As the program analyst for Start Early Washington, Anna Contreras is always thinking about what works best to support the children and families that participate in Washington’s home visiting programs. She collects and analyzes a mixture of quantitative raw data as well as the often-overlooked qualitative feedback needed to truly improve and enrich the home visiting experience for children and families. This includes collating information gathered from numerous home visiting professionals across the state.

Anna has dedicated her professional career to understanding how relationship-based supports impact lifelong outcomes for young children and their families. She’s particularly interested in families grappling with adversities, such as migrant and seasonal farmworkers, immigrant communities and dual language learners. “My Latinx background not only identifies me but defines me. As a second-generation immigrant, I relate to the challenges of those who are growing and learning from their native culture while also adjusting to new societal norms and navigating American culture.”

Anna’s commitment to improving the home visiting experience and creating more equitable and inclusive systems that recognize and respect diversity begins with her mother. Home visiting has been part of Anna’s life since the day she was born. Anna’s mother received home visiting services in Washington state when she was pregnant with Anna, a support that was not provided for Anna’s siblings. Because of this experience, her mother was better connected to her community’s resources and felt more comfortable talking through the various roadblocks she was experiencing. In addition, her home visitor helped her better understand the services and supports available to her. They were a trusted partner to nurture and support Anna’s healthy development. This was especially important to Anna’s mother because she didn’t have her mom (Anna’s abuela) near at the time.

Recalling her personal experiences and her experience helping her parents navigate data collection and other complex information, Anna finds it essential to create inclusive forms and dashboards for the home visiting support team.

Anna also shared the importance of considering the impact on the person collecting information. “When creating forms, we consider the impact on the staff asking the questions — such as, what does the answer mean for the respondent? How is this information going to be utilized? What are the unintended consequences for the person sharing the information? People must feel comfortable enough to share this information. They also want to ensure that necessary changes will follow and that they are not wasting their time answering another set of questions; it is hard to be vulnerable, especially when you are unsure of what will happen next with the information provided.”

Whether it’s a first-time parent connecting with a home visitor or staff sharing their experiences with each other, trust and respect are vital to collecting meaningful information. Relationship-building is foundational to Start Early Washington’s work and a key ingredient to affecting meaningful change.

“As a first-generation college student, relationship-building was important to me. Feeling seen and heard was fundamental to my growth and development, and therefore I carry that experience in my work today.” Feeling accepted, safe and connected to a community of support helped push Anna past moments of self-doubt and projected her toward future success in her home life, career and beyond.

The Subtle Differences

Data showcasing the subtle differences in home visiting provider experiences and the depth of variation between the family dynamics they support helps inform the resources and learning opportunities needed for the home visiting field as well as the various elements required to support the children and families they partner with. In addition, such data-driven insights are vital to maintaining an inclusive and collaborative decision-making process for system improvements.

Anna primarily works with Start Early Washington’s home visiting team to improve home visiting services and outcomes for children and their families in Washington state. Anna works closely with the home visiting team to assess customized coaching and mentoring offered to home visiting programs. Similarly, she evaluates how Start Early Washington can best support comprehensive learning opportunities, transparent data collection and thoughtful analysis.

For example, surveys are designed to answer questions such as: Does the home visiting field have the professional development opportunities they need to grow their skills? What additional support is needed for home visitors to feel confident in their role? How can Start Early Washington help home visiting professionals achieve individual and programmatic goals? These questions and more help to ultimately measure how we can support positive system changes —such as gains in knowledge, better time management, improved staff retention and the creation of better family engagement protocols.

Qualitative feedback helps Anna understand the story of home visiting in our state, connecting the necessary data points to improve system outcomes and inform policymakers. Data allows us to see how and when priorities shift for programs, and feedback and discussion help us understand what success and challenges look like for home visiting programs and the families they work with. Qualitative feedback from our home visiting team helps uncover trends in discussions, typically hidden among quantitative numbers alone. This data complements ongoing performance monitoring to ensure continuous quality improvement for home visiting professionals statewide.

