Photo snapped by the author on a morning walk Jan. 18, 2022.

Trivia!

Why is the sundial in the middle of the Capitol campus referred to as the “Territorial Sundial?”

Highlights of the Week

Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Friends and family are often surprised to hear I work on federal holidays such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Presidents’ Day.  While most government-related entities close on federal holidays, the Washington State Legislature meets on both days since they occur during the scheduled legislative session.

The Senate and House of Representatives honored Dr. King on his birthday, with both bodies passing resolutions (SR 8634 and HR 4635) during floor sessions dedicated to Dr. King, his legacy and his call for action (Senate Floor Session Honoring Dr. King and House Floor Session).

Long-Term Care Delay.  Much attention has been paid to the implementation of the Washington Cares Fund, the state’s long-term care program created by 2019 legislation and funded by a new payroll tax.  A number of logistical (and philosophical) concerns arose as roll-out drew near, and Governor Inslee and legislative leadership agreed to introduce and support legislation that would delay implementation to give time to work out these details.

This 18-month proposed delay is on the fast track, with the House voting the bill off their Floor Wednesday and, according to Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig during a media briefing this week, the Senate should do the same by the end of next week.

Early Learning Action

Joint Work Session on Transitional Kindergarten.  Friday, Jan. 14, the House Children, Youth and Families and Education Committees held a work session looking at Transitional Kindergarten services and the alignment with other early learning services. Prior to hearing from community providers about their experiences, staff from both committees provided an overview of various early learning opportunities available to our youngest learners.

Following remarks from providers in various corners of the state, representatives of the Department of Children, Youth and Families and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction gave a presentation on their joint efforts to integrate early learning services for 3- and 4-year olds. Of note, DCYF and OSPI have a Phase 2 report Integrated Early Learning due Sept. 1, 2022 and they are also partnering on coordinated recruitment and enrollment.

According to materials shared during the hearing, Transitional Kindergarten:

• Is an early entrance to Kindergarten.
• Serves children who are age 4 by Aug. 31 without access to high-quality early learning experiences prior to Kindergarten, or who have been deemed, through a screening process and/or other instrument(s), to need additional preparation to be successful in Kindergarten in the following year.
• Programs must start before Jan. 31 and have 27 hours and 45 minutes of weekly instruction.
• Has the same requirements as Kindergarten: staffed by certified teachers and paraprofessionals; developmentally appropriate learning environment that addresses the whole child; and administration of WaKIDS.
• Funding is provided through state prototypical school formulas for Kindergarten students. Statewide, Kindergarten students generate, on average, approximately $11,379 in the 2021-22 school year, but that amount can vary based on regionalization or other factors.
• Current funding is $3 million a year. However, caseloads are projected to expand with a total of $11.8 million projected in spending for the 2021-2022 school year. The Governor’s budget for fiscal year 2023 includes $12.6 million.
• Enrollment of 820 students in 35 districts during the 2020-21 school year (note this was during COVID).

New Bill for Dolly. It was a quiet week for introduction of early learning related bills, but on Dolly Parton’s birthday, Representatives Stonier and Abbarno introduced HB 2068 which would bring the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to families throughout Washington state. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library provides no-cost books to young children.

Key Hearings

HB 1872 (Senn and Slatter). Wednesday, the House College and Workforce Development Committee held a public hearing on HB 1872 which would establish a care worker center to elevate care sectors as a respected sector of the workforce, increase retention and recruitment and promote the value and different employment options of a care worker. The bill calls out three caregiving professions: child care, long-term care and personal care attendants for people with disabilities.

A number of child care advocates testified on the bill, stressing the importance of increasing compensation for the child care workforce and urging that compensation measures in this bill be tied to the Child Care Collaborative Task Force’s Cost of Quality work. The bill is scheduled for Executive Session in the House College & Workforce Development Committee Jan. 26.

HB 1890 (Callan). Heard in the House Children, Youth and Families Committee Monday and voted out Thursday, HB 1890 brings forward recommendations from the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Workgroup, including a call for the development of a strategic plan and inclusion of compensation of up to $200 a day for individuals with lived experience participating in the workgroup or its advisory bodies. The Committee heard from a range of testifiers speaking to the need to accelerate behavioral health efforts for children and youth as well as the importance of including (and compensating) people with lived experience in policy development. The bill now moves to the House Appropriations Committee for consideration.

SB 5793 (C. Wilson). SB 5793 looks to change current statute to allow for individuals with lived experience participating in state boards, commissions and other workgroups and advisory bodies to be compensated for their engagement. It received a groundswell of support in a Wednesday public hearing in the Senate State Government & Elections Committee and is scheduled for Executive Session (vote) Friday morning – about the time this update hits your inbox.

As a reminder, Start Early Washington’s Resource Page contains a bill tracker with the latest information on bills we are following.

What’s Up Next?

