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Welcome to the May/June edition of the HSSCO Newsletter.
Session is winding down and we are all looking forward to the continued support
of comprehensive, quality services to young children and families across the
state. This past month was full of celebrations and changes at the local, state
and federal levels. The Early Head
Start-Child Care Partnership and Early Head Start Expansion awards were
announced, assuring 460 additional infants and toddlers in Washington will
receive high-quality services.
The HSSCO will start preparing for the next five-year grant
application and needs assessment, so be on the lookout for partnership and
input opportunities. Please feel free to contact the HSSCO office at any time.
We look forward to hearing from you! As always, thank you for what you do every
day for children and families.
Wishing you all smooth transitions into summer!
Caitlin Jensen, HSSCO Administrator
 The Department of Early Learning has announced that Dr. Bette Hyde will leave her position as director after six years of leading the department. Dr. Hyde will stay until August 31 to complete work in the legislative session which has a heavy early learning agenda and to provide time to find a new director.
You can read a personal note from Bette here.
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Congratulations
to the Nisqually Tribe Head Start, Puget Sound ESD, Children’s Home Society,
and ESD #114 for your Early Head Start Partnership awards, and to Family
Services of Grant County, Children’s Home Society, and ESD #117 for your Early
Head Start Expansion awards. The Head Start State Collaboration looks forward
to partnering with the EHS-CC Partnerships in the coming months to support
implementation efforts! The Washington Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership
teams, as well as a representatives from Department of Early Learning Licensing, Child
Care Development Fund, and HSSCO will join partners from Region IX and X at an
orientation in San Francisco, May 4-7. The orientation experience will provide
information and resources specifically designed for the EHS-CC Partnership
grantees. We look forward to sharing information about the orientation and
updates reports as we move through the implementation phase. Click
here for additional information about the Early Head Start – Child Care
Partnership Initiative
The
Early Learning Advisory Council (ELAC) has been engaged in a series of planning
sessions to fully embed a racial equity lens into the work of the ELAC,
including agreeing on common language, a framework and inquiries to address
existing barriers and eliminate race and risk factors as predictors of success
for young children in the state of Washington. One of the Council’s goals
is to build on our state’s successful efforts, such as the Racial
Equity Theory of Change, and other tools to develop an equity
lens. This will help ELAC facilitate conversations and provide advice to
DEL, so ELAC is intentionally and meaningfully informing policy, practice,
program quality and access to services. The Council is taking a strong
leadership role in recognizing and focusing on closing opportunity gaps in the
early learning system to help our state move closer to ensuring that all
children and families have what they need to thrive. For questions or
more information, please contact elac@del.wa.gov.
Upcoming ELAC Meetings
Members of the public are welcome to attend ELAC meetings. Public comment
periods are offered throughout each meeting. The locations and times vary for
each meeting.
- June 2, 2015
- August -To be determined
- October 6, 2015
- December 1, 2015
For more information and to read minutes and materials from past meetings visit: http://www.del.wa.gov/partnerships/elac/meetings.aspx
Our first HS/ECEAP Advisory Committee meeting of 2015 will take place on May 20th from 11-12 am. These meetings will take place quarterly unless urgent issues emerge. If you'd like to be a part of this committee please email April Messenger.
Our first meeting this year will consist of reviewing the updates and changes to the state profile report. You can find a draft of the report here. We greatly encourage your input, so please email April if you have any suggestions. The new update will be available in PDF form on the DEL website this summer.
You can find the 2012 profile here.
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August 3, 2015— Preconference
August 4 & 5, 2015—Conference and Exhibits
Greater Tacoma Convention Center
Tacoma, WA
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Teacher Time: Webinar
Friday, May 8, 12 PM
Do the children in your
classroom love to dig, smell, touch, and explore? How do these activities
connect with science learning? Join us to discover innovative ways to help
preschool children learn with Take
it Outside! Adventures in Nature with STEAM. When you bring natural objects like stones and leaves inside (or take
the children outside!) you can help them think like scientists and describe
what they’re doing, seeing, feeling, and hearing.
