A quarter of the children in the U.S. are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census, yet 60 percent of Hispanic families live in child care deserts, areas with an undersupply of child care.
Culturally appropriate and accessible Spanish-language child care is tailored to the needs of Hispanic and Latino families, where Spanish is often the primary language. The Hechinger Report has covered the growing demand for Spanish-language care around the country, and has heard from readers and sources about the barriers many communities face in developing it, including challenges with licensing would-be providers.
Have a question about Spanish-language child care or how communities are working to provide it? Send us an email at editor@hechingerreport.org.
Here is a guide for understanding the federal policies that contribute financing and training to providers of Spanish-language child care around the country.
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Federal funding for child care
Child Care and Development Block Grants (CCDBG)
With an appropriation of $8.7 billion in fiscal 2024, CCDBG is the primary federal program that supports child care access. Every three years, each state submits a Child Care and Development Fund Plan detailing current care programs, including services available to providers and families with limited English proficiency.
State child care agencies must include families and providers with limited English proficiency in their support plans, but the process isn’t always monitored, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Agency outreach is often recorded only through yearly reports and complaints filed against the agencies.
Head Start
More than 800,000 children and families are enrolled in Head Start, a federal program that provides child care to low-income families. Nearly one-third of enrolled students are dual language learners.
Over a quarter of the program’s teachers speak Spanish, and Head Start offers apprenticeship programs to recruit the parents of English learners and their community members. These apprentices teach classes in their home languages, outside of standard working hours. Head Start works with community colleges and other educational institutions to help apprentices complete the requirements to become licensed child care providers.
Preschool Development Grant Birth through 5
Preschool development grants for children up to age 5 are competitive federal grants that states can apply for with proposals to expand upon existing federal, state and local investments in child care. These grants support early child care, and the majority (40 of the 42 proposals from 2023) mention English learners.
The BUILD Initiative analyzed the approved proposals from 2023 and identified seven distinct strategies to support English learners at the state level: culturally appropriate translation of resources, training to support language development, workforce degree or credential programs, worker recruitment and retention initiatives, standardizing a process to identify English learners and, in tribal communities, immersion and engagement.
Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV)
The MIECHV program provides federal funding to pair pregnant people and parents of young children with trained home visitors, including nurses, educators and social workers. Home visitors are required to communicate in their partner family’s home language or provide an interpreter. They are also required to use research-based strategies and activities that support bilingual children.
However, MIECHV regulations for supporting English learners and their families are not as specific as other federal programs. Funding has also stagnated since 2013, and experts estimate that only 140,000 families, about 3 to 5 percent of those eligible, are actually receiving services.
How states are using federal funds
Colorado
Providers Advancing School Outcomes (PASO) is a 120-hour intensive course that trains informal caregivers to become early childhood educators. The program is targeted at Hispanic families, and offers courses in Spanish.
Developed by the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition in 2006, PASO has advocated for a handful of bills within Colorado state legislature, including property tax exemptions for child care centers, a stipend for early childhood educators in training and work-based learning programs.
California
Creciendo Juntos, launched by the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation, supports the “holistic development of Latino families in California” and helps aspiring providers in Los Angeles County by reimbursing them for medical training and certification fees. The organization, whose name means “growing together,” also provides centers with bedding, toys and other early child care fundamentals.
State-level plans for preschool development grants
Five states plan to spend preschool development grant funding on recruiting and retaining multilingual child care providers and educators, according to the BUILD Initiative.
- Idaho plans to recruit and support Spanish-speaking providers to start, expand and maintain home-based child care programs in rural areas with a high population of Latino families. The state also plans to pair this initiative with the local Child Care Resource and Referral agencies, increasing support of current home-based providers through training and networking opportunities.
- Illinois will implement a standardized process to identify English learners via a home language survey and screening. It also proposed increasing compensation for bilingual early childhood educators.
- Mississippi will grant bonuses for programs that employ educators who are fluent in languages other than English and pay for monthly bonuses to providers serving families with limited English proficiency.
- Ohio plans to support informal and unlicensed home-based child care programs through the ESCALERAS program, which, as of October 2022, was helping 36 providers receive their license. Ohio projects the program will expand to serve 63 providers by June 2025.
- Virginia will expand its Fast Track program, which recruits and trains emerging early childhood educators, to offer training materials in Spanish.
Contact editor Nichole Dobo at 212-870-8954 or dobo@hechingerreport.org.
This story about daycare in Spanish was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our Early Childhood newsletter.