(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia

When Washington state legalized marriage equality in 2012, it joined how many other states in recognizing same-sex marriages?

Potato Day!

The excitement was palpable as the Washington Potato Commission held the first in-person “Potato Day” since 2020. Lines of potato fans stretched around the third floor of the Legislative Building well before the lunch hour as the common refrain of “did you get your potato yet?” rang throughout campus.

All joking aside, it is fiscal cutoff this week (see more information below about fiscal cutoff) and folks are tired/stressed/irritable. Friendly faces offering free comfort food is sometimes just what’s needed to put a pep back in your step! Potatoes are unifying.

The Washington Potato Commission brings comfort food to campus

(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Cutoff Time – Again

This week, legislative focus – when not on potatoes – was on fiscal committees as they held marathon meetings to work through public hearings, amendments and votes on hundreds of bills prior to today’s fiscal cutoff deadline. After today, bills with a financial impact that have not been approved by the fiscal committee in its house of origin are considered “dead.” Frequently, bills heard in fiscal committees are amended to include two clauses – “null and void” or “subject to appropriation.” These clauses allow bills to proceed through the process but provide “escape hatches” if the policies put forward in the bill are not funded in the final adopted budget. Put another way, inclusion of these clauses makes implementation of the bill contingent upon budget funding.

Now, there are always exceptions to the rules, particularly in the legislative process, and the reality is no bill or idea is dead until the Legislature adjourns April 23. One exemption is that bills deemed “Necessary to Implement the Budget” (or NTIB) are not subject to cutoff dates. Further, concepts surfaced in bills can be amended into other bills or reflected in the budget.

Starting next week, action will turn to the respective Senate and House floors as those bodies work through all of the bills approved by the fiscal and policy committees. The next legislative cutoff is Wednesday, March 8 at 5 p.m. with the deadline for bills to be voted out of their house of origin (e.g., House bills must be approved by the House, and Senate bills approved by the Senate). We are at the time of session where you need to grab sleep when you can – kind of like living with a newborn. It is not unusual for one of the bodies (typically the House) to pull an all-nighter during this period.

Bill Hearings

SHB 1550. The House Appropriations Committee held a public hearing on Substitute House Bill 1550 Tuesday, which can be seen on TVW starting at the 34:45 minute mark. As a reminder, this bill would sunset Transitional Kindergarten (TK), replacing it with a new Transition to Kindergarten (TTK) program to be administered by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) with a role for the Department of Children, Youth and Families.

The Appropriations Committee hearing began with a panel that included State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter and Maddy Thompson, Governor Jay Inslee’s Senior Policy Advisor on Education and College Access. The opening panel spoke in opposition to the bill, stressing the importance of maximizing preschool access as well as the positive outcomes children are receiving from existing TK programs. Following that panel, several school district and education stakeholders reiterated the positive developmental outcomes from TK program participants as well as concerns that removing basic education as the funding source for TK could eliminate current programs as well as other supports for families such as school bus transportation.

Several early learning providers spoke in favor of the bill, focusing on the importance of the quality of services available in existing early learning programs. Additionally, early learning advocates stressed the importance of strong collaboration between school districts and community-based early learning providers so as not to negatively impact early learning programs.

As of this publication, SHB 1550 is on the possible executive session (vote) list for the Friday, Feb. 24 hearing.

Updates on additional early learning related bills include:

• Senate Bill 5225, which would increase eligibility for subsidized child care such as eligibility for dependents of child care employees and children regardless of immigration status, was passed out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee Wednesday.
• Senate Bill 5580, which would create a post-delivery and transitional care program and update the current Maternity Support Services (MSS) program, has a vote scheduled Feb. 23.
• One bill that did not receive a hearing is House Bill 1511, which would remove certain forms of income, such as Social Security benefits and child support, from income considerations related to child care subsidy and ECEAP. However, there are other avenues for priorities to move forward without a bill, including amendments onto other bills or as a proviso in the operating budget.

Legislative Lowdown

What is the state’s four-year balanced budget requirement? While much of the budgeting focus is on the upcoming two-year biennial budget cycle, 2012 legislation required the Legislature to pass four-year balanced budgets beginning in 2013. This means that our current budget writers must ensure both the 2023-25 and 2025-27 biennial budgets are balanced with a positive ending fund balance.

The Budget Outlook Workgroup holds a key role in this process by preparing an official state budget outlook for state revenues and expenditures. This outlook must include costs forecasted in the upcoming four years for continuing existing programs, projecting for future growth as well as implementation costs of various laws. The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council then approves this budget outlook and the Legislature uses this information to craft and pass a budget ensuring the state’s expenditures do not exceed projected revenues for the following four years.

Proponents of the bill establishing the four-year balanced budget requirement argued that a four-year balanced budget would move the state from reactionary, short-term budgeting to a more long-term view, resulting in more sustainable budgets that reduce out-year expenditure commitments that cannot be supported with existing revenues.

The requirement for a balanced four-year budget means that budget writers are keeping both a keen eye on the state’s recent and projected revenues (what they will have to spend) and its current spending commitments to ensure the final budget is balanced not just for the 2023-25 biennium, but also for 2025-27. As a result, it is not uncommon to see the strategy of “pushing a cost outside of the four-year” to mitigate projected costs. This can result in extending implementation dates for expanding services, so the law is on the books, but the costs do not hit the four-year budget.