In this webinar, Dr.
Gail Joseph and Samantha Dolan will share nature-based learning ideas and
activities. You’ll find strategies from STEAM (science, technology,
engineering, art, and math) that will encourage you to explore the outdoors
with the children in your class.
There
is no need to pre-register. On the day of the webinar, select this link to
join: http://teachertime.org/
To
see more on this topic, check out the Nature-Based Learning and Development
portal on the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center
(ECLKC).
Concious Discipline Webinar Series
Wednesday May 13, 2015 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Recurring Every Wednesday Through June 10th, 2015
In this five part webinar series you will not only learn how to positively discipline children but literally change their brain chemistry in the process. Learn the Seven Powers for Self Control that will help you embrace conflict as a teaching opportunity, and the Seven Basic Skills of Discipline.
WSA Summer Institute
June 22-24
Register Here!
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WAEYC Conference 2015
The 2015 conference will be held at the Seattle Hilton and Convention Center
October 29, 30 and 31, 2015
Register Here!
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The Department of Early Learning (DEL), in partnership with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Thrive by Five Washington, published the Early Learning and Development Guidelines (guidelines) for children from birth through third grade. The guidelines replace the Early Learning and Development Benchmarks, which were first created in 2005 to outline what children know and are able to do at different stages of their development.
The Guidelines are available in English and Spanish. Download an electronic copy here.
Hard copies of the Guidelines are free of charge, but people who order are responsible to pay for handling and shipping. Order them at myprint.wa.gov
 You can read more about the guidelines, download a copy or order hard copies by visiting http://www.del.wa.gov/development/guidelines/
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 James McBride, Jamie Lynn Devries, and Robb Atherton, Past Head Start Parent Ambassadors of LCC and WSA Director Joel Ryan
 Area Manager, Teachers, Family Advocates and Grandma's
Lower Columbia College Head Start celebrated the
50th Anniversary of Head Start in Longview, WA. on April 21st
with 282 community, staff and parents. Joel Ryan, Executive Director of
the Washington State Head Start/ECEAP Association (WSA) was the keynote.
Senator Murray welcomed everyone through a video message, which was
presented by David Hodges, Southwest Washington Director for U.S. Senator Patty
Murray. Special testimonies were given from Tori
Bernier, Nurse Manager of the birth Center at PeaceHealth who was a past Head
Start child, Rochelle Rascon, Lead Teacher – Past Head Start parent and Jessica
Eyle, current Parent Head Start. The testimonies were inspirational to
everyone who attended. A special tribute was given to the Wollenberg Foundation and NORPAC for their support of the local Head Start program for over 20 years. Sandy Junker, Director closed the event with final remarks on specific accomplishments of the program, special recognition of other community partners and acknowledgement of the staff within the organization.
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Artwork from Lower Columbia College Head Start Children.
Joel and Hana from WSA, Sandy Junker, LCC Director and Caitlin Jensen, HSSCO
A special tribute was given to the Wollenberg Foundation and NORPAC for their support of the local Head Start program for over 20 years. Sandy Junker, Director closed the event with final remarks on specific accomplishments of the program, special recognition of other community partners and acknowledgement of the staff within the organization.
If you have pictures of celebrations, please send them to us!
The
final Preschool Operational Work Group (POWG) meeting is scheduled for May 8th
in Spokane at ESD 101. The POWG committee has worked hard over the past
year to learn about evidence-based curricula and family support models.
Collectively, the POWG has worked together to develop strategies for improving
the implementation of the new Full School Day and Extended Day ECEAP models.
An email request was sent out to Head Start/Early Head Start
Directors from the HSSCO to identify strategies and efforts regarding statewide
data collection in early care and education. If you would like to participate
in the survey, or provide feedback on this topic, please click on (survey link). Please
complete the survey by May 15th.