The pace of introduced bills slowed dramatically this week. This is expected because the first deadline (called “cutoff”) is just under two weeks away on Feb. 3 for bills to be voted out of policy committees. Next week, expect full committee hearing schedules as well as the Senate’s focus on the long-term care program delay bills. The House Children, Youth and Families Committee will hold hearings on bills related to the composition of the Department of Children, Youth and Families Oversight Board as well as a bill (HB 1843) which would adjust licensing requirements for child care centers and outdoor early learning programs.

By Joan Lombardi

Over the holidays, I heard the term metaverse across multiple media platforms. From TV talk shows and the news to newspaper articles, the concept was everywhere, and I wanted to understand what it means. Meta seems to have several meanings depending on how it is used – as a prefix it sometimes means transformation or transcending.  In the “tech world” the metaverse seems to be referring to some overarching system that would transcend the different parts that make up that world today.

While not totally grasping this emerging concept, these ideas are not completely new to a student of child development. We can relate to the idea of an overarching system evolving beyond its current collection of parts to create an all-encompassing approach to achieving a common goal.

We know health, learning and behavior are connected, and holistic child development requires an integration of these elements that transcends their parts; health affects learning, learning affects health, and social-emotional development affects them both. We also know development begins early, with each stage building on another. Moreover, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory has grounded our thinking: we can’t separate the child from the well-being of the family. They both depend on supportive communities and policies.

As we enter 2022, let’s recommit our energies to creating a system that could be thought of as meta-care. This approach would go beyond a collection of isolated programs and services to an interconnected system supporting the whole developing child. In this community, the parent, childcare provider, physicians, home visitors, teachers, local librarians and housing agencies all matter for a successful start in life.

Last year, I had the opportunity to talk to several parents, providers and local leaders across the country. Each was working to build these connections to make their community “the best place to raise a child.” I recognized four common elements in these initiatives:

• Firm beliefs in centering all actions on family and caregiver voices to improve their living and working conditions
• Commitment to equity
• Processes for data tracking and mapping services
• Continuous improvement mechanisms that include ongoing partnerships across services and sectors

The country’s future depends on how we care for young children and families. In the upcoming year, our hope remains that landmark federal legislation is passed to provide the critical investments we need. When this happens, implementation will move to the states and communities and new opportunities to work together will emerge. We must renew our efforts of support to assure a robust continuum of care: from healthy births to children thriving at age three, at five and beyond.

It doesn’t matter if we use a new term like meta-care; what matters is that we intensify our pursuit of better outcomes for all children. Let’s allow the needs of families and caregivers to guide our actions, transcend old boundaries and make a system of caring a reality for the next generation.

Dr. Joan Lombardi is a national and international thought leader in early childhood. She has been a key collaborator and consultant to Start Early in a variety of ways over the years. 

Trivia!

In Olympia lingo, what is an “X file?”

Highlights of Week One

In a mostly virtual format, the Legislature kicked off its 60-day legislative session Monday. They wasted no time getting down to bill hearings and work sessions. However, the traditional “first day of school” vibes were not felt given nearly all lawmakers, staff and lobbyists were working remotely.

Tuesday, Governor Inslee provided his State of the State address in an empty State Reception Room rather than to a joint session of the Legislature. In his remarks, Governor Inslee urged lawmakers to focus on the urgent crises facing the state, including housing, transportation, the needs of our students and poverty reduction.

Fiscal Committee Hearings. Early in the week, the budget committees held public hearings where more than 100 interested parties in each hearing urged budget writers to include their top issue (fully funded of course) in the final adopted supplemental budget. Testifiers were limited to one minute and, even with that limitation, both hearings ran over two and a half hours. Throughout both hearings, a common theme was around stress within the workforce, particularly in the health and human services arena. Low compensation and fatigue – fatigue exacerbated by nearly two years of a pandemic – were discussed frequently.

In both hearings, David Schumacher, the Governor’s Budget Director, provided an overview of Governor Inslee’s proposed $62 billion budget. Schumacher stressed that with the many urgent needs facing the state, this is not a typical supplemental budget in that it proposes a number of significant investments when most supplemental budgets include tweaks and minor increases. Schumacher cited increased federal funding (most of which is one-time), continued growth in state revenue, declining caseloads in some areas as well as continued uncertainty with the pandemic as factors that influenced budget decisions.

Legislative budget writers will weigh the Governor’s proposal, the testimony received, individual legislative requests and more up-to-date revenue numbers that will come out mid-February and work to craft a final budget before Sine Die March 10.

Work Sessions. Often in the first week or two of the legislative session, committees will hold “work sessions.” In these work sessions, speakers are invited to educate committee members on various issues instead of advocating for the passage of specific bills.

