4,363 - Licensed child care programs in Georgia

2,862 -  Quality Rated child care programs in Georgia

126  - Providers in the Quality Rated Class of 2012

73,000 - Students enrolled this year in Georgia’s Pre-K Program

7,500 -  CAPS applications received under the student parent priority group since May 1, 2022

805 - Georgia’s Pre-K Classrooms (across 143 counties) participated in Georgia’s Pre-K Week 2022

2,833,818 -  Meals served by Happy Helpings during FY 2022

64,940,227 - Meals served by CACFP during FY 2022

2,847 - Quality Rated providers

Arrow Christian Academy was also awarded a $1,500 Farm to Early Care and Education Mini Grant through DECAL. The mini grants are provided through the USDA Farm to School Grant to support planning, developing, and implementing Farm to ECE programs for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) operators in Appling, Chattooga, Clayton, Johnson, and Terrell counties.

Supporting and guiding the mission and vision of Bright from the Start:

(Chair)

Kimberly Neville, Brooklet

Debra Brock, Calhoun

Dear Co-workers,

Recently I spoke to a group of high school juniors and seniors being inducted into the National Honor Society. As I looked out at them, I wondered how many had participated in Georgia’s Pre-K Program or had been enrolled in out-of-home child care. Perhaps our work years ago had in some small way contributed to their academic success today.

BUT, in 1999 the editors of TIME Magazine named Gutenberg’s printing press the greatest invention of the preceding 1,000 years. With it, information…knowledge…became more easily available and accessible to the masses.

I was quick to point out to the young people to whom I was speaking that not all of us will leave footprints as significant as Gutenberg’s. BUT, I assured them that they will leave footprints as moms and dads, as teachers, as policymakers, as men and women of the military, as writers, as accountants, as welders, as IT experts, as ministers and philosophers…that will affect other people and can change the course of communities and history.

Voices for Georgia’s Children and DECAL hosted the 12^th annual Georgia Pre-K Week with state and local leaders celebrating by reading to the state’s Pre-K classes from October 3-7.

For the past 30 years, the nationally recognized Georgia’s Pre-K Program has provided quality early education to the state’s four year olds. The lottery-funded Georgia's Pre-K Program was launched in 1992 by Governor Zell Miller as a pilot program serving 750 students at 20 sites. Since then, the program has laid a solid foundation for academic excellence and future success in the lives of nearly two million children.

Voices for Georgia’s Children, the state’s only comprehensive child policy and advocacy organization, coordinates Georgia Pre-K Week, to emphasize the importance of quality early childhood education by providing opportunities for state and local leaders to engage directly with Pre-K classrooms in local communities.

“The only thing more gratifying than seeing such appreciation and commitment to Georgia’s Pre-K students and teachers by community leaders, branches of government, and private businesses is the fantastic return-on-investment evidenced by the millions of happy, healthy, and thriving four year olds Georgia’s Pre-K continues to serve,” said Polly McKinney, Advocacy Director of Voices for Georgia's Children. “A considerable amount of research over the years has proven that children from quality early learning settings consistently arrive at kindergarten prepared and ready to learn. We are excited to show our Georgia Pre-K Week visitors a little bit of how that happens.”

Countless state, business, and community leaders visited Pre-K centers around the state to witness early learning in action. They also read Hey Georgia by former UGA football player, Super Bowl champion, and literacy advocate, Malcolm Mitchell.

DECAL’s Child Care Services Division has a new logo, after work that began in 2019 but was sideswiped by the pandemic. CCS employs 132 people and is dedicated to ensuring a safe and healthy learning environment through child care licensing, monitoring, and professional development to support the growth and development of Georgia’s young children.

Rachael Lee, CCS Process and Quality Improvement Manager, said they first formed a Logo Committee made up of the Deputy Commissioner for Child Care Services, managers, consultants, and admins. This team worked closely with Phase 3, an Atlanta-based agency that also helped create logos for DECAL and Nutrition Services.

The first question posed by the agency was: What words best describe CCS? Helpful, Innovative, Trustworthy, Necessary, Balanced, Caring, Meaningful, Reliable, and Regulatory were among the responses. This led to the conclusion that CCS is a “work of heart.”

A first round of concepts led to a second round of modified logos, and the entire team voted on the final selection. The group never envisioned this much discussion around colors and fonts.

After being sidelined by the pandemic, the team picked the project back up in June, 2022, and the logo was finalized in August.

Deputy Commissioner of Child Care Services Pam Stevens appreciates the team’s hard work…and patience: “Creating a logo is much more challenging than you might think,” Pam explained. “Summing up the work, the intent behind it, and all the moving parts and then converting that into a symbol that truly reflects what we do is hard! I think the group came up with a great logo, and CCS certainly deserves its own identity. I’m so happy that this group of CCS team members, the group who kept going through the pandemic, has had the opportunity to leave our mark on CCS moving forward.”