The Challenge Finding quality, affordable childcare for working parents – and especially for shift workers who often have non-traditional hours – can be a huge challenge that impacts both working families and the businesses that employ them. Across Tennessee, more than 80% of parents of young children report employment disruptions due to inadequate childcare, citing…
» Read MoreYearly Archives: 2023
Teachers, Families and Businesses Win with New Paid Family Leave Policies
Celebrating New Paid Family Leave Policies in Tennessee: A Win for Families, Teachers, and Businesses Tennesseans for Quality Early Education (TQEE) is thrilled to celebrate the passage of groundbreaking legislation providing six weeks of paid family leave to state employees, including public educators, and introducing a new state tax credit to help businesses offer paid…
» Read MoreStatement on Tennessee’s gains in third grade reading
Following the release of statewide third grade reading test scores by the Tennessee Department of Education, Tennesseans for Quality Early Education issues the following statement: “We are glad to see that Tennessee students made historic gains in third grade reading scores this year. The 40 percent proficiency rate marks a 4.3 percentage point increase from…
» Read More2023 Legislative Wrap Up
Momentum builds for early care and education in Tennessee During the first year of the 113th Tennessee General Assembly, a large number of policy initiatives that align with Tennesseans for Quality Early Education’s Policy Blueprint 2.0 gained momentum. Below, we outline important legislative and budget items related to our priorities of high-quality birth-through-age-eight learning environments,…
» Read MoreServe & Return: How Child Development Starts at Home
Before children are old enough to walk or talk, their brains are being wired in ways that will impact how they learn later in life. Parent-child interactions serve as the earliest building blocks for physical, cognitive, and emotional development, particularly during early childhood. Parents can support the development of their children by actively participating in…
» Read MoreReading 360: Tackling Tennessee’s Literacy Crisis
What is Reading 360? Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, only a third of Tennessee’s 3rd graders were reading on grade level. To help tackle this crisis, the Tennessee Department of Education dedicated $100 million to an initiative called “Reading 360” to help school districts, teachers and families help struggling Tennessee students learn to read. Read…
» Read More