On Friday, February 26 from 9:30 AM - 3:00 PM ET, researchers, policymakers, medical practitioners, early childhood educators and all those working to optimize children’s development will convene online for interactive learning.
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Keynote address – 9:30 - 10:40 AM ET
Dr. Klass is a pediatrician and author of “A Good Time to Be Born: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future.” The book describes how our world has been transformed by the radical decline of infant and child mortality.
Klass's writings on medical training and pediatric practice have been published extensively. She is Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University, and Medical Director of Reach Out and Read, a national childhood literacy program that works through doctors and nurses to encourage parents to read aloud to young children, and to give them the books they need to do it. Klass is a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Break – 10:40 - 11:00 AM ET
Breakout Session One – 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM ET (choose one)
Elizabeth Crouch, PhD, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina Rural and
Minority Health Research Center and Jan Probst, PhD, Associate Teacher/Center Director Rural
and Minority Health Research Center.
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Unconscious Bias (Equity Challenges Track)
Mary Garvey, ICS Director of Innovation and Inclusion.
Lunch – 12:00 - 12:30 PM ET
Breakout Session Two – 12:30 - 1:30 PM ET (choose one)
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LEND Family Panel (Developmental Challenges Track)
Karen Irick, Center for Disability Resources, Department of Pediatrics, University of South
Carolina School of Medicine.
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BabyNet and Early Childhood Education Services (Service Provision Challenges Track)
Jennifer Buster, BabyNet Director and Jenny May, Early Childhood 619 Director.
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COVID's Impact on the Early Childhood Workforce in South Carolina (Equity Challenges Track)
Megan Carolan, ICS Director of Policy Research.
Break – 1:30 - 2:00 PM ET
Breakout Session Three – 2:00 - 3:00 PM (choose one)
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Memphis LEND (Developmental Challenges Track)
- Early Childhood Mental Health Policy and Practice Perspective and Direct Service
Perspective, Within the COVID-19 Service Environment (Service Provision Challenges Track)
Susan Callahan, MSW SCIMHA office at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and
Dr. Mary Ellen Warren, University of South Carolina
Bryan Boroughs, ICS Vice President and General Counsel
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Join speakers on Wednesday, February 24 at 11:00 AM ET, from the Institute for Child Success and Root & Rebound to discuss the ongoing issue of housing instability in Greenville County, and the particular impact this issue has on families who are involved with the criminal justice and/or child welfare systems. As professionals who do not work directly in housing services – but who work with families facing crisis – this session aims to:
• Define homelessness in an inclusive way, including what homelessness “looks” like for families in the Upstate;
• Highlight how housing instability interacts with many of the issues that families may be referred to for assistance with; and
• What resources are available for assistance that providers may not already be aware of.
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Learn how states and counties have made the case and used funds to help child care providers fill seats, parents return to work faster, and communities leverage real-time supply and demand data.
Hear from policy experts about Congressional trends and priorities for early childhood.
See how BridgeCare's white-label platform has been used by communities across the country to support their child care industry.
Featuring:
• Bryan Boroughs, Vice President and General Counsel, Institute for Child Success.
• Cara Ciminillo, Executive Director, Trying Together
• Heather O’Hayre, Director, Larimer County Human Services
• Jamee Herbert, Founder & CEO, BridgeCare
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We Met the Matching Gift Challenge, Thanks to You! |
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Thank you, donors! Because of you, ICS met our Matching Gift Challenge goal of $15,000, thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Jean and Dr. Bill Schmidt!
The year 2020 was a challenging one for us and your donations in support of children and their families were immensely appreciated.
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How to Speak to Your Children About National Tragedies
This piece, nea.org guidance, from the National Educators Association (NEA) shares guidance for classroom professionals developed by school psychology experts “for talking to your students about racial violence and other national tragedies.”
This article, wpr.org guidance, from Wisconsin Public Radio spoke with a range of experts to develop guidance teachers and parents can use across ages:
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- Think About What Children Are Seeing, and Limit Exposure;
- Teach Not Just Through Conversations, But Through Your Actions and Responses;
- Be Comfortable Saying 'I Don't Know;'
- Understand That Being Overwhelmed Is Reasonable; Overlapping Crises Demand More Than Many Families Can Handle on Their Own; and
- Make Room for Children to Thrive, and Push Forward.
Written by a policy analyst for child care and early education at the Center for Law and Social Policy CLASP), this piece, Clasp.org blog post, considers the difficult conversations parents may currently be facing and how to navigate with their children: “As a parent, especially a Black parent, I have always lived by the notion that the world will teach my children what I do not, and for me, this was not a moment to cast that notion aside. So, I leaned in.”
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by Rachel Perkins, ICS Policy Research Intern
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The COVID-19 pandemic has upended all aspects of everyday life – with increases in working from home, financial strain, and general anxieties about exposure – the child care sector has been no exception.
Although often overlooked, the child care sector, a $99 billion industry nationwide, represents an integral part of the United States economy. Not only do child care programs foster well-being and development for young children, but also enable parents to maintain their work schedules...
Make no mistake: Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans have offered some child care providers critical time with which to pay themselves, their employees, and their fixed operating costs; however, entire segments of the child care industry (i.e., Family Child Care Homes) have largely been unable to access the program and its benefits.
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by Megan Carolan, Director of Policy Research
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Just before the new year, ICS released findings from a second round survey of child care providers in South Carolina to better understand how the continued spread of COVID-19 and resulting economic impacts are affecting the child care sector as of 2020. This survey was adapted from a previous version fielded in spring 2020, in the early days of the public health crisis...
Many of these adjustments require providers to address complex staffing questions. How can providers achieve necessary staffing, and “within ratio,” if staff members have to call out sick or have a potential exposure requiring quarantine? How can a provider implement protective measures, like smaller group sizes or daily symptom screening for children, and will additional staff need to be hired to do so? How can providers keep children and staff from mixing across groups, increasing potential exposures?
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Over the last decade, ICS and the South Carolina Early Childhood Common Agenda coalition have been working with lawmakers to increase access to quality early learning. We reached an important milestone in that process this month when South Carolina Governor McMaster's budget proposed completing the expansion of 4-year-old preschool across the state. Governor McMaster’s proposed budget would allow approximately 13,000 additional families to take part in preschool programming that not only provides critical developmental supports, but also enables parents and guardians to more readily secure and retain employment. Such an expansion would also help businesses reduce employee turnover, increase productivity, and support our state’s economic recovery from the negative effects of COVID-19.
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The Georgetown University Health Policy Institute's Center for Children and Family recently highlighted ICS's pediatric report.
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The Help Me Grow SC State Office Director, Jane Witowski, is one of the featured panelists on the recently released episode of The Brain Architects, a podcast produced by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.
The topic is: Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body: Early Childhood Development and Lifelong Health are Deeply Intertwined: Part 2. On #TheBrainArchitects podcast, Jane comments on how necessary cross-sector collaborations are in the early childhood field, and how the silos and stay-in-your-lane mentality impact children and families.
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ICS works on behalf of children from prenatal to age 8.
Help support our research and advocacy with a contribution.
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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.
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The Institute for Child Success is founded by |
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. |
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