Early Childhood Development

1
Early Childhood Development

• FY 2010-2011 Budget

2
Overview

• Provide every child a fair start through access
  to
• high quality services and supports that promote
• the comprehensive early childhood development
• of young children.
• This executive budget
• Aligns state policy
• Maximizes federal resources
• Builds an integrated system
• Focuses on the whole child
• Targets low-income families

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Budget Context

• U.S. in a recession since December 2007
• Increased unemployment and decreased consumer
  spending have direct impacts on 75 of Ohios tax
  sources
• Decline in GRF tax revenues during the last two
  years and will continue through FY 10
• TANF Block Grant 1.1 billion FY 09 spending is
  currently 1.5 billion.

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Background

• Early experiences determine whether a childs
  brain architecture will provide a strong or weak
  foundation for all future learning, behavior, and
  health.
• Young children need positive relationships, rich
  learning opportunities, and safe environments,
  not quick fixes or magic bullets.
• Ensuring that children have positive experiences
  prior to entering school is likely to lead to
  better outcomes than remediation programs at a
  later age, and significant up-front costs can
  generate a strong return on investment.
• Center on the Developing Child, Harvard
  University

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Ohios Vision

• All children are valued, healthy and happy
• Our Goals
• Children have high quality early care and
  education supports and environments.
• Children have supports and services to promote
  their comprehensive healthy development.
• Families have meaningful community and parenting
  supports.

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• Ohios Early Childhood Development comprehensive
  system serves children through the following
  subsystems
• Early Care and Education- Nurturing environments
  where children can learn what they need to
  succeed in school and life
• Health, Mental Health and Nutrition-
  Comprehensive health services that meet
  childrens vision, hearing, nutrition,
  behavioral, and oral health as well as medical
  health needs
• Special Needs/Early Intervention- Early
  identification, assessment and appropriate
  services for children with special health care
  needs, disabilities, or developmental delays and
• Family Supports- Economic and parenting supports
  to ensure children have nurturing and stable
  relationships with caring adults.

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System Elements

• Governance
• Quality Standards
• Regulatory
• Professional Development
• Communication
• Accountability
• Financing
• Services

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Governance

• Create a single administrative structure with the
  authority and responsibility to implement and
  coordinate early childhood programs and services
  for children prenatal until entry into
  kindergarten by
• Creating the Center for Early Childhood
  Development, co-locating staff to the Ohio
  Department of Education. Functions of the Office
  of Early Childhood Development include
  licensing, quality, research, professional
  development, communications, accountability, and
  regulations and
• Codifying the Early Childhood Advisory Council to
  advise the state regarding the implementation of,
  and the on-going activities of, the Center for
  Early Childhood Development.

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Quality Standards

• Improve the quality of early care and education
  programming and ensure standards for
  practitioners and programs are aligned and
  developmentally appropriate to promote the
  optimal development of young children by
• Effectively using the quality set aside on Child
  Care Development Block Grant to continue the Step
  Up to Quality Program, professional development
  supports and core child care resource and
  referral services and
• Developing a single set of standards and
  guidelines for children and programs serving
  children birth-5.

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Regulatory

• Increase compliance with standards that promote
  the health and safety of young children, provide
  families with information to use when selecting a
  setting for their child and establish the
  foundation for Ohios definition of quality in
  all out of home settings by
• Creating a single regulatory process for all
  early care and education programs
• Increasing minimum licensing requirements and
  professional development for lead teachers and
• Developing a legislative vehicle for licensing
  family child care providers through the Center of
  Early Childhood Development.

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Professional Development

• Provide early childhood professionals with
  access to professional development opportunities
  and on-going supports that build their knowledge,
  competencies and skills for working with young
  children by
• Requiring professional development to be entered
  in or linked to the Ohios Professional
  Development Training Registry
• Establishing a common trainer and training
  approval process for specialized training
  required through ODE, ODJFS and ODH
• Developing a core knowledge and competencies
  document for directors and administrators that
  serves as the foundation for the creation of an
  administration credential
• Implementing a system of tiered professional
  development for early childhood professionals
  based on the core knowledge and competencies
  and
• Aligning professional development opportunities
  within a P-16 framework.

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Comprehensive Family Supports and Services

• Ensure high quality services are available,
  accessible and
• affordable to families to address the
  comprehensive
• development of their child by
• Redefining the core services of Help Me Grow to
  include evidence or research based practices for
  home visiting services and maternal depression
  screening
• Developing a statewide coordinated communication
  plan for families with young children and
• Aligning the eligibility definitions of Part C
  (Early Intervention) and Part B (Preschool
  Special Education).
• Maintaining funding for Early Childhood Mental
  Health consultation and targeting services to
  Ohios most vulnerable children and early care
  and education programs
• Health insurance available for child up to 300
  of poverty

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Financing

• Explore the development of a single stream of
  stable funding, sufficient to support and sustain
  services and quality enhancements required for an
  effective, coherent, equitable early childhood
  system and streamline existing eligibility and
  payment systems by
• Establishing an Early Childhood Financing
  Workgroup to explore a single financing system
  for early care and education programs that
  includes aligned payment systems and consistent
  eligibility criteria and family co-payment
  policies
• Automating eligibility processes to include
  child care and developing a streamlined payment
  process through a statewide time and attendance
  system
• Continuing quality achievement awards to support
  the maintenance of quality standards and
• Expanding all day Kindergarten in every school
  district in Ohio.

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Budget Highlights

• Reduce dependency on TANF
• Increase state investment in early childhood
  services
• Reliant on the Federal Stimulus to maintain
  eligibility levels and provider rates

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Budget Highlights

• Child Care
• 200 of poverty
• 65th percentile of 2006
• Re-define hourly, part-time and full-time
• Quality budget reduced by nearly 20
• Licensing staff
• Quality achievement awards
• Child care resource and referral
• Technical assistance networks
• T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood Ohio

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Budget Highlights

• Early Learning Initiative
• 8,000 funded slots
• Per child amount remaining
• Re-define hourly, part-time and full-time
• Co-payment changes
• Requirement to be rated
• Early Childhood Education
• Funding maintained at FY09 levels

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Budget Highlights

• Help Me Grow
• TANF funding eliminated future Medicaid funding
• Home visiting focused on pregnant, first-time
  moms under 200 of poverty
• Develop a package of services of children with
  delays and/or disabilities
• Reduce caseloads
• Maternal depression screening
• Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
• Support through Child Care Quality budget
• Targeted services to programs serving low income
  children

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Connection to K-12 Reform

• All day K
• Teacher Licensure
• Professional Development
• Family Engagement Coordinators