Washington, DC

In 2022, the Washington DC City Council established the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund, which seeks to create pay parity between community-based early educators and their counterparts in the DC Public Schools. Pay Equity Fund dollars that are not going to wage increases are being used to fund free or reduced health insurance premiums for early educators working in the District. If licensed child development facilities opt to participate in the HealthCare4ChildCare program, their employees will qualify for free health insurance premiums for themselves and their dependents, as long as they are DC residents. Employees who are not DC residents will be able to take advantage of reduced premiums.

Sources:
Hsu, N. (2022). D.C. Continues to Make Strides Towards Compensation Equity. New America.
DC Health Link. (n.d.). HealthCare4ChildCare Through DC Health Link.

In 2022, the Washington DC City Council authorized the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to disburse funds that would create pay parity between community-based early educators and educators teaching in the DC Public Schools. In its first phase, the fund is disbursing quarterly payments to close the gap between an educator's current salary and a starting public-school salary. The amount depends on educators’ roles (lead vs. assistant teacher) and whether they work full or part time. Educators are eligible for payments in the following amounts:

• Full-time lead teacher: $14,000 per year, disbursed quarterly
• Part-time lead teacher: $7,000 per year, disbursed quarterly
• Full-time assistant teacher: $10,000 per year, disbursed quarterly
• Part-time assistant teacher: $5,000 per year, disbursed quarterly

In the initiative's second phase, which is expected to begin in late 2023, educators will be paid according to a salary scale or adjusted base amount for reimbursement to programs. Educators who serve children from low-income families will receive higher payments. Education levels will also be used to determine payment amounts.

This program is funded through a city tax on high-earning individuals.

Sources:
DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education. (n.d.). Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund

DC City Council. (2022). Final Report of the Early Childhood Educator Equitable Compensation Task Force.

Berman, E. (2023). D.C. Is Giving Preschool Teachers A Pay Bump. Here’s How It’s Making A Difference To Them. DCist.

Greenberg, E., Nelson, V., Doromal, J. B., Sandstrom, J., Bose, S., & Lauderback, E. (2023, June). Toward Pay Equity A Case Study of Washington, DC’s Wage Boost for Early Childhood Educators. Urban Institute.

Since 2015, to establish subsidy payment rates, Washington, DC, has been using an alternative methodology that was developed in collaboration with early childhood finance experts. The city’s flexible financial model incorporates a variety of assumptions and data inputs to calculate the estimated cost of delivering services at each level of the District's Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) in centers and home-based settings, and under a variety of operating scenarios.

Source: Child Care and Development Fund Plan for the District of Columbia (2021)

Washington, DC’s Universal Pre-K program began in the 1960s and significantly expanded after the 2008 Pre-K Enhancement and Expansion Amendment Act (Pre-K Act). In 2022, 83% of the District’s population of 4-year-olds were enrolled in Universal Pre-Kclassrooms. DC’s universal program is made accessible through a mixed-delivery model, which includes classrooms in the DC Public Schools, public charter schools, and in community-based child care organizations. Today, the District has the highest percentage of both 3- and 4-year-olds served by a state-run program in the entire United States. The program is overseen by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE).

Sources:

District of Columbia Public Schools. (2022). Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Enrollment, Promotions, and Retentions Frequently Asked Questions for Parents and Guardians

District of Columbia Public Schools. (n.d.). Early Learning

National Institute for Early Education Research. (2022). District of Columbia

The Washington, DC, Office of the State Superintendent of Education’s DC Statewide Longitudinal Education Data Systemincludes public and private early learning programs. The system functions as a warehouse of data that provides demographic, program, and individual data across agencies, spanning early childhood to the workforce. The individual data is deidentified with a unique identifier. The system provides public and private portals for data.

The system is funded by federal Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems grants.