June 2018 edition
An inside look at Pennsylvania's early education system.
What's New for June
Congratulations to the seven professionals who recently earned the Infant Mental Health Endorsement or the Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement from by the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. Read the article below to find out what that means for Pennsylvania.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of children whose parents have overdosed or lost custody of their children in the last few years due to opioid abuse. A new report from Teaching Tolerance (below) shares the impact the opioid crisis can have on children--and how schools and early learning programs can employ trauma-informed practices.

Philadelphia is being recognized with Silver Medal status as part of the 2018 CityHealth Report, which analyzed the 40 largest US cities based on the number and strength of policies in areas including quality preschool , affordable housing, complete streets, earned sick leave, alcohol sales, zoning and clean indoor air. Click the link in the article below for all the details.

Finally, there's a new infographic available that helps make the case for investing in Pennsylvania's early care and education programs by sharing some of the costs associated with providing quality early learning programs to Pennsylvania families and children. You're invited to share the infographic with families and friends. Check it out below.
Early Education in Pennsylvania
Upcoming Changes to the Cost of Child Abuse Clearances
Effective, July 1, 2018, the cost of child abuse clearances will increase from $8 to $13. Child abuse clearance fees for volunteers will continue to be waived one time within a five-year period.
 
The legislative passage of Act 40 of 2017 included the increase to assist in covering actual costs for processing child abuse clearances after the previously amended Child Protective Services Law (CPSL) expanded who is required to receive clearances and instituted a five-year renewal cycle. Beginning in December 2014, individuals who require clearances expanded to include: volunteers, youth camp employees, coaches, youth mentors, Boy Scout and Girl Scout leaders, work study programs, internships, family-living home employees, and community-home employees for individuals with disabilities.
   
In 2014 and 2015, legislation was passed amending the CPSL. These amendments expanded clearance and background check requirements for individuals working or volunteering with children. In 2016, DHS received 951,414 child abuse clearance applications and identified 2,272 substantiated or alleged perpetrators of child abuse.

For more information on clearance and background check requirements as required by the CPSL, please visit www.KeepKidsSafe.pa.gov
PA Professionals Earn Endorsement by Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health 
The Pennsylvania Association of Infant Mental Health (PA-AIMH) and the PA Project LAUNCH Partnership have announced seven Pennsylvania professionals are now endorsed by the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health (MI-AIMH)! These professionals will form the Leadership Cohort that will help to support the implementation of Pennsylvania’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement® System. 

Infant Mental Health Endorsement®
  • Ashely Griffin, IMH-E® (Infant Family Associate)
  • Brandy Fox, LCSW, IMH-E® (Infant Mental Health Mentor-Policy)
  • Robert Gallen, Ph.D., IMH-E® (Infant Mental Health Mentor-Research/Faculty)
  • Stacey Carpenter, Psy.D., IMH-E® (Infant Mental Health Mentor-Clinical)
  • Teri Pentz, MS, LPC, NCC, IMH-E® (Infant Mental Health Mentor-Clinical)
 
Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement®
  • Jennifer Murphy, MS, ECMH-E® (Early Childhood Family Specialist)
  • Mary Jo Mastriani, MA, ECMH-E® (Early Childhood Family Specialist)

Endorsement for Culturally Sensitive, Relationship-Focused Practice Promoting Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health® (IMH-E® and ECMH-E®) a comprehensive effort to identify best practice competencies across disciplines and practice settings, offering multiple career pathways for professional development in the infant, early childhood and family field. The Endorsement® is a credential that:

  • Recognizes specialized knowledge and expertise.
  • Acknowledges professionals who apply infant and early childhood mental health principles to their practice.
  • Verifies documentation of the required specialized education, work, in-service training, and reflective supervision/consultation experiences.

Endorsement® is one of the first and most comprehensive efforts in the country to identify
best practice competencies at multiple levels and across disciplines within the infant, early childhood and family field. PA-AIMH, with the support of the PA Project LAUNCH Partnership, became the 26 th US State to join the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health with the adoption of IECMH Endorsement® and Competencies.

PA-AIMH will be announcing when the Endorsement Application System (EASy) will be open to the public and the submission calendar soon! For more information on PA-AIMH IECMH Endorsement®, please visit www.pa-aimh.org or contact the Endorsement Coordinator at paaimh.e.coordinator@gmail.com.
Cost of Care Infographic
A new infographic, Educating Pennsylvania's Youngest Learners, from the PA Key shares a snapshot of the expenses related to child care in Pennsylvania. All families in Pennsylvania deserve access to quality early care and education programs, but quality programs can come with a hefty price tag.

