The Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) is excited to ring in the new year. OCDEL anticipates 2023 will be a busy year, with plenty of new challenges and opportunities to support early childhood education professionals.

On Jan. 17, 2023, OCDEL welcomes a new administration and looks forward to Governor-elect Josh Shapiro’s leadership for the next four years.

The Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) received a three year Preschool Development Birth Through Five Renewal Grant (PDG-R) to build upon the initial grant which ended in 2020.

 

OCDEL is the primary recipient of the $16 million renewal grant in direct partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

 

OCDEL will utilize PDG-R funds to conduct an updated needs assessment, create marketing materials in other languages to support compulsory school attendance, provide additional early childhood mental health supports for both families and staff, enhance the PD Registry, expand the coaching model for early childhood education staff, provide training and resources to support families and children experiencing homelessness, and mini-grants to early learning providers to help expand facilities in child care deserts and obtain supports for challenging behaviors.

 

OCDEL will share additional information about PDG-R grant plans as they become available.

The Early Learning Resource Center Request for Applications is now open on Pennsylvania’s eMarketplace. Information can be found here: PA - eMarketplace (state.pa.us)

The Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning, Bureau of Certification has released the updated 2023 Orientation Training Schedule for Prospective Operators of Child Care Facilities. The 2023 Orientation schedules are available for Central, Northeast, Southeast and Western regions of Pennsylvania. All orientation sessions are available virtually only.

Those interested in participating must first complete within one year from the orientation, the Better Kid Care Department of Human Services' training. For full details, please see the individual regional information.

FY 2022-2023 is the last program year for the current five-year grant cycle of the Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts (PA PKC) program. In the Spring of 2023, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) will announce a full, competitive rebid. During the rebid, all eligible providers interested in receiving a grant must apply. It is important during the application process that eligible applicants fully understand the program regulations and expectations so that informed decisions can be made regarding whether to apply.

Opportunities for regional networking have been scheduled and are a means to coordinate and collaborate on required Requests for Application (RFA) items, such as community needs assessments and partnerships, which will be highly prioritized during the RFA process. Participation in at least one regional meeting is highly encouraged for any eligible applicant applying for a grant. Get info on the Regional Meetings and how to attend.

There is still a remaining opportunity to participate in an informational webinar to learn about the Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts (PA PKC) program. Register now for the remaining webinar: Fiscal Responsibilities: 1/12, 12-1 PM.

If you're an Early Childhood Education program (including afterschool, Early Intervention, evidence-based Home Visiting), an organization which support Pennsylvania’s Early Childhood Education programs, or an individual who has demonstrated support to children and their families through: embracing diversity and full inclusion as strengths, upholding fundamental principles of fairness and justice, and/or working to eliminate structural inequities that limit equitable learning opportunities, then apply for the 2023 Pennsylvania Equity in Early Childhood Education Champion Awards.

Submissions can be an application (apply on your own or a program/organization’s behalf), or nomination (submit another individual or program/organization) to be acknowledged for their work around equity. Self-applications are accepted. Applications should be submitted electronically by the Feb. 1, 2023, deadline. Visit the Pennsylvania Key website for more information and how to apply.

Don’t forget to join the PA Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) and Early Intervention Technical Assistance (EITA) in February and March for a series of webinars on language and literacy development. These webinars will provide a multitude of strategies and resources that can be used in the home or in the classroom. These one hour webinars will be offered for FREE from 1pm to 2pm on the dates listed below:

PQAS credit hours, Infant Toddler hours, and ACT48 hours available for these webinars. Get additional information on topics, credits, and registration. 

2023

Did you know the Early Learning Dashboards on the Department of Human Services website offer a variety of data and information? Anyone can use the dashboards to learn more about the different Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) programs.

Learn how to use the Dashboards and view aggregate numbers for various OCDEL programs by user-selected geographic areas and other user-selected filter criteria via the PA Early Learning Dashboards System Tour.  

Now’s the time to enroll in high-quality medical and dental coverage! The deadline for coverage starting February 1 is Jan. 15, 2023. Pennie is the official online marketplace made possible by the State of Pennsylvania and the top private insurance companies to provide affordable, high quality health insurance plans to Pennsylvanians. Pennie provides step-by-step help to get you the high-quality medical and dental coverage that is right for you.

Pennie is the only place that provides financial savings to help lower your monthly premium and possibly out-of-pocket costs for Pennsylvanians. Thanks to updated federal laws, health coverage has never been more affordable. If you qualify for financial savings, Pennie can help lower your monthly premium and/or out-of-pocket costs. Learn more about Pennie and how you can apply by the Jan. 15, 2023, deadline.

iLookOut’s interactive, online training is now available in Spanish for all mandated reporters in Pennsylvania. This evidence-based training meets Pennsylvania’s Act 31 requirements, can be completed over multiple sessions, and is free of charge. iLookOut uses a story-based approach for preparing mandated reporters to identify and help protect children who may be experiencing abuse, and was developed under the aegis of Penn State’s Center for the Protection of Children. To access it in Spanish, toggle the language from English to Español once on the website.

Understanding the housing experiences of young children and their families is essential to assessing and addressing their health, behavioral health, and safety needs. Learn how to identify and enhance housing-related protective factors to support child development and family stability. This Jan. 18, 2023, webinar from the Office of Head Start National Center will review the ways that housing is used to determine eligibility for benefits and services. It will also introduce participants to the interactive learning series, Supporting Children and Families Experiencing Homelessness, which addresses how to identify families experiencing homelessness and much more. This webinar is being offered with simultaneous interpretation in Spanish.

