Vol. III, Issue 11—June 1-15, 2014
Contents

Highlights

Federal Updates

Policy Trends and Analysis

New Research

Upcoming Events

Other News,
Announcements and
Resources

News from the States
o
California
o
Colorado
o
Connecticut
o
Florida
o
Illinois
o
Louisiana
o
Maine
o
Michigan
o
New York
o
Vermont
HIGHLIGHTS:
U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and
Human Services, and Education, and Related
Agencies Fiscal Year 2015 Appropriations Bill
The U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Departments of Labor, Health
and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies have approved a budget
for the upcoming fiscal year that includes more than $348 million in new funding for
child care and early education programs. Additionally, $145 million in additional funds
has been allocated for Head Start, $100 million will go towards Preschool
Development Grants, and $100 million is slated to go toward the Child Care and
Development Block Grant. Read more here and here.
Back to top
FEDERAL UPDATES:

Affordable Health Care Act: U.S. Sen. Al Franken has introduced the
Family Coverage Act, which would clarify the Affordable Health Care Act
regulations and require the Internal Revenue Service to calculate family
coverage affordability by comparing the costs of coverage for the entire
family instead of comparing family costs to an individual family member. If
enacted, the bill would provide more affordable healthcare to more than
400,000 children. Read more here.

Child Well Being: The Administration of Children and Families (ACF) has
added to its website a new section that covers early childhood adversity and
toxic stress. In addition, the Office of Planning Research and Evaluation
(OPRE) is engaging in collaborative research efforts with program offices to
create resources such as the Buffering Toxic Stress Consortium, which will
consist of six cooperative agreements that evaluate promising Early Head
Start interventions. Read more here and here.

White House Initiatives: The White House has released a series of
recommendations from its "My Brother's Keeper" initiative. Early childhood
focused recommendations include eliminating suspensions and expulsions
in preschool, expansion of health and behavioral screenings, and an
increased focus on literacy. Read more here.

Race To The Top: The U.S. Department of Education has released Race
to the Top (RTTT) progress reports for Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky,
Louisiana, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, all states that received grants in
the third round of the program. The reports capture progress and obstacles
faced by the states during the second year of implementation, from JanuaryDecember 2013. Read more here.
Back to top
POLICY TRENDS AND ANALYSIS:

Accountability: The Ounce of Prevention has released another paper in its
planned series of publications, Ounce Policy Conversations, entitled "A
Framework for Rethinking State Education Accountability and Support From
Birth Through High School." The goal of these Conversations is to
share share ideas on topics of importance to early learning policy, with the
hope that others will share their ideas and create discussions from which
everyone in the early childhood field can learn. Read more here.

Child Care: The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) has released an
interim report that examines issue of affordable high-quality child care
access for low-wage workers and strategies that can be used to address the
problem. Read more here.

Early Childhood Policy:
o
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCLS) recently
updated its 2014 Alliance Legislative Tracker and NCLS Early Care
and Education Database. To date, more than 600 bills focused on
early care and education issues have been introduced in 46 states,
the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico this year, with more than
100 bills enacted or adopted by legislative bodies. Read
more here.
o
The Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands, in
partnership with the Early Childhood Research Alliance (ECEA),
has developed two new surveys that focus on the use of child
assessments and learning standards in early childhood learning
settings. The surveys are intended to assist program administrators
and policymakers as they inform early childhood practice and
policy. Read more here.
Back to top
NEW RESEARCH:

Cognitive Development: John Hopkins University researchers have
released a new study that finds a link between a child's cognitive
development and housing affordability. Looking at families with incomes at
or below 200% of the federal poverty level, the study found that when
families spent more than 50% or less than 20% of their income of housing,
their children's children's cognitive abilities suffered. Read more here.

Learning Spaces: Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have
conducted one of the first studies examining how learning spaces affect
children's attention spans. The study showed an increase in time off task
and smaller learning gains for kindergarten children placed in classrooms
with highly decorated walls, suggesting that learning spaces may need to
limit the amount of visual displays in a classroom. Read more here and
here.
Back to top
UPCOMING EVENTS:

June 26: The American Youth Policy Forum will host a webinar on the
growing shift toward competency-based learning in K-12 systems and the
role expanded learning plays in this student-centered approach.
The webinar will discuss promising initiatives in which expanded learning is
being embedded into competency-based K-12 systems, the rationales for
such an approach, and program implementation strategies. Register here.

