Welcome to the first monthly ECE news bulletin for Orange County! To better serve the ECE community, OCAEYC will be sending out short monthly updates about events and resources to our community. If you have information that you would like added to our next news bulletin, please email it to [email protected] with "OCAEYC news bulletin" in the subject line.

  

Looking for the best practices to support the development of dual language learners?

• Read this research summary documenting the advantages of dual-language skills.
   
• Check out this short article from the Child Care Exchange  for some ideas of how to build these skills in children.
   
• Plan to attend our Collaborative OC ECE Conference on Saturday, November 21, 2015. While this exciting event provides professional development on many topics, this year's focus is dual language development.
   

For support in going beyond academics to help children develop essential social-emotional skills, see this article on "The Seven Essential Life Skills That Every Child Needs" from Mind in the Making. While you are there, consider buying a copy of the Mind in the Making book and check out their other resources to support child development. 

                                                                                                

The California Budget Act provides $2.8 Billion for State subsidized Child Care and Preschool Programs. The 2015-16 budget agreement includes $1.6 billion for non-CalWORKs programs, $1.1 billion for CalWORKs programs, and $150 million for support programs.The largest augmentations are for increases in reimbursement rates and additional slots, which receive an additional $163 million and $133 million, respectively. The budget provides for a 5 percent increase to the Standard Reimbursement Rate (SRR). For the State Preschool program-this 5 percent increase is in addition to the 1 percent increase to the part-day rate.

The budget also provides $24 million in one-time funds to support a QRIS block grant to support improvements in care for infants and toddlers.

 

Legislation related to Early Education continues to move forward. Bills are proceeding to the Appropriations Committee. The Legislature has until the end of September to approve all bills.

 

One controversial bill has already passed through the Legislature and has been signed by the Governor into law. All children must now be fully immunized before entering school, including early education programs. Only specific medical exemptions are allowed.