To learn more about the budget process and related terminology, check out this helpful guide from the Office of Financial Management at the Governor’s Office which is updated annually.

Bill Tracker: Key Early Learning Bills

As the legislative session progresses, our resource page will update with a weekly bill tracker. Please note that legislation changes quickly, so the version on our website may not represent a bill’s latest version as it is published the Thursday of each week.

In this peri-Covid period, it would be fair to ask, “How can we go beyond recruitment and retention given the shortage of home visitors right now?” After all, supervisors in community-based programs have never worked so hard to find and onboard new home visitors who are racially, culturally, and linguistically representative of families served while also trying to retain the ones who remain. For those of us connected to home visiting who are not supervisors, it is time to examine the systemic conditions that fuel pervasive vacancy and turnover, and to consider changes that could make a real difference both now and in the future for local programs.

Supervisors Know What’s Wrong With the Home Visiting Sector at the ‘Front Door’:

Interested candidates don’t meet educational job requirements set at the systems level. Are we turning away candidates with racial, language and community experience in common with the families served because they didn’t have an opportunity to pursue a degree? Perhaps we could make progress in achieving greater cultural alignment in the workforce with the families in home visiting, if we re-weighted personal attributes, life experience, and competencies as ‘proxies’ for job requirements based on economic opportunity.

Salaries are not competitive nor commensurate with the nature of the work. Let’s face it, there are many jobs that require less training, breadth of expertise, and emotional resiliency that pay the same or more. To retain this critical workforce, we need to advocate for higher salaries that match the expertise that home visitors bring to their work with families, nurture existing job benefits (e.g., partnership and support of peers; ongoing on-the-job professional development), and support opportunities for advancement.

Supervisors Also Know What’s Wrong with the Home Visiting Sector at the ‘Back Door’:

Job expectations keep expanding. Constantly expanding and/or changing expectations for breadth of expertise to keep the job they have, and at the same salary, is experienced by some home visitors as an invitation to leave their work with families.

Lack of opportunities for advancement. There is a need for better defined career ladders driven by the goals and aspirations of the workforce. This isn’t new, but we seem stuck in thinking about this as a challenge at the community, program, or agency level and not more broadly at a systems level.

Perhaps we need to expand our thinking about how to expose practitioners to other sectors of the home visiting field: research, training, administration, CQI, policy, etc. Gains could be made especially with a focus on BIPOC practitioners whose perspectives in these leadership and decision-making sectors are largely missing and yet, who are uniquely qualified to represent the perspectives of the minority families served in home visiting.

For those who have found a sense of calling in direct service with families, we have an obligation to improve the conditions that support them to stay doing what they feel called to do. At a systems level, ensuring equal access to high quality professional development that reflects the lived experience in the language of practitioners is a critical component. For those who want their experience with families to be a foundation for something next, we have an obligation to support their exploration of where in the field of home visiting they could be.

Home visitors often don’t have a seat at the table. Too often decisions are made that directly impact the work that home visitors do – without their feedback involved in the process. Engaging and authentically incorporating practitioner voice from the very beginning in decision-making processes brings critical expertise to the table.

Our Challenge to the Field:

We invite you to engage in further exploration of these issues with us and others from across the home visiting field at the upcoming virtual National Home Visiting Summit in March, 2023. The National Home Visiting Summit is a great opportunity to become personally and professionally inspired to explore who is involved and what is happening across the field of home visiting. The Summit emphasizes the importance of attracting, retaining, and advancing BIPOC representation and voice in all sectors of the field. It’s an opportunity to ask yourself what else you could do to open the ‘front door’ to a racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse, next generation of home visitors and to inspire today’s practitioners to find the place where they can make a valued contribution to the field.

The Legislative Building from the north side on Super Bowl Sunday.
Note the third flagpole is not flying the Seahawks flag. There’s always next year …
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

How old were the “Keepers of the Capsule” who, during Washington state’s Centennial celebration in 1989, pledged to preserve the time capsule designed to commemorate the Centennial and to enlist future generations to update the capsule contents and continue the tradition?

Cutoff Time

Policy Cutoff. The first cutoff is today (Friday, Feb. 17), with a deadline for bills to pass out of policy committees. After this cutoff, we will have a better idea of what is still in play. It is not uncommon for bills to be amended (sometimes substantially) to keep the issue alive. We are at the stage in the legislative process where bills can change on a dime, so it’s wise to keep the legislative website handy and check it frequently for bills you care about.

Fiscal Cutoff. Next week will be filled with marathon (likely late night) meetings in the fiscal committees as the Feb. 24 fiscal cutoff looms. As of this writing, the Senate Ways and Means Committee has a Saturday Feb. 18 meeting scheduled.

Testimony in fiscal committees differs from policy committees in that fiscal chairs request testifiers to speak to the fiscal aspects of the bill, rather than make a policy case. Short and sweet and a minimal number of testifiers is advised!

Bill Hearings

The Transitional Kindergarten bill passed Education Committee with amendments. The House Education Committee passed a Substitute House Bill 1550 Tuesday, which can be seen on TVW starting at the 42:30 minute mark. This bill would codify (make official in law) the Transitional Kindergarten program and convert it to a new Transition to Kindergarten (TTK) program with distinct roles for both the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF).

