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Massachusetts has elected new leaders: time to reach out to the Healey-Driscoll administration — and their transition committees

Posted in COVID-19, Diversity equity and inclusion, Family engagement, MA governor, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Social-emotional development, tagged #ChildCare, #earlyed, #ece, #mapoli on December 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Our campaign’s vision brought Massachusetts together. Our new policy committees will work to translate that vision into governing plans.

This is going to take all of us, so head to our transition website to share your ideas — we want to hear from you. https://t.co/iBAcXaLH0h
— Maura Healey (@maura_healey) November 29, 2022

Next month, Massachusetts will have new leadership, so it’s time for advocates to learn about and reach out to key players in state public policy.

One good place to start is learning about the transition teams that have been created by Governor-elect Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor-elect Kim Driscoll.

The key committee for early childhood advocates to focus on is called “Thriving Youth and Young Adults.”

Chaired by Amanda Fernandez, the CEO of Latinos for Education, and Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Rachel H. Monárrez, the committee is looking at, “How we address learning loss from the pandemic and give all children and families equitable access to the educational, social, emotional and behavioral supports they need.”

Serving on the committee are well known members of the early education and care community, including:

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An update on the Early Childhood Agenda

Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, COVID-19, Early educators, Family engagement, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Strategies for Children, tagged #TheEarlyChildhoodAgenda on November 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The Early Childhood Agenda is making progress. This convening series hosted by Strategies for Children has brought together more than 400 individual advocates and partners. Participants have been meeting in five working groups to identify systemic challenges and set priorities.

Last week, participants attended a whole group meeting – dubbed “Bringing it all Together” and recorded in the video above – to talk across the Agenda’s working groups and ensure that the groups’ efforts are aligned and that any gaps in the work are addressed.

Among the themes that were discussed:

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Good state budget news for early education and care

Posted in Child care, COVID-19, Early educators, Funding, MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, tagged #ece, #InvestInChildCare, #mapoli on November 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Alyssa Haywoode for Strategies for Children

Great news! Early education and care got a financial boost earlier this month when Governor Charlie Baker signed a $3.76 billion economic development bill into law.

As our FY’23 budget webpage explains, this investment includes “an additional $150 million to continue the C3 Stabilization Grants through the end of the fiscal year in June 2023, and an additional $315 million in the newly created High-Quality Early Education and Care Affordability Fund.”

We are grateful to the Legislature for passing this bill and to the governor for signing it.

In a State House News story that ran in the Sentinel & Enterprise, Baker says Massachusetts can invest in child care and be fiscally prudent:

“Recognizing the importance of childcare investments, I am approving sections in this bill that redirect $315 million from the Commonwealth Taxpayer Relief Fund to the High-Quality Early Education & Care Affordability Fund. However, we can invest in childcare and make sensible tax changes at the same time. With the state in a historically strong fiscal position, the tax cuts that the Legislature has committed to prioritizing next session will be affordable without a special set-aside.”

A WBUR report focuses on the relief for some workers, noting:

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In quotes: Testifying before the EEC Board about the benefits of the CFCE grant program

Posted in Dept. of Early Education and Care, Developmentally appropriate practice, Early educators, Family engagement, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Play, Pre-kindergarten, Quotes, Social-emotional development, tagged #earlyed, #Massachusetts, #play on November 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

“My name is Gillian Budine. I have been a Coordinated Family and Community Engagement (CFCE) grant program coordinator for many years, including during the Community Partnership and Family Network days. Locally we call our CFCE program the Community Network for Children (CNC) Program and our priority communities are Erving, Leverett, New Salem, Shutesbury and Wendell, but our programs reach families beyond those five towns to neighboring towns with our CFCE programming.”

“CFCE programs have been a crucial hub of support and resources for families. Especially in our small rural communities.”

— Testimony submitted to the Board of the Department of Early Education and Care, p. 6, November 8, 2022

* * * *

What parents said:

“Working with CNC has been incredible throughout the time we have been involved, from last trimester of pregnancy to current days of our daughter being 1. Our daughter has learned so much and is quite advanced as a result of this program and what it offers.”

“My son and I have been attending CNC programs since he was a few months old. He now has such a fondness for music and stories. During the pandemic, we have been so grateful to have a safe, welcoming environment to attend, learn, and grow. Without the CNC programs, my son would not have had the opportunity at his young age to listen to live guitar, [engage in] singing as a group, read alouds, and exploration. Thank you for this incredible opportunity!”

“Our playgroups in Shutesbury and Erving have been of utmost importance in maintaining social connections and parental support throughout the pandemic, especially during the winter months. We have appreciated the efforts of all staff involved in planning, coordinating, and implementing these groups. My daughter lights up with excitement to see Ms. Katie play guitar and sing songs. She practices social skills of waving and taking turns when with her peers. She’s developed a sense of pride and independence when giving supplies back to Ms. Gillian to help clean up. To see other parents has also helped give me support and comfort during these times of being in isolation throughout the cold months.”

— Testimony submitted to the Board of the Department of Early Education and Care, p. 7, November 8, 2022

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Creating high-quality, outdoor spaces for young children

Posted in Developmentally appropriate practice, Early educators, Facilities, Head Start, Infants and toddlers, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, National, Play, Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation, tagged #OutdoorLearningEnvironment, #OutdoorPlay on November 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Playing outside is a source of joy for children — and an opportunity for early educators to teach amazing lessons.