June 26: The School Turnaround Learning Community (STLC), in
partnership with the Reform Support Network (RSN), will be hosting a
webinar that focuses on engaging community stakeholders for a more
effective school. Register here.
Back to top
OTHER NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESOURCES:

Children's Policy Resource: Child Trends has launched Child Trends
Hispanic Institute, which will provide research-based information and
guidance intended to help improve outcomes for Latino children and youth
in the U.S. The new site provides information on Abriendo Puertas/Opening
Doors, a new evaluation study on national parent education program serving
low-income Hispanic parents of preschool children in 34 states. Read more
here.

Policy Partnerships: The National Governors Association (NGA) has
released a set of guiding principles intended to promote strong state-federal
partnerships while developing high-quality early education systems. Read
more here and here.

Social and Emotional Learning: The Center on Education Policy and the
Center for Health and Health Care in Schools have created a guide
highlighting 15 federal elementary and secondary education programs that
appear to have regulations or guidance that allow the use of funds within
programs that universal prevention programs and social and emotional
learning initiatives. Read more here.

Child Welfare: The State Policy Advocacy and Reform Center has
launched a podcast series entitled "Perspectives From the Field," which will
not only spotlight leaders in the field, but will also cover issues of interest to
child welfare advocates. Read more here.
Back to top
NEWS FROM THE STATES:
California

Gov. Jerry Brown has approved a $156.4 billion budget that includes $264
million that would be used to provide 11,500 preschool slots for low-income
4 year-old children in June of next year with an additional 31,500 slots
planned for the future. The expansion, when combined with existing
programs, will mean that roughly half of all 4-year olds in the state will
eligible for early education assistance. An additional $69 million will be used
to increase early learning and child care program reimbursement rates.
Read more here, here, and here.

A California Superior Court has ruled that state teacher tenure and seniority
protections are unconstitutional and violate equal protection for students in
Vergara vs. California. The lawsuit was brought by nine student plaintiffs
against the state and the California Teachers Association, alleging that laws
governing teacher tenure, seniority and dismissal deprived poor and
minority students of an equal education. Read more here and here.

Jason Pfeifle, state director of the California Fair Share Oakland, and Rosie
Switzer, governing board president of the Benicia Unified School District cowrote an opinion piece published by Contra Costa Times that makes the
case for increased funding in the state's budget for early childhood
programs. Read more here.
Colorado

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock has announced his support for Preschool
Matters, a campaign focusing on renewing and expanding a sales tax that
will fund the city's preschool program. The ballot question will ask voters to
approve a .15% sales tax on any purchase that is more than $100. Read
more here.
Connecticut

Gov. Dannel Malloy recently signed bills that formally establish an Office of
Early Childhood and will create more than 1,000 pre-kindergarten slots.
TheOffice of Early Childhood, which was established last year by Gov.
Malloy through an executive order, is now codified in statute. The additional
pre-kindergarten slots will be made available throughout 46 communities
beginning this fall, and is part of a five-year plan to expand the state's prekindergarten program and serve more than 4,000 children by 2019. Read
more here and here.
Florida

Orlando-based Fund Education Now, which filed a lawsuit against the state
in 2009 alleging that it had failed to adequately fund its public education
system, has asked the court to allow it to amend its complaint. The
amended complaint alleges that the state has failed to provide a uniform
and high quality education as outlined in the state constitution and cites the
voluntary pre-kindergarten program as an example of a poorly funded
educational program. Read more here.
Illinois

Gov. Pat Quinn signed HB4440, which guarantees that a higher percentage
of early childhood funding will serve infants and toddlers. HB4440 will
increase the percentage of Early Childhood Education Block Grant program
funds that must be set aside for children 0-3 years old from 11% to 14% for
the FY2015, with the intent to raise it to 20$ by 2016. Read more here, here
and here.