Anna’s work strengthens home visiting programs by showcasing the power of relationship-based work, reinforcing the deep connections and trust between home visitors and families. Recognizing the unique identities, heritages, cultures and human emotions while celebrating differences and bolstering representation validates and supports an environment of inclusion for the entire home visiting system.

Trust Is Pivotal

While data is critical to support a high-quality system, trust is pivotal to accessing quality information and rich feedback. Some things for home visiting teams to consider when collecting data:

• Use simplified language; the frame of information is important.
• Are questions clear enough to capture the needed information?
• Do all parties understand how the data collected will inform the home visiting system?
• Does the reader understand their rights and role in responding to the questions?

Co-Creative Learning Opportunities for Home Visiting Professionals

Start Early Washington facilitates learning opportunities as well as unstructured co-creative opportunities for home visiting professionals statewide to build knowledge, seek mentorship, connect and decompress with others in the field experiencing similar situations. Together, they work through obstacles and celebrate successes; since 2020, Start Early Washington’s work has reached nearly 8,235 children and families. Our approach to supporting the home visiting field includes mindfulness practices, reflection, sharing experiences and knowledge that builds trust in a strengths-based learning environment.

Ms. Clarissa Sepulveda, a Chicago Public Schools Pre-K Diverse Learner Teacher at Rodolfo Lozano School, left her previous job as an educator and early intervention provider at a community-based early learning program because she could earn more working in schools.

“First of all, the support at community-based programs is not enough. Our ratio was always super high, the stress was immense for the pay we would get. And you’re talking about people who have so many degrees. I started with my Associate’s, then Bachelor’s, Bilingual Endorsement, Special Education Endorsement. No matter what you got, it didn’t matter.” – Ms. Clarissa Sepulveda

Now, as a school Diverse Learner Teacher, Ms. Sepulveda and her colleagues also constantly witness the lack of support priority populations (e.g., English Learners and students with disabilities) receive in preschool classrooms. To address this and other issues, Governor Pritzker proposed the multi-year Smart Start Illinois plan that will provide an additional $75 million in fiscal year 2024 (FY24) for the Early Childhood Block Grant, a program administered by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The Early Childhood Block Grant provides support for the Preschool for All, Preschool for All Extension, and Prevention Initiative programs. The additional funds will help the state continue increasing compensation and providing support for the early childhood workforce, particularly those employed by community-based organizations or working with infants and toddlers. It will also target child care deserts and will create five thousand new preschool slots. Families and providers across the state have been demanding for more child care and preschool access, and this investment will help create the additional slots needed for more diverse learners, like the students Ms. Sepulveda cares for day in, day out. But supporting and properly compensating the workforce who will care for our children is of top priority. Learn more about how Smart Start will address the workforce compensation issues for community-based providers.

Why is it so important to ensure that children have quality care and educational experiences in the earliest years of life? A nurturing and supportive environment during a child’s first years lays the foundation for future success in school and life. To truly appreciate why this time of life is so crucial, it helps to understand a little bit about brain science and early brain development.

The First Years of Life: What does science tell us?

During the first several years of a child’s life, the brain forms over one million neural connections every second.

Babies’ brains are quite literally wired to learn. This rapid absorption of information creates new neural connections and builds the architecture of a baby’s brain. For comparison, adult brains have thicker, but fewer, synaptic connections.

This makes adults more efficient at doing what they’ve done before (e.g., speaking, writing and reading) but less effective at learning new things, such as a foreign language.

The above figure illustrates the rapid rate at which synapses are formed in the first few years of life. One can see that adults have thicker, but fewer synaptic connections.

Everything in a child’s environment — experiences, relationships with parents and caregivers and environmental factors — influences brain development and growth.

It is no surprise, then, that early experiences have a profound impact on a child’s future ability to succeed in school, work and life.

How does the science on brain development influence our research on early interventions?

