The Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) has been working to update the Provisional Hire interpretation for the field. On Friday, May 27, 2022, OCDEL received and released updated information regarding the Provisional Hiring Practices Pertaining to Act 12 of 2022. Learn more.

The Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) has released two documents to support the efforts of Pennsylvania early childhood program leaders to eliminate suspension and expulsion for young children. Within the document, Preventing Suspension & Expulsion in Pennsylvania Early Childhood Programs, An Early Childhood Program Leader’s Guide, find resources addressing program policies, procedures, and practices that promote the positive social emotional development of young children, and create a climate of support for early childhood personnel and stronger partnerships with families. The document, Behavioral Help for Early Childhood Programs in Pennsylvania to Prevent Suspension & Expulsion, provides definitions and program descriptions, as well as information for families and more. Learn more.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has issued a call for submissions to showcase promising practices in the educational ecosystem as part of the PDE: Building Equity-Inclusion-Belonging (EIB) in the Neighborhood Roadmap. The Roadmap will have a tentative launch in August 2022 and will feature guidance to the educational ecosystem around EIB. The promising practices are being called EIB Building Blocks and offer the opportunity to highlight practices across libraries, postsecondary/higher education, K-12, early learning, community organizations, and collaborating entities. Early childhood education programs are encouraged to submit a practice! The goal is to display how equity, inclusion and belonging exists in multiple demographics, learner groups and throughout communities. Submissions are accepted through June 3, 2022. Learn more.

The Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) is offering Work Force Support Grants to Department of Human Services’ (DHS) certified child care providers through the Early Learning Resource Centers (ELRC). The Work Force Support Grants focus on supporting child care staff that have continued to provide services to children throughout the pandemic, and also supports providers with expenses related to staff recruitment and retention costs. June 17, 2022, is the deadline for submitting applications. Visit the Pennsylvania Key website for additional details, including eligibility, and application guidelines.

ECE Professionals interested in attending college for the Fall semester that begins this August should apply to T.E.A.C.H. now! T.E.A.C.H. applications must be complete and submitted with all required documentation/information by Friday, July 8, 2022, to be considered for the Fall 2022 semester. PACCA will continue to accept applications on an ongoing basis, however incomplete applications and applications received after this date will not receive priority for consideration. NOTE: New scholarship awards for the Fall 2022 semester will be dependent upon funding availability at that time. 

Click here to for details on eligibility, program requirements and to download a scholarship application. Click here to contact a T.E.A.C.H. Counselor with your questions. 

The Pennsylvania Key is hiring for the full-time position of Preschool Program Specialist. This position will serve the Southeast counties of Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, and Philadelphia. This position provides support and monitor the preschool sites to help meet the high-quality standards established by the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL). Learn more and apply now.

Social Emotional Learning is June's topic for the Let’s Talk Quality Series which includes three-monthly activities – Let’s Talk Quality Blog, Let’s Talk Quality Webinar, and the Let’s Talk Quality Spotlight. Each month the PQA team publishes a blog article, creates a webinar, and offers a spotlight session--all that focus on a monthly topic.

Check out the Let's Talk Quality Blog, for the blog post related to this month’s topic. While there, check out all the other great blog posts! 

On May 27, 2022, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) release updated information on Operational Guidance for K-12 Schools and Early Care and Education Programs to Support Safe In-Person Learning. The guidance contains information on Strategies for Everyday Operations, COVID-19 Community Levels and Associated Prevention Strategies, and Considerations for Prioritizing Strategies. This guidance can help K-12 school and ECE program administrators support safe, in-person learning for K-12 schools, and keep ECE programs open, while managing the spread of COVID-19. Based on the COVID-19 Community Levels, this guidance provides flexibility so schools and ECE programs can adapt to changing local situations, including periods of increased community health impacts from COVID-19. Also available is the updated (as of May 20, 2022) quick guide, Isolation and Quarantine in Early Care and Education (ECE) Programs.

The Department of Education (Department) is issuing a notice inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year (FY) 2022 for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) Program. CCAMPIS promotes student access to educational resources and opportunities and seeks to increase postsecondary access, completion, and enrollment success. The program supports 4-year grants to institutions of higher education to increase the participation of low-income parents in postsecondary education, through the provision of campus-based child care services.

The Department is particularly interested in applications focused on supporting single parents; providing wrap-around services to low-income student parents; and increasing child care access to student parents with infants and toddlers, including by making efforts to address workforce shortages. Please see the flyer and visit the Federal Register for full competition details. Application deadline is July 11, 2022.

Proposals are now being accepted for presentations that address important issues facing Pennsylvania’s early childhood education programs and professionals and align with the 2022 theme, Thriving Together Through These Times. Deadline for submission is June 10, 2022. Click here to submit a proposal.

The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) season has been extended once more for the 2021-2022 season. Department of Human Services (DHS) Acting Secretary Meg Snead urges Pennsylvanians who are behind on or having trouble paying home heating bills to apply for assistance through the LIHEAP program to apply for LIHEAP Cash and LIHEAP Crisis benefits ahead of the new deadline. The new deadline to apply is June 17, 2022. Share with families this application link.

The income limit for the program is 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Limit for a household of four. This would be $39,750 gross income per year. Pennsylvanians do not need to know their own eligibility in order to apply for these programs. Those who applied and were denied previously but have experienced a change in circumstances can reapply. 