Changes made to the bill as compared to the original version include:

• Clarification that school districts can play a vital role in providing services to young children, particularly in early learning deserts
• Legislative intent to convert existing Transitional Kindergarten programs to TTK if the program standards outlined in the bill are met
• A requirement that school districts applying to operate or expand a TTK program must consider the availability of existing early learning providers and enact a memoranda of understanding between the district and other early learning providers and the development of a model memorandum of understanding by OSPI and DCYF
• TTK sites must implement the following elements in alignment with Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) performance standards: classroom environment, pedagogical approach and safety measures
• Direction that OSPI and DCYF consider existing availability of ECEAPs, Head Start and licensed child care when coordinating authorization of school districts to offer a TTK program, approval of TTK program sites, and capping of eligible child enrollment
• The elimination of the requirement for full school day and full school year programs and instead directs OSPI to prorate funding for partial day and partial year

Education Committee members stressed that their goal is to ensure school districts and other early learning providers work together to expand access to high quality opportunities for young children. The bill now moves to the House Appropriations Committee and awaits a hearing.

The Senate Committee amended and approved the “Improving Maternal Health Outcomes” bill. The Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee passed Senate Bill 5580, which can be seen on TVW beginning at the 1:40:30 minute mark. This bill would create a post-delivery and transitional care program and allow five additional days of hospitalization after birth for women with a substance use disorder. The bill would also update the current Maternity Support Services (MSS) program to address perinatal outcomes and increase equity and healthier birth outcomes. The committee amended the bill to extend the deadline for implementing the post delivery and transition care program and changes to the Material Support Services (MSS) program from Jan. 1, 2024, to no later than Jan. 1, 2025. The bill now awaits a hearing in the Senate Ways & Means Committee.

Caseload Forecasts Released

On Feb. 10, the Washington State Caseload Forecast Council met to receive updated caseload forecasts. These caseload forecasts inform the writing of the budgets by providing insight into expected costs for forecasted programs like K-12 education, nursing home usage and foster care.

Following are caseload forecasts for early learning related programs. Two items of note: 1) the changes reflect projected increases or decreases from the November 2022 forecasts and 2) Transitional Kindergarten is not separately forecasted.

Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT)

• State Fiscal Year 2023 projected caseload: 11,012 (+16/+.1%)
• State Fiscal Year 2024 projected caseload: 11,649 (+78/+.7%)
•  State Fiscal Year 2025 projected caseload: 12,226 (+167/+1.4%)

Early Childhood Education Assistance Program (ECEAP)

• State Fiscal Year 2023 projected caseload: 11,962 (-697/-5.5%)
• State Fiscal Year 2024 projected caseload: 14,168 (-269/-1.9%)
• State Fiscal Year 2025 projected caseload: 14,490 (-415/-2.8%)

Working Connections Child Care (WCCC)

• State Fiscal Year 2023 projected caseload: 24,079 (-221/-.9%)
• State Fiscal Year 2024 projected caseload: 26,520 (-872/-3.2%)
• State Fiscal Year 2025 projected caseload: 28,368 (+233/+.8%)

In the forecast narrative, risks to the ECEAP forecast include a tight labor market and potential competition from other early learning programs. For Working Connections Child Care, the narrative notes that while provider availability has not restricted caseload growth so far, there could be a risk to the caseload associated with supply limits.

Striker and Substitute Bills

What’s the difference between a striker and a substitute bill? The process for a bill to become a law is a lot more complicated than Schoolhouse Rock led us to believe. Like other governmental bodies, the Washington State Legislature deploys many different processes and avenues to add or make changes to law.

At this point in the legislative session, you may hear references to “substitute bills” or “striking amendments” on legislation you are following. A “substitute bill” is a new version of an existing bill substituting the original bill with new content. Substitute bills can only be offered by a committee in the bill’s house of origin during a committee hearing or executive session (voting session). A “striker amendment” or “striker bill” removes – or strikes – everything after the title of the bill and inserts new language, usually major changes to the underlying bill.

The main difference between the two is where the change to the bill happens: “substitutes” can only happen in committee in the house of origin and “strikers” happen on the floor or in the opposite chamber. If you’re interested in learning more about the legislative process, the legislature has a host of information including a detailed guide to reading bills. The University of Washington Office of Budget and Planning also provides a great overview.

Bill Tracker: Key Early Learning Bills

As the legislative session progresses, our resource page will update with a weekly bill tracker. Please note that legislation changes quickly, so the version on our website may not represent a bill’s latest version as it is published the Thursday of each week.

Earlier today, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker delivered a bold plan to advance our collective vision for Illinois to be the best state in the nation in which to raise young children. His comprehensive, multi-year plan, Smart Start Illinois, aims to expand and strengthen early care and education services to help ensure all expecting families, infants, toddlers and preschoolers across the state have what they need to be happy, healthy and ready to learn.

Moreover, Start Early applauds the Governor and his administration for releasing a Fiscal Year 2024 (FY 2024) budget framework that proposes a historic $320 million in increased state funding for key early care and education programs, like child care, home visiting, preschool and Early Intervention.

“We thank Governor Pritzker for proposing the Smart Start Illinois initiative, a robust structure for strengthening and growing early child supports that are so vital for families with young children,” Ireta Gasner, Start Early vice president of Illinois policy, said. “This is a banner day for early childhood in Illinois, and Start Early looks forward to working with the Illinois General Assembly to enact a budget that does right by infants and toddlers across the state.” 

