Recent State Policy Advances
Expanded investment. Restructured agencies. New caucuses, committees, and coalitions. Read about all the ways our allies on the front lines are making their state a better place for each and every child to reach their full potential.
State By State:
Nebraska Policymakers Again Recognize Importance of Children’s Earliest Years
Balancing a wide variety of public interests and with great bipartisan support, the Nebraska Legislature again recognized the critical importance of children’s early years prior to adjourning Sine Die on May 29. Of preeminent importance to First Five Nebraska is public policy that recognizes the development of the brain in the early years literally shapes the learning capacity for the rest of a child’s life. We know that by the time children arrive at their first day of kindergarten, the nature and quality of their earliest learning experiences have already done much to determine their degree of linguistic competence, ability to interact with others and healthy curiosity about the world around them. Here’s a look at First Five Nebraska’s highest priority bills from the 2015 legislative session. LB547 uses child care providers to close the achievement gap in the early years by allowing them to partner with school districts to receive Sixpence Early Learning Fund grants. Sixpence grants are a new funding source for child care providers, who are supported and rewarded for improving the quality of environments they offer children in their care by participating in Nebraska’s Step Up to Quality accountability system. LB547 passed with strong support from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Nebraska Early Childhood Business Roundtable, and other partners committed to building Nebraska’s future workforce and ensuring the strongest return on public investments. LB656, the state’s mainline budget bill, includes stable funding for high-quality early childhood investments in the Sixpence Early Learning Fund and the Nebraska Department of Education preschool grant program. Previously, $1 million in funding for the Sixpence Early Learning Fund and $1.95 million in funding for the NDE preschool grant program was scheduled to sunset July 1, 2016. Those amounts will now be funded annually by state general funds, rather than with lottery appropriations that would have expired again in five years. LB525 clarifies that all early childhood providers can participate in the Nebraska Early Childhood Professional Record System, and makes it easier for school districts serving large concentrations of children in poverty to receive education aid for students served in early childhood education programs. LB81 eliminates the child care cliff effect by allowing families who receive child care assistance to move up in the workplace through small pay increases and promotions without losing their ability to afford child care. It allows families a 24-month window to accept small pay raises while working their way off assistance. Other early childhood-related bills will be addressed when the second session of the biennium Legislature convenes next year, including: LB322, which increases the amount of child care and dependent care tax credits for low income families, allowing parents greater opportunity to choose quality child care settings that provide stimulating experiences for their young learners. LB443, which redefines ‘support services’ to include mental health services offered either at school or elsewhere, helping children succeed in school by addressing certain challenging behaviors and ensuring positive behavioral support. LB557, the Nebraska Clean Indoor Air Act in Child Care, which broadens the definition of ‘place of employment’ to include private residences if the residence is licensed to provide child care, and motor vehicles used to transport children for a licensed day care provider. LB645, which creates a nonrefundable tax credit for contributions to a nationally licensed organization that provides early childhood education and retention incentives for early childhood professionals. Please visit our website’s Legislation page for a comprehensive list of all early childhood bills introduced this year. Jen GoettemoellerSenior Policy AssociateFirst Five Nebraska(July 15, 2015)
Oregon’s young children won a major victory last week
On the last day of the 2015 Oregon legislative session, the Oregon Senate approved a bill that will make high-quality preschool available for more children from low-income families in the state. That vote marked the final approval of the Children’s Institute’s entire legislative agenda for improving early learning in Oregon. The Legislature’s approval of the preschool legislation will give 1,350 more Oregon 3- and 4-year-olds the opportunity to access the quality preschools that can get them ready for kindergarten and for long-lasting school success. The new legislation, supported by the Children’s Institute and a broad coalition of more than 30 Oregon organizations, will provide a blueprint that allows for a mix of providers – school districts, Head Start programs and community preschools – to receive state funding to offer high-quality preschool programs. Both houses of the Legislature this session also approved two other important initiatives that the Children’s Institute and a coalition of groups supported: an expansion of home visiting services for at-risk families and expansion of the Kindergarten Partnership and Innovation Fund, which provides grants that connect early learning to the early grades. All of the legislation now moves on to Gov. Kate Brown – a staunch supporter for early learning investments in Oregon – for her signature. “We know investments early in children’s lives continue to pay dividends for them and their families as they grow,” Brown said. “Oregon’s future is brighter when all Oregon families thrive.” The Legislature made a number of important investments in early learning during the session. Here’s a summary of the new investments: a $27 million investment that will make high-quality preschool available for more children from low-income families in the state. The investment means 1,350 more Oregon 3- and 4-year-olds will be able to access quality preschools that can get them ready for kindergarten and long-term school success. $47.3 million to expand access to subsidized child care and support improved quality $4 million for the state’s early intervention/early childhood special education program $9.5 investment to expand voluntary home visiting services for families, to ensure more at-risk infants and toddlers receive support during their critical early years of brain development. $5 million additional investment to expand a fund that provides grants that connect early learning to the early grades. The grants are focused on important early learning strategies like family engagement and kindergarten transition programs. $10.3 million above the 2013-2015 appropriation for the state’s Early Learning Hubs $1.7 million for a school attendance pilot project to work with schools serving large populations of Native American students in order to decrease chronic absenteeism $3 million to develop an education plan for children of color who are economically disadvantaged and experience a significant achievement gap $1.2 million for Relief Nurseries in the state Additional dollars to support the roll-out of full-day kindergarten across the state Swati Adarkar, President and CEO of the Children’s Institute, credited the success of the early learning initiatives in large part to the commitment and passion of many Oregon state leaders, including Gov. Brown, Rep. Betty Komp, the primary sponsor of the preschool bill, Sen. Rod Monroe, a stalwart supporter of early learning, Rep. Tina Kotek, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Sen. Richard Devlin and Rep. Peter Buckley, co-chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Ways and Means Committee. She also credited the success to the coalition of business, children and family advocacy groups that were steadfast in their commitment to improving the lives of Oregon’s youngest learners. “Oregon really took a step forward this legislative session to expand early learning opportunities for children in our state,” she said. “That step forward happened because of the vision of our state leaders, and the passionate advocacy of a large group of Oregonians who know that investing in early learning changes lives and futures.” Todd MurphyDirector of CommunicationsChildren’s Institute(July 12, 2015) A version of this blog appeared on the Children’s Institute’s website on July 6.
