifications. So last year, eight thirty six early childhood educators received grants and bonuses for increasing qualifications. That's 30% more than the previous year. Of the 135 TEACH Early Childhood Vermont Scholarship recipients, half were first generation college students. Scholars represented every childcare role and setting in all 14 Vermont counties. Vermont TEACH Scholars reported earning almost 15% higher wages after earning their associate's degree, and over 17% more after earning their bachelor's degree. So, I just want to say individual licensure strengthens workforce stability, increases capacity, improves access for families. And I just want to circle back to where I started. Public childhood educator workforce is asking for this. And so I encourage us to listen to them. They are asking for clear standards, professional recognition, and a system that will grow and strengthen this field. Individual licensure strengthens workforce commitment and stabilized staffing. That will increase capacity and help programs serve more children and families. This means families can work trusting the quality of their children's experiences when children arrive to kindergarten with the skills they need to learn. So, we urge you to support S206, because when the people doing the work tell you what they need, the strongest policy in policy is to listen. So I want to thank you for your consideration. I welcome your questions. And I'll just say that as a membership organization, this isn't me saying this. These are the people who are in the field doing the work, and these are their voices.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: How many members?

[Sharon Herrington]: So our membership right now is about 700. But the programs that we administer are open to every early childhood educator and childcare program in the state of Vermont. So we have a staff that is committed to equitably providing supports and services across the entire state. And your staff? We have 33.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Oh, sorry, represent Mango. Was

[Sharon Herrington]: waiting for a question.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Yeah, no, no, no. I've gotten very, very out of shape with calling out members digitally.

[Sharon Herrington]: That's funny to have my back to her.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Thank you. I appreciate it.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Kinda slouching right now.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: No worries. So I'm gonna focus particularly on ECE ones because I've been throwing this idea around in my head and I just can't wrap my head around it. So in Vermont, we're really investing heavily in the trades in other fields and encouraging certificate programs, but not necessarily degree programs at college. So my question is, if a student who has done an internship and graduated from high school, having had that certificate in early childhood from perhaps a CTE, and I'm not sure how this translates to an ECE one, but my understanding is that they would be able to be an ECE one if they attended a CTE program and got a certificate. Is that correct?

[Sharon Herrington]: Yes. As I was saying, the current system is a little complicated. What is happening in most current technical education centers is they're actually using dual enrollment or Fast Forward, and they're doing introduction to early childhood education as a CCB course with their CTE instructor. So it is stackable credits so that they can take that with whatever direction they decide to go. If they want to go right to the workforce, they can transition right into a registered apprenticeship model, which has mentoring in a sponsored program like other trades that have a registered apprentice for the Department of Labor, they could stay in a role that they're qualified for as an assistant, or they could continue on to earn an associate's degree. One of the things that has been really made it a little difficult with the career pathways is that not everything's been stackable. And so if someone says, I want to be an EC1 and I'm good with that, that's great. But if they decide throughout their career that they want to move into a different role, having stackable credits is gonna be really important to help them get to that in the most efficient time wise, cost wise, all of those pieces. When they graduate right now, the way OPR has described the language in EC1, and I think there's something related to rulemaking, which I'll learn about if we get that far, is that they will have an EC1 preparation program. So essentially, they're talking about one hundred and twenty hours. And so that is something that I think is to be defined. It isn't necessarily a credential or certificate through the Community College of Vermont, because they have specific criteria, which I am not the expert of, but I've asked about it, as to what constitutes a specific certificate. So it's a new pathway. That's what we're talking about. And I do think that the one thing about these really incredible amendments that have happened is that someone can come in at EC1 anytime. People can start out, there's one amendment where people can come in at EC1 and operate their family child care program, and then have six years to earn their EC2. So, there's been a lot of solutions built into this. Honestly, when the workforce made the recommendations, they said, We want it simple. We want EC1, EC2, EC3. We want it to be aligned with what's happening nationally, so that we can attract people here from other states. And if someone meets the love of their life and they move to California, they are qualified in another state. So I don't know if that's directly answered your question. I hope it's helpful.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Thanks. All I really needed to know is if a student coming out of a CTE program would step into the ECE one role immediately, which I think the answer is yes. And if a student came out of a traditional high school program and did not go to a CTE during their high school years, if they could take advantage of some other program rather than going to college? Because not everybody is meant to go to college and not every CTE has an early childhood program. So this is not universally available to all Vermont students.

[Sharon Herrington]: Maybe not yet. I think that this is like, we're talking about a brand new system that doesn't exist. And I think that as one of the things that when the bill was introduced and some folks who came out and said, We have concerns about this. And that sort of informed some of the amendments. And I think that this is like we have the opportunity to think about what is the right fit for Vermont. And right now, in the legislation, it doesn't specifically say that one hundred and twenty hours is college credit. Do we think that's what's best for our workforce so it's stackable? Yes. That's not what it says right now. So I can't get ahead of what's gonna be the final decision. It's not my place.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Yeah, that's fine. I just wanted to know if if you were envisioning this as a pathway for a student that couldn't already access internships and CTE programs, and it sounds like there could be in rulemaking that there would be a pathway for such a student without having to attend college. And the other thing that I was going to ask you is you keep referring to a national standard. There is no national exam. Correct?

[Sharon Herrington]: That's correct.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: So national standard, who is building this national standard or who has already built it? And how is everyone across the country accessing that? My understanding is there are no states that have particularly passed this type of legislation yet.

[Sharon Herrington]: Yeah, it's a great question. And I would say that, this started under the National Association for the Education of Young Children as Power to the Profession. And then they started it and then they turned it over to the Commission of Professional Excellence in Early Childhood Education. And it's linked in my document that I submitted today. And there's a unifying framework. And that is what is being used as the guide. And even I think that I had heard last year that Deputy Commissioner McLaughlin referenced California has a work permit requirement. It might be called different things in different states. And there are many, many states that have already adopted the EC one, two, and three. So, it's evolving. And so, one of the things that I think is important is that in Vermont, this is about protection of young children. And so that is what's called license. It's licensed through OPR, but in another state, they might have something different. So it might not be called exactly the same. We do not have a license in another state yet. But I imagine it will be something, may be called license, it might be called something else. There are still states that are working on it.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Okay, thank you. No licensure required in other states to work in a childcare center. But other states have adopted the requirements of ECE one, two and three, are for two and three, equivalent of college degrees.

[Sharon Herrington]: Yes, yes.

[Representative Lisa Hango]: Okay, thank you.

[Sharon Herrington]: Sure.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: And Robert Hooper, I beg your pardon if you've already explained this, particularly if you've done so thoroughly. Why is it non stackable?

[Sharon Herrington]: So if this is, but what the question was, is there a non credit bearing process? And if someone is I did a lot of workshops for no credit. And so my way of getting credit was to use the assessment of prior learning. And then I did have credits to be able to stack to earn my bachelor's degree. But I think that's what I meant by saying it's not stackable. So there are a lot of people who are doing learning that's very similar to college level learning. Right now, there is a fundamentals course, which is a forty five hour course to work in a childcare program. They have a year to complete that. So you should be caring for children for a year unprepared. And that is not for credit. If it were for credit, then it could be stackable. So that was Maybe I was a little too in the weeds there. I apologize. No, no.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Anything else for our guests?

[Representative Lisa Hango]: No.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Thank you. Thank you so much for that. Alright, committee, good job this week. We did a lot of heavier subject matter within some of the bills that we identified as priority subjects. So, we're gonna continue doing the same next week, and we're gonna feather in a couple of charters. So with that, good work. Well done, as always.