From: Claire Beaver

To: Professor William Fine January 29th, 2023

Pennsylvania State University
Department of English
University Park, PA 16802

Subject: Implementation of Substitutes for Childcare Centers

Dear Professor Fine,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am reaching out to discuss an issue within childcare/early
learning that I think we can significantly approve on. The final report will be presented to the
head of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Khalid Mumin. This letter will provide
background information, a statement of the problem, a research plan with a schedule, and my
qualifications that will be useful to carry out this project.

Background

Childcare is something that most working adults rely on in order to work themselves. In a small
county in central Pennsylvania, there is an extremely large hospital that employs a large portion
of the county. The hospital employees count on the childcare centers in the county to care for
their children while they are working. It is no shock that people get sick, have family
emergencies, and deserve time off. All of those things apply to the childcare center staff as well.
However, due to lack of funding and availability, childcare centers are having a difficult time
finding substitutes to cover when the employees get sick, have an emergency, or want vacation
time.
Statement of the Problem/Business Challenge

The problem that I am referring to is the lack of funding and support for childcare centers to have
substitutes available given there is ever a need. School districts have substitutes they can call in
when an employee gets sick, has an emergency, or wants time off. They are able to do this
because they have the funding and support from the state of Pennsylvania. Also, there is a shared
list of substitutes between schools in Montour county and the districts surrounding the county.
The problem with childcare centers however, is that each are independently owned and operated.
Therefore, each childcare center is essentially on its own to figure out the problem of substitutes.
The proposal I am making is that the childcare centers in each county share a list of substitutes
that are funded by the state and available to all, similar to school districts.

Research Plans
I will begin my research by looking at how this issue affects my childcare/early learning center.
After, I will reach out to other local centers to see if this is an issue at their center and discuss my
findings. By working with other local centers, I will be creating a team that can help to control
this issue. Once the team is created, we can work together to compile a list of wants/needs for the
program. After some deliberation, we will create a final document based on our research and
goals for the program. I will share that document with each center in the area as well as the
individuals at the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Below is a schedule laying out how I
plan to gather information/research and address the issue.

Schedule

Week 1: Research frequency of call offs/time off at my early learning center

Week 2: Research how call offs affect operations of the center

Week 3: Contact centers in county about issue. How does it affect them?

Week 4: Gather list of wants for program from all centers in county

Week 5: Combine wants for program into a document

Week 6: Share document with other centers and collect feedback

Week 7: Make adjustments and continue collecting feedback

Week 8 - ∞: Compose a final document that can be share with PDE

Qualifications

My experience in an administrative role has not been extensive, around two and a half years.
However, during this time I have been in charge of staffing and scheduling for a large childcare/
early learning center in Montour county. I create a schedule each week for the staff of the early
learning center to ensure ratios are maintained at all times. Being in an administrative role helped
me to decide what type of career to pursue. My degree in Organizational and Professional
Communications is one that was recommended for someone who is pursuing a career in Human
Resources. Since scheduling and staffing is one of my major tasks, and it is vital to the
operations of the organization, I feel that resolving such a large issue would be beneficial to all
involved.
Conclusion
I hope that after reading through the details of this proposal you can see the potential impact a
program like this would have for childcare centers across the county. I would like to conclude
this proposal by asking for your support throughout this process. I also ask for any input that you
would deem beneficial to the success of this program. I have added my contact information
below, please reach out with any questions you may have about my proposal.

Sincerely,

Claire Beaver
Administrative Assistant
PSU World Campus Student
Email: ceb6238@psu.edu