Pennsylvania has expanded access to COVID-19 Vaccines. Over 37,000 early childhood workforce members signed up for the J&J Special Initiative through the survey offered by OCDEL. Retail pharmacy partners are conducting outreach to schedule with respondents based on their availability of the J&J Vaccine.

OCDEL is aware that several local initiatives have also been reaching out to offer either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. These efforts are not part of the special initiative, but rather part of the larger concerted effort to ensure all Pennsylvanians who want a vaccine can get one. Finally based on accordance with a 3/2/2021, US Health and Human Services Directive, vaccine providers are required to make available and administer COVID-19 vaccine to this group of education and early childhood education (ECE) workers.

OCDEL encourages all ECE workers to become vaccinated. Please choose the option that makes the most sense to you personally. If you signed up for the Special Initiative, but proceed with vaccination via another method, simply decline when contacted. The Retail Pharmacy Partnership schedulers will move down the list.

Once vaccinated, the expectation continues to wear a face covering in public or in your ECE setting. Continue to engage in enhanced hygiene and cleaning. Vaccines are not mandated and cannot be a requirement for participation or access to program services.

For more information regarding vaccines, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Health website.

Mr. Carl Beck, the former Director for the Bureau of Early Intervention Services and Family Supports in the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), was named the recipient of the 2020 Ron Cowell Award for Excellence in Service to Young Children with Disabilities and their Families on April 1, 2021. Mr. Beck was nominated by State Interagency Coordinating Council Chairs, Dr. Kate McKinnon and Dr. Sadia Batool, as well as family leaders, Naomi Galman and Isabelle Lee.

During April, help celebrate Month of the Young Child! Month of the Young Child focuses public attention on the needs of young children and their families and recognizes the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs. Read and share stories from families and professionals, then share your own! Follow PA's Promise for Children on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see daily messages.

Visit Pennsylvania's Promise for Children for ways you can celebrate Month of the Young Child. Visit NAEYC for information about and resources to celebrate week of the Young Child, April 10-16, 2021.

Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) has created an interactive tool to help early childhood education (ECE) professionals find the appropriate professional development opportunities to meet Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services (DHS) Certification requirements, meet Keystone STARS Standards for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), advance an ECE professional’s Career Pathway level or receive career advisement from Pennsylvania’s Professional Development Organizations (PDOs).

To access this tool and learn more about ECE professional development in Pennsylvania, click here to visit the Pennsylvania Key website.

Registration is now open for the Pennsylvania 2021 Early Intervention and Family Support Program Conference: Learning and Sharing to Support Children and Families.

To learn more or to register for the conference, please visit the conference website. If you have any questions, please reference the Frequently Asked Questions or email the conference help desk at eita@pattan.net. Registration closes on April 9, 2021.

Now available from the Office of Child Development and Early Learning are How to Conduct Internal Assessment Using Specific Program Observation Instrument (POI) Guides. These guides provide valuable information for early childhood education (ECE) programs as they begin their internal assessment process. They provide an at-a-glance overview of the POI, information on required and supplemental materials and directions for obtaining the materials, scale specific professional learning information to support a foundational understanding of the POI, and detailed directions for completing an internal assessment. There is also information on using the internal assessment results for continuous quality improvement efforts. Programs are encouraged to use these guides, created by reliable Pennsylvania Key Program Quality Assessors, as they embark on their internal assessments.

The Internal Assessment Process, or IAP, which began in FY 20/21 will continue for the entire FY 21/22. Per feedback received from OCDEL stakeholders and partners, the IAP has been an effective strategy for CQI planning and collaboration among programs, quality coaches, and program quality assessors. The decision has been made to continue to use the IAP next fiscal year. Programs should continue to follow the guidance issued through ELRC Policy Announcement 20 #16 Internal Assessment Process Guide and consult their ELRCs with any questions. Additional information on any necessary updates for the upcoming fiscal year will be released in the near future.  

One Lens: Sharing Our Common Views is a statewide collaborative visual and storytelling project organized by Pennsylvania’s First Lady Frances Wolf, in partnership with the PA Council on the Arts, PA Historical and Museum Commission, the PA Tourism Office, and the Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanians to document Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 pandemic experience.

Across the exhibit’s three themes – our lives, our heroes and our communities – we see life in the commonwealth from Mach 2020 through March 2021: the hard realities and the hope for better days, the triumphs and the heartbreaks, the new beginnings and the loss. View the submissions and learn more about the project.

Proposals for workshops are now being accepted. Please visit the ECE Summit website for information and to submit a proposal. 

Everyone is urged to make sure their address book includes the Summit email at info@earlychildhoodsummit.org to ensure they receive all the information in the coming weeks and months.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) worldwide pandemic has changed the landscape for nearly everything that was familiar to families, caregivers, and their young children. Families and caregivers may have experienced unfamiliar situations and encountered circumstances of which they could never have imagined—all while attempting to maintain consistent support and guidance for their young children.

To meet the demands of this changing landscape, the Pennsylvania One Book, Every Young Child program for 2021 will be a departure from the traditional program. During 2021, the program will pause and address the needs of families, caregivers and young children in a time that has been difficult. What hasn’t changed is the commitment to support early literacy for Pennsylvania’s youngest learners.

The 2021 Pennsylvania One Book program will emphasize the importance of emotional resilience, social-emotional wellness, and healing through literacy and literature in 2021: Many Books, One Pennsylvania Community.

This year, young readers across Pennsylvania will be exposed to a number of titles through two booklists (for ages 0-2 and ages 3-6), cultivated by youth services librarians and early learning caregivers, with a focus on understanding emotions and feelings. Two family fun guides and two activity guides for librarians and caregivers, all of which contain activities that align with the Pennsylvania Standards for Early Childhood, will also be made available via the One Book website, to encourage family engagement and positive learning experiences. All booklists and guides will be made available via the Pennsylvania One Book website in April 2021.