The infographic is based on information from a recent study, Examining Child Care Funding and Finance in Pennsylvania, conducted by Research for Action (RFA) on how six Pennsylvania early education providers of different shapes, sizes, and community contexts from across the commonwealth financed high-quality child care. The study found the average daily cost of child care for an infant was $73.98 per day, or nearly $370 per week, or $1,554 per month, which is almost double the average monthly rent for many Pennsylvania families. (Average monthly rent for PA was $868 in 2015 according to the US Census.) And at $19,235 per year, this amount is nearly equivalent to the $22,910 annual salary of a Pennsylvania preschool teacher.

The infographic can help make the case for the investment in Pennsylvania's early learning programs. Feel free to share with families and friends, use in newsletters and websites, and share on social media.
Save the Dates
Pennsylvania's PD Registry: Things To Know and Do
Is your PD Registry profile ready for a DHS visit?

The PA Key is partnering with the PA Department of Human Services (DHS) Certification to pilot verifying education and professional development housed in the Registry. A sampling of programs will be chosen beginning July 1, 2018.

Here are a few steps that you can take to make sure that your PD Registry profile is ready for the Department of Human Services Certification visit.
 
  1. Directors/Administrators: Create an organization profile. If you already have an active profile, it will appear and allow you to update any information.
  2. Login and complete your profile. Your profile is a representation of your professional career. You can add your education and past work history.
  3. Add your employment. To add your employment, click the “Employment” tab on the top navigation bar. Your director will verify that you are employed by your current center.
  4. Locate your Professional Development Learning Record. Certificates are a thing of the past in the new PD Registry. Your Professional Development Learning Record will replace individual certificates and serves as one place for all your completed professional development to live.
 
For tip sheets, visit the PA Key website.

Why Your Completed Profile Is Locked

If you have completed your profile on the PD Registry, you may notice that your account is “locked” after submitting your information. This does not prevent you from registering from trainings and you will only need to unlock your profile if you need to update or change your information. Contact the PD Registry team if you need your profile unlocked.

How to Access Online Courses

So you’ve found an online course in the PD Registry that you’d like to take, but you’re not sure what to do next. The first step to accessing this course is to finish your registration and purchase it. Once you have finished this, click on your “My PD” tab. Once there, select the online course that you’re trying to begin and click on the blue box next to the course title to start.
 
STARS 102 is available online now!

Exciting news! STARS 102 is now available as an online self-paced course in the PD Registry.
STARS 102 meets the requirement for STAR 2 SQ.2.1 Part 2. In addition to the philosophy of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), the process of change and how to begin your journey through the Keystone STARS system will be discussed. The following elements of assessing and building quality will be covered: Pennsylvania Core Knowledge Competencies and Big Ideas Framework, Continuous Quality Improvement, PA Early Learning Standards, Caring for our Children Basics (CFOCB) as a resource and supporting interactions with children and families.

To find this course:
  1. Login to your account at www.papdregistry.org.
  2. Select Training Calendar from the left hand menu.
  3. Type STARS 102 into the Keyword Search.
  4. Uncheck all boxes except Online Self-Paced.
  5. Search by clicking Locate Events.
  6. Locate course and begin registration by clicking the dark blue Register online button.
 
STARS 101 online is coming soon!
 
Evaluations Are Here!

Attention Early Learning Professionals and PQAS Instructors! The PD Registry team is happy to announce that a new evaluation system going live in the PD Registry. These evaluations look at both the instructor and the attended event and must be completed within 30 days of the training. These help to ensure that early learning professionals are provided with quality trainers and events.

  • Early Learning Professionals: After you take a training, you will receive an email with a link to the evaluation. You can also access your evaluation by going to the My PD tab.
  • Instructors: Click on the Reports tab on the top navigation bar and click on Instructor Evaluation Summary to review the completed evaluations.
Of Interest
11th Early Childhood Education Summit: Call for Presenters!
Submission deadline June 13
Workshop proposals are now being accepted for the 11th Early Childhood Education Summit, October 15-17, 2018 to be held at the Penn Stater Conference Center, State College.

The Early Childhood Education Summit is a cross-systems professional development opportunity for early learning professionals across Pennsylvania. Since 2008, the Early Childhood Education Summit has provided educators, parents and staff at all levels and from various programs (Pre-K Counts, Child Care, Head Start/Early Head Start, School Districts, Early Intervention and Home Visiting) with the opportunity to network and experience relevant training as a community. Attendees have the opportunity to acquire professional development credits including ACT 48 & DPW/STARS credits.

To submit a proposal on-line, please visit the Summit website www.earlychildhoodsummit.org and click on "Presenter" tab in the bar under the banner. Should you have any questions about submitting a proposal, please feel free to contact Kayle Richardson at kayle@paheadstart.org. Deadline to submit a proposal is June 13, 2018.
Available Online Courses for New Staff Orientation
Penn State Better Kid Care, in collaboration with the PA Key, have announced two new online courses to meet the requirements for Pennsylvania new staff orientation that includes the mandated health and safety training. 

