SANDY COTTON, EXEC. DIR., SMART START CENTRAL OKLAHOMA

It is never too early for families to work with their children to prepare for school success. The early years of life are an opportune time for developmental play and learning for children of all ages, especially those from prenatal to age five.

Research shows that a child’s brain develops more before age five than any other time. Experiences in the first few years of life help shape how the brain develops. This early brain growth has vast long-term impacts on educational success. Getting a young child ready for school begins long before they enter a classroom.

School readiness includes the physical, social, emotional and cognitive skills a child needs to be successful when they start school. When children enter the classroom prepared and ready for kindergarten, they are twice as likely to read at grade level in the third grade and four times less likely to drop out of high school.

That’s why parents and caregivers in Oklahoma need to know about and take advantage of the free, local resource that exists here in our state called Early Birds. Early Birds, a signature program of Smart Start, is a family support, education and school readiness program for parents and caregivers of children from prenatal to five years old. The goal of Early Birds is to empower parents and caregivers as their child’s first and most influential teachers by developing parenting, school readiness and life skills.

Early Birds is provided at no cost to families and was created by Oklahomans specifically for the needs of Oklahoma families. It provides instruction, learning activities, community resources and permanently places STEAM kits full of educational tools, toys and books into families’ homes to stimulate development and learning. Families can attend a series of 16 classes beginning when they are expecting a baby, followed by age specific classes three times per year until their child turns five. There are currently more than a dozen flourishing Early Birds partnerships in schools and nonprofits across Oklahoma. With virtual program offerings, families can access Early Birds anywhere in the state.

Ninety-nine percent of families that have participated with Early Birds better understand how important their job as a parent/caregiver is, 99% are better prepared to support their child, and 98% would recommend Early Birds to a friend. As the Executive Director of Smart Start, I want to make sure all families and caregivers in Oklahoma know the importance of early childhood education. I invite you to become an Early Birds partner. Parents and caregivers of young children have the opportunity to get a jumpstart on their child’s education and feel empowered to serve as their first and most influential teacher.

Families can learn more about Early Birds and sign up for upcoming classes at www.smartstartcentraloklahoma.org.

Smart Start is extremely appreciative for the continued support from the Potts Family Foundation. We are very fortunate to have this partnership and are grateful for all of their work in the area of early childhood education. They are focused on making Oklahoma a better place to live and thrive.

Photo Credit - Sandy Cotton

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CHIEF HOSKINS, ANADISGOI

Osiyo,

From individual Cherokee families to the whole Cherokee Nation, keeping children safe is our most essential responsibility. When parents go to work or school to build a better future for their family, the children need a secure, enriching environment to stay in. No parent or caregiver should have to choose between building that better future and accessing great care for their kids.

That’s why Cherokee Nation is launching a number of major initiatives to help our families and child care providers. This past spring, we created an Early Childhood Task Force to identify areas of opportunity and unmet early child care needs across our 14-county reservation. The task force was created under the Verna D. Thompson Early Childhood Education Act of 2021, which also invested $40 million to renovate or replace all of the tribe’s Head Start child care centers.

We knew action was needed to help families, because access to child care has declined nationwide over the past decade, and the pandemic only made it worse. The seven-member task force analyzed child care needs across our reservation and found several areas where we can fill gaps for families and child care providers.

One recommendation is to increase pay for the tribe’s early child care workforce. We are now in the midst of implementing a 35% pay increase for those workers. Even before that increase, Cherokee Nation already paid above the national average for child care professionals. We will provide sign-on bonuses when hiring for early child care positions and offer more educational opportunities for the early child care workforce through Cherokee Nation Career Services. Together these measures will ensure that we have more talented, well-trained workers caring for our children.

Photo Credit - Anadisgoi

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CHRISTINA SAMUELS, HECHINGER REPORT

When Sasha Shunk first opened a child care center in her Maine home nearly 20 years ago, she knew she would have to stand out among the nearly 3,000 other home-based child care providers operating in the state at the time.

