
A Bold Budget for Children
The President’s
strong commitment to our youngest learners is evident in the 2016 budget request. If passed, this budget would lay a strong
foundation for children’s learning and development from birth to kindergarten
and beyond.
At Education, the budget proposes
investments to support young children including:
-
A
commitment by the federal government of $75 billion over 10 years for Preschool for All to help states
implement voluntary, universal high-quality preschool programs for all
4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families;
-
$750
million to significantly extend the reach of the Preschool Development Grants to help states, as
well as the Bureau of Indian Education, tribal educational agencies,
territories, and the Outlying Areas, expand high-quality preschool programs in
local communities across the nation. Up to $20 million of this request would be
used to test innovative approaches to strengthening the effectiveness of early
learning interventions and improving the transitions of children from preschool
into kindergarten through third grade.
-
An
increase of $65 million for Early Intervention Program for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities;
-
$50
million more to support Preschool Grants for Children with Disabilities; and
-
An
increase of $1 billion for Title I Grants, funds for which can
be used to support early learning and currently
support over 600,000 children before they enter kindergarten.
At Health and Human
Services,
the budget proposes investments to support young children including:
-
$82
billion to support Child Care and ensure that all families with
incomes below 200% of the poverty line with children under age four, have
access to high quality child care so that parents can work, attending school,
or participate in training;
-
$1.5 billion increase
for Head Start, including funding
to extend half-day programs
to full-day;
-
$650 million
to expand the Early Head Start – Child Care Partnerships; and
-
$500
million proposal for the home
visiting program in FY 2016, and a commitment to a $15 billion investment
over 10 years for evidence-based home visiting programs.
The
President laid out a bold vision that reflects the
belief that every single child in America deserves the opportunity for success
in school and in life. To learn more, please see the President's
FY 2016 Budget Request for the U.S. Department of Education.
To
achieve the promise early learning offers requires substantial new dollars at every point along the continuum. President
Obama’s 2016 budget invests in our youngest learners and would finally help
us build the early learning system of programs our children need and deserve.
|

Interview with Clayton Burch, Chief Academic Officer for Teaching and Learning, West Virginia Department of Education
by Senior Policy Advisor Steven Hicks
It’s hard to find people at the state level that don’t
support early childhood. But what you really need isn’t just people who
say it; you need people willing to step up and advocate for it. Saying
you support early childhood is one thing, but in the state of West Virginia,
what we’ve been able to do in the last decade is we don’t just want legislators
saying they support early childhood. We want to work with them so they
understand how to support early childhood. We have a governor’s office
and a state board of education that says we really know what we’re talking
about. When they say early childhood, it’s not just kindergarten anymore
in West Virginia. They want to talk birth through eight years old.
And they want to have a comprehensive conversation.
Read
the complete interview here.
|

Montana
received a $10 million Development Grant for the first year
The state of Montana is
focused on increasing high-quality preschool for children throughout the state
as evidenced by Governor Bullock’s Early Edge Preschool Initiative which would
provide $37 million in state funds for preschool education, new program and
accreditation standards for state funded preschool, and revised education
requirements and licensure qualifications for public preschool teachers. Nearly half of Montana children live at or
below 200% of the federal poverty level. Read Montana's abstract here.
Read Montana's application here.
|

This Months Spotlight is on Minnesota
Minnesota
has recently released its
Knowledge and Competency Frameworks. There are currently three new versions of
the document. One version is for those working
in Family Child Care; one for those working with preschool-age
children; and one for those working
with infants and toddlers. These documents, created through Race to the Top-Early
Learning Challenge funding, combine the Board of Teaching (BOT) Standards and
field-developed competencies to describe what adults working with young
children need to know and be able to do. This unique combination responds to
concerns of employers that people entering the field with degrees don’t always
have the practical skills needed and those entering through in-service and
experience sometimes don’t have the theory that is essential. By combining BOTH
standards and competencies, theory is married to skills. Each of the documents articulates competencies at three
levels - Explores, Implements and Designs and Leads. The levels align
horizontally to show a progression of skills that is not dependent on the
educational level but rather on the competence demonstrated. Minnesota will use the documents as the basis for
professional development regardless of delivery method.
|

Incorporating early learning strategies in
the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program
The Center on Enhancing Early Learning
Outcomes (CEELO), along with the Center on School Turnaround, released case studies exploring how School
Improvement Grant (SIG) winners were incorporating the early grades into their
efforts.
Upcoming
Webinar: Supporting Principal Leadership for Pre-K – 3rd Grade
Learning Communities
March 2 at
3:00-4:15 pm EST, CEELO, The National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP),
and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State
Departments of Education (NAECS-SDE) will host a webinar on supporting principal leadership for P-3
communities. Click here for more information. A CEELO FastFact and NAESP Executive Summary provide background.
|

New Resources on Sustaining ECE Financing
The ELC TA program worked collaboratively with other TA
partners to compile a Summary of Resources on Sustaining Early Care and
Education Financing. This annotated list includes blending and braiding
funding; state-specific funding scans; strategies specific to sustaining pre-k
and other programs; tax credits; public-private partnerships; and social impact
bonds/pay for success. Read more here.
|

What is the DaSy Data System Framework
The DaSy Data
System Framework is the Data
Systems Component of the larger ECTA System
Framework for Part C & Section 619
and includes specific quality indicators and elements of quality for each of
the following data systems subcomponents:
Purpose & Vision, Data Governance & Management, Stakeholder Engagement, System Design & Development, Data Use and Sustainability.
|

Top 10 Reasons for High Quality Early Learning Programs
Here are some top 10 reasons why you should enroll your
child in a high-quality early learning program.
Read more here.
|