The research conducted at Start Early is anchored by science. Building upon decades of studies on brain development and early childhood education, we conduct high-quality research and help translate this research into practice — with the goal of improving outcomes for children and families early in life.

One example of how our research comes to life is demonstrated by the work of Educare schools. Start Early opened the first Educare school in 2000 on Chicago’s South Side using a research-based curriculum and serving low-income infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families. Now part of a nationwide network of 25 schools, known as the Educare Learning Network, these schools are prime examples of the positive outcomes stemming from high-quality early education programs.

After just one year at an Educare school, children show improved language skills, fewer problem behaviors, and more positive interactions with parents. Children who enrolled in Educare schools earlier, and stayed until they entered kindergarten, also displayed stronger vocabulary skills — just one of many positive indicators of effective early intervention. Years of rigorous evaluations of Educare programs indicate these outcomes.

Yet, Educare is just one example of how existing science and our own rigorous research join to create and promote high-quality early learning experiences. Ultimately, our research aims to reinforce the existing evidence supporting the importance of early education, while also informing and advancing improvements in the field as a whole.

In early February, Governor Pritzker announced Smart Start Illinois, his administration’s proposal to make the largest investments in early care and education that the field has seen in a generation. The proposal includes $100 million in funding to build new and expand current child care facilities, an additional $50 million for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), and $130 million to enhance wages for the workforce through child care contracts.

Although Start Early is grateful for the Governor’s renewed attention to child care to begin his second term – we simply cannot stop at Smart Start’s investments because in the long-term, this funding is not sufficient to create a robust child care system that works for all children and families in Illinois. Far too many families across the state cannot access child care, much less high-quality care, due to its exorbitant cost and the lack of available classroom slots. According to Start Early’s Infant & Toddler Child Care Roadmap report, licensed child care centers have the capacity to care for only 17.4% of the state’s infants and toddlers.

The earliest years in a child’s life are the most critical years for brain development, yet infant/toddler child care is by far the most difficult type of care to secure in Illinois. It is the most expensive form of care due to low teacher-child ratios (1:4) and it’s often not seen as desirable work because of its physical nature and very low pay. In fact, infant/toddler teachers throughout the state are typically paid less than their peers. Teachers who care for our youngest learners deserve better and unless we raise teacher salaries, we will not have the workforce to increase child care slots.

On April 18, Start Early along with our partners at Child Care For All, COFI, Illinois Action for Children, Raising Illinois, SEIU, and We, the Village brought over 300 advocates down to Springfield to advocate for Illinois’ youngest learners. Advocates shared policy briefs outlining the impact that Governor Pritzker’s Smart Start Illinois initiative would have on our early childhood systems as well as Raising Illinois’ Babies Can’t Wait postcards highlighting the struggles & successes Illinois families have had with Early Intervention. We were honored to be joined by Governor Pritzker himself, as well as Lieutenant Governor Stratton, who both addressed advocates in the Rotunda as part of the day’s events.

The Washington State Legislature adjourned “Sine Die” just after 10 p.m. Sunday, April 23.

Following is a recap of key actions since our Friday morning release of “Notes From Olympia.”

Release and Passage of 2023-25 Budgets

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the Operating, Capital and Transportation budgets over the weekend. The Capital and Transportation budgets passed with broad bipartisan support, while the Operating budget passed on a party-line vote in the House and saw 8 Republicans joining Democrats to vote for passage in the Senate.

Of particular interest to loyal “Notes from Olympia” trivia readers, the final Capital budget does include funding to restore the skylights above the Senate and House chambers in time for the Legislative Building’s centennial celebration in 2028.

Start Early Washington updated its budget comparison document on our resources page to reflect the final early learning related budget items. Despite concern of a potential economic downturn as well as multiple competing demands, the adopted budgets contain significant investments for a number of early learning programs.

Lawmakers worked incredibly long hours to craft this budget and would no doubt appreciate hearing a “thank you” for prioritizing early learning investments. Legislative email addresses all share the format of firstname.lastname@leg.wa.gov. Specific emails can be found on the legislative website.