“I always knew there were other child care providers a road away or the street down from me,” said Shunk, who cares for 12 children at $325 a week, each, and has about 40 more children on a waitlist. “I looked for training, I sought out ways to differentiate myself.”

Over the years, she has earned a master’s degree in early childhood education. She’s earned accreditation from the National Association for Family Child Care, an organization in which she is now involved as a state representative. She revamped her program to offer an extensive outdoor classroom. And her center has reached the highest level of quality in Maine’s quality rating and improvement system, or QRIS, a voluntary program that is meant to encourage child care providers to meet high standards and, not incidentally, provide parents a way to find programs that are exceeding the state’s basic licensing requirements.

But the family child care landscape has changed in Maine over the years. There are fewer than 800 care providers in the state now, Shunk said, and with the intense need for child care, those few don’t have any problem attracting clients. Shunk said the dwindling competition has made it harder for parents to find care, and has removed an incentive for providers to pursue quality.

Photo Credit - Unsplash.com

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JACKIE MADER, HECHINGER REPORT

Guaranteed income programs reduce parental stress, which benefits kids

AUSTIN, Texas — By his mid-20s, Tommy Andrade was tired of working dead-end jobs. With a young child at home, he realized he needed more than a high school diploma to support his family. When he heard about a new, advanced manufacturing program at Austin Community College (ACC), Andrade was intrigued.

Some of the jobs that graduates would be trained for carried salaries well into the six figures, enough to give Andrade financial security, he figured, even in a city like Austin where the cost of living was spiking fast.

But first Andrade would have to take a pay cut: The 14-week program required him to participate in an internship that paid $17 an hour, less than he’d earned in his previous jobs as a salesman and bookkeeper. He worried he wouldn’t be able to afford rent, bills and afterschool care for his son.

Then came some unexpected good news: ACC was launching a new guaranteed income pilot program for student parents, and program officials wanted him to join. Participants would receive $500 a month for two years with a few conditions: They must enroll in nine credits each semester and attend monthly meetings with other student parents.

Photo Credit - Katie Cotterill for The Hechinger Report

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AMBREEN ALI, WORKLIFE NEWS

Since mid-October, Michelle Shank Boczonadi has not had a single week at work that she wasn’t also juggling child care challenges. She’s a Denver-based senior director at Comcast Cable and mother to two-year-old Remi, whose nanny-share arrangement next door has been disrupted by RSV, flu, strep throat, pink eye and the stomach bug in the last six weeks alone.

Boczonadi is hardly alone, as high rates of illness and limited child care have combined to add pressure on working parents this fall. In October, a record number of parents missed work due to child care problems. Women are more likely than men to shoulder that burden and drop out of the workforce entirely to care for young children.

In New Jersey, Melissa Vogt became a first-time mom in May. Her son had Covid at one week old and was hospitalized with RSV a few weeks before she had to return to work. He started daycare at three months, and he’s had to stay home multiple times since because he has been sick. When he’s home, she often works anyway.

“A lot of times I start the day, and I try to get away with it without telling them. I just do the best I can from my phone while holding him,” said Vogt, who works in business development and client services for an education company.

Photo Credit - WorkLife News

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AMBREEN ALI, WORKLIFE NEWS

On December 2, the U.S. House passed the bipartisan Jackie Walorski Maternal and Child Home Visiting Reauthorization Act of 2022 (H.R. 8876) with a vote of 390-26. The legislation would reauthorize the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) program, which is currently slated to expire on December 16 at the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. Counties support the legislation, which would extend and provide additional resources to this critical program supporting pregnant and post-partum women, infants and toddlers.

MIECHV provides funding to states to support evidence-based family and child home visiting programs in high-risk communities. As of 2020, MIECHV served  140,000 parents and children in  1,054 U.S. counties. Though primarily a federal-state partnership, MIECHV helps counties fulfill our shared responsibility with the state and federal governments to improve maternal and child health, prevent child abuse and neglect, encourage positive parenting and promote child development and school readiness. Counties may also fund and operate their own home visiting programs out of their local health departments.

Photo Credit - WorkLife News

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