  • Get Started with Center-based Care: Building Blocks for Quality (K6.2, C1, CDA6; 10 hours)
  • Get Started with Home-based Care: Building Blocks for Quality (K6.2, C1, CDA1; 10 hours)

Effective, July 1, 2018, these modules will replace Health and Safety Basics: Requirements for Certification. Completion of one of these two modules is required for all new child care professionals (center/group and home-based) in Pennsylvania. There is no charge to complete the modules. Note the amount of professional development credit awarded has increased from six to ten hours.

Effective July 1, 2018, Health and Safety Basics: Requirements for Certification, will no longer be available for completion at no charge. If you are in progress towards completion, please be sure to finish by June 30, 2018.

Click here to access the modules, or get more information about Better Kid Care’s On Demand Distance Education.
The Opioid Crisis and the Impact on Children
This thoughtfully researched and written article from Teaching Tolerance magazine pays specific attention to how the opioid epidemic affects children, how it manifests in the early elementary classroom, and what educators can do right now to make a difference.

In Pennsylvania, Governor Wolf and his administration are working to provide real solutions to save lives and help addicted individuals and their families get the treatment they need to live long, productive lives.  Pennsylvania’s rate of drug overdose is 36.5 per 100,000 which is significantly higher than the national average of 16.3 per 100,000. Governor Wolf's proposed budget includes $4M for targeted expansion of evidence-based Home Visiting in areas hit hardest by the opioid epidemic with a focus on families with a parent with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). The proposed budget also includes $500,000 to support a needed cross systems training on recognizing signs of Substance Use Disorder (SUD), making referrals for treatment, working with families in recovery, as well as cross systems training focusing on the coordination of supports related to housing, evidence based home visiting, Children and Youth services, and Early Intervention services for families struggling with SUD and children impacted by prenatal exposure.
 
In addition, thanks to the generosity of the state of Vermont, and specifically the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant and the Agency of Education, an annotated collection of free resources for learning about and supporting children (birth to Grade 3) and families who have experienced maltreatment or trauma, including substance abuse, is now available from Camille Catlett. See the resource, Building Resilience: Resources for Supporting Young Children Who Have Experienced Trauma and Maltreatment and Their Families.
Farm to ECE Funding Opportunity  
The federal budget passed in March 2018 included historic increases for key federal early care and education programs. Notably, the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), which funds the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program, was increased by $2.37 billion. Some of this new influx of funding will be used for quality improvements to early care and education that can include farm to ECE initiatives. Review the  new memo from the National Farm to School Network and the Policy Equity Group for more information and ways to take action in Pennsylvania. For more information, contact Lacy Stephens, Program Manager at the National Farm to School Network, at  lacy@farmtoschool.org  or Soumya Bhat, Director of Early Childhood Equity Initiatives at the Policy Equity Group,  soumyab@policyequity.com .  
Keeping Immigrant Families Safe in Early Childhood Programs
In 2011, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued guidance limiting immigration enforcement actions from occurring at “sensitive locations.” The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) has available information to help keep immigrant families safe in early childhood programs. This includes a fact sheet on sensitive locations for early childhood providers and families. Early learning and community partners can share it with child care and early education centers, and distribute it to families. The fact sheet is available in English and Spanish
Latest on Social Media
Research and Reports
Philadelphia Emerges as a Preschool Champion
Philadelphia has received the ranking of Silver Medal in a recent release of 2018 CityHealth Report. These findings assess how the nation’s 40 largest cities fare in nine policies based in research, backed by qualified experts, and shown to have bipartisan support. Included is high quality of universal pre-K. With these policies in place, cities will attract families who want the best for themselves and their children, young people looking for interesting places to work, and businesses that need high-quality talent.

In partnership with the National Institute for Early Education Research, CityHealth assessed the availability of high-quality Pre-K in large cities against research-based benchmarks based on the minimums for highly effective programs. CityHealth’s medals applied these benchmarks,
along with an assessment of the level of enrollment in the city’s largest Pre-K program. Philadelphia was included in the thirty-three out of 40 cities which received a medal for high quality pre-K. 
Mixed-Delivery Model Shows Benefits of Community- and School-Based Early Childhood Programs
A new report, Partnering for Pre-K: Opportunities to Scale Up Pittsburgh's Collaborative Early Learning Model, from Research for Action examines how to combine the benefits of existing early childhood programs with the resources and capacities of public school districts in a mixed-delivery model. The research found that the benefits of Pittsburgh’s mixed-delivery system outweigh the challenges and point to opportunities for scale-up. Drawing on revenues from both Pre-K Counts and the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program has allowed Pennsylvania’s second largest public school district to build strong and mutually beneficial relationships with the area’s early childhood providers. In turn, these partnerships have increased their capacity to serve students in high-quality settings and offered parents choices in program hours and care settings. Pittsburgh Public Schools has also been at the forefront of efforts to braid public funding streams and create inclusive classrooms that serve economically diverse children and meet high performance standards.
Early Learning Opportunities in the Every Student Succeeds Act
Early Learning Opportunities in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) , recorded April 26, provides an overview of ESSA and shares lessons from the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes  ( CEELO)-Council of Chief State School Officers ( CCSSO) policy brief reviewing plans approved by U.S. Department of Education,  The State of Early Learning in ESSA: Plans and Opportunities for Implementation


