EEC Annual Legislative
Report
February 2011
Context
• Legislative language that requires EEC to
submit an annual report on Universal PreKindergarten (UPK) and Mental Health
initiatives, and Workforce Development
System annual update
• Report seeks to provide an update on EEC’s 5year Strategic Plan
• Report is framed by the Board’s Strategic
Directions and Indicators of Success.
Accomplishments of this past year and
activities planned is reported within the
framework of EEC’s 5 Strategic Directions.
What EEC Must Report (at a
Minimum)
Progress in achieving goals and implementing programs
authorized under M.G.L. c. 15D;
Progress made towards universal early education and care for
pre-school aged children;
Progress made toward reducing expulsion rates through
developmentally appropriate prevention and intervention services;
Behavioral health indicators;
Rules and regulations promulgated by the Board related to civil
fines and sanctions, including the types of sanctions and the amount
of the fines; and
3
Findings and recommendations related to the study on the
programmatic financing and phase-in options for the development
and implementation of the Massachusetts universal prekindergarten program.
EEC System Components and Strategic
Directions: Legislative Report
EEC Strategic
Directions
Standards,
Assessment
and
Accountability
Informed
Families and
Public
Finance
Quality
Family Support,
Access, and
Affordability
EEC System
Components
Governance
Early Ed &
Care and K12 Linkages
Workforce
Communications
Regulations
4
Workforce &
Professional
Development
Infrastructure
Outline of Report
Executive Summary
Introduction
FY11 Context
Strategic Directions
•Indicators of Success
Strategic Direction:
Quality
Strategic Direction:
Workforce
Strategic Direction: Family
•Accomplished this year
•Plan to do next year
•Accomplished this year
•Plan to do next year
Strategic Direction:
Communications
•Accomplished this year
•Plan to do next year
Strategic Direction:
Infrastructure
•Accomplished this year
•Plan to do next year
Appendices
5
•Accomplished this year
•Plan to do next year
A Tough Economy, A Silver Lining



6
EEC saw a reduction in its FY2011 budget—
more than $15 million--when compared with the
final appropriations FY2010.
EEC was able to absorb a significant part of
this reduction through:
 Maintaining reduced access to childcare
subsidy
 Hiring freeze
 Limiting consultants and contractors
 Securing alternative funding streams
Offsetting some of this bad news was the
implementation of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009
 31 initiatives funded by ARRA CCDF
Strategic Priorities and Accomplishments


7
EEC Board’s four key goals for FY11
 State and local leaders understand how EEC
initiatives serve and benefit their communities.
 Align resources to support programs to achieve
quality standards defined by QRIS.
 Early educators should be properly
compensated, and adequately trained through
further developed professional development
standards and opportunities.
 Continue to develop a delivery system of early
education and care services that are known, and
accessible to, families.
These goals are in alignment with the three-year
Strategic Plan developed by the Board, which includes
the five core strategies.
FY11 Highlights: Overview
8

The purposeful creation of a statewide network of
services for the Department’s key stakeholders:
children and their families, providers and educators.
State and local leaders understand how EEC
initiatives serve and benefit their communities.

A deepening of the partnerships among the
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
public colleges and universities, the Department of
Public Health and the Department of Housing and
Community Development, as well as the continued
development of existing partnerships with the
Department of Children and Families and the
Department of Transitional Assistance.
FY11 Highlights: QRIS
Launched January 2011
 A key tool to help families, communities, and
policymakers understand what constitutes
quality
 Guides professionals in child development
settings on a path toward quality
 Supports for programs to reach higher levels
of quality
 Measure quality with evidence based tools
 Educator and Provider Support technical
assistance
 Financial support for quality improvements

9
FY11 Highlights: Professional
Development






10
Formal training in early childhood education
Core Content knowledge
Linked to child development and growth
Higher-order set of skills and knowledge
 Literacy;
 Positive behavior management;
 Fitness and nutrition; and
 The science of growth and development
Pathway toward proficiency and career growth
Professional Qualifications Registry, one of the key
elements in the PD Data Management System, will
enhance EEC’s knowledge of the needs of the
Commonwealth’s early education and care and out of school
time workforce.
 As of January 2011, there were already over 32,500
educators in the PQ Registry, estimated at about half the
current workforce.
FY11 Highlights: Literacy



Along with ESE, aligned the curriculum
frameworks with the Massachusetts common core
standards for English Language Arts
Working to identify what is developmentally
appropriate for children to learn that will serve as a
scaffold for future learning
Commissioned a literacy course birth to eight
FY11 Highlights: Mental Health

11
In partnership with DPH, designed a system to
train more than 2000 education and care providers
across the state to help educators address social and
emotional development in the Center for Social and
Emotional Foundation of Early Learning (CSEFEL)
FY11 Highlights: Community and Family
Engagement

12
EEC is working to build a more robust and evidencebased engagement strategy, centered around the
following elements:
 actively identifying families that are the most
socially isolated and hence at greatest risk;
 ensuring that families, providers and others are
informed about comprehensive services their
community, specifically at 110 community
resource centers across the state; and
 making high quality childcare services
accessible through the state’s Child Care
Resource and Referral Centers, and by training
staff who work for the state’s 211 telephonic
system.
 Focus community based efforts to support the
development of early literacy knowledge, skills
and abilities.
FY11 Highlights: Increased Access


Waitlist study resulting in significant gains turning
over the waitlist
ARRA Funding
Child Care Development Fund (CCDF): $23.97M
 Head Start and Early Head Start: $10.1M
 IDEA through ESE: 10.2M



13
Contracted childcare slots used to expand the
number of slots for those in greatest need
Average Caseloads for 2010 (January 1 –
December 31, 2010): 55,345 children
 ARRA: 215 children
 DTA: 16,917 children
 Income Eligible: 32,390 children
 Supportive: 5,823 children
Looking Ahead

EEC continues to identify the projects that will
define its work in the next months and years
Fully implement QRIS
 New Statewide Early Childhood Data
System
 Evaluation and Measurement of child
growth
 De-coupling access to services from parental
work status

14