Dearest Educators
On behalf of the Virginia Department of Education, I wanted to take a moment to recognize what happened at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas this week and its implications for our work together. Like you, I was crushed to learn of this tragedy that took the lives of so many innocent young children and their educators. As a parent and as an early childhood educator, there is nothing more devastating than seeing this tragedy take place at a school, where families trust their children will be safe as they learn and grow.
The Division of Early Childhood Care and Education is here to support you. We wanted to share a few resources in this special Readiness Connections. These are difficult times and it is critical that we take care of each other. Of course, our first instincts are to make sure our children are okay. But we encourage everyone to make sure that our educators are okay too. We cannot offer our best selves for our children unless we take care of ourselves.
Looking ahead, we will continue to work with you all as well as our K-12 colleagues to ensure that we are supporting safety and reducing risk across all of our family day home, child care, Head Start, preschool and school-based early childhood settings. We cannot do this alone and ask for your help. Please reach out to earlychildhood@doe.virginia.gov if you have ideas or suggestions.
Thank you for your commitment to Virginia’s children.
Jenna Conway
Deputy Superintendent, Early Childhood Care and Education
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