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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December 19 | ELC Quality Committee Meeting
See
calendar
for more events and details.
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Dear Early Childhood Community,
This has been a very challenging, yet productive year for the field of early childhood. Despite the uncertainty regarding the
reauthorization of MIECHV, we reflect on the multiple successes within our community. A few notable examples include: the passing of HB3213 that expanded families access to CCAP, the early childhood workforce development initiatives of the Children's Cabinet, and the passing of
HB2663 which prohibits the expulsion of preschool children.
I look forward to continuing to serve the interests of children and families with you in the year to come.
Best Regards,
Cynthia L. Tate, Ph.D.
Executive Director, OECD
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Illinois Opioid Crisis Community Survey
Solving Illinois' opioid crisis means learning what the crisis looks like in every community. To help us do that, member agencies of the State's Opioid Crisis Response Advisory Council-Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. (AHP) and the Illinois Department of Human Services/Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (IDHS/DASA)-have created a short, anonymous web survey that asks people about activities taking place in their communities that are addressing the opioid epidemic and what they think we need to do to solve it.
The Opioid Crisis Response Advisory Council wants to hear from everyone-families, providers, law enforcement, first responders, agency administrators, educators, people in recovery, etc. To reach as many as people statewide as possible, please share the survey link with your colleagues, other groups/coalitions you may be a member of, friends and family.
The survey is available now through December 22
nd
. The survey results will be used develop strategies that work towards solving the epidemic. Please click on the link below to take the survey:
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Playing it Safe
Play is a natural activity for every yound child. Play provides m
any opportunities for children to learn and grow-- mentally, socially, and physically. If play is a child's work, then toys are a child's tools; and appropriate toys can help them do their work effectively and safely.
With the holiday season approaching it is important to be informed about selecting developmentally appropriate toys. The US Consumer Product and Safety Commission published this booklet,
Which Toy for Which Child, as a guide for selecting suitable toys.
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Recognizing Outstanding Inclusive Practices
If your program implements high quality inclusive practices, you will want to consider applying for the Outstanding Practices in Inclusion recognition that will be celebrated at the next Sharing A Vision Conference in 2019. Early CHOICES, as the Illinois State Board of Education Preschool Least Restrictive Environment Initiative, along with the Early Childhood LRE Stakeholders Consortium will administer the award.
Early CHOICES has created a webpage with critical information regarding this recognition. Click
here
to check it out or v
iew this informational webinar to see if your program is ready to apply. The webinar covers who is eligible to apply, the overall process and requirements. Please note: December 20, 2017
is the date to commit to apply this year.
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GOECD Welcomes a New Intern
Please join us in welcoming our new intern
Meena Kandallu
. Meena is a student at the University of Chicago. She is currently a sophomore and is majoring in Economics and Spanish Language and Literature. Meena is orginally from northwest Indiana. We are excited to have her as part of the OECD team!
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ECE Workforce Hiring Survey Report
The
2017 Illinois Early Childhood Workforce Hiring Survey is a joint project between the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Education and the Illinois Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development (GOECD), supported by Illinois Innovation to Incubation and funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
The survey provides insight into: (1) the relationship between the needs for qualified early childhood teachers and assistants and the hiring experiences of program administrators across targeted age ranges, program types, and funding sources; and (2) the experiences and perspectives of those charged with recruiting, hiring, and retaining qualified staff.
The survey findings represent hiring needs and experiences, across all sectors, of the early childhood field in Illinois. This report, published in October 2017, will accompany a larger report on the early childhood workforce to be published in 2018 through the National Academy of Medicine Innovation to Incubation Project.
Check out the full report
here.
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Materials Available from the Immigration and Early Childhood Webinar
Earlier this month The Ounce hosted, "Young Children and Families Impacted by the Current Immigration Political Climate: What Should We Know and How Can We Best Support?" If you missed the webinar please click on the links to access the recorded webinar, slide deck and copies of handouts referenced during the presentation. with the listing of webinar materials, The materials are available in both English and Spanish.
The webinar was a partnership between early childhood and immigrant advocate organizations- the Ounce of Prevention Fund, Latino Policy Forum, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), and Illinois Action for Children. Materials can also be accessed directly on The Ounce website.
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ISBE Releases FY19 Request For Proposals
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has released the FY19 Request for Proposals (RFP) for Preschool for All and Preschool for All Expansion.The first step in applying for these grants is to submit a Notice of Intent to Submit form. The form for Preschool for All can be
found here, while the Preschool for All Expansion form
is here.
The final proposals are due to ISBE by
January 12th, 2018 at 4pm.
For more information,
click here to be directed to ISBE's RFP page. Otherwise, please contact ISBE's Division of Early Childhood Education at (217) 524-4835 or earlychi@isbe.net.
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Early Learning Council Meeting Calendar
 The committees and subcommittees of the Early Learning Council meet several times a year to work towards each of their goals and priorities. You can find a calendar of all Early Learning Council meetings on the OECD website on the
ELC Meeting Calendar, which lists the date, time, location, and links to any meeting materials. Some upcoming meetings are:
December 13, 2017 11:00am-1:00pm
December 19, 2017 11:30am-1:30pm
January 10, 2018 10:30am-1:00pm
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Children's Cabinet to Use Real-Time Data to Drive Policy
Gov. Bruce Rauner's Cabinet on Children and Youth turned on a new data dashboard today that policymakers and the public can use to make better-informed decisions about the health, safety, education and work readiness of Illinoisans younger than 25. The Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology created the dashboard to advance the aims of cabinet member agencies, including the Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development and the departments of Public Health and Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
It will track data in four categories - education, self-sufficiency, safety and health. Education data points will include post-secondary retention rates and reading levels. Self-sufficiency measures include education attainment levels, median earnings for youth at 25 and student debt default rates. The safety data will track the percentage of youth living in "safe" neighborhoods, rates of domestic violence, incarceration and recidivism rates among other subjects. Additionally, the dashboard will help to focus career-assistance programs. "It will help us track the success of the Apprenticeship PLUS initiative that was launched earlier this year," Julio Rodriguez, DCEO deputy director of the Office of Employment and Training said, "and it will allow the department to identify more ways to help youth make informed career choices."
