Table of Contents
- Summary: Early Childhood Opportunities in ARP State and Local Funding
-
Blog - For Providers: Guidance on Using the Child Care Funding of the American Rescue Plan
- Equity Recommendations for ARP Funds
-
Publication: The School-to-Prison Pipeline and Implications for South Carolina
- Announcement: Monthly Child Tax Credit Payments to Start July 15
- A Profile in Service: Dr. Dee Stegelin, ICS Senior Fellow
-
ICS Welcomes New Board Members
-
What We've Been Up To: Visiting the James Rushton Early Learning Center (JRELC) in Birmingham, Alabama
- Save the Date
|
|
by John Young Shik Concklin, VP of Strategy & Development, and
GP McLeer and Meredith McNeely, of Pecan PR
Executive Summary excerpt: On March 11, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan (ARP), a $1.9 trillion package aimed at COVID relief and recovery. Among the many areas funded in this legislation, $350 billion is directed to state governments and local governments across the country. Unlike in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), every state, every territory, every tribal nation, every county, and every city will be receiving a portion of this funding. Additionally, this funding is not based on reimbursements, but rather is forward looking and allows governments to invest in recovery efforts associated with COVID-19.
- Support public health expenditures.
- Address negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency.
- Replace lost public sector revenue.
- Provide premium pay for essential workers.
- Invest in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure.
|
|
by John Young Shik Concklin, VP of Strategy & Development
Excerpt: In early March 2021, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act which included, among many other things, $39B for child care, $15B in Child Care Development Block Grants and $24B in Child Care Stabilization Funds. In May, the Administration for Children and Families released federal guidance on how the Child Care Stabilization Funds can be used.
Primarily, funds are to be allocated to qualified and eligible providers with a limited percentage set aside for administrative activities. Providers who have not previously participated in the subsidy system and who are an existing provider at the time of application are eligible to request funds. Providers are defined as center-based, group home, family- or relative-based providers serving subsidy-eligible children, non-relative in-home providers (at each state’s discretion), and school-age providers meeting requirements to be an eligible child care provider. Generally speaking, Head Start, Early Head Start, and public pre-kindergarten programs are not eligible as they are receiving funding through other parts of the ARP.
|
|
Equity Recommendations for ARP Funds
by Mary C. Garvey, VP of Equity & Innovation
Earlier this year, ICS partnered with the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) to co-host a webinar on Bolstering Early Childhood Through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act. This event highlighted how jurisdictions could apply an equity lens when working to deploy the funding coming to states and other territories via the ARP. Expert panelists included Gina Adams from the Urban Institute, New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) Commissioner David Hansell, and Leslie Totten with the Tempe Preschool Research Expansion (PRE). As the ARP quickly becomes a reality, we would like to share some key recommendations and considerations that came out of the panel discussion:
-
Active outreach to communities most in need—low-income families, Black, Latinx and other families of color, as well as to non-English speakers—is a necessary step in assessing the status of resources.
- When it comes to child care, we should ask ourselves if we are funding the kind of care that families truly need to be able to work. There are many families that prefer home-based child care and households in which traditional child care cannot be accessed due to odd work hours.
- Partnerships are important as child care centers cannot do it all alone. The National League of Cities and Head Start were cited as organizations that can better inform the work of child care centers.
- Consider the speed of disbursement of funds. There is a natural opposition between speed and innovation. We need time to be thoughtful and equitable.
- Finally, develop and fund programs through an anti-racist lens. Panelists stressed, for example, the importance of lived experience in developing strategies for the use of ARP funding. These voices should not just be amplified or incorporated, but rather prominently seated at decision-making tables and leading strategies.
|
|
by Mary C. Garvey, VP of Equity & Innovation
During a community partners meeting accompanying the AAP Leonard P. Rome Visiting Professorship at Prisma Health-Upstate, Mary provided an overview of the preschool-to-prison pipeline dynamic. Mary cited ICS research on the disproportionate number of Black children in preschool suspension and expulsion statistics in SC, and the implicit bias behind this phenomenon. Community partners included Greenville County school principals and teachers, school district employees, school board members, pediatricians, residents, United Way staff, Greenville County’s Racial Equity and Economic Mobility (REEM) Commission, and foundation and nonprofit leaders.
