Message from Deputy Chancellor Dr. Kara H. Ahmed

Dear Early Childhood Education Community,

I am so very excited about our work together for this school year!  

Whether your program returned last week in preparation for the first day of

school, or you and your team are simply shifting into the new season, I thank each of you for your incredible leadership and commitment to ensuring a safe, seamless, and joyful start to this school year. I had the absolute privilege to visit several schools and programs since last Thursday and I am looking forward to sharing more about these visits in our next issue! 

So many of you joined us this summer for a variety of professional learning experiences that fostered collaboration and community across our early childhood portfolio city-wide and supported us collectively to be well-prepared to kick off this school year! I am excited to share some key highlights of the extraordinary learning and collaboration that took place this summer, as well as essential resources to support our work in these first few weeks of September: 

• Over 800 instructional leaders across our our early childhood portfolio joined us in July for our first-ever early childhood education Leadership Summit. Leaders came together to reflect, think, and plan, focusing on curriculum and assessment implementation, setting the stage for a successful school year and the continued advancement of NYC Reads. It was an amazing opportunity to engage with the entire early childhood community and special guests Chancellor Banks and Chair of the NYC Council Education Committee, Rita Joseph.
• For any leader who could not attend, or for those who want to review the content again, you can access this on-demand session and presentation deck at your convenience. 
• I am also excited to share this video highlighting our experiences at the Leadership Summit. And check out our posts on New York City Public Schools' (NYCPS) social media – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.

• Over 1,100 Families engaged with us at our Family Connections: Partnering with Your Child’s Teacher sessions, offered in June, July, and August. These sessions provided families with an overview of the tools available through the curriculum and assessment system to support two-way communication between families and schools, as well as resources for families to extend their children’s learning at home.  
• We encourage all cohort 1 schools/programs implementing The Creative Curriculum and GOLD this school year to share this on-demand session with families who were unable to attend - whether at your back-to-school events, events where you are getting to know families, or by way of family communications! 

• Thousands of Program Leaders and Staff joined us in July and August for a Programmatic and Operational Refresher Series. This series provided all CBO and Family Child Care leaders and their teams with operational updates and reminders to empower all programs with current policy, procedures, and updates that will ensure a healthy, safe, and operationally sound school year.  

• Over 300 CBO and FCC Network Leaders and Staff attended in-person professional learning focused on General Response Protocols, Active Supervision, and Safe Transitions, facilitated by our central team in collaboration with NYCPS’ Office of Safety and Prevention Partnerships. Program leaders and their staff from across all five boroughs engaged in critical discussions centered on appropriate child supervision and safe transitions throughout the program day and during emergencies. These sessions will continue to be held annually as the well-being and safety of children, their families, and all staff members is a priority. 

As we move forward into the new school year, we are excited to launch NYC Bright Starts, a recurring communication for NYCPS’ entire early childhood education community, inviting partnership and collaboration among us given each of our critical roles in positively impacting the lives of our young children and their families. While there are rich diverse settings across our early childhood portfolio - community-based organizations, elementary schools, pre-K centers, non-public schools, family child care home-based providers - we are all part of NYCPS. Together, we will ensure high-quality early childhood education for all our children, birth to five-years-old.

As Chancellor Banks shared with our leaders this summer, our early childhood education community is the anchor setting up the entire City for success! Bright starts for our children truly begin with each of you, and with the extraordinary work that you are doing every day.  

Thank you for your leadership, always. Enjoy today and enjoy the work. 

In Partnership, 

Kara H. Ahmed, Ed.D.

Deputy Chancellor, Early Childhood Education