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added a new interactive tool to its COVID-19 web resources for the public, to help users identify whether they (or someone else) need to receive a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine. The COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters tool asks a series of simple questions about age, immunocompromise, number and type of previous doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and how long ago they received the most recent vaccination. From these answers, the tool reports whether a first or second booster dose may be beneficial and presents considerations for when to receive it. 

Health equity is the attainment of the highest level of health for all people. Studies in Pennsylvania have shown that there is more than ten percent difference in access to well child visits between black infants and white infants. Furthermore, the life expectancy of a baby born in Pennsylvania is strongly tied to zip code. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) in collaboration with the Department of Health (DOH) has launched the PA Health Equity Analysis Tool (HEAT). The PA HEAT is intended to provide a granular geographic perspective of areas that have significant opportunities to improve equity.

In Pennsylvania, 61% of young children under age 6 live at more than 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, according to The National Center for Children in Poverty's recently updated Early Childhood Two-Generation State Policy Profiles. The profiles provide national and state-by-state information about policies affecting children birth through age 8 in the areas of health, early care and education, and parenting/family economic support.

A two-generation framework for policy design reflects extensive research that identifies the critical supports young children need over time to thrive. Most two-generation supports for young children and families are created through the collective impact of multiple policies.

Child Care Aware of American has released a new 15-page resource, Financing an Anti-Racist Child Care System, that is intended to contribute to the growing body of work examining the role of financing for early childhood policies and what is required to achieve an anti-racist child care system. Created with a racial equity lens, it explores historical underpinnings of the child care system, public funding, and how far recent and proposed public funding strategies can take us. The analyses, resources and more will be needed to inform comprehensive approaches to advancing racial equity throughout the many different levels of the complex U.S. child care system.  

NIEER’s State of Preschool 2021 Yearbook covers the first school year fully impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yearbook authors Allison Friedman-Krauss and W. Steven Barnett were joined by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice in a briefing, shared in this video-recorded session. Preschool parent Katie Walden of North Carolina also shared her story illuminating why preschool matters.

During the 2020-2021 school year, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued, Pennsylvania preschool enrolled 40,562 children, a decrease of 8,187 children from the prior year. State funding totaled $318,254,011, down $21,914,574 (6%), adjusted for inflation, since last year. State spending per child equaled $7,846 in 2020-2021, up $868 from 2019-2020, adjusted for inflation. Pennsylvania met an average of 6.8 quality standards benchmarks.

More than 150 copies of the 2022 PA One Book, Saturday, by Oge Mora will be distributed to winners, selected at random, for the drawing that runs through June 17, 2022. The book, Saturday, was chosen as the 2022 PA One Book selection. In this heartfelt and universal story, a mother and daughter look forward to their special Saturday routine together every single week. But this Saturday, one thing after another goes wrong–ruining story time, salon time, picnic time, and the puppet show they’d been looking forward to going to all week. Mom is nearing a meltdown…until her loving daughter reminds her that being together is the most important thing of all.

A new Pyramid Model resource for family child care homes is available from the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations. The Pyramid Model Practices for Family Child Care Homes is checklist which provides family child care home providers with best practices that can be used to support children at each tier of the Pyramid Model.

Getting kids to try a variety of foods may feel like a daunting task to some. If you deal with picky eaters, try introducing them to MyPlate's Two-Bite Club, developed by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The resource comes with a printable book that encourages kids to try new foods and also provides fun certificates to celebrate new tasting milestones. Available in English and Spanish.

The annual National Summer Learning Week (July 11-15) is just around the corner. The week-long national celebration offers five unique, daily themes for partners to lift up. Programs can use the week to celebrate the program and share the impact with local partners, funders, media, and policymakers. The 2022 themes are: Fostering Friendships, Love of Literacy & Learning, Wonders of Wellness, Summer Skill-Building, and Amazing Arts! Learn more.

The Chef Ann's Health Kids Meal Wheel from the Chef Ann Foundation is a colorful visual guide which reminds kids how to balance their food choices each day according to the following categories: Vegetables, Whole Grains, Fruits, Lean Protein, Calcium, Healthy Fats, Red Meats, and Added Sugars & Fats. This printable visual guide is available in English and Spanish.

Kids with access to healthy meals learn better. Communities of color and economically marginalized communities suffer disproportionately when it comes to food insecurity. Equity practices can improve access to meals for all kids. These helpful resources from No Kid Hungry can help school age, summer care, and early childhood educators provide a more just and sustainable food system.

For more ideas on what delicious meals and snacks are served every day through the CACFP, check out these posters from USDA Team Nutrition. Download the Poster Set in English & Spanish

Cities Connecting Children to Nature has released an Early Childhood Nature Connection toolkit that provides cities with tangible ways they can achieve multiple city goals aligned with nature access, particularly for young children, ages 0 - 5. The toolkit includes a wide range of resources from peer-reviewed research to a state policy brief to various strategies, deemed pathways that cities can take to incorporate nature into young children’s daily lives. Read the blog and visit the toolkit. 

The April resources from Camille Catlett are now available. The May edition of Baby Talk includes information about Updated Developmental Milestones; Helping Toddlers Deal With Waiting; and more. The May edition of Natural Resources shares information about Model Minority Myth, Appreciating the Diversity Among Asians, and more.