Updates on Outstanding Bills

We’ve updated our bill tracker on our resource page to include this weekend’s bill activity. Remember, bills that did not advance in 2023 can be revisited in 2024.

In what turned out to be the final bill vote for the 2023 legislative session, the House voted to concur in Senate amendments to 2SHB 1550 on a 60-37 vote, sending the legislation relating to Transitional Kindergarten to the Governor’s desk. Earlier in the evening, the Senate adopted a striker to 2SHB 1550 on a 39-10 vote.

As passed by the Legislature, the bill:

• Codifies Transitional Kindergarten and reconstitutes it as Transition to Kindergarten (TTK).
• Directs the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop rules for the administration of and standards for TTK. Initial rules must be adopted prior to the start of the 2023-24 school year with permanent rules by the 2024-25 school year.
• Provides that only school-district authorized charter schools may immediately offer TTK and the charter commission authorized charter schools may offer TTK beginning in the 2025-26 school year.
• Defines eligibility for TTK as those children who have been determined to benefit from additional preparation for kindergarten and who are at least four-years old by 8/31 of each year.
• Requires, as practicable, TTK programs prioritize children from lowest income families and those most in need of additional preparation.
• TTK is not considered a child-level entitlement.
• Unless excused by parents or caregivers, requires administration of WaKIDS at the start and end of the school year.
• Calls for a local child care and early learning needs assessment prior to beginning or expanding a TTK program. Also directs OSPI and DCYF to develop statewide coordinated eligibility, recruitment, enrollment and selection best practices.
• Provides that TTK programs must follow OSPI developed guidelines related to best practices for site readiness, developmentally appropriate curricula and professional development. OSPI must also develop a process for site visits to provide feedback on these guidelines.
• Prohibits charging of tuition as well as excluding children due to the presence of a disability.
• Allows TTK programs to blend and co-locate with other early learning programs.
• Provides that TTK students will be counted as a kindergarten student for funding purposes, but reported separately (to be able to get an accurate count of the number of TTK students). Funding is equivalent to the prototypical school funding model (including transportation), but is not considered part of basic education.
• Directs DCYF to make administrative changes to better align early learning programs.
• Finally, directs the caseload forecast council to forecast for TTK.

You can track the scheduling of bill signings on the Governor’s webpage. The Governor must act upon all bills that reach his desk by May 15.

Legislative Leadership Change Announced

On Sine Die, House Minority Leader JT Wilcox shared his plans to step down as the House Republican leader. The leadership change will occur when the House Republican Caucus selects a new leader. During an interview on TVW, Representative Wilcox stated he does plan to continue in the House.

Thank you for your partnership with us through the 2023 legislative session. We look forward to continuing our shared work to build more equitable systems for children and families in Washington state.

(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

This edition of “Notes From Olympia” will serve as our final weekly newsletter, signaling the end of the 2023 legislative session.

What Is Next?

• Look for an email early next week, which will include final budget details, bill status updates and a recap of the last days of the legislative session.
• We will share an update covering Gov. Inslee’s actions mid-May.
• Our “Notes From Olympia” will continue periodically during the interim to keep you abreast of early learning policy developments.

Trivia!

Which Governor was associated with “The Kick” incident in 1913?

Budget Details

Conference reports for the2023-25 biennial budgets will be released by Saturday of this week and voted upon prior to legislative adjournment. Specifically, the Operating budget details will be released Saturday, April 22, at noon. Because these actions will occur after this week’s newsletter publication, we plan to send out an email early next week including the final budget details as well as a recap of the last days of the legislative session. When completed, the budget summary will be available on Start Early Washington’s resource page.

Legislative Updates

With the Legislature poised to adjourn “Sine Die” Sunday, April 23, this week focused on finalizing actions on outstanding bills while budget writers and the amazing staff worked to put together the Operating, Capital and Transportation budgets.