Wednesday, the House Children, Youth and Families Committee held a work session on Fair Start for Kids Act implementation. Nicole Rose, Assistant Secretary for Early Learning and Allison Krutsinger, Director of the Office of Government Affairs and Community Engagement presented for DCYF. They spoke from this PowerPoint which includes a lot of rich data and information. Following are some highlights:

• As of Dec. 31, 2021, nearly $260 million in child care stabilization grants were awarded to 4,319 providers.
• For the state Fiscal Year 2022 ECEAP expansion, DCYF received applications for 1,358 slots.
• For the Early Learning Facilities grant program, more than 140 applicants requested $73 million for projects. Only $22 million in funding was available.
• For home visiting expansion, 7 programs received funding to serve 185 more families with applications for expansion far exceeding available funding.

Following the DCYF presentation, DeeAnn Puffert, CEO of Child Care Aware, updated the committee on implementation from Child Care Aware’s unique perspective as the operator of the statewide call center. Puffert provided a number of examples of families positively impacted by the benefits of the Fair Start for Kids Act, highlighting one family’s joy and relief in learning their child care costs would be reduced by $18,000 a year with the reduction in co-payments.

Finally, the committee heard from two child care providers – Laura Murphey and Jennifer Kelty – who spoke of their on-the-ground experience as providers. They discussed the challenges of navigating providing child care with the uncertainty of COVID-19 and the need for continued investment to stabilize the industry.

Bills, Bills – and more Bills!

It has been a flurry with lawmakers introducing a lot of bills. I check the bill introductions each night and, although there are fewer early learning bills per se, there are a number of bills of interest. Visit Start Early Washington’s resources page to view the latest list of bills we are tracking.

It is important to note that not every bill introduced will receive a hearing, and there are many steps before a bill becomes a law. We will do our best to keep you updated on relevant bills.

Here are some bills that jumped out to me that are a little outside of traditional early learning, but related:

HB 1872 (Senn and Slatter). Establishes a care worker center with the purpose of elevating care sectors as a respected sector of the workforce, increasing retention and recruitment and promoting the value and different employment options of a care worker. The bill calls out three caregiving professions: child care, long-term care and personal care attendants for people with disabilities.

HB 1881 (Harris-Talley and Entenman). Creates a voluntary certification process for birth doulas. The bill specifies that doulas do not need to be certified to continue to practice. It also calls for the joint creation of competency-based requirements with community partners who advance equitable access to improve perinatal outcomes and care through holistic services for black and brown communities.

HB 1890 (Callan). Brings forward recommendations from the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Workgroup, including a call for the development of a strategic plan and inclusion of compensation of up to $200 a day for individuals with lived experience participating in the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Workgroup or its advisory bodies.

HB 1947 (Frame). Provides a monthly diaper subsidy for parents or caregivers of children under age 3 participating in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

SB 5793 (Wilson). Provides the ability for state boards, commissions, councils, committees and other similar groups to provide stipends for community members with lived experience engaging in such entities.

What’s Ahead?

With the first big cutoff quickly approaching Feb. 3 for bills to be voted out of policy committees, the next 2.5 weeks will focus on policy committee hearings.

Of the bills listed above, the following are scheduled for Public Hearings next week:

• HB 1872 is scheduled in the House College and Workforce Development Committee Jan. 19 at 8:00 a.m.
• HB 1890 is scheduled for a Public Hearing in the House Children, Youth and Families Committee Jan. 17 at 1:30 p.m. and for an Executive Session (vote) Jan. 20 at 10:00 a.m.
• HB 1947 will receive a Public Hearing Jan. 21 at 10:00 a.m. in the House Housing, Human Services and Veterans Committee.
• Finally, SB 5793 is scheduled for a Public Hearing in the Senate Government and Elections Committee on Jan. 19 at 8:00 a.m. and for an Executive Session (vote) Jan. 21 at 10:30 a.m.

In short, the next 2.5 weeks will involve a lot of watching TVW – and waiting for bills of interest to be heard.

How Can I Make My Voice Heard?

If you are interested in following a bill, you can sign up to receive email notifications. That option is on the right side of each bill information page. (I included the doula certification bill as an example). Once you sign up for notifications, you will be notified when there has been activity on the bill.

When a bill has been scheduled for a hearing, you can sign up to provide oral testimony, written testimony or make your position noted for the record. To do this, go to the committee sign-up page. You then identify which chamber the bill is to be heard and click down for the committee and date of the hearing. From there, you click on the agenda item and can sign up. The committee sign-up page also has detailed information.

Events to Promote Racial Equity Dialogues

As we approach the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the National Day of Racial Healing, here are just a couple opportunities to take action and reflect:

• Jan. 18, 12:00 p.m. – The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is hosting an annual observation of the National Day of Racial Healing. Join the conversation to share values and create a blueprint for healing from the effects of racism. “Launched on Jan. 17, 2017, it is an opportunity to bring ALL people together in their common humanity and inspire collective action to create a more just and equitable world.”
• Jan. 19, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. – The United Way of King County is hosting a virtual conversation about advancing racial equity with the author of “How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America,” Clint Smith and a dynamic panel of experts.

Trivia

What is the average annual snowfall in Olympia?

