Early Educators Advocate for LA Kids (Early Educators) is a survey panel designed to gather essential information regarding the early childhood care and education field from the perspective of providers themselves in Los Angeles County, California.
Early Educators provides an opportunity for ongoing feedback with a group of diverse early care and education providers. Providers share their perspectives and experiences on a range of topics such as childcare quality, funding for childcare, and workforce satisfaction. This data and information is then shared back with participating providers as well as with Early Educators Advocate for LA Kids project partners.
Early Educators is dedicated to centering the voices of early care providers and ensuring that providers drive how their stories and perspectives are shared. LA County providers were involved in the initial development and launch of Early Educators Advocate for LA Kids. When surveys are completed, providers help to review the findings and prioritize data for broader dissemination across LA County. Democratizing the data in this way is a central focus of this project. Early Educators Advocate for LA Kids is committed to making data accessible, usable, and inclusive to anyone and everyone.
Providers are invited to participate in the survey panel through email, web, and social media advertising and outreach. Participants are also reached through word–of-mouth recommendations and regional early care and education organizations.
To register to be part of Early Educators, participants provide contact and demographic information as well as their language and communications preferences. After registration, participants receive periodic surveys and other engagement opportunities, such as focus groups, interviews, advisory groups, and more.
Surveys completed by the Early Educators Advocate for LA Kids panel in 2021-2022 found alignment between what parents and early educators prioritize in quality child care and revealed that 46% of early educators in LA county are considering becoming credentialed in Transitional Kindergarten in the next 3 years.
To learn more and share these insights with others, check out the infographics below:
The Early Educators panel is composed of 512 early care and education providers in LA County who care for children under the age of 5.
In the panel, 43% of participants identify as Hispanic, Latino, or Latinx, 32% as White, 16% as Black or African American, 6% as Asian (not Filipino or Pacific Islander), 3% as American Indian/Alaskan Native, 2% as Filipino, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, 2% as Middle Eastern, and 4% prefer not to say.
The largest portion of participants serve preschool-aged children, with 90% of participants serving children ages 3–5 years. Many panel members also serve younger children, with 74% of participants serving toddler-aged children and 47% serving infants.
Half of the providers in the panel (50%) provide childcare in a family childcare setting, and almost one-third of participants (31%) provide childcare in a center-based setting. The remaining providers care for children at a school (8%), at the home of the child (6%), at a community center (4%), or at a library or other location (1%).
Early Educators Advocate for LA Kids is sponsored by Quality Start LA, in partnership with First 5 LA and the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
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