At this time, we have 71 paper contracts submitted, and only 45 are complete.

The deadline to build your VPK Classroom in the NEW OEL Provider Portal is this Friday, July 21. At this time, only 33 Providers have submitted. The most common mistakes are not assigning all Lead, Aide, and Substitute Instructors on the VPK Classroom page and failing to upload the documentation that the Lead Instructor has viewed the DVD on “How to Administer the VPK Assessment” or taken the class.

Please click below for important tips to ensure that your program is ready for the 2017/2018 program year.

The August Face-to-Face Meeting will be located at the Panama City Coalition Office at 703 W. 15th Street in Suite A. The fourth business day of August falls on Friday, August 4. You can find directions and a link to a Google map on our website here. We will see you at 9:00 a.m. in Panama City!

Any program needing to reach the Coalition during an emergency scenario should call Joe Seabrook at 850-774-7928. 

Visit OEL’s “Statewide Initiatives” page here to view the rules with proposed changes. Rule names and language is located on the left side; opportunities for live workshops and webinars are located to the right. If you are interested in signing up for a workshop webinar, click on the link provided to visit the registration page for the webinar you choose. Below are the following rules with changes being considered.

• Rule 6M-4.700, Child Performance Standards
• Rule 6M-8.602, Performance Standards for Children Participating in the VPK Education Program
• Rule 6M-8.605, VPK Staff Development Plan for Programs on Probation (POPs)
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While on this page, look at the top for the header called “Upcoming OEL Workshops & Hearings.” Click on the link at the top of the page (Sign up to be notified when there is an upcoming workshop or hearing.) to sign up for email alerts about upcoming changes in rules.

During July’s Face-to-Face Meeting, providers asked for amount increased for School Readiness funding to be distributed throughout the state for the 2017/2018 fiscal year. OEL’s Executive Director Rodney MacKinnon shared with us during the June Face-to-Face Meeting that $25 million of additional funding was allocated to School Readiness for this fiscal year. While this money will be distributed throughout the state, this is a win for School Readiness!

If you ended your VPK program in June, the end-of-year verification paperwork was uploaded to the Coalition Document Exchange for your review. You can access the information in the 2016-17 VPK Contract Folder, then locate VPK Verification folder. 

If you agree with the information in the report, complete the VPK Kindergarten Readiness Rate Verification document, and upload it to your Coalition Document Exchange account by July 21.

If you disagree with any information on the report, complete the enclosed VPK Kindergarten Readiness Rate Verification document, and mark the corrections on the Readiness Rate Child Detail Report. Upload both documents to your Coalition Document Exchange account by July 21.

Section 6M-8.305 of the Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.) requires all providers who receive VPK funds to verify the annual cumulative attendance of each child enrolled in the provider's VPK Program. This process certifies the paid hours of attendance for each child enrolled during the program year. Every provider must complete this process before they receive their final VPK payment. This means you WILL NOT receive your final VPK payment until you have completed the verification process. Please ensure that you complete the process by the required deadline.

You are invited to be a part of a statewide social media campaign: My First Day of VPK. This campaign will help promote Florida’s VPK Education Program. My First Day of VPK will highlight the start of the new school year and offer families of 4-year-old children helpful tips as they begin their new adventure into preschool. Since VPK programs start on different days about the state, the campaign will begin in August and run through the beginning of September of the 2017/2018 school year. To help make the day memorable, there is a My First Day of VPK sign for children to hold when families take start-of school photos. Then, families can use this special hashtag (#1stDayVPK) when posting their child’s pictures on social media sites. OEL will feature #1stDayVPK-tagged pictures on their social media pages throughout the campaign. Your local Coalition will feature these images as well, so make sure you tag us, too!  (We are @elcnwf on Instagram and Facebook.) Below you will find other resources and can download the sign using the links for OEL and your location Coalition. Help us spread the word and invite families in your Coalition, school district, or region to be part of the fun.

Also included below is OEL's July 2017 edition of Parents' Pages.

Visit the "Provider Information" page for an instructional guide to provider resources and their location on the newly modernized website. Below is a direct link to the guide.

Vroom, an initiative of the Bezos Family Foundation that focuses on early learning, is an app designed to help parents and caregivers unlock their child’s learning potential through helpful brain-building tips.