But many early childhood programs don’t have the information and resources they need to build engaging outdoor play spaces.

A policy brief from New America — Rethinking Outdoor Space for High-Quality Early Learning –addresses this by sharing the many options for creating an engaging “outdoor learning environment” or OLE.

The brief starts with a story about butterflies:

“Tiny monarch caterpillars arrived at the school, not floating through the air, but with the thud of a package on concrete.

“Our postal carrier had no idea how many lessons were going to emerge from that box for the prekindergartners at our public school in Washington, DC. First, we created a mesh net habitat and placed it in the tiny side yard of our concrete school building, which is just a few feet from a busy street known for nightlife, not nature. Within a day, the caterpillars doubled in size and the students watched, fascinated, commenting on the bite marks in the plants and listening closely for crunching.

“Over the next four weeks, children took turns watering the plants in the garden beds and tore off leaves to place in the mesh cage for the very hungry caterpillars.”

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Mo Barbosa: from zero to 24 and beyond

Posted in Achievement gap, Boston, Child care, College/career readiness, Cost and affordability, Developmentally appropriate practice, Infants and toddlers, K-12, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Strategies for Children, tagged #TheEarlyChildhoodAgenda, #ZeroTo24 on November 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »

One of the most important lessons you learn in a conversation with Mo Barbosa is that everything in youth development work is – or should be – connected.

“The better we do with zero to five,” Barbosa says of working with young children, “the better we’re going to do with the next 10 to 15 years of development.”

Barbosa is the senior director of Community Engagement at Health Resources in Action, where his goal as a trainer and facilitator is to professionalize the youth work field. He is the facilitator for convenings of The Early Childhood Agenda, which are hosted by Strategies for Children.

Barbosa’s sweeping focus is on the zero-to-24 age range – “or 24-ish” he says, “as we’re starting to understand the brain, we’re going a little bit later.”

But instead of a well-paved road that leads from birth to early adulthood, children and families in Massachusetts — and the rest of the country — face a fractured system.

“There has been this historic difference between where you get child care and how much of it is early education and how much of it is just a place to put your kid,” Barbosa says. “And that difference has dictated quality. It has dictated pay. And it has dictated opportunity.”

Barbosa recalls running an early childhood program in St. Louis where children who lived in local housing projects would not go to kindergarten because they could not pass the screening test. Instead, they would enter first grade as six-year-olds with no early childhood classroom experiences.

The solution?

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Vote!

Posted in Child care, Election, MA governor, MA Legislature, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Strategies for Children, tagged #ElectionDay, #vote on November 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Alyssa Haywoode for Strategies for Children

It’s Election Day! Please go out and vote!

Here are some useful voting facts and links:

• polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Massachusetts. Click here to see where you vote

• you can also check the Secretary of State Elections Website

• you can see information about the Ballot Questions here

If you’ve already voted, thanks for your participation.

To learn more about voting, please check out Strategies for Children’s “Vote 2022” webpage. It has a number of voting resources as well as details on how we’re working to build more equitable access to early childhood programs.

Once again, please vote.

Your participation matters to the future of children across Massachusetts.

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A recap of The Early Childhood Agenda open house – and an invitation to the kickoff

Posted in Child care, Early educators, Family engagement, MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Strategies for Children, tagged #TheEarlyChildhoodAgenda on October 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Last week, Strategies for Children hosted an open house event for the Early Childhood Agenda, our exciting new, initiative to build a consensus on early childhood needs in Massachusetts by connecting organizations, parents, advocates, businesses, educators, providers, and government representatives.

Did you miss it? No problem. Just watch the video above. The slides are available here.

And you can click here to sign up and join this effort along with the hundreds of early childhood advocates, providers, educators, and parents.

Please also join us for a kickoff meeting that will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, October 19, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Everyone who completes the sign-up form will automatically receive the Zoom link and instructions for this meeting.

Now is the time to take action.

As we’ve reported, this year’s state budget includes historic funding for early education and care. Advocates are eager to build on this momentum to achieve a sustainable system and lasting change. To encourage this change the Agenda will address the often interrelated issues of early childhood by taking a holistic view, going beyond child care to include any early childhood systems, programs, and policies that impact young children and families.

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In quotes: Cindy Horgan, executive director of the Cape Cod Children’s Place

Posted in Child care, Family engagement, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, tagged #earlyed, #ece, #FamilyEngagement on October 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »

“I was at a turning point in my life… that fork in the road, and there was a job opportunity in 2004. [It was] my perfect job Family Support Coordinator… And so that’s how I came to the Cape Cod Children’s Place.”

“Our mission really says who we are, a nonprofit resource referral and education center committed to providing high-quality, early education and care, support, and advocacy for families with young children.”

“I think being a parent today is the hardest job you’ll ever do and the most important job that you’ll ever do. In other parts of the world, the way that they regard families is really [as a] top priority, and we often disregard that important job. And so I believe truly if we do it really well with young families, the outcomes for the whole community is that much higher.”

— The Person of the Week for October 13th, 2022 – Cindy Horgan – executive director of Cape Cod Children’s Place, MVY Radio