Q&A from the Guinn Center's Early Childhood Webinar

Last month, the Guinn Center published its report on Nevada's Early Childhood Systems and held an informational webinar to expand on the report's findings. Below are questions some audience members had about the report. If you have feedback on this webinar, please take our brief survey.

Q: What was your familiarity with Early Childhood Systems prior to diving into this report, specifically in Nevada?  

• Before conducting research for this report, Todd Butterworth's experience with early childhood was limited. As an education policy analyst with the Nevada Legislature, preschool education was an occasional issue. Although, because Nevada does not have universal preschool, it was not a significant topic of research or discussion.  

Q: Family engagement is crucial in early childhood systems. What specific recommendations does research suggest for enhancing family engagement in Nevada?  

• The research suggests that family engagement is most effective when it is not an "add-on activity" but is built into the culture of a system. Our report suggests family voices be included as an integral part of system governance, that communication be designed as a two-way endeavor so it is easy for families to share their ideas, insights, and concerns, and that the early childhood system could leverage existing communication channels to regularly interact with families.  

Q: How were families engaged in the development of the report? Does any of the recommendations incorporate their voices within systems governance?  

• As this report is technical and intended to capture insights from academic research and governance practices in national and international jurisdictions, family engagement was not included in the scope of work assigned to the Guinn Center. However, our research found that best practices in systems governance rely heavily on the experience, insights, and needs of the families served by the system.  

Q: In terms of the childcare subsidy, "utilization" might be misleading.  As I recall, Nevada is approved for a certain number of subsidized slots; however, Nevada does not have the childcare providers to offer that number of slots.  

• This point is well taken. In using the term "utilization," the Guinn Center means the difference between the number of eligible persons and the number actually served. The research shows the causes for such differences can be varied and complex. They might include inadequate program funding, understaffing, lack of available providers, poor outreach, a challenging application or eligibility process, public perception (or misperception) about program quality, etc. Our report uses the catch-all term of "underutilization," regardless of the cause, for families to not be accessing a program.  

‍Q: Do we know if the lack of utilization is leaving money on the table or is the state/county/etc. relying on that lack of usage?  

• Our research did not consider the program financing effects of underutilization.

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