|
|
Announcement: Monthly Child Tax Credit Payments to Start July 15
by Lisa Maronie, Communications Manager
Working families with children receive a financial lifeline via the expansion of the Child Tax Credit under the American Rescue Plan. In 2021, eligible families (for example, a married couple making less than $150,000 per year) will see their Child Tax Credit increase to $3,000 for each child between 6 and 17 years old, and rise to $3,600 for each child under age 6. This historic increase has the potential to lift half of all children out of poverty if all eligible families sign-up to receive the monthly payments.
Families with qualifying dependents are set to collect advance payments of the Child Tax Credit beginning next month. They will receive advance monthly payments from the IRS, who will pay half the total credit amount, the other half will be claimed when the family files their 2021 income tax return. Families who did not file taxes in 2019 or 2020, may access the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Child Tax Credit Non-filer Sign-up Tool portal.
Additional Resources
|
|
A Profile in Service - Dr. Dee Stegelin,
ICS Senior Fellow
|
|
by Amber Posey, ICS Policy Research Associate
There are moments in hearing about the life of Dolores “Dee” Stegelin when a person might think her story belongs in a Hallmark movie. After all, she’s a woman who was born and raised on a dairy farm in Kansas, and fell in love with a man raised on a beef farm. If that doesn’t sound like the plot to “Springtime in Kansas,” what then? Past that point though, it becomes clear her life is better suited for a three-part series about defying the patriarchy, overcoming unavoidable challenges in her personal journey, joining a movement to transform the post-partum procedures of the American medical community, and dedicating her career and retirement to research around the betterment of the U.S. educational system. Maybe it’s a four-part series…but first, an introduction.
Dee is a retired professor with Clemson University. Her childhood dream was to become a doctor after experiencing the loss of her father to renal cancer and the interworking of the hospital system’s efforts to treat and save him. Her dream was deterred by a high school counselor who suggested she was better suited for a traditional female career in teaching. Still vulnerable and grieving, Dee followed the counselor’s advice. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Kansas State University, where she also explored and became enamored with the curriculum around Child Development. From there she received a full scholarship to pursue her Master’s in Child Development and Family Relations. Some years later, after having children and her husband retiring from the military following injuries sustained in President Nixon’s Christmas raid to end the Vietnam War (a four-part series for sure), Dee achieved her childhood dream, when she received her PhD in Early Childhood and became a doctor.
The process of earning her PhD at the University of Florida included working with renowned researcher Michael Resnick in his efforts to introduce the importance of physical touch in newborns into hospital procedures. Following this opportunity, Dee committed herself to continued research and learning around innovative improvements in the early childhood sphere. The improvements focus on the importance of play expressed and explored in the Play Coalition Dee helped found at Clemson University. She has also developed a collaborative study abroad at Clemson to study the Reggio Emilia Approach in Italy (which can be studied but not replicated in the United States) and invites students to explore early childhood education on an international scale to learn from the successes of other societies. Currently, she is excited to be elected to the role of Vice President of the advisory board of the Emeritus College at Clemson where she will serve to support the university and do what she’s excelled in already, strategizing ways to improve the systems that be.
On a personal note, she prizes life in Columbia, SC, traveling, family time, and indulging in homemade, garden fresh salsa.
|
|
ICS Welcomes New Board Members |
|
ICS Board Member, Dr. Crystal Campbell - Summerville, SC
Dr. Crystal Campbell is a retired educator from the State of South Carolina School System. In 2011, she retired from School District 5 of Lexington/Richland Counties where she was the Early Childhood Coordinator. She held numerous teaching and supervisory positions within school districts all over South Carolina, including being a Teacher Specialist with the State Department of Education, Early Childhood Specialist in Dorchester District Two, Senior Instructor at the College of Charleston, and an Adjunct Professor at Midlands and Trident Technical College.