In addition, this year’s program will provide a professional development opportunity for caregivers and library staff to educate about the importance of social/emotional wellness and care for young children who are experiencing hardships. This opportunity will be available in late Spring 2021.

Celebrated annually in the spring, Penn State PRO Wellness' Go for the Greens promotes green veggies as good food and good fun! Schools and community organizations celebrate this event with taste-testing and other fun activities to open young minds and taste buds to the greatness of greens. This event emphasizes incorporating veggies as part of healthy meals with a focus on kids’ lunches and family dinner. Leafy greens are also being featured as April’s PA Harvest of the Month item, with lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and kale taking the stage. This focus on leafy greens is the perfect complement to Penn State PRO Wellness “Go for the Greens” event on April 7, 2021. Get more information on Go for the Greens. Learn more about PA Harvest of the Month.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced the nationwide extension of several waivers that allow all children to continue to receive nutritious meals this summer when schools are out of session. These flexibilities are now available through Sept. 30, 2021. USDA is extending these waivers to provide local program operators with clarity and certainty for the summer months ahead, when many children cannot access the school meals they depend on during the academic year. The waivers were previously extended only through June 30, 2021. The waivers extended today allow for safe meal distribution sites that serve all children for free, regardless of income. Summer meal sites are places where children and youth age 18 and under can receive meals at no cost in a safe environment. The meals are also available to persons over age 18 with mental or physical disabilities. Sites may be in a variety of settings including schools, parks, community centers, libraries, churches and more.

In December 2020, the American Institutes for Research updated the landscape scan of the 50 afterschool networks related to quality standards, school-age assessment tools, core competences for afterschool program staff, credential systems, quality rating and improvement systems, and skill-building initiatives. The 50 State Afterschool Networks foster partnerships and policies to develop, support, and sustain quality afterschool and summer learning opportunities for children and youth. The networks work with a broad range of stakeholder groups—from state policymakers to local leaders in education—on a range of issues including youth development, STEM, juvenile justice, health and wellness, social and emotional learning, and college and workforce readiness.

A new Child Trends brief, Supporting Parents and Caregivers with Trauma Histories during COVID-19, outlines strategies that policymakers, service providers, and caregivers can use during the COVID-19 pandemic to support parents who have experienced trauma. Throughout the pandemic, caregivers have faced many challenges, including unemployment and benefits cuts, loss of child care, and the need to supervise virtual learning. The brief recommends strategies that service providers can implement to support families, including trauma-informed, family-focused curricula and enhanced screening for food insecurity and housing stability.

In March 2020, Center on the Developing Child Director Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D. released a statement emphasizing the importance of supporting children, families, and care providers of all kinds through the coronavirus pandemic. Now, a year later, the devastating toll of the pandemic has underscored the critical importance of connecting what science is telling us to the lived experiences of people and communities.

Early childhood policies and services are at a critical inflection point, and the need to build a stronger ecosystem has never been more compelling. In a new statement, Dr. Shonkoff reflects on the past year and where we go from here.

The pandemic’s impact on state budgets and preschool enrollment not only set back early learning this school year but threaten future funding for preschool programs, according to a new report, Impacts of Covid-19 on Preschool Enrollment and Spending, from NIEER. Funding for preschool is determined by enrollment or attendance in most states. Some have begun addressing potential revenue declines through “hold harmless” policies and a few have even prioritized preschool expansion. Oregon, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, for example, have increased the number of children who have access to preschool during the 2020-2021 school year. states need to invest in high quality teaching that meets children’s individual needs. This is especially important because the pandemic-induced spike in children’s social and emotional problems will likely continue into the fall.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a resource for child care providers, Guidance for Operating Child Care Programs during COVID-19. CDC is also releasing new Toolkits for Child Care Programs. These resources provide information to help child care professionals protect children, their families, and staff and slow the spread of COVID-19 and keep children healthy.

Guidance for Operating Child Care Programs during COVID-19 includes:

These CDC resources update the existing guidance and align with CDC’s Operational Strategy for K-12 Schools through Phased Mitigation. The guidance and toolkits are intended for all types of child care programs, including child care centers, family child care homes, and other child care programs. 

The resource, Pause-Reset-Nourish (PRN)* To Promote Wellbeing, from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, provides information about the specific self-care strategy of Pause-Reset-Nourish, or PRN. This fact sheet acknowledges the levels of stress that professionals may be currently experiencing and offers a way to address unwanted symptoms and promote and replenish wellbeing and enhance resilience.

Child Nutrition Recipe Box from the USDA provides Child Nutrition Program operators, including family child care and child care centers, with recipes to prepare healthy and delicious meals that meet meal pattern requirements; that are standardized to provide meal pattern crediting information for meal pattern components; and made with legumes, whole grains, and vegetables from the vegetable subgroups including dark green, red, and orange vegetables. Each CNRB recipe contains nutrition information per serving, including calories, total fat, saturated fat, sodium, total sugars, and fiber.

New resources are available from Camille Catlett. The March 2021 issue of Natural Resources has free research, articles, videos, and websites to support the use of playful approaches to development. The March 2021 edition of Baby Talk features information about caring for yourself while you care for your children, why the first 2,000 days matter, and more.

Celebrate the start of spring with this free printable activity page for child care programs from the National CACFP Association, which features a craft, fun activities and two tasty recipes.

Proper nutrition is always important for the development and health of young children, but so is proper hydration. This printable worksheet, available in English and Spanish from the USDA's "Nibbles for Health" series, is designed to send home to parents to educate them on how they can promote regularly drinking water at home, including an activity sheet that can make drinking water a game.