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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Kelley Washington,
Executive Director
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April is upon us, and we're eager to report on new initiatives that are springing up across Illinois- from an exciting new Federal MIECHV grant to the Governor's Cabinet on Children and Youth, community systems development opportunities and collaborative research sessions. We're excited for the great work ahead as we continue to strengthen our early childhood system for the children and families of Illinois.
Best,
Kelley Washington
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Cabinet on Children and Youth Holds First Meeting
Last month, Governor Rauner convened the first meeting of the Cabinet on Children and Youth. The Children's Cabinet is a high level effort to ensure we are focusing on children holistically and hold ourselves accountable for child and youth outcomes. The Cabinet is comprised of nineteen members including the Office of Early Childhood Development's Executive Director, Kelley Washington. Beth Purvis, Illinois Secretary of Education and the Cabinet's vice-chair, stated her hopes for the team in a press release saying, "Governor Rauner's new structure will support and integrate the state's priorities and initiatives more effectively to identify and address any agency collaboration barriers so we can more thoughtfully and aggressively improve the future for our children".
The Children's Cabinet is organized around four primary goals to ensure that Illinois' children are safe, healthy, well-educated, and self-sufficient. Work groups comprised of leaders from each of the participating agencies are currently working to develop population level outcomes and indicators for each goal area. The next meeting of the Cabinet will take place in June (date TBA). OECD will keep the field updated through this newsletter. For more information, the Children's Cabinet homepage can be accessed
here.
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Illinois MIECHV Receives Full Grant Funding
OECD is pleased to announce that Illinois' proposal for the 2016 Maternal, Infant, Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) grant was fully funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Illinois' share of the $345 million federal program is $8,688,340; the maximum level available to our State. This grant will allow MIECHV to expand voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services to women and families during pregnancy, and to parents with young children up until kindergarten entry. Remember to check out Illinois new website:
www.igrowillinois.org to keep up to date on news and resources in home visiting.
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Innovation Zone Spotlight: Aurora
 Funded through the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant and supported by Illinois Action for Children, early childhood collaborators in eleven
Innovation Zones in Illinois are building local systems towards the goal of equal access to early learning opportunities that will ultimately lead to improved child outcomes. In this
Innovation Zone Spotlight, we will focus on the strategies and successes of the Aurora Innovation Zone.
Aurora, the second most populous city in Illinois, is comprised of a diverse population and a significant number of families living in or near poverty. In fact, 44% of children in this Zone are living at or below 185% of the Federal Poverty Line. Additionally, because of the diversity, many children are living in linguistically isolated households.
Despite the challenges, SPARK (Strong, Prepared and Ready for Kindergarten) Aurora Early Childhood Collaboration has been bringing together community leaders, school districts, early childhood programs, and other key players together in order to improve opportunity for at-risk children in the area. Aurora has been implementing innovative cross-system strategies to connect high-need families in underserved populations to high quality early learning programs as well as to build the supply of high quality early learning programs through professional development and participation in the state's Quality Rating Improvement System.
Aurora's hard work is paying off! Since July 2015, 176 young children with very high needs have enrolled in high quality early learning services as a result of efforts to engage families that have been considered "hard to reach" (such as homeless, teen parents, linguistically isolated). By the end of 2015, 8 of 31 licensed child care centers had earned the impressive quality recognition of Gold in ExceleRate Illinois; a rate that exceeds the statewide average!
As the Aurora Innovation Zone continues to move forward to assist and serve more children, the collaboration is especially excited to host a High Needs Conference in May 2016 to focus on the McKinney-Vento Act, efforts around poverty and homelessness, training, cross referral and more pertaining to high needs. Visit SPARK's website to learn more: www.sparkaurora.org. To learn more about the Innovation Zones, you may also want to check out this recent article in Catalyst Chicago.
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OECD: A Day in the Life
Have you ever wondered what staff at the Office of Early Childhood Development (OECD), do on a daily basis? OECD is committed to leading Illinois in creating an integrated system of quality, early learning and development programs to help give children a strong foundation prior to entering kindergarten. We work each day to progress on developing the state's cross-system early childhood infrastructure thorough the administration of projects under three federal grants: 1) MIECHV (Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting), 2) Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge, and; 3) Preschool Expansion Grant. OECD also leads efforts to coordinate across state agencies through the Early Childhood Interagency Team (IAT) and to facilitate public-private partnership and leadership through the Early Learning Council.
To learn more about these areas of work, check out the fruits of our labor in our
update from last month.
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Disparate Access: A Look at Head Start and CCDBG Data by Race and Ethinicity
 The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) published a report in February with a follow-up webinar in March on disparities in access to Head Start and child care by race and ethnicity. As the percentage of minorities making up the population of young children increases, this type of research is vital for ensuring equal access and that the necessary resources, such as those required for dual language learners, are made readily available.
The February report from CLASP includes recommendations and next steps for reducing racial and ethnic gaps in access and the webinar touched on some real-time examples from California and Mississippi. Read the full report and watch the webinar with this
link.