If you haven't already, please complete this survey by Monday May 15th.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/H3MF3F3
The Department of Early Learning
(DEL) learned in March 2015 that the deadline for submitting the Child Care and
Development Plan is moved to March 1, 2016. The federal Office of Child Care
moved this plan submittal forward so that States would have sufficient time to
plan and start to implement the elements in the Child Care and Development
Block Grant (CCDBG) Reauthorization. DEL is actively getting input into the
upcoming plan from the Early Learning Advisory Council, the Indian Early
Learning Policy group, and a group of executive stakeholders convened by Dr.
Hyde. Internal to DEL, staff have identified and are putting project plan into
place for 28 different areas. Additional stakeholder review and feedback of the
plan will be held in the Fall.
Last week, the Office of Child
Care convened a Region XI and X meeting to discuss the reauthorization in San
Francisco. States presented on different ways that they are meeting the new
CCDBG law. States were told that a new CCDF pre-print would be available in
May, and that draft rules were underway.
Dr. Blanca Enriquez has been appointed to lead the Office of Head Start.
Dr. Enriquez will be leading
one of our nation’s most essential early care and education programs, and one
in which she has been deeply involved for almost 28 of those years. I am
confident she will prove to be an inspirational leader for children and
families.
You can read a blog post from her about her appointement to OHS here.
Visions for Early Learning (VEL), the West Central Regional
Early Learning Coalition, continues its commitment to providing early learning
professionals with opportunities to expand their competence around race equity
by empowering educators to address the ways race impacts the learning
experiences of our region’s earliest learners.
We are excited to again offer the beginning workshop to our
three workshop series through Cultures Connecting, Advancing Racial Equity in
Early Learning, to a wider audience of educators through this year’s P-3
Starting Strong Institute, August 3, 4, and 5th at the Tacoma
Convention Center. VEL’s Advancing Racial Equity session is on the last day of
the conference, August 5th from 1:30 p.m. until 3:30 p.m .
Registration is open for Starting Strong at: https://center.uoregon.edu/StartingStrong/2015/registration/.
Please contact Jane
Partridge at jpartridge@esd113.org
with questions or if the costs for Starting Strong prove to be a barrier to
participating in the Advancing Racial Equity sessions.
The series will continue with two FREE follow-up Advancing
Racial Equity trainings offered at Capital Region Educational Service District
in Tumwater on Aug 19 and Sept 23, 2015. Clock and STARS hours are available
for both. While attendance in at least one Advancing Racial Equity session
through Cultures Connecting is recommended, any participants willing to
participate in both full-day sessions are welcome to register. Registration for
the Advancing Racial Equity series through ESD 113 is available by clicking the
following links: August 19, 2015: https://www.escweb.net/wa_esd113/catalog/session.aspx?session_id=52818,)
and Sept. 23, 2015: https://www.escweb.net/wa_esd113/catalog/session.aspx?session_id=52819.
We welcome Stephanie Liden
to the Department of Early Learning as the Communications Manager at our
Olympia headquarters.
Stephanie brings experience
from non-profit healthcare, corporate communications, city government and
higher education. She joins us from Northwestern Minnesota and is eager to
share her expertise in writing for corporate and non-profit public relations, community
relations, social media, web content management and design.
Stephanie graduated with a
B.A. in Communications and her M.A. in English from the University of North
Dakota. Welcome, Stephanie!
If you have any questions
regarding branding, media or communications, please contact her via email at Stephanie.liden@del.wa.gov or give her a call at 360-725-4392.
July 16 - 19, 2015 - Three Rivers Convention Center, Kennewick
July 30 - August 2, 2015 - The Marriott – Seattle Airport, SeaTac
November 19 - 22, 2015 - Edward D. Hansen Conference Center, Eve
Registration for the July Institute opens in Mid-May. Visit http://depts.washington.edu/cqel/site/Institutes.php for more information and registration information.
DEL
http://del.wa.gov/about/jobs.aspx
CCA
http://www.hagelsearch.com/#!childcareaware/cng5
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