The Compass Newsletter

The Compass

Pointing the Way to the Stars

NC Department of Health and Human Services

Summer 2013

In This Issue

Early Education and Care MATTERS

Be On The Safe Side: Preventing Burns

Highlighting Healthy Early Care and Education

New Resources for Working with Families

Accreditation for Community College Early Childhood Programs

Parting Thoughts

Quick Links

Division of Child Development and Early Education website

What's New

NC Pre-K

SEEK

Contact DCDEE:

919.662.4499

800.859.0829

(in state only)

fax: 919.661.4845

webmasterdcd@dhhs.nc.gov

mailing address:

2201 Mail Service Center

Raleigh, NC 27699-2201

physical address:

319 Chapanoke Road

Raleigh, NC 27603

From the Director's Desk

Dear Early Education Partners,

Welcome to our Summer 2013 issue of The Compass. As the new director of the Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE), I'll start by introducing myself. My career in North Carolina state government began at the Division of Child Development nineteen years ago. My first responsibilities with the Division were to provide data and budgetary support for initiatives that were part of some of the first Smart Start activities. It has been exciting to be part of the DCDEE team as North Carolina's early care and education system has been built into the national leader that it is today. During my career at DCDEE I have served as the Division's Budget Officer, Chief of Administration and Division Director. Most recently I served in the role of Deputy Director in the DHHS Division of Budget and Analysis.

Since April I have been working to quickly get up to speed on the issues, challenges and opportunities that face the early care and education system in this state. DCDEE has some new responsibilities since I was last here - most notably, our oversight of NC Pre-K and Race to the Top activities. This agency has a significant impact on providing critical services to families and early education opportunities for children. It is an honor to be a part of that mission. Our partnerships with you inform our work and I look forward to hearing from you.

Meanwhile, I'd like to share a few updates on issues impacting DCDEE and many of you:

2013 Legislative Session

Nearing the end of the 2013 legislative session, we're waiting as the Conference Committee negotiates differences between the Senate and House budget proposals. The most significant issue impacting DCDEE in these budgets are the differences in proposed funding for NC Pre-K. The Senate version proposes realignment of NC Pre-K funding to support additional funding for subsidized child care slots. The House version proposes expansion of funding for NC Pre-K to support permanent funding for an additional 5,000 NC Pre-K slots.

Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Grant

The Governor's Office recently named Lucy Roberts as the new Project Director for the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RttT-ELC) grant and Director of the NC Early Childhood Advisory Council. The Governor's Office also designated DCDEE as the new administrative home for the overall $69.9M RttT-ELC grant, in addition to the various RttT-ELC funded projects that have been underway here at DCDEE since last year. We are very pleased to assume this role and to welcome new staff to the office. We are also pleased to continue to partner with the other participating agencies in the RttT-ELC grant, including the Division of Public Health, the North Carolina Partnership for Children, the Department of Public Instruction, and our contractors.

I hope you'll read through this issue of The Compass. Learn how children gain skills for life-long learning. Find critically important reminders in "Be On The Safe Side" to help keep children safe from choking, burns, drowning and hot cars. Read about a research study that gives family child care home providers keys to healthy eating and lifestyles, along with business tips. Learn how one of the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge projects helps licensed child care providers work effectively with families. Discover what our community college Early Childhood Programs are doing to provide excellent teacher preparation.

Are there topics you want to read about in this newsletter? Use our contact information to share your suggestions and concerns. We really look forward to hearing from you.

Early Education and Care MATTERS

We begin EVERY issue with this feature, because it can't be said enough:
early education and care truly matter - for children, for families, for communities and for the future prosperity of our society. What children learn in their early years
plays a critical role in their success throughout life.

In the last issue of The Compass we featured an article on executive function - the skills that let our minds manage multiple streams of information coming at one time. These skills help us focus on complicated problems, control impulses, set goals and work toward achieving them, and get along with others. The video below, from Harvard's Center on the Developing Child, explores and explains executive function:

InBrief: Executive Function:

Skills for Life and Learning

Be On The Safe Side

In every issue we bring you information to keep children safe. Last month we sent out a special bulletin on Preventing Choking in Young Children. Be sure to read this article again and review it for reminders about the causes of choking, how to prevent it and what to do if a child is choking.

