Educational Childcare Update Dr. Vicki Handfield

from Gallup Journey Magazine - January 2023

by Gallup Journey

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EDUCATIONAL CHILD CARE UPDATE

Best wishes for 2023! My hope is that it continues to be an exciting time for expanding high quality, accessible, affordable childcare in New Mexico. I have had very positive meetings in the last month. I’m doing reading and research and continuing to explore options for combining education and childcare.

I’ve met with Dr. Sabrina Ezzell, the Interim Chancellor and Mr. Robert Greigo, Director of Operations at the Gallup branch of UNM, to discuss their efforts to bring a student and community childcare center back to the branch.

I’ve spoken with Mr. Dwayne Casias, the Director of Head Start in Gallup, to learn more about the education opportunities for young children provided by Head Start (since 1983!).

I had a rewarding meeting with principal leaders of Avenues, Ms. Ginny Beamsley and Ms. Regina Huffman. Avenues provides home visits which include several services for families to help with prenatal and early childhood challenges.

And I met with Ms. Lara Lehman, an Educational Consultant in Early Childhood Services Center for UNM. I’m continuing to meet with MCECC, the McKinley Early Childhood Coalition. I’ve also had very productive, informative phone conversations with childcare professionals and educators.

Working to provide childcare is complex and challenging. My perspective and focus are to learn more about the inner workings of the many parts of the system that is in place and developing. I may decide to form a nonprofit organization. Please let me know if you have any questions, opinions or interest in this potential organization.

I’m continuing to follow developments from ECECD, I highly recommend checking out the website. The department is really doing a lot to help children and parents in our state. If you aren’t familiar with ECECD (Early Childhood Education and Care Department) - it’s one of four cabinet level departments in the country focused on providing childcare, and importantly, combining previously separate divisions into one organization.

My focus has been learning more about all that goes in to providing early childhood education and childcare; it’s a lot! There is a lot of education and training for childcare professionals, which is vital for high quality, consistent and trustworthy services. It’s a very good start that the State upped the basic pay scale for childcare from $12 to $15/hour, but it’s just a start. It’s also very helpful that the State acted to do away with the copays for childcare services. However, we need better pay, better affordability and a lot more childcare options, and it takes time to create them. VERY frustrating for parents now.

In addition to the professionals who provide childcare services, there are many moving parts to creating the structures that serve to support care and education. There are a lot of regulations, requirements, and ways of showing accountability. Someone who plans to be an owner/operator of childcare services needs to learn a lot about the regulations and financial planning in order to adequately prepare for heading up an organization. Partnering with an educational organization is another option, which is also complex. My intent is to explore these areas intensively before developing a more specific plan.

Please feel free to contact me, Dr. Vicki Handfield (clinical psychologist here in Gallup), vhandfield@gmail.com or 609 841 9159. I welcome your comments, questions, thoughts!