CLEVELAND — Trinea Welch is a mother of three girls: 1-year-old Bronx, 2-year-old Onyx and 4-year old Phoenix, who are benefitting from the Early Head Start and Head Start programs.

What You Need To Know

  • K-12 schools are facing more than 49,000 teaching vacancies in the United States

  • Step Forward offers no-cost educational programs for eligible children and families in Cuyahoga County, matching each client with with a service worker to assess their needs

  • The agency has closed 22 of their classrooms due to a shortage of teachers, leaving more than 600 students on their waiting list

“Phoenix has an IEP. She is autistic and nonverbal. So, she's been here since she was six months old,” Welch said. “... We found out she was autistic because her teacher in early—she came from early headstart—noticed that she has stopped responding to her name.”

But, Welch is more than just a client. She also works as a family service worker for Step Forward, which is the community action service agency that runs the Early Head Start and Head Start programs. The programs aim to educate and support young children from newborns to age 5.

“They provide the diapers. They're helping my four year old and my two year old potty train right now," Welch said. "We do have to provide pull ups, but it's really helpful because it's like we have a sense of community here."

The federally funded programs aim to provide a quality education and resources to underserved families at no cost, but they’re facing a major dilemma.

Thea Wilson is the vice president of Children and Families for Step Forward. She said there are more than 600 children stuck on their waiting list trying to get into the programs.

“We have 22 classrooms that are not open because we don't have the staff,” Wilson said. “On top of that, we have a waiting, we have a vacancy list of 59, and that's down actually from 100.”

The candidate pool for teachers is dwindling and has been getting worse since the pandemic, Wilson said, which could have a significant impact on the children and even the workforce.

“Parents can't afford not to have good daycare,” she said. “You want a workforce, they have to be able to send their child somewhere with a five star rating – or a now it's a gold rating – so that they can go to work.”

Welch said the program once helped her mother pursue higher education.

“This program for my family, personally, is life changing,” Welch said. “I was a Head Start baby, and me being in Head Start allowed my mother to go to school to be a nurse. She right now is getting her doctorate in nursing.”

Now, the programs are allowing her to do the same.

“If we didn't have this program, I wouldn't be able to work full time, and neither with my husband,” she said. “It allows us to work. I'm currently in a master's program to get a master's in child psychology.”