Pennsylvania’s ESSA State Plan aligns well with the education vision and strategies of Governor Tom Wolf and Education Secretary Pedro A. Rivera. It includes a high quality early childhood education component which supports Pennsylvania's continued work to increase funding for high-quality early childhood education and help local schools and districts take advantage of the increased flexibility in spending ESSA funds locally to expand early childhood education. Read Pennsylvania's ESSA Consolidated State Plan
New Quality Improvement Model Could Benefit Early Childhood Education
A new video and literature review from Child Trends experts and their colleagues at UMass Boston, the Center for the Study of Social Policy, and JRA Consulting, Ltd. examines the potential of the Breakthrough Series Collaborative as an improvement strategy for early care and education programs. This quality improvement model establishes teams of teachers, parents, administrators, and support staff to plan, implement, study, and modify different methods of promoting social and emotional learning in the classroom.
Resources
ELOF2GO App
The ELOF2GO app is a free mobile resource for teachers who want to access and learn more about the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF). The app provides on-the-go access to the ELOF goals for children and effective practices in support of those goals. Designed for teachers, family child care providers, and home visitors. Available for Android or iOS.
Self-Regulation Snapshot: A Focus on Preschool-Aged Children
A new snapshot resource from Frank Porter Graham provides a look at self-regulation in preschool-age children, including what self-regulation skills look like in preschoolers, the three components of co-regulation, and lessons learned. This snapshot is one of several from a series on self-regulation through each of six phases of development. 
Improving Safe Sleep Conversations: Strategies for Helping Families Adopt Safe Sleep Habits
The National Institute for Children’s Health Quality’s recently recorded webinar, Improving Safe Sleep Conversations: Strategies for Helping Families Adopt Safe Sleep Habits, is now available. During the webinar, Stacy Scott, PhD, MPA, founder of the Global Infant Safe Sleep Center, led a series of role playing exercises and demonstrated tactics to engage families from different backgrounds in meaningful conversations about safe sleep. These actionable skills will benefit all health professionals, human service providers, community health workers, home visitors, peer supporters and family members working to improve infant health outcomes.
Interactive Food Buying Guide Provides Quick Access to Food Yield Information
The new Food Buying Guide Mobile App from the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides quick access to yield information to help early learning programs make quick purchasing decisions from their mobile device. It allows providers to easily search and compare food yields, see the meal components, and create and save favorite foods lists. Available on the iOs and Android platforms.
Milestone Tracker App
Milestones matter! Encourage parents to track their child’s milestones from age 2 months to 5 years with CDC’s FREE Milestone Tracker app. Interactive checklists with photos and videos make tracking milestones easy and fun. The app generates a personalized summary to share, offers tips for encouraging development, and information about what to do if parents ever become concerned about their child’s development. Also available are printable flier or poster about the app to share with families.
New CACFP Standardized Recipes from Team Nutrition
Team Nutrition has released 40 new recipes for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). With inspiration from Central and South America, North America, Africa, Europe, and Asia and Pacific Islands, these recipes are standardized to yield 6, 25, or 50 servings and include information on how each recipe credits toward CACFP meal pattern requirements. 
New guide provides info on how to consider child functioning relative to age
A new resource from Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, & Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems can help Early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE) practitioners participating in the Child Outcomes Summary (COS) process understand age-expected development, the ages at which children typically acquire different skills. The resource, Age Anchoring Guidance for Determining Child Outcomes Summary (COS) Ratings, provides answers to commonly asked questions about age anchoring as it applies to the COS process. It is designed as a reference for practitioners, as well as supervisors, coaches, and professional development staffs.
High-quality preschool can support healthy development and learning
A new fact sheet from Child Trends and the Alliance for Early Success lays out the benefits of public preschool. Experts’ understanding of what contributes to lasting academic benefits is still growing, but existing research shows that better-quality preschool is generally connected to better outcomes for children. The latter include improvements in a child’s math, reading, and language abilities; greater social and emotional development; and a reduced likelihood that children will need to repeat grades. Some research has also found evidence for long-term benefits such as higher earnings, better health, and less criminal activity.

This resource also explains the importance of prioritizing teacher training and adequate compensation to enable them to deliver the best early care and education. 
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