The National Center for Training and Technical Assistance on Child, Youth, and Family Mental Health (NTTAC) accepting proposals through Jan. 24, 2023, for live and pre-recorded virtual sessions to be held on May 10-11, 2023. Proposals are welcomed from those with experience in:

Get more information at the NTTAC website.

Pennsylvania earned a C grade for preterm birth with 9.8% preterm birth rate, according to the 2022 March of Dimes Report Card, which highlights the latest key indicators to describe and improve maternal and infant health. The report provides updated measures on preterm birth, infant mortality, low-risk Cesarean births and inadequate prenatal care. There is a critical connection between infant health, maternal health and the health of a family. All are dependent on their lived social context, the quality and accessibility of healthcare and the policies within a state. Each factor can provide insight into how a state serves its population, among other factors.

In Pennsylvania, evidence-based Nurse Family Partnership, Early Head Start, Family Check-Up, Healthy Families America, and Parents as Teachers provide voluntary, family-focused services for pregnant & parenting families with new babies and young children.

Child Trends’ new brief, Reducing Child Poverty for Our Youngest Children Requires That We Consider Their Unique Needs—which complements the recent report, Lessons From a Historic Decline in Child Poverty—discusses how policymakers and practitioners can support young children living in poverty when designing and implementing anti-poverty efforts. The authors outline several issues facing young children in poverty, two of which are access to high-quality early care and education, and the need for additional investments in supporting the early childhood workforce, and recommend four ways to address them.

Researchers examined how racism negatively impacts the wellbeing and developmental outcomes of Black children and children from other racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) communities, and highlighted policy options that could help mitigate those effects in a recently published paper, Effects of Racism on Child Development: Advancing Antiracist Developmental Science. The researchers noted disparities in several areas, including early childhood education, affordable housing, and health care. Policies that address economic security and mobility, safe and affordable housing, prenatal care and child health, and access to early intervention and quality education can mitigate the effects of racism.

The combination of transition activities provided to children and families predicted children’s initial levels of school adjustment and parental involvement in kindergarten--children and families who experienced a greater variety of transition activities showed better outcomes in these areas was a finding in a recent brief, Studying Combinations of Kindergarten Transition Activities Available to Children and Families. The brief, developed by NORC, the National P-3 Center, Child Trends, and Dr. Kyle DeMeo Cook for the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation also highlighted that Head Start children and lower-income children who did not attend Head Start reported fewer types of transition activities than other children. Specifically, they were less likely than other children to visit the kindergarten classroom ahead of enrollment, to have parents attend an orientation, and to receive information about kindergarten programs.

Children from low-income households who received high-quality early childhood education starting at 19 months old or younger showed early academic gains and maintained them through third grade, according to a recent research release, Kindergarten through Grade 3 Outcomes Associated with Participation in High-Quality Early Care and Education: A RCT Follow-Up Study. Participants were randomly assigned to participate in Tulsa Educare, an enhanced Early Head Start/Head Start program, or a control group. The treatment group demonstrated higher skills than the control group in letter and word identification, vocabulary, oral comprehension, and math, after controlling for child/family characteristics and classroom quality, according to researchers. The treatment group’s growth did not slow or fade from kindergarten through third grade, and rates of growth between the two groups did not significantly differ.

Several transition to Kindergarten supports and resources are available for Pennsylvania families and early childhood educators.

School staff can get information about the Kindergarten Entry Inventory, a reliable reporting tool available at no cost to schools which offers teachers an instructional strategy for understanding and tracking students' proficiency across both cognitive and non-cognitive domains at kindergarten entry.

The Office of Child Care’s (OCC) National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance launched an updated Provider Cost of Quality Calculator (PCQC).The updated PCQC features the following improvements:

The PCQC helps users estimate the annual costs and revenue of operating a child care center or an FCC home-based program at different quality levels. This information can help owners and operators better understand the factors that influence costs and revenue. It also can aid child care administrators and the early care and education policy community in designing financial supports. Check out the updated PCQC updated PCQC and new resources on the PCQC landing page.

The Office of Head Start has several resources to promote the wellbeing of the ECE workforce. These resources help in developing a culture of wellness for ECE staff by focusing on overall organizational wellness.

The USDA Farm to School Program’s Procuring Local Foods webpage is the best place to find resources related to finding, buying, and serving local foods in the USDA Child Nutrition Programs. The featured resource is the Procuring Local Foods for the Child Nutrition Programs Guide, which is a comprehensive resource for all things local procurement. Find links to procurement related fact sheets, policy memos, and regulations on the webpage.

From KidsGardening is the Seeds of Success Toolkit which compiles a wealth of knowledge from school gardeners across the country to provide the necessary resources to initiate and sustain a successful school food garden. In the Toolkit, find answers to the who, what, where, why, when, and how behind developing a youth garden program to feel confident in planning and implementation.

The December resources from Camille Catlett are now available. The December 2022 edition of Baby Talk includes information about Encouraging Independent Play, Building a Child’s Vocabulary, and more. The December 2022 release of Natural Resources contains information about family storytelling, using family stories to promote literacy and cultural awareness, and more.