The budget proposal includes, among other provisions, the following funding increases: 

• $40 million for the Early Intervention program (34.5% over FY 2023) to increase provider reimbursement rates (10%), to address service coordination challenges, and to accommodate the program’s growing caseload
• $5 million for evidence-based home visiting programs (27.9% over FY 2023) to serve an additional 500-650 families
• $130 million to establish workforce compensation contracts with child care providers that will allow programs to increase staff wages
• $70 million for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) (17.0% over FY 2023) to cover the program’s growing caseload and to improve its data system
• $75 million for preschool services and prenatal-to-age 3 programs (12.5% over FY 2023) to create thousands of new slots and improve existing program quality
• $100 million for the Early Childhood Construction Grant (ECCG) program

We are heartened by the administration’s acknowledgement that investing in the early learning workforce and facilities are foundational to sustainable program expansion. Today, too many early childhood programs, particularly those serving infants and toddlers, struggle to attract and retain educators and staff, most of whom are overworked and underpaid.

Start Early is eager to work with the Illinois General Assembly to approve a FY 2024 budget this spring that includes, at a minimum, the funding proposals laid out today. We couldn’t agree more with the Governor that now is the time for bold action.

Join Start Early in calling on our state legislature to prioritize our youngest learners today and during this new legislative session. Babies can’t wait.

Chicago’s mayoral and aldermanic election is just around the corner and recently candidates had the opportunity to weigh in on how they would tackle Chicago’s complex issues related to early childhood education. During a candidate forum hosted last Wednesday evening by over 20 organizations that serve families with young children across the city, seven of Chicago’s nine mayoral hopefuls spoke to an audience of hundreds of early childhood educators, parents, advocates, researchers, and other stakeholders.  

The Early Childhood Education Forum, led by Child Care Advocates United, put early childhood education issues front and center and enforced the notion that any successful mayoral candidate has a mandate to take action once in office to support the early care and education workforce and the families they serve. Participating candidates all gave recognition to the important role that early childhood education plays in addressing the needs of the whole child and their family and community. They uplifted the prenatal to five period as critical for intervention and spoke of the value of high-quality early childhood experiences in preventing later challenges in life.   

While all candidates participating in the forum demonstrated an understanding of the challenges faced by the early care and education system in Chicago, they offered few details on just how they would address the ongoing early childhood workforce crisis, better support community-based organizations, reconcile the competing priorities of Chicago’s mixed delivery system for pre-k, address issues arising as a result of fractured funding sources, and further support families to access the program that best meets their needs.  

Fortunately for the next mayoral administration and city council, early childhood advocates have provided a clear roadmap for addressing these challenges through their release of a Mayoral and Aldermanic Candidate Brief, which was distributed to every candidate running for one of these offices. Advocates have outlined steps for the city’s elected officials to work in partnership with stakeholders to invest in more capacity to lead the planning and administration of Chicago’s system of early childhood services and supports, address gaps in access to high-quality early care and education for all of Chicago’s children, and acknowledge the critical work of early childhood professionals by increasing support and compensation for the workforce.

Rainstorms usher in Week Five
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

In 1932, John H. Ryan became the first Black man elected to the Washington State Senate. Ryan served nearly 20 years in both the State Senate and House of Representatives. He was elected representing how many different political parties?

Legislative Session Temperature Check

On Sunday, we will officially be one-third through the 2023 legislative session and it feels like a good time to check in on where things stand. Some things top of mind for me include:

• The hybrid approach works. Thanks to great prep work from TVW and legislative staff, the hybrid nature of testimony that allows for a mix of in-person and virtual, is going very well. The campus feels markedly quieter on many days as many people appear to be taking advantage of virtual opportunities to testify and meet with legislators. As a result, the anticipated fears of a parking shortage have not materialized. However, the lines for food at the Dome Deli are still long, with the Pritchard Cafeteria only open intermittently.
• Policy Cutoff is coming. The legislative process is structured to reduce the number of issues under consideration as the session progresses via “cutoff deadlines” for action on bills. That first cutoff is rapidly approaching with a Feb. 17 deadline for policy committees to take action. The fiscal committee “cutoff” is just one week later on Feb. 24. These cutoff dates serve as a natural filter as it is not feasible for lawmakers to partake in mindful debate on the approximately 1,600 bills introduced to date. As a result, many bills fall victim to timing rather than concerns over merit. It can be very frustrating when a bill you care about does not make it through these filters, but there is always next year. (At least that’s what we tell ourselves).
• The budget is starting to take shape. Budget writers continue to receive briefings on the various aspects of the operating, capital and transportation budgets. Major items with large price tags that continue to be in play include housing (impacting both the operating and capital budgets), workforce needs and special education funding. At the end of the day, budget writers need to secure sufficient votes to pass the budgets and we will see trade-offs as these negotiations intensify.

Collective Bargaining Agreements and the State Budget

Prior to the start of each legislative biennium, the Office of Financial Management (on behalf of the Governor) negotiates with respective labor unions to create tentative collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) that address wages, hours and working conditions.

Following negotiations, these tentative CBAs are submitted to the Office of Financial Management (OFM) by October. After the state’s Revenue Report is released in November, OFM determines the financial viability of the various agreements. After that step, the Legislature approves the agreements during its legislative session through a yes or no vote without any amendments allowed. If the Legislature does not approve any of these agreements, the state must go back to the bargaining table. Check out the Office of Financial Management for more information on the process of collective bargaining.