OSEP-funded Supporting Change and Reform in Preservice Teaching in North Carolina (SCRIPT-NC) Beginning in February, OSEPwill be offering free webinars for early childhood
faculty nationwide. The primary audience for these monthly
webinars are faculty in early childhood associate degree programs, but the
content and resources also are relevant for bachelor’s level instruction and
other forms of professional development. You can sign up here for the webinars.
OSEP’s
Center on Technology and Disability (CTD) has a number of resources for
families and providers on acquiring and using effective assistive technology
(AT) and instructional technology (IT) for children with disabilities to
participate fully in daily routines, early learning opportunities, and
interactions with others. CTD will be holding a free three-week
e-learning module on Instructional Technology in Early Childhood, and a Café
event on AT for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers. Sign up for these
events and find additional resources at CTD’s website here.
|

Stepping Up Early Childhood Development
A new World Bank report, Stepping Up Early Childhood
Development, provides a practical guide for policymakers and practitioners
about how to invest in young children. It identifies 25 essential ECD
interventions that can be delivered through five integrated packages at
different stages in a child’s life, spanning the education, health, nutrition,
water, sanitation, and social protection sectors. Read more here.
|

The Child Care Technical Assistance Network (CCTAN) A service of the
Office of Child Care (OCC), is pleased to announce a page on its Web site
dedicated to the new National Center on Early Head Start – Child Care
Partnerships (NCEHS-CCP). The Web page, which can be found at http://childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/early-head-start,
contains a wide range of links and resources on topics pertinent to Early Head
Start – Child Care Partnerships, including:
- Reports highlighting lessons learned from successful partnerships
- Information on Early Head Start and child care policies and regulations
- Resources on relationship-building, fiscal management, and professional development for early care and education staff
- Links to other useful Web sites highlighting partnership best practices.
For any questions or concerns, please contact the Child
Care State Systems Specialist Network.
|
 The Roles Kids Play
There are many roles that kids can play. Kids can bully others, they can be bullied, or they may witness bullying. When kids are involved in bullying, they often play more than one role. Read more here.
|
 Early childhood often marks the first
opportunity for young children to interact with each other. Between the ages of
3 and 5, kids are learning how to get along with each other, cooperate, share,
and understand their feelings.
Read more here.
|
 Free USDA Resources for National School Breakfast Week (March 2-6, 2015) Request these free Team Nutrition materials for your School Breakfast
Program activities. Shipping usually takes 2-4 weeks. Order now to have
materials for National School Breakfast Week! Read more here.
|

State Pre-K Funding: 2014-15 fiscal year
A new ECS
analysis of 2014-15 appropriations by the 50 states, found that 28 states plus
the District of Columbia increased their investments in pre-K, and state
investments in pre-K rose by 12 percent nationally. California led the nation
with a 79 percent funding increase, to a total of $397,500,000. Read more here.
Trends in teacher certification: Equipping teachers to prepare proficient readers, a new ECS trends analysis looks at several states and how they have begun requiring teacher candidates to pass a reading instruction test before being licensed.
|

A New Brief from the Institute for Child Success
When
Brain Science Meets Public Policy: Strategies for Building Executive Function
Skills in the Early Years, explores the development of executive function
and self-regulation skills, identifies evidence-based and promising practices
that foster them, and suggests four strategic opportunities for policy makers. Read more here.
|

Economic Benefits Shown by Improving U.S. Educational
Outcomes A new report shows that by improving educational performance, the
United States could increase its gross domestic product over the next 35 years. Read more here.
|

Early Care and Education 2014 Legislative Action
In review of the 2014
legislative session, state lawmakers addressed an array of policy issues
relating to young children through the introduction of more than 900 bills in
49 states. Read more here.
|

Two Generations Together: Case Studies from Head Start
Last
month The National Head Start Association (NHSA) released a
report “Two Generations
Together,”
highlighting the exceptional efforts of Head Start programs in designing
effective two-generation solutions aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty and
putting families on the path to self-sufficiency.
|

Access to State-Supported Early Childhood Programs
A study published by the American Educational Research Association finds
when children have access to state-supported early childhood programs; they're
less likely to be placed in special education by the end of third grade. Read more here
|

Collecting Data on New Technology usage in Early Literacy
Over
the next few months, New America’s Early Education Initiative and the Joan Ganz
Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop are collecting data to map early literacy
programs that use new technologies. If you are a program that promotes children's language development, emergent literacy skills, basic reading skills, or reading comprehension skills, go here for more information.
|

Council CEO’s Exchange Article Looks at Value
of Degree Programs
Valora Washington, Ph.D., chief executive officer for the
Council for Professional Recognition, is a contributing writer in the
January/February issue of Exchange Magazine. "Degree
Programs: Progress and Pitfalls for ECE," offers a balanced
view of higher education's shortcomings while also illustrating examples where
colleges and universities have teamed with the Council to meet the demand for
competent early childhood professionals. Log on to www.cdacouncil.org for
more information.
|

WATCH ME GROW!
Watch this short video to explore basic principles of child development. This information can help staff as they support and individualize care for infants and very young children.
|
 Early Childhood Teacher Certification: The current state policies landscape and opportunities
A new brief from the National Association for the
Education of Young Children, "Early
Childhood Teacher Certification: The current state policies landscape
and opportunities," and new state profiles are available on NAEYC’s
website. Read more here.
|
 President Obama's National Day of Service
President Obama spent the 2015 MLK National Day of Service alongside with Jumpstart Corps members from George Washington University at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington.
|
|
|