Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many states—including New Hampshire—experienced a hiring crisis in their early education sector. In April 2021, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) was awarded over $29 million in Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) discretionary funding by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The state planned to use the ARPA Discretionary Funds (ARPA-D) to support the development of action plans that achieved the initiatives and objectives outlined in the New Hampshire Strategic Plan for Early Childhood in alignment with guidance from the federal Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

In March 2025, the DHHS published the “Outcome Summary of ARPA-D Contracted Initiatives: Strengthening New Hampshire’s Child Care System,” which highlights four ARPA-D funded vendor contracts that aimed to enhance the quality and sustainability of child care services across the state. One of those was Public Consulting Group’s (PCG’s) Child Care Workforce Recruiting, Retention, and Effective Practices Project.

PCG’s Expertise

PCG has longstanding expertise in both early childhood education (ECE) and workforce development services across the country. In addition to supporting staff recruitment and retention, the PCG ECE team has also piloted innovative workforce initiatives such as new apprenticeship programs, e-learning professional development, wellness initiatives, and career pathway re-designs. Additionally, PCG also leads workforce and systemwide needs assessments, facilitates strategic planning, and manages large-scale operations projects. Beyond programmatic expertise, PCG also has the structured systems, multidisciplinary teams, and agile approaches required to support the unique needs of each state. Many of our team members have worked in the very communities that we serve as educators and early care and education public administrators.

Project Summary and Successes

After being contracted in June 2023, PCG implemented a range of activities to support child care centers, family child care, and Head Start programs in staff recruitment and retention, which ultimately aimed to enhance the overall quality and sustainability of child care services across the state. These activities included:

• Family Child Care (FCC) Start-Up pilot program, which aimed to increase the availability of child care by assisting aspiring FCC providers with business practices for training and licensure
• A study to assess effective strategies for staff recruitment and retention
• The expansion of existing marketing programs to recruit and retain child care staff
• Increasing access to self-help wellness mental health supports for staff through outreach and coordination
• Expanding opportunities for professional development in higher education and certification programs

After 15 months, the project contributed to significant enhancements in New Hampshire’s child care workforce development efforts. Most notably:

• The FCC Start-Up pilot program exceeded expectations. In partnership with the United Way of Greater Nashua, PCG recruited an ethnically diverse group to participate in the FCC Start-Up pilot program, with 90 participants completing the program (500 percent more than original target), which was offered in English, Spanish, Swahili, Arabic, and Portuguese. The training program will be sustained by United Way utilizing braided philanthropic funds.
• PCG worked with Opportunities Exchange to develop a series of e-learning modules on supporting compensation and benefit strategies. These courses are available on the states learning management system and include critical information such as how to access the public health marketplace for benefits.
• PCG introduced a new wellness initiative to the state called Be Well Care Well. This initiative provided program support and coaching focused on educator wellbeing and promoted a positive workplace climate.

“Be Well Care Well has sparked enthusiasm amongst the staff,” said Phil Coad, New Hampshire Early Learning Program Director. “It has rekindled a level of camaraderie that the school hasn’t seen since before COVID-19.”

Future Considerations

In this project, PCG used a tailored approach to gather local workforce and stakeholder engagement. New Hampshire already had many innovative ideas to tackle its workforce challenges; these ideas just needed startup funding, operations support, and coordination, and PCG was able to meet these needs. PCG’s final report outlined promising practices and opportunities for taking these innovations and pilot programs to scale across the state.

“PCG brought its knowledge of the early care and education system to engage community agencies, philanthropy, early learning programs, providers, high schools, and higher education to support this effort,” said Allison Comport, Senior Consultant on PCG’s ECE team. “The collaboration on this project is what infused workforce supports into each aspect of the system and ultimately supported the project’s success.”

Learn more about PCG’s early childhood services here.