Celebrating Increases in Early Childhood Investments in Michigan
Things are looking brighter for early childhood investments in Michigan in FY2016. Early in June, the Michigan state legislature passed–and Governor Snyder signed into law–the FY16 budget. Despite budget pressures created by the failure of Proposal 1 – a ballot initiative to support a new road tax in early May – lawmakers and the governor affirmed their commitment to wise early childhood investments in a number of ways. Specifically, the FY16 budget: Allows more low-income families to keep the child care subsidy when their income increases, so that higher salaries do not create a barrier to accessing the child care they need; Increases payments for child care subsidies to those providers delivery higher quality care; Provides for hiring additional child care consultants to monitor and license child care facilities (The Legislature went even further than the governor’s recommended increase for these consultants); Implements a parent education pilot for families and children under age 4; Expands home visiting programs to at-risk families to encourage early literacy activities; and Continues funding for the kindergarten entry assessment, which would otherwise have sunseted. The legislature fully supported Gov. Snyder’s commitment to improving third-grade reading proficiency through these and other early literacy initiatives for children in kindergarten through third grade. The governor’s Third Grade Reading Workgroup recently released its report which largely focuses on K-3, but has one strategy dedicated to Early Childhood (#3). It also endorses home visiting and other early interventions to strengthen parent-child relationships. The early literacy initiative represents $31.5 million (mostly from the School Aid Fund) in new investments. The child care initiatives add another $13.7 million (all federal money). These investments cover children from birth to age 5 and into grades K-3. Please see our earlier analysis of early childhood proposals here: http://bridgemi.com/2015/03/putting-a-value-on-young-minds/ . Peter Pratt, PresidentPublic Sector Consultants John Bebow, President and CEOCenter for Michigan(July 6, 2015)
A Much Needed Conversation about Child Care
Last week, Michigan’s Children partnered with the Early Childhood Investment Corporation and several other state advocacy partners to organize opportunities to strategize action around some very important services that touch the lives of families with babies and toddlers. With national assistance from Zero to the Three, The Ounce of Prevention Fund, and the IDEA Infant Toddler Coordinators Association (IDEA ITCA), the sessions focused on the current landscape of the home visiting, child care, and Early Onsystems in Michigan, and engaged attendees in identifying necessary steps toward improvement. Today, I’m going to talk a bit more about the session focusing on child care and some of what that means for Michigan’s Children’s work in the coming months. First and foremost, a state-level conversation about how to improve the child care system in Michigan hadn’t taken place in years, which is evidenced by the significant challenges faced by that system; and participants, including Michigan’s Children, have felt that the discussion was long overdue. A significant part of the conversation included reframing child care from a welfare and low-wage workforce support to an early education priority. The Governor’s third grade reading proposal included child care improvements, reflecting this shift within the administration that many view as a victory for child care, but the connections are not often recognized by other policymakers. At Michigan’s Children we believe that child care is an essential part of two-generation strategies to help children thrive while their parents can get ahead in life; and that talking about child care from an education perspective – knowing that decades of research tells us that children’s success is strongly connected to their parents’ success – is critical. To take it one step further, this also means that we need to be supporting parents’ education. This means allowing parents to access child care assistance while in adult education programs (think, family literacy), as well as allowing adult education to be an allowable activity for families to receive cash assistance. But I digress. Another key piece of any discussion to improve child care in Michigan is the need to restructure the child care subsidy system to better match market demands. This would mean a shift from the current hourly reimbursement rates, which have not enabled consistent care, to part-time or full-time payment rates. If we want to get serious about child care being an education program, then we must support what research consistently shows us impacts child outcomes in child care – quality interactions between the teacher and child which is dependent on continuous, consistent, quality care. This type of care is not sustainable with an hourly payment structure – we can’t keep paying child care subsidies like we would a babysitter, but rather pay for it the same way we pay for preschool and k-12 education. Fortunately, the Governor’s FY2016 budget includes some improvements to the child care system that will support what the research shows us. And fortunately three of the four recommendations were already approved by the Legislature via supplemental budget to begin implementation in the current fiscal year. His proposals include: Funding to allow families to access 12-months of continuous child care subsidy that supports the research showing that consistent care matters for children and families and essential for child care providers trying to maintain their businesses. Additional tiered reimbursement acknowledging that higher quality child care is more costly. Allowing families to maintain their subsidies as they begin to earn a little bit more money to not have to suddenly shoulder expensive child care costs on their path to economic stability. Funding to hire additional licensing consultants to ensure that child care programs are maintaining basic health and safety standards. This is the only recommendation that was not included in the supplemental and must be included in the FY2016 budget. To learn more about the Governor’s budget recommendations including the third grade reading details and child care, read our Budget Basics. And stay tuned for a future blog on the Early On session. -Mina HongSenior Policy Associate, Michigan’s Children (April 7, 2015) This blog was originally posted on the Michigan’s Children website.