Last year’s Florida’s Office of Early Learning received a grant to provide free Vroom resources to families across the state through early learning coalitions. This year, the Bezos Family Foundation is including Florida as one of several states that will be a part of a new pilot project.

Parents of children from birth to 5 can now receive tips via a weekly text by signing up at https://sms.joinvroom.org/florida or by texting Ready to 48258. Spanish language texts are also available by texting Listo to 48258.

ZOOM is a user-friendly resource used by the Coalition staff to serve you better. Our staff is able to use the video and web conferencing solutions to help you with any technical support you need. If you have received an invitation via email from Coalition staff for a video or web conferencing meeting, click below to visit the ZOOM website for an instructional video. If you would like to schedule a ZOOM meeting with one of our Coalition staff, please email redline@elcnwf.org.

Coalition staff are finalizing TSG referrals. If a child in your center is considered for a referral, you and/or the teacher will be contacted to discuss the areas of concern. Not all children reviewed by the Developmental Assessment Task Force (DATF) will be referred. The parents of those children referred will be sent a letter suggesting further evaluation by the appropriate agency. This should not come as a surprise to the parent.

Family conferences should be completed within 30 days of the end of the checkpoint period. During family conferences, providers should discuss the child’s strengths, challenges, and strategies for future development. Conferences are an excellent opportunity to reinforce this important principle: a parent is a child’s first teacher. Receive parent input, and confirm that teachers and parents work as a team to achieve the greatest outcomes for their child. Family conferences should not be excluded.

Most children with hearing loss are born to parents with normal hearing. That means that the entire family may have a lot to learn about living with the condition. You may find out that your child has hearing loss when he is born, or she might be diagnosed later in childhood. Either way, the most important thing to do is to get the right treatment as early as possible. If you understand more about the condition, you can get your child the help needed so he or she can learn, play, and keep up with other kids his age. Here’s what you need to know.

Causes
The causes of hearing loss in children include:

• Otitis media. This middle ear infection happens often in young children because the tubes that connect the middle ear to the nose, called Eustachian tubes, aren’t fully formed. Fluid builds up behind the eardrum and can get infected. Even if there’s no pain or infection, the fluid can affect hearing if it stays there, at least for a short time. In severe and long-lasting cases, otitis media can lead to permanent hearing loss.

• Problems at birth. Some children are born with hearing problems. Most of the time, they are tied to a child’s genes. Other times, it happens during pregnancy or from prenatal care. Hearing loss can also happen when a pregnant woman has a medical condition like diabetes or preeclampsia. A baby born prematurely is at higher risk, too.

Resource: WebMD, "Help for Parents of Children with Hearing Loss" (June 2016)

It is time for all providers to submit provider updates! If you have had any changes to your program or contact information, now is the time to let us know. Please sign into the OEL Provider Portal. Review all of the tabs in the dashboard, and check/change your information. Next, please sign and resubmit. This should all be completed by July 30th. If you have any questions or concerns, please email Samantha Stump at samantha.stump@elcnwf.org or call her at 850-747-5400 Ext. 124.   

There are many different ways a child can learn new information or grasp a new concept. The social-emotional development of a child happens at an early age and should be nurtured with the help of the child’s parents, caregiver, or teacher. Learning how to form and appreciate relationships refers to a child’s social development and is sometimes a difficult task for a child. How a child feels about himself, the people in his life and his surroundings is known as emotional development. It can be difficult at times to develop new and exciting activities that focus on developing a child’s social-emotional development. Gryphonhouse.com has provided a list of free social-emotional activities for children of all ages, so use the button below to access their website.

Below you will find links to meeting dates for the "Bosom Buddies" Breastfeeding Support Groups in both Holmes and Washington Counties. Please share these fliers with your staff and families.

Bosom Buddies, Holmes County 

Bosom Buddies, Washington County

If you are interested in taking the HealthierUS School Challenge, use the attached flier to learn more about the requirements and incentives (including cash up to $2,000 and state/national recognition). If you are promoting nutritious meals, physical activity, and nutrition education in your center, this is a terrific opportunity. (This opportunity is only available for school sites that include K-12 programs.)