Washington's Department of Children, Youth, and Families launches a multilingual portal to grow the early childhood workforce

The challenge

Washington is working to expand its early childhood education workforce. The people it needs to reach include current providers looking to advance, career changers, and residents considering the field for the first time. They had no single place to learn what the work involves, what qualifications it requires, or which colleges offer the programs that lead there.

The information existed, but it was scattered across institutions and agencies. Much of it was available only in English, even though the early learning workforce and the families it serves speak many languages. DCYF needed one clear, trustworthy resource that met people in their own language and pointed them to real, reachable programs.

The approach

DCYF's portal runs on Cloverleaf Sites, organized around the questions a prospective educator asks: what the work is, how to qualify, and where to study.

At its center is a searchable database of early childhood education degree programs across the state. Programs are geolocated, so a visitor can find the ones closest to where they live and work instead of reading through a statewide list. The database is structured content rather than static pages, which means programs can be filtered, searched, and updated as offerings change.

The full site is presented in English, Spanish, and Somali, so language access is part of how the resource works rather than an afterthought. It was built to WCAG 2.2 Level AA. The content architecture was designed so DCYF staff could publish and update everything on their own, including program listings, guidance, and news, without waiting on a vendor.

The results