Welcome!

Today marks the return of Start Early Washington’s weekly “Notes From Olympia.” Our weekly newsletter aims to deliver the latest updates on activity in Olympia to your inbox every Friday morning. If you have suggestions for items to cover, we would love to hear!

Additionally, we linked our bill tracker at the top of our resources page so you can follow the progress of bills that impact the state budget and early learning. Look for the updated link at the top of the page each Thursday. Tracking bills will be a feature of our weekly “Notes From Olympia.”

What Will the 2022 Legislative Session Look Like?

I will dispense with any attempt at a witty saying or cliché about uncertainty because I think we are all over them!

Due to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases statewide, both the Senate and House of Representatives recently adjusted their operational plans to begin their work in a largely virtual fashion. All committee hearings will be virtual and, initially, only a limited number of legislators and staff will be in-person for floor sessions. There will be no in-person meetings on the Capitol campus.

After two weeks, both bodies intend to revisit these plans and potentially make adjustments based on public health guidance. These adjustments could include increasing the number of legislators present for floor sessions and allowing a limited number of members of the public in the Senate and House galleries.

Week One Committee Activity

The short, 60-day sessions run at a frenetic pace, with public hearings on legislation starting the first day. With the first cutoff for bills to get out of policy committees rapidly approaching on Feb. 3, there is no easing in!

For early learning, we expect a relatively lighter year given the passage of the Fair Start for Kids Act in 2021 and the systemwide work underway to implement this historic measure. There will, of course, be legislation and budget items related to early learning, but we do not expect legislation of the magnitude of the Fair Start for Kids Act.

Speaking of Fair Start for Kids, the House Children, Youth and Families is holding a work session on Wednesday, Jan. 12 at 8 a.m. focusing on Fair Start for Kids implementation. We will provide a summary in next week’s “Notes From Olympia.”

The legislative session will kick off with a focus on the supplemental budget as the House Appropriations Committee on Monday, Jan. 10 and the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 11 dedicate committee time to the Governor’s proposed supplemental budget. Both hearings will begin with a presentation by David Schumacher, the Governor’s Director of the Office of Financial Management, who will outline the Governor’s proposed budget, followed by an opportunity for the public to respond to what was included (or more importantly, not included) in the Governor’s budget.

The fiscal committees are scheduled at the end of the day as they often exceed the usual two-hour committee block and these initial hearings typically run into the night. These budget hearings are interesting for many reasons, including giving good insight into what other budget items are “in play” for the session.

Resources

With legislative session starting on Monday, here are some handy resources to help track bills, hearings, amendments and other developments:

Washington State Legislative Website. The #1 go-to for all legislative information. This is where you can read the latest bills; sign up to testify; find the legislative calendar; look up legislative committee schedule; and much more.

TVW.org. With much of the legislative activity virtual, TVW becomes all the more important, airing all legislative hearings and floor sessions live. If you miss something, you can go back and catch it in their archives. TVW also produces a number of documentaries and informative shows, including Inside Olympia and The Impact. TVW’s website was updated over interim to make it more user friendly – check it out!

Holiday Trivia!

On a quick trip to Olympia earlier this week, I was able to walk through a deserted Legislative building and snap these pictures of three beautifully lit holiday trees. This got me thinking about the history of celebrating the holiday season in our state’s Capitol.

When was the first holiday tree lighting ceremony in the Washington State Capitol building?

Release of Governor Inslee’s Supplemental Budget

With the passage of the sweeping Fair Start for Kids Act in the 2021 legislative session, the focus in early learning is on implementing the various aspects of the new law. As a result, the Governor’s proposed supplemental budget, as expected, does not include many proposals related to early learning.

The supplemental budget proposed the following:

• Working Connections Child Care Co-Pay Waiver Adjustment ($9.5 million). This funding would backfill co-pays that were waived from July through September 2021.
• ECEAP Slot Conversion ($9.327 million). This funding would support the conversion of some part-day ECEAP slots to school and full-day converting a total of 2,077 slots: 1,765 from part-day to school-day and 312 from part-day to full-day.
• Summer ECEAP ($5.970 million). This funding would support nearly nine weeks of ECEAP services in the summer, leveraging 2,212 school-day slots on 2 tracks; 2,011 full-day, in-person slots; and 201 wraparound slots.
• ECEAP Quality Supply Rate ($1.268 million). This funding would support the continuation of an enhanced rate for ECEAP providers to provide child and family assessments and have access to research-based curriculum and professional development.
• Background Check Fees ($1.267 million). This funding would cover application and processing fees for child care providers, thereby reducing the time it takes to complete a background check by 3-5 days.
• Mental Health Consultation ($260,000). This funding would support two tribal mental health consultants.
• Lived Experience Work ($955,000). Within the Department of Social and Health Services budget summary, the Governor lays out his proposal to better include and compensate individuals with lived experience in budget and policy decisions. This funding would include a technical advisory group, funding for the Office of Equity on best practices to engage communities when creating equitable policies as well as for stipends for individuals participating in boards, commissions, workgroups, etc.