The Illinois State Senate passed HB6096, which includes funding for the
Illinois Department of Human Services and the Child Care Assistance
Program. However, as a result of this bill and other budget bills that
constitute the state budget for the FY2015 state budget, CCAP will suffer a
$24 million loss in funding from the current year's base funding level. Read
more here and here.
Louisiana

Gov. Bobby Jindal signed HB 954, which will allow more childcare operators
to participate in the Cecil J. Picard LA 4 Early Childhood Program by
extending the "early learning centers" definition to include any child daycare
center. Read more here.
Maine

Maine gubernatorial candidate Elliot Cutler has pledged to increase
education funding by $75 million in a newly released plan that he says will
position the state for future success. Part of that plan includes tax reforms
that would provide up to $65 million for challenge grant programs, one of
which would provide more preschool opportunities intended to increase
kindergarten readiness. Read more here.
Michigan

State legislators have approved budget bills for the upcoming fiscal year.
Within these bills, funding is provided to increase investments in for early
childhood programs.
o
Great Start Readiness Program: An additional $65 million increase
for FY2015, which brings the total amount of funding to $239.3
million, and $10 million of the fund is allocated for transportation
reimbursement.
o
Child Care Development and Care: A $6.9 million increase will be
used to increase the maximum number of reimbursable hours to 90
hours in a two-week period. In addition, $3.7 million will be used to
increase tiered reimbursement rates for high quality licensed and
registered child care providers.
o
Home Visiting: Two and a half million dollars in general funds will
be used to expand maternal, infant and early childhood home
visiting programs.
o
Infant Mortality Reduction Plan: The budget provides for $2 million
in general funds to support the state's Infant Mortality Reduction
Plan.
Read more here.


Detroit Public Schools (DPS) will receive considerably less federal funding
for the upcoming year because it missed the deadline to apply for federal
Head Start funding. The funding supported nearly 900 students in more than
50 classrooms last year. However, district officials will continue the
expansion of its early childhood programming by adding more than 500 slots
in 34 new pre-kindergarten classrooms slated for schools throughout the
district. In addition, DPS's Adult Education program will host classes near
Beard Early Childhood Education Center, where students will be able to
enroll their children in pre-kindergarten programs that are scheduled to meet
during their classes. Read more here and here.
The Michigan Sandbox Party will be expanding its advocacy focus to include
all children, and will become a project of Michigan's Children. The Sandbox
Party will also focus on election issues. A new website has been created
that reflects the shift. Read more here and here.
New York

Demand for pre-kindergarten slots has outpaced the seats available in New
York City, with more than 15,000 applicants hoping to find a prekindergarten slot for their child. As a result of the high demand for the early
learning program, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that addition of
10,400 more full-day prekindergarten seats that will be available in
community-based organizations. More than 5,000 of those seats will be
located in low-income communities. Read more here and here, here.
Vermont

Gov. Peter Shumlin has signed H.270, which will provide voluntary statefunded pre-kindergarten to all 3 and 4-year old children in the state.
Currently, only 6 states and the District of Columbia offer publicly funded
pre-kindergarten to all children. Read more here, here and here.
Back to top
The Ounce of Prevention Fund gives children in poverty the best chance for success in school and in life by advocating for
and providing the highest quality care and education from birth to age 5.
The Ounce National Policy Team partners with and supports early childhood leaders in states as they advance a
comprehensive agenda for at-risk children and families. We do this by providing individualized strategy and policy
consultation and resources; facilitating peer-to-peer learning and networking across states; and supporting Educare Schools
and the Educare Learning Network in the development of their policy and advocacy work.
The National Policy Digest is a bi-monthly newsletter that shares up-to-date and noteworthy developments in state and
federal early childhood news, policy and funding changes, research, policy trends and analyses, upcoming events, etc. culled
from diverse sources in the field. To subscribe, please contact Ashanti Huey, Policy Associate
(ahuey@ounceofprevention.org).
33 West Monroe Street, Suite 2400, Chicago, IL 60603 • 312.922.3863 • ©2014 Ounce of Prevention Fund