County committee searches for child care solutions

Apr. 10—Discussions continued during a recent meeting as members of the Effingham County Child Care Committee attempt to find solutions to child care issues in Effingham County.

The Effingham County board created the new committee to explore the issue. Tuesday's meeting focused on the educational response as it relates to early child care crisis.

Speaking on the agenda was Courtney Hatcher, recruitment and quality specialist for Project CHILD with office in Mt. Vernon serving Effingham, Clay, Crawford, Edwards, Fayette, Jasper, Jefferson, Lawrence, Marion, Richland, Wabash and Wayne counties.

"Project CHILD is the local child care resource and referral office for Effingham County," Hatcher said. "There are 16 resource referral offices throughout the state of Illinois."

Hatcher said Project CHILD is funded by the Illinois Department of Human Resources.

"What I work extensively on is the recruitment and retainment of child care in this area," she said.

She said Project CHILD has recently hired someone to fill a short-term 2-3 year job position titled higher education navigator. Hatcher said the navigator position has the possibility of being extended.

"The position was created to smooth out pathways and help overcome barriers so the early child care workforce and those who may be interested in early child care as a career choice will be able to have more higher education opportunities," said Hatcher.

She said the navigator will connect with current early child care workers who want to obtain educational opportunities to advance their careers. The navigator will also assist in connecting with higher education institutions offering a child care curriculums.

Hatcher said the Department of Human Services will make the final decision as to the final job description of the higher education navigator, but would like to see this person also working with high school students who may want to pursue a career in early child care.

She said, "This is very new. There will be a total of 36 working throughout the state of Illinois."

Committee Member Carla Holtz, owner and operator of Little Lambs of Effingham, asked Hatcher if the higher education navigator would be the same a previous job position titled a professional development advisor.

"I think the navigator position will be building on of that," Hatcher said. "I think the higher education navigator can be more one on one with the individual and walk them through the process."

Holtz said at her center it is up to her to find educational opportunities scholarships and training for her employees who are not yet teacher or director qualified.

"It would be really, really nice to have someone help out with that," Holtz said.

Two representatives from Lake Land College came to present what early childhood educational opportunities they had available.

Charles Jerrell, division chair of social sciences at Lake Land College, said the school offers a 60 credit-hour early childhood education non-transfer program and a 64 credit-hour transfer associates degree that allows a student to continue their early childhood education at a four-year university.

"We were one of the first community colleges in the state to be credentialed by Gateways," Jerrell said.

"Gateways is a professional registry for Illinois that keeps track of training hours," Tanielle Ulm, early childhood education instructor at Lake Land College said.

She said Lake Land College has two plus two transfer agreements with several universities for students wanting to transfer to a 4-year university to receive a bachelor degree in early childhood education.

"Typically, students want to get their associates degree and get a job," Ulm said.

Ulm educated committee members on early childcare education class content, work-study opportunities for students and workforce development.

"Our enrollment in the program has been really low," Jerrell said. "It has steadily gone down over the past five years. There is a lack of interest."

He said all classes at Lake Land were seeing a decrease in enrollment and don't offer night classes as much as they used to. Jerrell said online classes are now more popular.

"We do still offer them (night classes), but we only get two or three students at a time," he said.

Holtz said some of people who come to work at child care centers have families and don't have time to take more than one to two class per semester.

Connie Jerden, CEFS COO, said she thought the time it takes to get a childhood education was too lengthy.

"The problem we're running into is their availability to go to school, it takes forever and they get tired. We need something that is accelerated. Especially when they are working full-time." Jerden said.

Committee Member Johnna Schultz asked Effingham County high schools if they were offering any early childhood classes or plan to in the future. She received responses from Effingham, Dieterich and Altamont.

Her research shows Effingham Unit 40 hired a family and consumer science teacher and have future plans of having her trained to teach Gateways ECE Level I curriculum.

Altamont schools offer a two-semester family and consumer science class along with a two-semester child develop/parenting class. Each class is a one credit course.

Schultz's research found Dieterich does not offer family and consumer education classes.

Attending Tuesday's meeting was a group of seniors from St. Anthony High School taking American Government class taught by Kelly Thoele. Spokesman for the class Riley Guy told committee members one of the requirements for the class is to attend a local government meeting and write a paper about the meeting.

Charles Mills can be reached at charles.mills@effinghamdailynews.com or by phone at 217-347-7151 ext. 126.

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