As Senior Research and Policy Associate, Elena’s current work focuses on the California Early Care & Education Workforce Study, early childhood workforce data, transitional kindergarten, monitoring California state policy related to the early childhood workforce, and providing technical assistance and advisement on workforce issues to working groups and external organizations. She has over 15 years of experience in early care and education, including stakeholder and community engagement and conducting research on early childhood teacher preparation programs. Prior to joining CSCCE in 2015, she conducted research on child care availability, need, and costs at the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network, led research projects on California early education and children’s well-being at Children Now, and served as the California state coordinator for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT project. Elena earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Texas and holds a California multiple subject teaching credential. She enjoys baking projects, reading cookbooks, and discovering new music.
Publications by Elena Montoya
Early Care and Education Programs During COVID-19: Persistent Inequities and Emerging Challenges
June 1, 2022 • Report • By Yoonjeon Kim, Elena Montoya, Lea J.E. Austin, Anna Powell and Wanzi Muruvi
This report takes a closer look at the impact of COVID-19 on early care and education (ECE) programs, staffing and disparities using data collected by the Center by the Center…
Double or Nothing? Potential TK Wages for California’s Early Educators
June 1, 2022 • Data Snapshot • By Anna Powell, Elena Montoya, Lea J.E. Austin and Yoonjeon Kim
California has proposed a broad expansion of transitional kindergarten (TK), a school-based early learning program serving four-year-olds. This improvement will make TK universally available to all four-year-olds by 2025, framed…
Still Nothing for California’s Child Care Workforce
June 1, 2022 • Blog • By Lea J.E. Austin and Elena Montoya
With the May budget revision, Governor Newsom failed once again to support the early education workforce that is the backbone of California’s economy. Despite a record budget, the people who…
May 5, 2022 • Peer-Reviewed Article • By Yoonjeon Kim, Elena Montoya, Sean Doocy, Lea J.E. Austin and Marcy Whitebook
In this article, published in the 3rd Quarter 2022 volume of Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Dr. Kim, Ms. Montoya, and co-authors highlight how the impacts of COVID-19 systematically varied between…
“The Forgotten Ones”—The Economic Well-Being of Early Educators During COVID-19
February 16, 2022 • Brief • By Anna Powell, Raúl Chávez, Lea J.E. Austin, Elena Montoya, Yoonjeon Kim and Abby Copeman Petig
This report provides a closer look at the well-being of the early care and education (ECE) workforce in California, using data collected by the Center for the Study of Child…
Education and Experience of the California ECE Workforce
February 7, 2022 • Data Snapshot • By Yoonjeon Kim, Lea J.E. Austin, Elena Montoya and Anna Powell
This publication is part of CSCCE’s 2020 California Early Care and Education (ECE) Workforce Study, the first comprehensive study of early educators in the state in…