Alignment. Quality. Access.
OECD leads the state's initiatives to create an integrated system of quality, early learning and development programs to help give all Illinois children a strong educational foundation before they begin kindergarten.
Learn more.
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Theresa Hawley
Executive Director |
As many of you know, this is my last newsletter as Executive Director of GOECD. As of December 1st, I will be returning to my consulting practice, hopefully to focus on national early childhood policy.
We have accomplished a great deal in the past few years together: launching ExceleRate Illinois, creating supports for programs seeking Awards of Excellence in five different areas, testing new approaches to connecting families to the services they need in our eleven Innovation Zones, redesigning teacher preparation programs in two-year and four-year colleges across the state, and so much more.
I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to my team here at OECD, our partners in the state agencies and in organizations throughout Illinois, and all of you for your willingness to take on such an ambitious agenda and to make so much progress as we have worked to "Race to the Top." I am confident the great work will continue over the closing year of the Early Learning Challenge and beyond. I look forward to hearing the stories of your many successes on behalf of children and families in our state.
All the best,
Theresa
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Childcare Licensing Goes Tech Savvy
In 2014,
OECD made Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Grant funds available to Dept. of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for the purchase of laptop/tablets and portable printers to be used in the field by Day Care Licensing Representatives (DCLRs) and supervisors. After careful research and testing, DCFS distributed and trained all licensing staff on the new technology over the summer of 2015. DCLRs are now able to, with WI-FI connections from anywhere, securely check email, print and distribute forms, look up information contained in the DCFS Information System (IMSA) regarding parameters of the license, background clearances, driver's clearances, etc. This investment has paid off and providers are already noting the improved communication and on-site efficiency due to the new technology.
The remaining funds will be used towards the development or purchase of monitoring application software and an automated, online application system. When fully functional, the software is anticipated to improve time-management, streamline the monitoring process for DCLRS and the application process for providers, reduce time-consuming errors, reduce printing and mailing costs, provide improved service, and alleviate communication delays regarding violations and appeal rights.
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News from the 2015 Annual PDG and RTT-ELC Grantee Meeting
The Annual Preschool Development Grant (PDG) and Race to the Top (RTT) Grantee Meeting was held this October in Arlington, VA. Illinois' team included representatives from ISBE, OECD, Head Start Collaboration Office, INCCRRA, and a PDG grantee. The program offered a wide array of presentations on a variety of topics including, a "Deeper Dive on the Developing Brain
" and "Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce-Exploring State Models with Promising Results". Returning OECD staff reported that the meeting was extremely informative and they were able to network and learn a lot from other states.
If you're interested in seeing some of the presentations for yourself, click
here for the meeting agenda and links to the talks mentioned above, as well as, see some videos from the conference!
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Annual Performance Reports Released
 The Annual Performance Report showing the accomplishments of the twenty states which are recipients of the Race to the Top grant was published in October. This high level report covers the work that RTT grantees have completed and the progress they made in 2014. Illinois was featured for its work in cross-matching information from multiple data sets in order to ensure quality of reporting total sites in unduplicated numbers. Collectively, the Race to the Top states have made great strides in the early childhood sector including helping to enroll over 200,000 children with high needs in state-funded preschool programs in the highest quality tiers in their state's Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement Systems . For a closer look, see the full report
here!
For more detailed information on Illinois, see the individual State APR available at this
link.
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Williamson County Innovation Zone Receives Grant for Improved Healthcare Access
In order to more tightly link healthcare and early childhood, the Williamson County Innovation Zone has received a one-year grant of $99,000.00 from the Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation . This funding will enable the Williamson County Innovation Zone to to expand its developmental screening collaborative to 14 counties in the Southern Illinois region and hire a health consultant. Through this initiative, the Innovation Zone intends to engage medical professionals in the collaborative as well as collect and use data to build a screening history for children in order to inform policy formation . The project will benefit 3,750 students throughout the year and the impact of the systemic work of this grant will be felt outside the region as well. For more information, contact Lori Longueville at Lori.Longueville@jalc.edu
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Illinois Action for Children to Host Webinars on Innovation Zones
Race to the Top sub-grantee , Illinois Action for Children (IAFC), is excited to announce that they will be hosting a series of webinars on Innovation Zones and Community Engagement. The webinars will occur in November, December, and January. Click
here
for details and registration information and contact Edna Navarro-Vidaurre at
e.n.vidaurre@actforchildren.org
with any questions.
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Early Childhood Stress Found to Have Long-Term Health Effects
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Image from thevillageparent.com
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A recent study conducted for more than 45 years has found that stress from a young age- -be it from economic insecurity, loss, social circumstances, etc.-- has long-term impacts on health as an adult. Even those who endured great stress as a child but grew up to live stress free lives as adults were still more prone to heart disease and metabolic disorders at the age of 45 than their currently stressed peers who grew up without stress as children. Visit
NPR for the full story.
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ISBE Awarded $7 Million Grant for Illinois Statewide Longitudinal Data System
The award of $7 million from the Institute of Education Science to ISBE for the Illinois Statewide Longitudinal Data System (ISLDS) is great news for the Early Childhood sector because it is one of the five areas of initial focus chosen for research in this project. The ISLDS' goal is to track students as they move form Pre-K to college and into the workforce. The findings from the data will assist educators in forming policy to improve students' learning and progress. For more details, see
isbe.net.
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How Investing in Early Childhood Education Pays Off
The Bridgespan Group and the Pritzker Children's Initiative recently published a report that argues that investing in early childhood intervention before kindergarten will pay off both in a child's intel
 lectual and emotional development as well as economically for investors. Two of the main pieces of evidence they put forward are that with early intervention, there is a 7-10% return on investment per year. Additionally, they propose that combined state and federal dollars for intervention are four times higher on 6-18 year olds and money should be invested sooner in a child's life. To see the complete study, click on this
link for the study or see
Bloomberg .com for a highlight of the report.
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Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map
and technical reports? IECAM specializes in providing resources for policy implementation and grant writers. Therefore, if data is not readily available online, data requests may be submitted.
Click
here to explore IECAM's website or e-mail
dthomas3@illinois.edu with any questions.
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