The Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) was invited to present at the 2023 National Convening on Building an Inclusive Human Services System March 28-29, 2023, in College Park, Maryland. This two-day hybrid event was the first federally-sponsored national conference solely devoted to creating an inclusive human services delivery system. Coordinated by the Administration for Children and Families this conference offered six diversity tracks including persons of color, religious minorities, LGBTQ2++, persons with disabilities, rural populations and leading equity efforts. Mary Mikus, Early Intervention Technical Assistance, presented on inclusivity for young children. Approximately 2,000 in-person and remote attendees participated.

The Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) is making these detectors available to certified child care providers, but the ordering and placement of detectors is not a regulatory requirement. Certified child care providers should have received an email from School Health on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, with directions. See the original release for more details. 

Pennsylvania preschool programs are invited to join an exciting research opportunity to improve the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, Third Edition (ECERS-3). The Pennsylvania Key PQA Team is supporting researchers at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill examine the widely used program observation instrument, ECERS-3. The ECERS-3 is a global quality assessment used in classrooms serving children ages 3-5 years, and is currently a resource used in the quality improvement systems of thirty states. This study examines how the measure considers the experiences of racially, culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse preschool groups.

Those who would like to participate, or who have questions, should contact Rachel Kaplan, Pennsylvania’s primary contact for this research project, at Rachel.kaplan@unc.edu or 919-259-6235. 

The Request for Proposal (RFP) for Pediatric First Aid/CPR – FY 23-24 is open and can be viewed. This RFP is for Pennsylvania Quality Assurance System (PQAS)-approved trainers who would like to partner with the ECEPDO@PASSHE to provide free Pediatric First Aid/CPR training to early childhood education (ECE) professionals in Pennsylvania. 

Completed submissions must be emailed to cprfirstaid@ship.edu no later than 5:00 PM on Friday, May 19, 2023.

All information is available on the ECEPDO@PASSHE website at ecepdo.org/timely-funding-opportunity.

Your Healthy Minds @Work program has launched! If you missed the program kickoff meeting, you can watch the recording here.

The first weekly challenge is coming up soon, so be sure to create your account with this link.

Your mental health is important, and all Pennsylvanians – of every age, background, and social identity – deserve to be and feel their best every day. Ensuring that everyone has equitable, affordable access to mental health services is a priority of the Shapiro Administration and the Department of Human Services. We must take care of our mental health just as we would our physical health, not just because they are so closely connected, but because when we do not address mental health issues, we cannot show up for our families, our communities, and most importantly, ourselves. There are resources available to take steps to improve your mental health or assist a loved one in getting help for themselves.

Visit www.dhs.pa.gov/MentalHealth to find these resources:

The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) season for Pennsylvanians has been extended from April 28 to May 12, 2023. LIHEAP helps families living on low incomes pay their heating bills in the form of a cash grant. Households in immediate danger of being without heat can also qualify for crisis grants. The cash grant is a one-time payment sent directly to the utility company/fuel provider to be credited on your bill. These grants range from $300 to $1,000 based on household size, income, and fuel type.

The income limit for the program is 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Limit. For a household of four, this would be $45,000 gross income per year. Pennsylvanians do not need to know their own eligibility in order to apply for these programs, and those who applied and were denied previously but have experienced a change in circumstances can reapply.

Pennsylvanians can apply for LIHEAP and other public assistance programs online at www.compass.state.pa.us. On-site County Assistance Office (CAO) services are available if clients cannot access online services or need assistance that cannot be accessed through the COMPASS website, the myCOMPASS PA mobile app, or by calling the Customer Service Centers at 215-560-7226 for Philadelphia clients or 1-877-395-8930 for clients in all other counties.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education, through Penn State (Project PA) will offer hands–on Culinary Training Sessions for CACFP and SFSP sponsors led by Chef Bill Scepansky, Smart Partners LLC. These ½–day workshops will focus on the most fundamental culinary techniques and practices to help CACFP and SFSP sponsors prepare and present healthy food options that participants enjoy. These sessions will focus on Pennsylvania Harvest of the Month (PA HOM). Participants will receive PA HOM signage for use in their facilities. The sessions will include both demonstration and hands–on activities. A light meal will be served.