Overall, Governor Inslee’s nearly $62 billion supplemental budget proposes almost $3 billion more in spending than the biennial budget passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor this spring. In his press conference remarks, Governor Inslee stressed the state’s need to respond with urgency to its many challenges, including housing, climate, behavioral health, COVID-19 and poverty. The Governor resisted calls to issue tax cuts and proposed investing $600 million of the budget surplus into the state’s rainy day fund.

With the Governor’s proposed budget release, activity now shifts to the legislative arena. Expect both the Senate Ways and Means and the House Appropriations Committees to hold public hearings during the first week of the legislative session to hear feedback on the Governor’s proposals.

Detailed budget documents and high-level overviews are on the Governor’s Office of Financial Management website.

2022 Legislative Session Logistics

Before we know it, the 2022 legislative session will be upon us. The short, sixty-day session kicks off Monday, Jan. 10 and will conclude (fingers crossed!) March 10.

The Senate and House of Representatives have each announced different approaches for operation during the 2022 legislative session.

In short :

• Both Senate and House committee hearings will continue to be virtual.
•  In the Senate, floor sessions will be in person for all members and a small number of staff (after confirmation of a negative rapid test each day of floor session).
• Given that the House has twice the number of members as the Senate, their floor sessions will be in person for a rotating cohort of vaccinated legislators.
• In both bodies, a limited number of members of the public may view the activity from the galleries, with specified safety measures in place.
• Senators are encouraged to continue to hold meetings remotely, but will be permitted to hold in-person meetings in their offices for three members of the public, if they choose.
• House members will continue to hold all meetings with the public virtually with no in-person option on the Capitol campus.
• Legislative staff are encouraged to continue to work remotely.

It is important to recognize these operating plans are all subject to change depending on how the session proceeds and the status of COVID-19 infections.

Bill Introductions

Pre-Filed Bills. Lawmakers have begun pre-filing bills in advance of the Jan. 10 legislative session start date. A look through the pre-filed bill list illustrates the myriad of issues legislators consider throughout the legislative session – ranging from Senator Wellman’s SB 5537 which would lower the age for compulsory K-12 education to children ages five, six and seven to Representative Walen’s HB 1615 which addresses the sale of cosmetics tested on animals.

The volume of introduced legislation can be a lot to wade through, so Start Early WA will be producing and sharing a bill tracker weekly on our website on bills related to child and family issues. We will also include a link in future issues of this newsletter to keep you up to date on the status of key early learning and related bills.

Redistricting Updates

Our Nov. 19 Notes From Olympia provided an update on the state’s Redistricting Commission narrowly missing the Nov. 15 deadline to adopt final Congressional and legislative maps to send to the Legislature for approval. Our state’s Constitution provides that when the Redistricting Commission fails to meet the Nov. 15 deadline, the responsibility falls to the state Supreme Court to finalize proposed plans.

Instead of undertaking the process of redrawing political boundaries themselves, the Supreme Court instead announced Dec. 3 they would accept the Redistricting Commission’s work and submit their proposal to the Legislature for approval.

Crosscut’s Melissa Santos continues to be my “go to” reporter on these complex developments and her Dec. 3 piece provides a great summary of the Supreme Court’s actions and the ramifications.

The drama is far from over; judicial challenges over the process and whether the final maps violate the federal Voting Rights Act are in play.

It is interesting to check out the final maps as some districts saw significant changes. For example, my district moved BACK to the district we were moved FROM during the last redistricting. It will be interesting to see if my neighbors are aware of this change during our next election. During the last election after redistricting, people were promoting candidates who were no longer our representatives! It is confusing.

By Mina Hong and Carrie Gillispie

Amid all the disruption to in-person learning due to the pandemic, it’s time to focus on children with disabilities, which account for 1.2 million young children birth through five. Thanks to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), first enacted in 1975, inclusive early care and education (ECE) programs, where children with disabilities learn alongside children without disabilities, is integrated in the federal special education law. Inclusive education has many benefits for all children, regardless of disability status. In fact, inclusion is so essential to child development that it is integrated in federal special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Under the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) requirement, IDEA calls for young children with developmental delays and disabilities to receive special education and related services alongside typically developing peers in all settings. For young children, LRE includes school-based preschool and community-based settings like Head Start and child care; yet, far too few children with disabilities have had access to these high-quality inclusive options.

Now, Congress has the power to change that with the Build Back Better Act (BBB) and increased IDEA funding in the federal Fiscal Year 2022 (FFY2022) budget. By leveraging these federal investments, states can revolutionize ECE to be truly inclusive and equitable for our nation’s youngest learners with delays and disabilities.