For the upcoming 2023-25 biennium, OFM negotiated a total of 32 separate agreements, with general government employees representing the highest number of employee count (54,656) and total agreements (11). The cumulative cost for the negotiated agreements for the 2023-25 biennium totals $1.33 billion. The largest portion of this expense can be found in the agreements for general government employees.

According to an OFM presentation to the Joint Committee on Employment Relations in October 2022, major common bargaining themes include staff recruitment and retention, investments to employees who provide direct services, modernizing language related to hybrid work conditions and wage increases. General government employees are slated to receive a wage increase, lump-sum COVID-19 booster incentives and recognition and retention bonuses, among other increases.

Related to early learning, family child care providers are unionized through the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 925. The tentative negotiated agreement heading into the 2023-25 state budget cycle includes an increase in the hourly rate of care provided by family, friends and neighbors (FFNs) from $3.00 to $3.85 that would go into effect July 1, 2023 and an increase to $4.00 on July 1, 2024. The agreement also increases the base subsidy rates for licensed family child care providers to the 85th percentile of the 2021 market rate survey, increases the cost-of-care subsidy base rate enhancement from $2,000 to $2,100 per month per licensed provider and eliminates background check and fingerprinting fees on behalf of licensed family child care providers. Budgeted cost for the Family Child Care agreement totals $217 million.

Why am I including this information in the newsletter? As the legislative session progresses, budget writers must balance available revenue and priority expenses. These collective bargaining agreements represent a significant budget expense that will factor into the availability of funding for other state priorities.

Maternal Health

On Feb. 7, the Senate Health Care Committee held a work session on maternal health followed by public hearings on a number of maternal health related bills. Senator Yasmin Trudeau, the prime sponsor of SB 5470 related to lactation consultants, testified with her infant daughter. The visual of Senator Trudeau and her baby reminded me of the importance of representation!

Senator Yasmin Trudeau and her effective assistant
(Photo Credit: TVW hearing screenshot)

One of the bills heard in the Senate Health Care Committee that day was SB 5580 (Muzzall). SB 5580 would create a post-delivery and transitional care program at the Washington State Health Care Authority for birthing people experiencing substance use disorder. The program would provide five additional days of hospitalization after birth and provide the birthing parent access to a number of parental, behavioral health and other supports. The bill would also update the current Maternity Support Services (MSS) program to address perinatal outcomes and increase equity and healthier birth outcomes.

Bill Tracker: Key Early Learning Bills

As the legislative session progresses, our resource page will update with a weekly bill tracker. Please note that legislation changes quickly, so the version on our website may not represent a bill’s latest version as it is published the Thursday of each week.

For far too long the early care and education workforce has been undervalued and underpaid, despite the essential care and services they provide to children and families. This historic undervaluation has created a crisis–wages are so low that approximately half of early educators qualify for public benefits. According to fiscal year 2021 salary data gathered by the Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, this inadequate compensation helps explain why almost 70 percent of child care centers stated they had early childhood teacher turnover over the past two years. Simply put, the workforce is in crisis. Without significant financial resources, our early childhood system is at risk of crumbling.

We’re listening. Start Early has been busy urging the state to direct more funding to the early childhood system so that it can finally begin to stabilize and the workforce can be better compensated at a wage they deserve and that is reflective of the important work they do to educate and care for our youngest learners.

Every year, our legislative and administrative policy teams, along with external partners, work on budget advocacy to secure higher investment across the entirety of the early childhood field. Last year, we pressed Illinois state legislators for a 10 percent increase for every building block in Illinois’ early childhood system: the Early Childhood Block Grant, Early Intervention program, the home visiting programs Maternal Child Home Visiting (formerly Parents Too Soon) and Healthy Families Illinois through the Department of Human Services, and the Child Care Assistance Program. These investments would go towards areas like child care programs, services for children with potential disabilities or developmental delays, and programs for pregnant parents and their babies.

Recognizing the need to stabilize our early childhood system, state legislators provided $64.4 million in additional funds for early childhood programs for fiscal year 2023, which began on July 1st. Through administrative advocacy, we’ve pushed state agencies to funnel a portion of this money toward compensation.

But these financial resources aren’t nearly enough to create a conducive early learning environment that serves all children aged 0-5 and it certainly isn’t enough to ensure our workforce is well compensated.  Due to the complicated nature of our early childhood system and its reliance on the blending and braiding of various funding sources, providers and directors struggle to keep classrooms open and cannot meet the needs of all children and families across the state. Even with our wins in fiscal year 2023, we still need more resources so we can serve more families.

That’s why during the Spring 2023 legislative session, Start Early will continue to work with our partners to advocate for a 20% budgetary funding increase for early childhood. This increase would mean an additional $119.6 million for the Early Childhood Block Grant, $23.2 million for the Early Intervention program, $2.1 million for the Maternal Child Home Visiting program, $1.5 million for the Healthy Families Home Visiting program, and $82.1 million for the Child Care Assistance Program. Governor Pritzker has indicated his intentions to make preschool available for every family throughout the state and to provide economic security for families during his second term. Ambitious plans require sizeable appropriations and a compensated and valued workforce.