This month we're emphasizing Burn Prevention. One type of burn is closely related to choking: children swallowing lithium button batteries, those coin-sized batteries found in so many household products. Watch the video below from The Battery Controlled campaign to understand how very common and real this danger is:

Protect Your Child From Swallowing Lithium Batteries The Battery Controlled

Read more about Preventing Burns. Children under 5 years old account for almost one in five burn cases in the United States. The causes range from scalding and contact burns to burns caused by fire, electrical sources, sunburn and lightning strikes, and swallowing lithium button batteries. This article tells you about each of these causes, how to respond to a burn and how to prevent burns in the first place.

Drowning alert: As caregivers and parents, we know to be watchful and cautious when children are swimming and playing in the water. What we might not know - but can save lives - is found in this article Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning. Read it to be reminded that children playing in the water make noise, and understand that "When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why."

The Danger of Hot Cars: We wish it wasn't necessary to remind anyone that leaving children alone in cars - even for the briefest time - is very dangerous. In the warm seasons, it's all the more important to review how quickly the temperature rises in a vehicle, and how quickly children can overheat and die. Read this flyer with important reminders about the Never Leave Your Child Alone Campaign.

Here are some other excellent resources for child safety: Safe Kids North Carolina and Keeping Our Kids Safe.

Highlighting Healthy Early Care and Education

child playing in sprinkler We hear plenty about this problem - the high rate of obesity in children and the health risks that go with it. It's always good news when there are new programs and efforts to improve children's health. Here's a new opportunity for family child care home providers in select North Carolina Counties.

Keys to Healthy Family Child Care Homes

is being offered as part of a research study by UNC and Duke University. The study targets counties with high prevalence child obesity. It will provide family child care homes with:

*tips to support and grow a strong business,

*habits for a healthy lifestyle, and

*ideas to encourage healthy eating and physical activity in children.

Learn more about the benefits, incentives and training credit from the Keys to Healthy Family Child Care Homes website and this flyer.

New Resources for Working with Families

In December 2011, North Carolina was the top state awarded a Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge grant of almost $70 million. Now exciting projects are underway to raise the quality and opportunities in our state's early education and care programs. The NC TQRIS Family Engagement Standards project is one of these.

Through this project, licensed childcare providers across North Carolina have been receiving training on effective strategies for working with families. This free training has been offered by Head Start programs since the fall of 2012.

Read Child Care Providers Receive Family Engagement Training to learn about the
project and how to access the training.

Accreditation - Community College Early Childhood Programs

If you work in early care and education in North Carolina, you know that you're encouraged to keep learning and meeting higher standards in your professional practice. Did you know that the community college programs where you may get your education are also challenged to meet higher standards? Many of them have accepted the challenge to earn NAEYC Early Childhood Associate Degree Accreditation (ECADA). The mission of this accreditation system is "to set a standard of excellence for associate degree early childhood programs and to recognize programs that have demonstrated to a peer review board that they meet this standard . . ." When programs that prepare teachers take this step and earn accreditation, the results benefit the early childhood profession, young children, families, and communities. Learn more here.

North Carolina was one of six states selected to pilot the accreditation system in 2004. The next year Sandhills Community College was the first in the nation to finish their Self-Study Report. We had 8 of the first 17 community college programs in the country to be accredited. Today we lead all states in the number of accredited programs (25 programs at 24 colleges, out of 186 programs at 150 colleges across the U.S.). We also lead in the number of re-accredited programs, with 3 of the first 4 renewals in the system's seven-year history.

In recent years, funding through competitive grants has helped additional programs in North Carolina to become accredited. In 2013, four colleges were added to the list of new accreditations, in addition to the three re-accreditations. The full list of accredited programs in NC's community colleges indicates the original eight accreditations as well as the most recent.

Parting Thoughts

Each of us must come to care about everyone else's children. We must recognize that the welfare of our children and grandchildren is intimately linked to the welfare of all other people's children. After all, when one of our children needs lifesaving surgery, someone else's child will perform it. If one of our children is threatened or harmed by violence, someone else's child will be responsible for the violent act. The good life for our own children can be secured only if a good life is also secured for all other people's children.

~ Author unknown