Early Edge Blog

Update on California’s Early Care and Education Workforce Registry

July 22, 2019

The California Early Care and Education (ECE) Workforce Registry is an online system designed to track and promote the employment, training, and education of our Early Learning professionals statewide. It is currently the primary source of verified information about California’s Early Learning workforce.

Early Learning professionals in all counties across California can join the Registry.  There are several benefits to participating in the Registry. Members can:

• Create a professional profile that securely stores and updates their qualification and training documents, including degrees, permits, transcripts, and certificates
• Use the Registry’s Training Calendar to find and register for professional development in their area
• Create a resume through the Registry’s Resume Builder
• Search for job openings in the Registry’s Job Board 
• Use the Stipend Module to streamline the application and verification process when applying for stipends tied to professional growth, such as through AB 212 

The Registry is accessible using a PC, tablet, or mobile device and content is available in English, Spanish, and Chinese (Cantonese).

The Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles (CCALA) is leading the work to implement the Registry statewide. Early Edge Senior Policy Analyst Yasmin Grewal-Kök recently had the opportunity to speak with CCALA’s Program Director, Fiona Stewart, and Registry Statewide Program Manager, Elise Crane, to get an update on the status of the Registry and plans for expansion. They also discussed next steps to ensure that the Registry further supports our Early Learning workforce, maximizes consistent and cost-effective processing of workforce qualifications, and provides robust verified data. Here is what we learned:

Current Status of the Registry

• Almost 68,000 Early Learning professionals from every county in California participate in the Registry, including about 10,000 family child care providers as well as:
  • Teachers, assistant teachers, aides and paraprofessionals
  • Directors and administrators
  • Trainers, coaches, and consultants
  • Early childhood faculty and students
• Over 100 professional development organizations participate in the Registry
• Over 3,000 professional development opportunities across the state have been listed in the Registry’s Training Calendar so far this year
• The Registry collects important information on members including:
  • Demographic information
  • Years in the field
  • Educational attainment
  • Professional development and certifications
  • Job role/title
  • Primary age group of children served
  • Languages spoken with children served
  • Wages

Short-Term Plans for Expansion 

• Ensure that information in the Registry is collected consistently across all counties
• Finalize data sharing agreements with counties that participate in Quality Counts California (QCC) since all participating sites will be required to use the Registry to assess the qualifications of their staff by July 2020
• Publish a report based on aggregated information collected in the Registry in the fall of 2019
• Release a mobile friendly version of the Registry with a new design in the fall of 2019

Longer-Term Goals and Recommendations

• Focus on improving and expanding the capacity of the Registry. As part of this effort, consider:
  • Requiring all providers, staff, and trainers in subsidized child care programs to join and maintain a Registry account
  • Requiring all publicly-funded professional development organizations to post professional development opportunities in the Registry’s Training Calendar
  • Adding online training modules to the Registry
  • Linking the Registry with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) data system to streamline the Child Development Permit application and renewal process
  • Linking the Registry with Community Care Licensing to facilitate the review of qualifications and certifications of staff in licensed child care programs
  • Adding a Professional Growth Module to enable Registry members to locate an advisor who can guide them through the Child Development Permit application and renewal process
  • Integrate the Registry with the online professional development platform that CDE is developing for the Early Learning workforce
  • Use data from the Registry to inform policy decisions, planning, and investment in our Early Learning workforce
  • Ensure that the development of the Cradle-to-Career Educational Data System funded in the 2019-20 budget includes a comprehensive ECE data component that integrates the Registry as well as child- and program-level data

Many of these recommendations align with what we have heard from teachers in Early Edge’s Advisory Groups. These groups, which meet in Los Angeles, Fresno and the Bay Area, bring together Early Learning teachers from all settings (family child care, state preschool, Head Start, Transitional Kindergarten, and private programs) to discuss their needs and gather feedback on Early Edge’s policy priorities. We want to ensure that the policies we promote support those who work on-the-ground with children every day.

At the last meeting of our Los Angeles Advisory Group, teachers voiced strong support for the Registry as a key resource to guide their professional development. They are eager to see the Registry further expand and told Early Edge they would like the Registry to offer more online trainings and enable them to renew their Child Development Permits.

We look forward to continuing to connect with CCALA and sharing updates on the progress of the Registry.

More information about the Registry can be found on CCALA’s website and FAQs are available here.