We’ll continue to push the Illinois legislature and state agencies to invest in and improve early care and education programs so more people can view working in the field as a career and not just a temporary job.

A Gorgeous Sunny Sunday in Olympia
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

What was the capstone event of Washington state’s yearlong centennial celebration in 1989?

Bill Hearings

House Human Services, Youth, and Early Learning Committee

On Tuesday, Jan. 31, the House Human Services, Youth, and Early Learning Committee held a hearing on a variety of early learning focused bills:

• The hearing on House Bill 1451, a child care workforce pipeline bill that would create a Child Care Worker Pilot Program for high school students interested in the field of child care, begins at the 46 minute mark. The bill also looks to increase the child care substitute pool and provide additional assistance to those interested in continuing to pursue a child care career.
• The hearing on House Bill 1525, which would provide child care subsidy for parents in state-approved apprenticeship programs and, according to Committee Chair Tana Senn, may have the most legislative co-sponsors for any piece of legislation this session, begins at the 25 second mark.

Both HB 1451 and HB 1525 are scheduled for Executive Session in the House Human Services, Youth and Early Learning Committee Tuesday, Feb. 7.

• Finally, the hearing on House Bill 1511, which aims to increase access to affordable child care by exempting social security benefits, social-security income and child support from being considered “income” when determining child care subsidy eligibility, begins at the 1:11 minute mark. This bill particularly supports low-income working families, single parents, parents with disabilities, grandparents and other seniors caring for children. It is slated for Executive Session in the House policy committee Friday, Feb. 10.

House Education Committee

• The House Education Committee hearing on House Bill 1550 Tuesday, Jan. 31, begins at the 42:30 minute mark. HB 1550 would create the “Transition to Kindergarten” program to be administered jointly by the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). The bill analysis summarizes the bill’s key components, including outlining state agency, school district and program rules and requirements and plans to convert existing “Transitional Kindergarten” programs to the proposed new program.

The bill’s sponsors, Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos and Rep. Tana Senn, began the hearing by framing the bill as an opportunity to codify the new Transition to Kindergarten program as the current Transitional Kindergarten program is not explicitly authorized in law; to require coordination between school and community-based early learning programs; and to ensure the state is on track for meeting the existing ECEAP entitlement by the 2026-27 year.

Supporters of the bill, largely community-based early learning stakeholders, discussed the need for coordination between school districts and early learning providers to ensure child and family needs are met and expressed concerns that the current approach with Transitional Kindergarten may negatively impact early learning providers and may not provide developmentally appropriate education statewide. Groups that signed in with a position of “con” or “other,” mainly K12 system stakeholders, expressed concerns that certain provisions of the bill, in particular the loss of the current funding source for Transitional Kindergarten (Basic Education funding), could lead to fewer pre-K options for children and families, particularly in communities with fewer options for families.

HB 1550 is scheduled for an Executive Session in the House Education Committee Thursday, Feb. 9.

New Legislation Introduced This Week

HB 1676 (Senn). HB 1676 would modify the Early Support for Infants and Toddlers Program (ESIT) by increasing the funding allocation multiplier for the program. The bill would also require monthly reporting of children utilizing the program to occur at the end of each month for services provided within that month.

HB 1697 (Walsh). HB 1697 would eliminate requirements for child care and other learning providers participating in the Early Achievers Quality Rating Improvement System. It would also bar linking the Core Competencies for Early Care and Education to licensing standards.

HB 1716 (Rule). HB 1716 would create a tax credit for employers supporting employee child care needs. The bill would require the Department of Revenue to report details on the tax credit and provide an opening to extend the tax credit if proven successful in increasing access to child care for families.

HB 1739 (Dent). HB 1739 would require the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) to create an instructional handbook for child care providers. A child care provider would be exempt from obtaining an early childhood certificate if they signed an attestation indicating the handbook had been read.

Caseload Forecast Update

On Friday, Feb. 10, the Washington state Caseload Forecast Council will meet to receive updated caseload numbers for entitlement programs such as ECEAP, Working Connections Child Care, Early Support for Infants and Toddlers, K-12 enrollment and Corrections (prisons). These caseload numbers will inform the biennial budget that is currently under development. Increases in caseloads will drive further state investment and decreases in caseloads will do the opposite.

The final “revenue report” that informs how much the state will have to spend on these entitlement programs, as well as Collective Bargaining Agreements with represented labor groups and other state investments will be released March 20.

Bill Tracker: Key Early Learning Bills

As the legislative session progresses, our resource page will update with a weekly bill tracker. Please note that legislation changes quickly, so the version on our website may not represent a bill’s latest version as it is published the Thursday of each week.

Washington State Capitol Building
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

In 1954, the Washington State Supreme Court narrowly ruled in favor of a group of Olympia businesspeople who sued the state for what reason?

Highlights of the Week

Capital Gains Tax Oral Arguments Commence. On Jan. 26, Crosscut published a thorough review of the capital gains tax background and issues, including a bit about the expected timeline of the Supreme Court’s actions.

Unexpected Free Food Giveaway. One of the best ways to turn a Monday frown upside down is the offer of free, warm cinnamon rolls. People throughout the Capitol campus were downright giddy to learn the Washington Association of Wheat Growers was on campus with smiles and offers of warm cinnamon rolls. The rolls, coupled with Wednesday’s Dairy Day giveaway, helped many a Capitol dweller through another long week.

