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GREETINGS!
Whether you have been a sub-
scriber from the beginning, or
are receiving this newsletter for
the first time, we are happy to
have you as our reader. |
JUNE 2013 |
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The President's Proposed Budget
Supporting High-Quality Early Learning
The President is proposing a ground-breaking plan to
support high-quality early learning opportunities for children birth to age five. Many of the initiatives of the Early Childhood Advisory Council are mirrored in the direction taken by the federal government. The President's FY 2014 budget calls for significant new investments to expand access to, and improve the quality of, child care and early education programs that help children enter school ready to succeed. The plan involves a multi-pronged approach that includes a new initiative to make high quality preschool available to all four-year-olds in low- and moderate-income families; new partnerships between Early Head Start and child care providers to provide high-quality, full-day/full-year srvices for infant and toddlers; voluntary home visiting to support vulnerable families; and increased funding for child care.
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School Age Child Care Standards
Online Survey
The Early Childhood Advisory Council's quality rating and improvement system, QUALITYstarsNY, has posted draft standards applicable to school age child care programs. As with the quality standards for all types of early care and learning programs (center-based, family-based and school-based), they are organized in four categories: Learning Environment, Family Engagement, Qualifications and Experience, and Management and Leadership. To offer your feedback, please complete the online survey. Click here |
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Member Corner
 Congratulations to Sherry Cleary, co-chair of the NYS Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC), Mary Louise Musler, member of the ECAC Work Force Development Work Group, and Joyce Guimaraes, Quality Improvement Specialist with QUALITYstarsNY, who received the Champions for Children award at the NYSAEYC 11th annual conference dinner. This honor is given to those who promote excellence in early care and education services for NYS children and families through education, advocacy and the support of the profession. Also honored at the dinner was Susan Antos from the Empire Justice Center.Photographed from left to right: Sherry Cleary, Joyce Guimaraes, Susan Antos, and Mary Louise Musler.
Congratulations to the honorees! |
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ECAC Partners with and Supports
NYSPEP and Community Cafes
NYSPEP
The goal of the ECAC Strong Families Work Group is that "all families of young children are supported in their parenting and have the knowledge, skills, confidence, and resources they need to raise their children in healthy and nurturing ennvironments." Since a primary focus of the ECAC is supporting the development of strong families, it's easy to partner with New York State Parenting Education Partnership (NYSPEP) and their work to strengthen families and expand parenting education.
Community Cafes
In addition, the ECAC supports Community Cafes as another way to promote family engagement, leadership, building community capacity to meet families' needs and strengthening New York families. Community Cafés are a series of guided conversations facilitated by parent leaders. During a Café, participants use carefully structured questions to create conversations, allowing individuals from diverse cultural, socio-economic, and educational backgrounds to engage in meaningful discussions that increase community wisdom, build parent voice, and facilitate action to improve the lives of children.
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"What's Great in Our State"
Children's Mental Health Awareness Week
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo proclaimed the first week of May, 2013 Children's Mental Health Awareness Week. The New York State Early Childhood Advisory Council co-sponsored a celebration on Tuesday, May 7th where mental health advocates, educators, school administrators, state agency leaders and parents of children living with a mental illness gathered to recognize individuals and programs that are successfully addressing issues of children's mental health, including prevention, early identification, outreach, family education, and mental health awareness in a variety of settings on behalf of children and their families. This is a project of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to focus the nation's attention on the importance of children's positive mental health. To that end, SAMHSA is encouraging communities and states to create their own celebrations.
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Early Childhood Research News:
ParentCorps
The Early Childhood Advisory Council has been working with Dr. Laurie Brotman on connecting programs implementing QUALITYstarsNY to ParentCorps.
ParentCorps is an innovative project developed by Dr. Brotman and her colleagues at the Child Study Center at New York University. Parent Corps supports parents and pre-kindergarten teachers to prepare children for success in school. Recent research has found that children who participated in ParentCorps had significantly higher kindergarten achievement test scores for reading, writing and math compared to children receiving education as usual, and more positive trajectories of academic performance from pre-kindergarten through kindergarten. Together with previously-reported program effects on obesity and behavior at school, findings indicate that ParentCorps has the potential to meaningfully improve children's lives.
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Thank you for your interest in the Early Childhood Advisory Council. We would welcome your thoughts and questions. Please contact me at: ecac@ccf.ny.gov.
Sincerely, |
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Stephanie Woodard
Project Manager
NYS Early Childhood Advisory Council
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