BBB combined with anticipated IDEA funding increases in FFY2022 provides a historic opportunity to expand full inclusion across early childhood settings. BBB significantly invests in expanding equitable access to ECE for families who have been historically underserved — families with lower incomes, families of color, and families of young children with disabilities. Though BBB prioritizes enrollment of young children with delays and disabilities in ECE programs, additional dedicated funding in BBB to support their inclusion is not explicitly defined. Therefore, it is paramount that these expanded early learning opportunities are directed to underserved children with delays and disabilities – particularly children of color – in school and community-based settings that best meet families’ and children’s needs. The anticipated funding increase in the FFY2022 budget will further support the delivery of early intervention, special education and related services to young children under IDEA Part C and IDEA Part B 619. Together, BBB and the IDEA funding proposed in FFY2022 can support the expansion of full inclusion across high quality ECE in all settings.

Despite best efforts, Local Education Agencies (LEAs) face barriers to providing inclusive community-based services outside of school district classrooms including limited guidance, budgetary constraints, and workforce shortages. LEA leaders have expressed the need for guidance and examples of effective service delivery and staffing models to support inclusive special education and related services to all children residing in their districts across ECE settings. Unfortunately, the children who are disproportionately impacted by this are young children from families with lower income, particularly families of color. This group of children are often forced to attend both their community-based program and a school-based program to receive special education services, resulting in multiple bus rides and transitions in a single day. Some families even forego critical special education services to avoid these transitions. Additionally, the workforce crisis that has plagued the early childhood field has led to a staff shortage, which is also acutely felt by the early childhood special education field. While BBB includes provisions to boost compensation for the ECE workforce, funding is also needed to attract and retain special educators. Coupling BBB and FFY2022 funding can support LEAs and their ECE partners as they create equitable systems to ensure programs have the financial resources, workforce capacity, and clear federal guidance needed to support equitable inclusion.

Given this, it is paramount that the U.S. Senate pass the Build Back Better Act in a timely manner while Congress approves the FFY2022 budget with the IDEA Part C and Part B 619 funding increases. Once passed, the federal government should provide clear guidance on how states and communities will ensure children receive special education and related services in all settings. And states, communities, and LEAs should plan how they will collaborate to equitably support young children with disabilities in early childhood settings expanded through new federal dollars. Here’s how:

• Clearly delineating in state plans the ways in which state and local policies and practices will operationalize equitable access and quality in ECE for young children with disabilities and developmental delays across settings. Specifically, plans should prioritize families with low incomes, dual language learners, and from other underserved populations as defined in BBB.
• Prioritizing inclusion in mixed delivery settings, including giving all educators access to resources on high-quality inclusion practices and giving LEAs clear guidance and sufficient funding to do so. This also includes professional development and systems of support for educators to reduce the suspension and expulsion of young children with disabilities and children of color.
• Providing equitable and accessible pathways to obtaining early childhood special education qualifications in order to strengthen the workforce; providing service scholarships and loan forgiveness programs for special education trainees to increase incentives to enter the profession; and most importantly, providing adequate compensation for the entire ECE workforce including special education teachers.
• Collecting and publicly reporting data on district- and program-level adherence to LRE across early childhood settings and disciplinary data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, family income level, gender, dual language learner status, and disability category under IDEA.

Young children with disabilities have always faced systemic barriers to the strong start they deserve. Now is the time for Congress, states, LEAs, and communities to each do their part and collaborate, so that young children with delays and disabilities can access the equitable and inclusive services and supports they need and deserve.

With contributions by Karen Berman, Katie Fisher and Amanda Schwartz

Start Early has been named the winner of a Gold Stevie® Award for Achievement in Benefits Design and Administration for its paid parental leave program. The Stevie Awards for Great Employers recognize the world’s best employers and the human resources professionals, teams, achievements and HR-related products and suppliers who help to create and drive great places to work.

The overwhelming benefits of paid leave compel Start Early to advocate for these policies nationally and inspired our organization’s leading paid leave policy. During a child’s first few weeks and months, a nurturing and supportive environment lays the foundation for their future success in school and life. Our paid parental leave program allows families to be together at this most critical time.

In 2019, the People & Culture team set a strategic goal to transform our leave program through improved employee benefits, explicitly enhancing our paid parental leave for the year 2020. Infancy is the most crucial period of brain development and it is vital that babies and their parents are supported during this time to promote bonding and healthy attachment. We knew it was time to up our game and we needed to create a parental leave package that matched our mission and supported families in the moments that matter most: the earliest years.

After a series of focus groups with former and expecting parents to discuss what was working and where we needed to improve, we rolled out our new policy in 2020, including:

• Increasing our parental leave by more than 50% (from 12 weeks to 6 months) for both moms and dads Introducing 100% paid leave, eliminating the need for employees to use their own vacation, sick or personal hours to receive full pay
• Expanding our paid leave eligibility to include adoption, surrogacy, or foster parenting
• Launching an integrated family benefits platform, Cleo, to help connect families with the support they need to be their best at home and at work
• Activating Bright Horizons, a benefit that assists employees returning from leave with finding childcare or back-up care, if needed.