Cinnamon Roll Station
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Of course, Dairy Day did not disappoint. Along with the expected ice cream, they offered chocolate milk and selfie-inviting cut-out cows!

Dairy Day Selfie Station
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

New Legislation Introduced this Week

As we near the end of week three and approach the Feb. 17 policy cutoff, the introduction of new bills has slowed a bit and committees are squarely focused on bill hearings and executive sessions (a fancy term for votes on bills).

Please check out Start Early Washington’s bill tracker on our State Policy Resources page for a more complete listing of early learning-related legislation and their status. Below is a summary of some bills in play. Inclusion is not meant to indicate Start Early Washington’s position, but instead meant to provide a flavor of issues under consideration.

HB 1451 (Senn). HB 1451 directs OSPI to create the Child Care Worker Pilot Program that will provide high school students credit for working in and exploring pathways in early childhood education programs. The bill also creates a grant program to support technical assistance for new child care providers, directs DCYF to create a web-based manual for youth caring for younger siblings when parents are not home, and calls for the expansion of the substitute pool.

HB 1511 (Reeves). HB 1511 ends the use of social security benefits, social-security income, and child care support as income for families applying for child care subsidy or ECEAP. This bill supports low-income families that may have limited work capacities such as parents with disabilities and single parents.

HB 1550 (Santos). HB 1550 creates the “Transition to Kindergarten” program administered jointly by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). The bill outlines state agency, school district, and program rules and requirements as well as plans to convert existing “Transitional Kindergarten” programs to this new program.

Following are some key components:

Funding

• Removes basic education funds as the primary funding source for the program and designates the source as State General Fund. Also explicitly removes the ability to fund the program with basic education dollars.
• Requires the program to be free of charge to eligible children.
• State funding for the program must be based per enrolled eligible child and must not be higher than the amount per child allocated by the legislature for ECEAP.

Eligibility

• Program eligibility must be coordinated with existing early learning providers. Eligibility requirements include:
  • Children on an ECEAP waitlist, but not yet enrolled in an ECEAP program.
  • Children screened as needing additional preparation before entering kindergarten (screening process must be submitted to the state).
  • Children that have not participated in a formal early learning program.
  • Children with families earning up to 100% of the State Median Income adjusted for family size.

Program Administration

• The “Transition to Kindergarten” program would be jointly administered by OSPI and DCYF.
• Programs would be authorized by school districts and program sites would be limited to common schools.
• Districts applying for the funds must:
  • Describe the process to determine if a child needs support from the “Transition to Kindergarten” program.
  • Outline recruitment and enrollment plans with early learning providers in the school catchment area.
  • Wait one year between application submission and the program’s start date.
  • Describe the assessment tools used to screen children for program eligibility.
  • Outline a plan for coordination with existing early learning providers.
  • Not deny entry to the program based on a student’s disability.
•  Provides OSPI administrative responsibility for parts of the program, including:
  • Providing eligibility and enrollment data.
  • For the 2024-25 school year, prioritizing program funding to districts currently offering “Transitional Kindergarten.” These program dollars are subject to the availability of funding appropriated for this specific purpose.
  • Requiring OSPI to work with DCYF on program monitoring, quality and teacher certification.
  • Directing school districts to work with the existing early learning provider ecosystems in their catchment area.
• School districts must have their programs reauthorized every five years and districts must notify the state if any program discontinues one year before closure.
• Clarifies DCYF has monitoring and rule-making authority.
• Requires OSPI and DCYF to develop a plan to convert existing “Transitional Kindergarten” programs to the new “Transition to Kindergarten” program outlined in this bill.

Program Standards

• Requires school districts with the “Transition to Kindergarten” program to participate in Early Achievers.
• Requires alignment of the “Transition to Kindergarten” program licensing standards to child care and ECEAP licensing standards and the use of developmentally appropriate curricula.
• Requires each program to be staffed with a teacher holding a valid Washington teacher certificate with either an early childhood education endorsement or an early childhood special education endorsement.

Senate hearing on Working Connections Child Care Bills. On Wednesday, Jan. 25, the Senate Early Learning and K12 Committee held public hearings on several child care and early learning-focused bills. The committee heard SB 5225, which would: 1) increase access to child care by authorizing care for families involved in therapeutic court; 2) prohibit the Department of Children, Youth and Families from considering the immigration status of a full-time student parent enrolled in certain education programs applying for Working Connections Child Care; and 3) authorizes child care subsidy eligibility for dependents of child care employees with incomes up to 85% of State Median Income. Senators heard from parents directly impacted by the current policies, including a parent who had to leave her job at a preschool due to the cost of child care for her own child.

The committee also heard SB 5316, which eliminates the requirement for applicants of child care and foster care entities to pay state and federal background check fees.

Finally, the committee heard SB 5423, which provides qualifying applicants and consumers of state registered apprenticeship programs eligible for the Working Connections Child Care subsidy. A parent and ironworker apprentice described how trade apprenticeships are a great pathway to family financial stability and how unreliable and unaffordable child care can be a barrier.

Bill Tracker: Key Early Learning Bills

As the legislative session progresses, our resource page will update with a weekly bill tracker. Please note that legislation changes quickly, so the version on our website may not represent a bill’s latest version as it is published the Thursday of each week.

