Understanding Shared Services in Early Childhood Education

Leverage shared services alliances and knowledge hubs to increase skills, save time and money, and advance the field of early childhood education.

Shared services is a fairly new concept in the early childhood space but one that is gaining traction through the work of a number of individuals and organizations across the country. Understanding Shared Services in Early Childhood Education, a Redleaf Quick Guide, provides context surrounding the history of early childhood education and child care to explain the genesis of current crises in the field, then explains how utilizing shared services systems including knowledge hubs and alliances can help by pooling resources and information and sharing access to technology. Among many other possibilities, shared services may:  

• Offer resources or assistance in automating business records and processes
• Centralize resources and services such as substitute pools or payroll among programs
• Secure bulk discounts for members
• Standardize policies and procedures such as tuition collection or onboarding employees.

Leveraging shared services knowledge hubs and alliances together allows us to collaborate with other professionals and save time and money, focusing these resources instead on increasing quality, addressing workforce issues, and expanding access of services to children and families with fewer barriers. When we bridge the gap between child care center and family care providers we make the field stronger and more successful.


About the Author
A past president of the New Jersey branch of NAEYC, Amanda L. Krause-DiScala has been a preschool and kindergarten teacher as well as serving as a center director for over a decade, at Bridges to Learning Child Development Center, Rockaway, New Jersey. Currently Krause-DiScala is an adjunct professor at the County College of Morris, Randolph, NJ. Working for the United Way, Krause-DiScala is the Child Care Specialist on the shared services project that engages Child Care Centers and Family Child Care Homes in a hub and spoke model system to reimagine child care in New Jersey. She is also the Shared Resources Program Manager for NJAEYC.