Together, these award-winning benefits help our families start off on a strong path.

Start Early and other honorees were recognized during a virtual awards ceremony on November 17. Details about the Stevie Awards for Great Employers and the list of 2021 Stevie winners are available at www.StevieAwards.com/HR.

Trivia!

Which entity makes decisions about new construction and improvements of public buildings, including the Washington State Capitol Campus?

(I know this is a dry trivia question, but I promise the answer contains really cool and interesting information!)

Legislative Committee Days

This week, the Senate and House of Representatives met for virtual Committee Days where legislative committees received updates on items of interest in advance of the 2022 legislative session.

Two work sessions of note include the Monday Senate Ways and Means Committee and the Wednesday Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee.

Senate Ways and Means Committee. The Senate Ways and Means Committee received a number of updates. Of particular interest was the Office of Financial Management’s Assistant Director for Budget Nona Snell’s presentation on COVID-19 response funding.

In total, Washington state governments, businesses, nonprofits, and individual citizens received $87 billion (billion with a “b”) in COVID-19 relief funds. As a frame of reference, the state’s two-year biennial budget for 2021-23 totaled $59.1 billion.

State government received $14.1 billion from the six major federal stimulus packages. The state dedicated its funding to areas such as economic support, local government, public health, government operations, child care, medical, food assistance and long-term care.

Washington state received $4.4 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), one of the largest federal stimulus packages. The dollars were allocated as follows:

• 2021-23 Operating Budget: $1.7 billion (37%)
• Unappropriated (still available to spend): $1.3 billion (29%)
• 2021-23 Transportation Budget: $1 billion (23%)
• 2021-23 Capital Budget: $400 million (9%)
• 2021 Supplemental Operating Budget: $103 million (2%)

REMINDER: Start Early WA prepared a detailed analysis of how Washington state allocated federal COVID-19 funds toward early learning priorities.

Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee. Wednesday’s Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee focused on early learning issues and opened with an update on the implementation of the Fair Start for Kids Act from Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) Assistant Secretary of Early Learning Nicole Rose.

The linked PowerPoint contains a treasure trove of rich information and I will be hanging onto it for data points and summaries of key Fair Start Act components.

Following Rose’s presentation, Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal and Secretary of DCYF Ross Hunter opened the next panel focused on integrated pre-K. (Side note – I’ll also be keeping this PowerPoint as a reference – more good data). OSPI and DCYF discussed their efforts to integrate various pre-K options, noting that the passage of the federal Build Back Better Act would dramatically change the trajectory of this work.

Overall, the House work sessions focused less on issues related to early learning. However, the House Appropriations Committee received a fiscal outlook for 2022 during its Thursday afternoon meeting. The fiscal outlook document contains a great overview of the state budgeting process and factors impacting budget writers’ decision making.

Redistricting

For the first time since its authorization, the Washington State Redistricting Commission failed to adopt final Congressional and legislative maps to send to the Legislature prior to the midnight, Nov. 15 deadline. As a result, the drawing of maps goes to the Washington State Supreme Court who now have until April 30 to come to agreement on the final maps.

Redistricting is the process wherein Congressional and legislative district boundaries are reviewed and adjusted to reflect the latest census information. This year, release of the census data was delayed due to COVID-19. State legislatures in most states oversee redistricting, but Washington voters approved a state constitutional amendment in 1983 to assign that duty to a bi-partisan Redistricting Commission. The Commission is comprised of two Republican Commissioners, two Democratic Commissioners and one non-voting Chair. Due to COVID-19, this Commission has met virtually throughout its entire tenure.

Monday night’s virtual meeting had its share of drama with the commission members spending most of the evening in caucuses (the two Republican Commissioners meeting together and the two Democrats meeting together). There was an attempt at a vote before the midnight deadline, but they ran out of time. Because the meeting was on Zoom, it was unclear if a deal had been struck and if the Commission had met the deadline until the next morning when the Commission Chair issued a statement confirming the deadline had been missed.

Late Tuesday night, the Commission released its approved maps. The maps drill all the way down to specific neighborhoods. It is yet to be seen how closely the Supreme Court will follow these recommendations.

Crosscut’s Melissa Santos provided constant updates on Twitter throughout the evening and early morning hours to help the public understand what was happening. She is a trooper! She also produced an informative story the next day capturing all of the palace intrigue. @MelissaSantos1 on Twitter is my go-to for all Olympia information.

The entire redistricting process is fascinating (to me!). Look for more information in future newsletters.

State Revenue Update

The Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council will meet to receive the latest revenue report from the state’s Economist, Dr. Stephen Lerch at 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 19. This meeting will be televised on TVW.org.

This important revenue update will inform the Governor’s proposed 2022 Supplemental Budget which should be released mid-December.

Earlier this week, the Senate Ways and Means Committee received an update on the caseload forecast. This information also informs the state budget process because it identifies major cost drivers such as Medicaid caseload and K-12 enrollment.