Home visiting is about finding strengths in human connection, building trusting relationships – and all the messy stuff in between.

After a remarkable three decades of shaping the home visiting landscape, Quen Zorrah – Lead Facilitator and Co-Developer of NEAR@Home – is retiring.

Start Early Washington shares our collective love, respect and appreciation for Quen Zorrah and her lifetime of work supporting human connection and relationship building between children and their caregivers. Her expertise in supporting families has shaped how programs work with families to promote strong relationships.

Raising the Bar

Prior to her time with Start Early Washington, Quen was a public health nurse and one of the first nurses in the nation to provide home visiting services to families through Nurse-Family Partnership. Her work has integrated infant mental health and Neuroscience, Epigenetics, ACEs, and Resilience (NEAR) science into home visiting through teaching, coaching and reflective supervision. As the Lead Facilitator and Co-Developer of NEAR@Home, Quen has developed trauma-informed practices for building resilience and uniquely positions home visitors to safely and effectively talk with families during a critical period of development – the earliest years of a child’s life.

“I was fortunate enough to work with Quen for 20 years, as a teacher, supervisor, consultant, co-author and an esteemed colleague. I’ve never known anyone who got what reflective listening was, or who was freer of professional pretense, than Quen. She is so unpretentious that it would be easy to underestimate her real genius for this work.” — Dr. Marian Birch, DMH, Psychologist

The Journey

Like many staff on Start Early Washington’s home visiting team, Quen’s firsthand experiences as a mother led her to pursue a lifelong career devoted to children and their families.

At the age of 19, Quen distinctly remembers the first day she met a home visitor. “My child was only two days old when a woman from King County Public Health knocked on my door. She was so humble and respectful, but as persistent as a boot wedged in my doorway! Somehow, she knew how much I needed to hear words of compassion.” Seemingly, Quen’s home visitor intuitively knew that Quen was in need of positive reinforcement and support as a young, first-time parent.

Quen admired the compassion and hopefulness home visitors brought to her life, but she was still apprehensive at the thought of home visiting with her second child. “I wasn’t as put together and I was worried about what they would think of me, my mess and my reality.” Unsurprisingly, her home visitors lauded her efforts and bolstered her confidence, helping her tackle the many challenges of parenting. With each visit, Quen’s self-talk started to shift substantially, “College is achievable!” “My voice matters!” “I can do this!”

Quen’s home visitors changed the course of her life. “Not only my life but my kids’ lives as well. We take for granted the power of finding strengths and being human with each other.” After witnessing the power of home visiting support, Quen was determined to make a difference to others just as her home visitors did for her; she was determined to be a catalyst for change.

Quen completed her GED and carried her remarkable determination and fortitude as a young parent with her to nursing school at Seattle Central Community College. Upon graduation, Quen worked as a nurse for renowned medical centers and rural based community hospitals in remote mountain towns, before joining Nurse-Family Partnership, where she flourished for the next 20 years, supporting families with young children, pregnant women, grandparents, foster parents and fathers as primary caregivers.

Quen’s passion and perseverance to provide comfort, compassion and support led her to the creation of the highly successful, nationally acclaimed NEAR@Home toolkit, a tool providing home visitors with information and skills to talk about trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) during home visits, while building trust and hope.

“Quen reminds me that I do not always have to fix things; my presence alone can bring value to any given situation.” — Amy Houser, Consultant 

Finding Balancing

Home visitors often face their own challenges with trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). These lived experiences bring motivation and strengths to the field of home visiting, but they also add another level of strain. The exposure to challenges and trauma of others can contribute to burnout and poor mental and physical well-being. Quen notes gardening as her antidote to secondary traumatic stress or “compassion fatigue” inherent to those supporting families directly.

Quen appreciates the balance that gardening brings to the intensity of her work. Influenced by her great-grandmother, Quen cherishes time outside to slowly walk around her garden and admire each of her plants. “Gardening is a wonderful balance to all seriousness. It’s creative and offers exercise and most importantly, if I mess something up in my garden, I just compost it. But of course, it’s not that simple with humans. With plants, the worst that will happen is a compost pile.”

“Quen’s thoughtfulness, reflectiveness, kind, calm and peaceful way of being, is something I strive to incorporate into my work and personal life.” — Amanda Costello, Director of National Home Visiting, Start Early

Home visiting stories of success and triumph were also a grounding element for Quen. She recalled all the knowledge accumulated over the years: “That’s what kept me going for so long. When working long hours or flustered with bureaucracy, budgets and funding, I’d think about the stories we accumulated. My hope for home visitors is that they will share stories for inspiration and as a guide to move past challenges together.”

A Career to Remember

“Quen has shown me how to focus on people and building relationships before focusing on the work.” — Valisa Smith, Executive Director, Start Early Washington

While Quen may no longer be part of the thick of home visiting life, her profound impact has left a lasting legacy, disrupting the way we interact with each other by offering tools that will transform how we build and foster relationships for generations to come.

Start Early Washington is proud to be part of Quen Zorrah’s story. Her ability to reach parents and children at an intrinsic human level is immeasurable. We are honored to continue to share NEAR@Home with the world – a toolkit designed to allow users to rediscover hope and strive toward healing, fostering strong and healthy relationships.

We thank Quen for her incredible contribution to the field, honor her on all she has accomplished in her professional and personal life, and congratulate her on retirement and her future endeavors.