As of this writing, only one active early learning related bill has not advanced to the Governor’s desk – 2SHB 1550, related to Transitional Kindergarten. We will include a status update in a post-session email. You can also check the status of specific legislation on the legislative website or via Start Early Washington’s bill tracker on our resource page.

As a reminder, you can track the status of gubernatorial bill signings on this webpage. The final day for Governor Inslee to act on bills that reach his desk is May 16.

After gubernatorial action, attention turns to state agencies as they start implementing the policies and related funding included in the enacted bills. Implementation planning can take weeks to months, depending on the issue or program and the extent external parties are involved in development. Additionally, state agencies are beginning to develop decision packages outlining their policy and funding priorities for the 2024 legislative session. The legislative cycle is always in motion!

Comic Relief US (CRUS) is committed to breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Through the power of entertainment, CRUS drives awareness and amplifies the voices of children and families living in under-resourced communities.

You might know them best from Red Nose Day, their annual fundraising campaign that brings people together to laugh and have fun, while raising money and awareness to ensure all children are safe, healthy, educated and empowered in the U.S. and abroad. Through Red Nose Day, Comic Relief US engages the public and nonprofit and corporate partners to raise funds and invests them back in nonprofit organizations, many of which are community-led with programs focused on tackling the root causes and consequences of poverty and social injustice.

The Educare Learning Network has been a proud partner of CRUS and Red Nose Day since 2018. Since 2000, when Start Early developed the first Educare school in Chicago, the Educare Learning Network has grown into a national network of 25 birth-through-age-five schools in 15 states, Washington DC and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. We are a network of learning hubs that innovate, evaluate and share best practices to transform the lives of young children in disinvested communities and positively impact the broader early childhood field.

Start Early, the Educare Learning Network and CRUS partner to improve the lives of children and families by investing in Educare schools to create training opportunities and enriching early learning programming that benefits Educare staff, children and families. For the past five years, funds awarded to Start Early have supported professional development, consultation and other learning opportunities for 2,000+ staff members across the Educare Network. Red Nose Day funds have also allowed the 25 Educare schools to develop new and innovative programs in the areas of science, tech, engineering, the arts and math (STEAM); social-emotional learning; family engagement; and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) and have impacted 5,000+ children and their families.

Start Early and the Educare Learning Network feel fortunate for the many opportunities we have as a grantee partner of CRUS to enhance our programming and connect with new audiences. Being part of Red Nose Day has offered Educare opportunities for national media exposure, helping us share the importance of early learning. A great example of this was in May 2022, when an Educare Chicago Mentor Teacher was featured in a segment on the Kelly Clarkson show. This was an opportunity for TV viewers around the country to be introduced to the Educare name and mission, helping the public understand the value of our work and high-quality early childhood education programs. Additionally, the Educare Network’s promotion of Red Nose Day in 2022 was particularly successful as we shared nearly 100 social media posts and other communications during the campaign and reached an audience upwards of 35,000 across multiple platforms and channels.

Since its launch in the U.S. in 2015, Comic Relief US (CRUS) has fundraised over $380 million, with over $324 million raised through its signature Red Nose Day campaign to end child poverty.

Comic Relief US invests in nonprofit organizations, many of which are community-led, with programs focused on tackling the root causes and consequences of poverty and social injustice. CRUS supports initiatives that advance the health, safety, education and empowerment of children and caregivers in communities impacted by intergenerational poverty.

Funds raised through Red Nose Day in the U.S. support programs across all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico and around the world, ensuring all children are safe, healthy, educated and empowered.

Legislators burning the midnight oil during the final days of legislative session
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

What was the cost of constructing and designing the Washington State Governor’s Mansion in 1909?

Legislative Updates

Wednesday of this week was the final cutoff for bills to pass out of the opposite chamber. However, there is an exception to the cutoff deadlines for bills deemed necessary to implement the budget (NTIB). Both bodies put in long hours this week, with the House of Representatives working well into the early morning hours Tuesday and Wednesday. For a recap of the final steps of the legislative process, check out last week’s “Notes From Olympia.”

