Nevada

In July 2022, the State of Nevada IDEA Part C Office submitted a proposal to the Department of Health and Human Services Director’s Office for increased federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Fiscal Recovery Funds from the Governor's Finance Office to provide funding to develop an Early Intervention Personnel Center. The proposed personnel center would provide a credible and comparable alternative option for early intervention staff to meet their licensure requirements. This retention initiative was planned to be free for personnel, with all costs to be covered by the ARPA grant and/or the IDEA Part C Office. The proposal was accepted, and the Nevada Early Intervention Professional Development Center's first initiative is a Developmental Specialist Core Series (DS Series) that launched in April 2023 at no cost to professional learners . The DS series brings together a cohort of early educators who take 8 five-week courses that meet virtually once per week. The cohort will meet for approximately 18 months, and participants are expected to devote 35 hours per 5-week course to their studies. The courses cover required Early Childhood Special Education areas as determined by the Nevada Department of Education. Completion of the DS Series will meet the Alternative Certification requirements with the IDEA Part C Office and is deemed to be equivalent to an Endorsement for Early Childhood Developmentally Delayed.

Sources:

Nevada Early Intervention Professional Development Center. (2023). Program Catalog 2023-2024.

Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Early Intervention FAQs.

In 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded $30 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to licensed child care providers to expand capacity in Nevada "child care deserts," defined as any census tract with more than 50 children under age 5 years that contains either no child care providers or so few options that there are more than 3 times as many children as licensed child care slots. 18 proposals out of 92 were approved.

Source: Nevada Recovers. (n.d.). Child care centers approved for federal funds.

The Nevada Early Childhood Advisory Council’s Early Childhood Data Dashboard is a data visualization tool.It provides demographic and program information on the current status and trends of the state's population, workforce, child care, and economy for public use.

Developed with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the tool is a part of the work of the Early Childhood Advisory Council, which was established in Assembly Bill 79 in 2021.

Monitoring Child Care Supply, Demand, and Access in Nevada, a project of the Nevada Office of Analytics, Department of Health and Human Services, is a data visualization tool . It provides demographic and program data on child care in the state (e.g., subsidies, child care programs, utilization rates, poverty rates, and counts of child care workers) for public use. Updated monthly, the tool makes comparisons across all 50 states.