Dr. Campbell has her own consulting business (CYC Educational Consulting, LLC.) where she provides Department of Social Services training hours for child care providers and teachers and presents at conferences across South Carolina. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director of Dorchester County First Steps in Summerville, SC.
|
|
ICS Board Member, Dr. Paul Dworkin - Hartford, CT
Dr. Paul Dworkin is Executive Vice President for Community Child Health at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Founding Director of the Help Me Grow National Center, and professor of pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. For 15 years, he previously served as physician-in-chief at Connecticut Children’s and chair of the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.
Dr. Dworkin’s interests are at the interface of child development, child health services, and child health policy. He has authored more than 175 publications in the fields of developmental-behavioral pediatrics and general pediatrics.
|
|
ICS Board Member, Deb Long - Greenville, SC
Deb Long is a purpose-driven individual who is passionate about causes and organizations that are committed to helping people. She serves on numerous nonprofit boards of directors, coalitions and alliances.
Ms. Long has more than twenty years of experience in nonprofit management at the executive level. She has held executive positions at the Urban League of Rochester, Catholic Family Center, Girl Scouts of the USA, and the Girl Scouts of Genesee Valley. She is currently employed by Bon Secours St. Francis Health System as the Director of Diversity and Inclusion (previously, she was Director of Healthy Community Initiatives).
|
|
ICS Board Member, Dr. Francis Rushton - Birmingham, AL
Dr. Francis Rushton, Jr. practiced pediatric medicine in Beaufort, SC, for over 44 years. Now retired, he was formerly a community pediatrician and a member of the pediatric faculty at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Rushton has been a pioneer in using pediatric practice to strengthen informal social connections and thereby to reduce social morbidities, improve young children's health and enhance parents' effectiveness and well-being.
Dr. Rushton is the author of numerous scholarly articles appearing in journals ranging from Child Abuse & Neglect to Pediatrics International. During his career, he was active in the SC Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and in promoting the benefits of home visiting in encouraging child and caregiver wellbeing.
|
|
William Bradshaw of the Bradshaw Institute Named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club of Greenville |
|
Jane Dyer, President of the Rotary Club of Greenville, presenting Mr. Bradshaw with the Paul Harris Fellow Medallion. |
|
William Bradshaw of the Bradshaw Institute for Community Child Health and Advocacy at Prisma Health-Upstate was named a Paul Harris Fellow on May 25. Paul Harris is the Founder of Rotary International, a global network of 1.2 million community leaders who promote service to others. Bradshaw was honored for exceptional service to the community, the state, and the nation in building safer and healthier communities for our most valuable treasure—our children.
Over 15 years ago, Annette and William Bradshaw first saw the need to help build a safer and healthier community when they established a car seat check at Bradshaw Automotive. Since then, more than 20,000 car seats have been checked, and children are safer because of these efforts.
|
|
ICS President & CEO Jamie Moon and Deak Rushton, President of the James Rushton Foundation, visit the James Rushton Early Learning Center (JRELC) in Birmingham, Alabama. Jamie visited JRELC in May with ICS Board member, Dr. Francis Rushton. Opened in 2017 and supported by the Woodlawn Foundation and James Rushton Foundation, JRECL provides high quality zero-through-four child care to the Woodlawn community and other area families and is part of a cradle-to-career collaboration working to break the cycle of poverty in Woodlawn.
|
|
Do you know someone who would enjoy this content?
Feel free to forward this email and share with your networks.
|
|
ICS works on behalf of children from prenatal to age 8.
Help support our research and advocacy with a contribution.
|
|
|
|
|
Bookmark smile.amazon.com and set Institute for Child Success Inc as your charitable organization. Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to ICS.
AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service.
|
|
The Institute for Child Success was founded by
the United Way of Greenville County and Prisma Health.
|
The Institute for Child Success is fueled by the BlueCross® BlueShield® of South Carolina Foundation, the Mary Black Foundation, and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, an independent licensee of the BlueCross and BlueShield Association. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