Registration is free. Space at these sessions is limited. Registration is first–come, first–served. Registration will close when the session fills.

These sessions are for entities other than schools. Get more information and learn how to register.

To pinpoint areas of focus, the Partnership has created a Childcare Programs Environmental Health Survey. Providers should compete the survey by Friday, May 19, 2023, so the Healthy Childcare Partnership can respond directly to interests and needs for training and policies which will keep children and staff safe and healthy in and outside of childcare spaces.

A new podcast is now available, I Will Be Your Voice: Stories of Homelessness and Hope, from the American Rescue Plan Homeless Children and Youth (APR-HCY) Pennsylvania Program that amplifies the voices and stories of students experiencing homelessness across Pennsylvania and beyond.

More than 30,000 children and youth experience homelessness in Pennsylvania, posing a significant barrier to succeed in school. In partnership with Pennsylvania Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH), join Center for Schools and Communities staff Melissa Turnpaugh and Matthew Butensky as they interview state and national experts, homeless liaisons, service providers, and those experiencing homelessness. These conversations will dive deeper into resources, partnerships and best practices that help these children and youth thrive in school and life.

In episode #2, "“Learn about the Finding Your Way in PA App,” app Developer, Prithvraj Lankar, shares the importance of providing immediate access to services for homeless youth and families through the development of Pennsylvania’s newest resource: Finding Your Way in PA app.

When this packet arrives, they must complete and return it by the date printed on the packet. They can send it in by mail or deliver it in-person at any local County Assistance Office. They can also complete the renewal by phone at 1-866-550-4355 or online at dhs.pa.gov/COMPASS.

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) has a comprehensive collection of outreach materials you can use to connect with Medicaid recipients about completing their renewals. These resources lend to multiple communication channels, such as:

Do you know an innovative leader making significant contributions in Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) clinical practice, policy or research?

Do you want to bring recognition to an early or mid-career professional with between five- and 15-years' experience working to transform IECMH?

Does a colleague, peer or mentor have an aspirational vision that is changing the world for infants and toddlers?

Emerging Leadership Awards from ZERO TO THREE are the ideal way to recognize the most innovative work from this most important of fields. Nominations are accepted through Monday, May 8, 2023.

The Emerging Leadership Awards are part of ZERO TO THREE’s multipronged effort to recognize the importance of IECMH for infants, toddlers and families. Self-nominations or nominations by colleagues are welcome. Learn more.

A new Lots of Compassion grant program, from Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day and KidsGardening , is designed to support local leaders looking to transform vacant lots into gardens to help grow compassion in their community. In 2023, 10 grantees will receive $20,000 each to transform a vacant lot into a garden. A total of $200,000 will be awarded annually.

Nonprofit organizations, school districts, universities, groups, religious organizations, or other tax-exempt organizations in the United States and US Territories are eligible to apply. Applicants must use the funds to build a garden in a vacant lot. Applications are due by June 2, 2023.

The City of Harrisburg has $13 million in federal funding to makeover its parks and playgrounds, and now help is needed to reimagine them. In October, the City received a $13,005,733 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development for city park improvements. Funds will be used to rebuild and modernize 7th & Radnor Park, Gorgas Playground, Wilson (Rumson) Playground, and Reservoir Park.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has given recipients until June 3 to spend at least 80% of the awarded funding. Because public input is an integral part of the process, everyone is encouraged to complete a survey, sharing input on the types of equipment, activities, and themes for the City of Harrisburg parks and playgrounds. Learn more.

Trying Together, in partnership with Start Strong PA and Pre-K for PA, recently released the report, A Snapshot of the Rural Early Care and Education Landscape: Examining Data From 13 Counties in Pennsylvania, on the current state of early child care and education in Pennsylvania’s rural counties. Authors of the report considered counties in which the number of people per square mile amounted to less than 291 (the statewide average), rural. Of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, 72% met this definition, and just over 162,000 children under five live in them.

The report shows families in rural Pennsylvania communities have limited access to quality care, despite having a higher proportion of parents in the workforce, and a greater prevalence of long and non-traditional hours and commutes.