The Caseload Forecast Council Executive Director Elaine Deschamps noted that the forecasting could be less accurate due to COVID-19, the impacts of passage of major legislation and recent court action.

For early learning, the forecast report showed a 7.4% decline from the June forecast for Working Connections Child Care (with the caseload projected to drop by 1,723 to 21,602 in Fiscal Year 2022) and a projected 16.3% decline from the June forecast for the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program – ECEAP – (down by 2,313 to 11,847).

For fiscal year 2023, the Working Connections Child Care caseload is projected to grow to 26,887 and ECEAP’s to 14,890.

Resources

Perigee Fund “Parent Voices Study.” This week, the Perigee Fund and the Ford Foundation released findings from a Parent Voices Study. The study focused on parents and providers in seven communities and sought feedback on their experiences participating in programs like home visiting and infant mental health as they shifted to technology-based services during the pandemic.

The study found that flexible options made possible by technology worked well for both families and providers with 67% of parents and 68% of providers saying they would like to continue some level of service remotely. Technology also helped with family and provider retention.

Check out this great study and share the findings with your networks.

Crosscut Child Care Piece. Joy Borkholder of Crosscut wrote a powerful piece “The Real Costs of Child Care” that ran on Nov. 9. The author did a great job outlining the fiscal challenges of child care – for families who pay a huge portion of their paychecks for child care as well as for providers who too often earn extremely low wages.

A Fresh Look at Supporting Your Team This Winter

This is a critical year as programs continue working to offset the effects of the pandemic on early learning. With research-based professional development from Start Early, we can help you get there faster.

During our recent webinar, we explore how Start Early Professional Development can help you navigate a return to live instruction amidst ongoing federal funding opportunities and overwhelmed leaders and teachers who have been working around the clock since the start of the pandemic to serve children and families.

Watch the recording below to learn how Start Early’s portfolio of professional learning opportunities and resources can help you and your team:

• Learn and deploy strategies for workforce retention,
• Support overwhelmed leaders and professionals,
• Discover solutions to under-enrollment and family engagement, and
• Effectively on-board new staff at any experience level

City of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2022 budget, which was approved by City Council last month, aims to take advantage of a “once in a lifetime opportunity to transform” the city.

One such transformative change to celebrate is the decision to invest $25 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to scale the Chicago Department of Public Health’s Family Connects Chicago, an in-home nurse service for families with newborns over the next three years. Family Connects offers a universal approach to supporting families directly following the birth of a child and demonstrates the critical importance of care during a child’s first few weeks of life.

Yet, other early childhood programs and services continue to be woefully underfunded, as reflected in the latest approved budget. Compounded with the reality that families with young children and the programs that provide them with essential services are recovering from the pandemic, the early learning field needs adequate support and investments now more than ever before. Given the circumstances, it would seem to follow that the city’s budget would reflect a greater investment this year in other early childhood services. Yet, the budget line that represents local funds committed to the Children Services Division within the Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) was level-funded with last year’s appropriation of approximately $13 million. To put that in perspective, the city allocated roughly the same amount of local funds for rodent control this year. Additionally, while the city’s early childhood programs will receive $6.5 million in ARPA funds, investments pale in comparison to the $213 million in ARPA funds that DFSS has allocated for serving older populations.

It is important to note that DFSS saw a budget reduction of roughly $100 million this year as a result of the federal government’s redistribution of Head Start funds. While those funds will now be received by other agencies who will continue Head Start services for children and families, the reduction for DFSS means a loss of funding for the citywide Chicago Early Learning infrastructure of supports – including the parent hotline, application and community outreach – which assists tens of thousands of families with accessing early childhood programs each year. It also means a loss of funds for the Chicago Early Learning Workforce Scholarship during an early childhood workforce crisis that predates but was greatly exacerbated by the pandemic. Despite the estimated need for 3,000 new early childhood educators across the city by 2024, this scholarship program is currently only able to serve around 130 new students each year, turning away over 500 others who apply due to lack of funds.

Despite the puzzling lack of investment of local and ARPA funds, the announcement last year of Every Child Ready Chicago, a public-private partnership led by the Mayor’s Office in partnership with Start Early suggests that this administration recognizes the need to improve the systems of care that support families in Chicago when their children are young. The initiative seeks to “build the early childhood systems infrastructure needed for thousands more children to enter kindergarten ready to learn.” The timing could not be better, with the state having announced in April their intent to establish early-childhood planning councils in communities across the state. The opportunity to align these initiatives – as well as the redistribution of Head Start funding in the city – creates an opportunity to bring more voices with broader representation and broader reach across communities in Chicago to the forefront of efforts to improve the system of supports that families can access in their children’s early years to ensure they enter kindergarten healthy and ready to learn. Perhaps the influence of a strong coalition focused on this goal will be what Chicago needs to ensure that the city budget reflects the appropriate dedication to children and families in 2023.