Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 2 Created by State Legislature in 2004 Merged Office of School Readiness with units from Department of Education, Department of Human Resources, and Georgia Child Care Council One of only three agencies of its kind in the nation focused on children ages birth to five

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 3 Georgia’s Pre-K Program Licensing and regulation of child care programs Federal Child Care and Development Fund including Georgia's CAPS Program Federal Nutrition Programs Quality Rated Head Start State Collaboration Office Oversight of Georgia Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 4 HEALTH & SAFETY – Promote safe and healthy early care and learning programs QUALITY – Improve quality of early care and learning programs ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE – Foster organizational excellence through stakeholder engagement, enterprise solutions, and workforce development

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 5

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 6 New state law requires all employees of Georgia’s approximately 6,000 child care facilities to undergo national fingerprint-based background checks. Law requires all new employees hired on or after January 1, 2014, to have satisfactory national background checks based on fingerprints, not just a name search of Georgia records. Existing employees hired before January 1, 2014, will have until 2017 to meet the requirement, unless they move to a new child care facility.

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 7 Georgia is one of six states awarded funding through the Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC). Georgia was awarded $51.7 million to be used over a four-year period, the highest amount awarded among the six grants. Impacts not just individual students and families but also the state’s future workforce and economy.

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 8 Georgia’s application focused on four specific strategies: Access to high quality opportunities Investment in early childhood educators and high quality programs Integration across programs and services Measurement and data capacity expanded

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 9 Examples of Projects: Increase Quality Rated Access and Availability Quality Rated Validation Investments in Early Education Workforce Intensive Training on new Early Learning and Development Standards Scholarships to improve educational qualification Kindergarten Entry Assessment Statewide Family Engagement and Community Grants Further development of Unified Data System

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 10 Georgia has three months to submit Scopes of Work with specific deliverables and milestones. Federal DOE and HHS have three months to approve the Scopes of Work. Georgia can begin expending funds (up to 10%) before the Scopes of Work are approved. DECAL will work with each participating agency to finalize agency scopes of work, interagency agreements, and budgets.

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 11 Governor’s Office Governor’s Office of Children and Families Governor’s Office of Student Achievement Georgia Department of Community Affairs Georgia Department of Economic Development Georgia Department of Education Georgia Department of Public Health Georgia Public Broadcasting

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 12

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 13 Georgia’s voluntary system to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early care and education programs Currently, 293 rated programs with 1,290 programs participating In November, 2013, hosted 73 of state’s top child care programs at a conference at Lake Lanier Islands. The three-star programs included 35 child care centers, 36 family day care homes, and two group day care homes.

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 14

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 15

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning 16