Research for Action (RFA) recently released a new brief, State Funding to Support Out-of-School-Time Programming in Pennsylvania, from its Pennsylvania Clearinghouse for Education Research (PACER) project.  

A recent report, Climate Change and Children’s Health and Well-Being in the United States, published from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed that climate change has a wide-ranging impact on children's physical health and academic learning, including increased asthma incidence in children due to climate-driven changes in air quality and reduction in academic achievement due to temperature increases.

U.S. EPA will be hosting a webinar to introduce the EPA Climate Change and Children’s Health and Well-Being in the U.S. Report on May 22, 2023, from 2:30-3:30 pm ET. Learn more.

Strategies Toward the Equitable Implementation of Pre-K in Family Child Care: Curriculum, Assessment, Developmental Screening, and Monitoring from the Erikson Institute, focuses on how pre-K systems can ensure both high standards and that family child care (FCC) settings are equitably included in pre-K delivery. Access additional available resources on the website, including an updated glossary and new links added to the collection of external pre-K family child care resources.

A new analysis, Latino Households With Children Continued to Experience Pandemic-Related Disruptions to Their Child Care Arrangements, from the National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families finds that Latino households faced persistent child care disruptions—such as closures, lack of availability or affordability, and concerns about safety—in 2021 and 2022. Additionally, Latino households with children were less likely than their non-Latino peers to use paid leave and more likely to lose or leave a job in response to disruptions, or to cut work hours. These findings suggest the need for additional data to examine structural inequalities in the labor market that affect whether and how Latino households experience child care disruptions, including access to paid sick leave, paid family leave, and flexible work arrangements. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics updated their parent materials for the Brush, Book, Bed program. The program focuses on three key messages for parents: help your children brush their teeth, read a favorite book, and get to bed at a regular time each night. The program aims to improve oral health services in the medical home by linking oral health information with messages about early literacy, sleep, and establishing a regular nighttime routine. Materials are now available in English, Spanish, Cambodian, French, Korean, Russian, and Taiwanese. 

Understanding autism can begin with stories about a child, sibling, friend, and classmate (and even a kid detective!) with autism or Asperger syndrome. Check out these book recommendations from Reading Rockets of picture books featuring characters with autism or Asperger’s.

Children’s author and poet Janet Wong tells how to pack a poetry suitcase as a fun way to bring more poetry into children’s lives. Try it at home or in an early learning setting. Watch the video interview with Janet Wong where she talks about the power of poetry, being the child of immigrants, writing poetry, and her Poetry Friday Anthology series (co-created with children’s literature professor Sylvia Vardell).

Jumpstart poetry writing in your class with a literature-based Teaching in Science: Poetry Walk. Outdoor poetry walks give students a way to write about what they know. Before heading outdoors, read aloud a few poems that are rich in descriptive language. Then, take your class on a walk around the neighborhood to observe and collect sensory images from their direct experience with nature. Students can bring a poetry journal with them to write down descriptive words as they observe, listen, smell, and touch things outside the classroom. See also: 10 Great Ways to Use Poetry in Your Classroom.

Sesame Workshop has launched the all-new Sesame.org! All the free content is now available in one place, and powerful new search tools and navigation features allows users to discover and share resources more easily than ever before. Explore by topic, resource type, and even favorite characters.

Also available are new school-readiness resources to help young children get ready for school and life, together with the grown-ups in their lives. Created with generous support from the PNC Foundation as part of its ongoing early childhood education initiative, PNC Grow Up Great, the resources help gear conversations with children ages 2-5 toward confidence in self-identity and a sense of belonging--universal approaches to learning as a social activity.

Team Nutrition created colorful and engaging newsletters, Nibbles for Health, for families of young children about popular nutrition topics. There are 12 newsletters available in both English and Spanish. Send these educational newsletters to the families you serve and help them understand the ways they can encourage healthy eating at home.

The April resources from Camille Catlett are now available. The April release of Natural Resources contains an Introduction to Autism Module, Promoting Neurodiversity in Early Childhood Services, and more. The April release of Baby Talk shares information about how Black And Latino Infants and Toddlers Often Miss Out On Early Therapies They Need, Visual Supports for Toddlers, and more.