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Developmental Foundations of School Readiness for Infants and Toddlers: A Research to Practice Report
The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation of the Administration for Children and Families recently published a report summarizing research about children's development from birth to age three in order to highlight areas foundational for school readiness. The authors explore research conducted in the areas of physical development, social-emotional development, approaches to learning, language/communication, and cognition. This guide is intended for use by a wide audience: teachers, home visitors, professional development providers, and policy makers.
In order to see the full report and recommendations on how to incorporate this information into early childhood policies and programs, read the full report
here.
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Advancing Infant-Early Childhood Mental Health Policy Webinar
 Early childhood mental health is defined as developing the capacity of a child, beginning at birth, to experience, regulate, and express emotions and form close and secure interpersonal relationships. Understanding the foundations for social-emotional development and the intersection with public policy is vital. ZERO TO THREE and Manatt Health are hosting a webinar on how policy can advance infant and early childhood mental health. The presentation will utilize information and policies found in a new policy brief, "
Planting Seeds in Fertile Ground: Steps Every Policymaker Should Take to Advance Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health".
The presentation will be on Tuesday, April 28
th, from 12-1pm. Register for the webinar
here.
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Erikson Institute's Early Childhood Leadership Academy Starts New Fellowship
 Expanding its Early Childhood Leadership Academy, the Erikson Institute has announced the formation of the
Barbara Bowman Leadership Fellows Program. This fellowship will instruct on key policy development strategies for positive outcomes for children, families and communities through the use of early childhood research, the utilization of tools for assessing public policy levers, and by incorporating hands-on practice while taking into account social, economic, and political factors for diverse populations.
OECD salutes Erikson for recognizing one of Illinois' finest early childhood leaders. Dr. Bowman has been a tireless advocate in Illinois and the nation for young children and the early childhood profession. She's been an inspiration to many and Erikson's new fellowship is truly a legacy of her life's work. Thank you, Dr. Bowman!
The Barbara Bowman Program, which will begin July 2016, is now open for nominations and personal applications. To learn more, to apply, or to nominate someone, see the program's
page on the Erikson website.
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Illinois Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics Hosts Annual Autism, Behavior, and Complex Medical Needs Conference
Registration is now open for the 2
nd Annual Autism, Behavior, and Complex Medical Needs-Downstate (ABCD) Conference, to be held at the Regency Conference Center in O'Fallon, IL on May 20, 2016. This year's theme is, "A Trauma-Informed, Interprofessional Approach to Caring for Children and Adolescents with Special Needs." Providers are invited to learn more about the impact of trauma and toxic stress on children and adolescents with special health care needs and how to develop an interprofessional, trauma-informed approach while serving those affected. The target audience includes primary care providers and their teams, allied health providers, as well as professionals from other settings including child care, early education, home visiting, and more. The conference seeks to enable providers to network across professional silos with those from other child-serving systems that also have a stake in the lives of children with autism, behavioral challenges, and complex medical needs, including those exposed to trauma. Continuing education credits (including CME, RN CEU, MA CCP, EI credit, and more) are available. For more information please view the
conference brochure or visit the
conference website.
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Get Connected with New Illinois' Early Childhood Collaborations Map
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Depression in Mothers: More Than the Blues- A Toolkit for Family Service Providers
Please join the first of three webinars in the Mental Health in Home Visiting Series on Wednesday, April 27th, from 2-3:15pm. It will focus on the importance of addressing maternal depression in Early Head Start (EHS) programs. Participation is free and you can register with this
link.
After registering, participants will receive a confirmation e-mail with details on how to join the webinar. This presentation will be recorded and archived in the
Health Portal of the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC) website for later viewing.
Additionally, please see information for the next two webinars in this three part series:
Using Motivational Interviewing in Home Visiting
Monday, May 23, 2016 at 2pm EDT
Implementing Mental Health Consultation in Home Visiting
Monday, June 6, 2016 at 2pm EDT
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DCFS In the News
 The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) received some positive press last month for the progress that has been made since Director George Sheldon took the lead at the agency in February 2015. At a press conference held on March 21st, Governor Rauner congratulated Director Sheldon for reforms made at DCFS by saying, "The effectiveness has risen dramatically and there's a renewed sense of energy and vigor in the department and I give Director Sheldon huge credit for that". Among Sheldon's work so far is a renewed effort to better the care for at-risk youth that the state provides. The number of children under six staying in shelters has already been reduced by half with the goal of having no children spend the night at shelters.
Additionally, this month, DCFS has been highlighted in the news because Neil Skene, lawyer and author, has accepted the role as Deputy Chief of Staff at DCFS where he will work with Director Sheldon. Learn more about this role and Skene's past work in this
article
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OECD Hosts First Lunch and Learn
The OECD is excited to announce our Lunch and Learn speaker series which will run from now until December. The series kicked-off on February 23
rd with a presentation from Juliet Bromer and Jon Korfmacher of the Erikson Institute. Their presentation titled, "Supporting Family Child Care: Program Perspectives and a New Conceptual Model for Delivering High-Quality Support", discussed the current research based on family child care providers and their work which considers how to conceptualize and measure relationship-based supports to FCC providers toward the goal of improving child outcomes.
Stay tuned for more information on the next lecture in our Lunch and Learn series. We hope you can attend!
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