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Q&A on Endrew F. Supreme Court Case Released by U.S. Department of Education
This
Q & A document contains additional guidance in the following areas:
- The meaning and application "de minimus" and its relationship to Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)
- The meanings of "reasonably calculated" and "progress appropriate in light of the child's circumstances"
- Actions for IEP teams for determining appropriately ambitious goals; implementing the Endrew F. standard for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities; actions to take for a child who is not progressing as expected; the use of positive behavioral interventions and supports; and placement decisions
The full document is available for download
here.
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Creating Innovation to Address Chronic Absenteeism
 In North Lawndale, an urban and low-income neighborhood on Chicago's West Side, Illinois Action for Children's Community Connections team are finding that families face many barriers to attendance through NL READS, a special project funded by the
Steans Family Foundation. The foundation concentrates its grant making and programs in North Lawndale, a revitalizing neighborhood on Chicago's west side.
The IAFC team provides case management services with North Lawndale families to reduce chronic absenteeism. Through weekly meetings, phone calls and home visits, families are educated on the importance of attendance and are connected with a range of services needed to get their children to school regularly and on time. Barriers to attendance, identified by the Community Connections team, include illness, transportation, lack of social networks, conflicting work schedules, school anxiety, inadequate housing, transience and homelessness.
When a child misses 10 percent of school days, they are considered to be chronically absent. Chronic absenteeism affects nearly all schools. Urban schools are most likely to have extreme chronic
absenteeism, which means the child has missed 30 percent or more of the school year.
Children who miss school regularly tend to fall behind in classes. Children in kindergarten and second grade with strong attendance have significantly higher scores on math and reading than their chronically absent peers. Furthermore, chronic absenteeism is a leading indicator for high school dropout. This is why it is so important to intervene early and often.
In just two and a half years, the Community Connections team in North Lawndale worked with over 300 families across four schools. Because of their efforts, 70 percent of children's attendance rates have greatly improved. To address chronic absenteeism in North Lawndale, the Community Connection Team worked with families one-on-one to understand the barriers to every day attendance. They would call families, set up a meeting either at a local café, the families' house, or the school, and listen. Families shared their struggles that interfered with daily attendance, things like: transportation, unreliable family members, fluctuating work hours, health issues, and homelessness. Some parents spoke about their own frustrations with the school and how that would influence their child missing days.
Ideas for Improving Chronic Absenteeism:
- Monitor chronic absentee rates, and not just student daily attendance rates. This helps highlight which students need interventions.
- Provide early and personalized support to families with chronically absent children
- Implement school-wide attendance incentives
- Train staff on trauma-informed care
- Create a unified message around the importance of attendance throughout the community
- Provide information to families AND teachers about how sick a child should be to miss school.
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Hurricane Maria Resources
Many families have been displaced from their homes in Puerto Rico due to the devastation left by Hurricane Maria. Countless have relocated to regions across the United States, including the state of Illinois. School districts may now be receiving students or educators displaced by the hurricane. In response, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have detailed protections and opportunities that apply to students, inclusive of those in early childhood, and educators arriving from Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria:
If you have any questions,
please contact Cristina Pacione-Zayas,
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Tackling the Tough Stuff: Addressing Social-Emotional Issues with At-Risk Families- Zero to Three Webinar
When working with at-risk families of young children, home visitors need to know how to address complex issues with skill and sensitivity. In this event, you'll learn how to intervene effectively with families facing one of the most common issues: social-emotional challenges. This virtual event will give you a complete introduction to the to the problem-solving PAUSE (Perceive, Ask, Understand, Strategize, Evaluate) framework. This framework provides relationship-based practices and reflective skills you can use in everyday interactions with children and families.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
2:00-3:00p.m. EST
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Building Your Inclusion Toolbox: Community of Practice Administrative Support Webinar
This Early CHOICES webinar will focus on Administrative Support. The community of practice will provide opportunities to engage with peers from across the state, and to hear from guest speakers who have effectively put recommended practices into place in programs programs just like yours.
January 9, 2018
3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
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Opening Minds Early Childhood Education Conference
Meet the top people in the field of early care and education from all industries: education, administration, health & wellness, medicine, nursing, justice, social service, policy, government, parks & recreation, tech, business, library science, and more. Hear the latest developments in research. Get proven ideas to return to your job with renewed enthusiasm and the practical edge you need to create results.
The Opening Minds Early Education Conference will take place at:
Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park
200 N Columbus Dr, Chicago, IL 60601
Wednesday February 7, 2018 through
Saturday February 10th, 2018.
Opening Minds is the early childhood education conferences 2018 gathering place for all industries serving young children and families. Credit Hours are available for educators as well as allied professionals.
Opening Minds is a GATEWAYS Registry Verified Conference. Detailed information about sessions and presenters can be found
here
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