What to expect in the final 10 days. On Sunday, April 23 the 2023 legislative session comes to a close, also known as Sine Die (a Latin term meaning without a fixed day for future meeting). During the last few weeks of session, many bills will be amended to get them over the final hump. Some of the amendments will be done to reduce the cost of implementing the proposed policy or result from negotiations over policy approaches between the Senate and the House. It is a good idea to continue to check for amendments on bills you care about. You can do so by accessing the most recent bill reports or scrolling down to the bottom of the bill page to see if amendments have been adopted.

For example, House Bill 1525, which would provide child care subsidy eligibility to parents in state approved apprenticeship programs, was amended in the Senate Ways and Means Committee April 8. The amendment is toward the bottom of the page on the left and the adopted action (amended onto the bill) is at the bottom right of the table. An “Effect” section at the end of the amendment describes what the amendment would do.

In addition to wrapping up bills, the Legislature must finish, publish and pass the 2023-25 biennial Operating, Capital and Transportation budgets. Typically, the budget details and bills are released and voted on in the last few days of session. Now is the time to advocate for any additions or changes to the budget, as the Legislature will take an up-or-down vote (no amendments) once it is public and ready for action next week.

Bill Tracker: Key Early Learning Bills

As the legislative session progresses, our resource page will be updated 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 my work, I interchangeably use the terms “Hispanic” and “Latinx/e” to refer to individuals whose cultural background originated in Latin American and/or Spanish-speaking countries or are descendants of persons from those countries. I want to acknowledge that Hispanic or Latinx/e individuals in the United States represent diverse countries of origin with unique histories and cultures. Hereafter, I will use “Hispanic” to describe this population.

Over recent decades, the racial-ethnic demographic composition of children in the United States has rapidly shifted, with Hispanic children largely contributing to these changes. Only 9% of U.S. children were Hispanic in 1980; today, over a quarter of children are Hispanic, and by 2050, it is predicted that nearly one in every three children will be Hispanic. This represents a dramatic increase in the number of those who are eligible for early care and education (ECE). In response to this rapidly growing population, new lines of research have emerged to inform and advance practices and policies that support Hispanic children and families’ well-being.

Recent studies consistently demonstrate that participation in high-quality ECE programs is beneficial for Hispanic children’s academic, developmental, and family outcomes; and in some instances, such programs serve as a protective factor in mitigating adversity or negative experiences among Hispanic children and families. As this evidence continues to mount, some researchers have shifted their priorities to focus on linkages between Hispanic children and families’ enrollment in ECE and their well-being in the challenging landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tumultuous nature of the pandemic has corresponded with new studies unpacking hardships experienced by Hispanic children and families; these studies are often grounded in a deficit viewpoint. While researchers are building a much-needed knowledge base, the use of a strengths-based view is essential for uncovering protective factors, like engaging in ECE programs, that may serve as a buffer for Hispanic children and families from the challenges of the pandemic.

In contrast with other ECE research and the mostly bleak narratives circulating in the media about the negative effects of the pandemic on child and family well-being, results from these descriptive analyses of Educare Learning Network data found that Hispanic children and families demonstrated a variety of social-emotional related strengths. Findings and data from this sample may not generalize to other Hispanic children and families given that these children and families are enrolled in Educare—a model Early/Head Start program demonstrating higher than average program quality. However, changing the narrative and highlighting positive findings related to child and family well-being during the pandemic can potentially inform Early/Head Start and other ECE programs’ efforts to effectively support Hispanic children and families. These descriptive findings cannot yet speak to why this sample of young Hispanic children and their families did not demonstrate declines in these indicators of well-being or how child and family well-being will look in the long run; but they can help emphasize the importance of high-quality ECE and contribute further evidence that positive experiences in the early years may provide a buffer to the challenges faced by children and families, including those resulting from the pandemic.

Find information about research and evaluation within the Educare Learning Network at EducareSchools.org.