EEC Annual Legislative Report February 2011

Context Legislative language that requires EEC to submit an annual report on Universal Pre- Kindergarten (UPK) and Mental Health initiatives, and Workforce Development System annual update Report seeks to provide an update on EEC’s 5- year Strategic Plan Report is framed by the Board’s Strategic Directions and Indicators of Success. Accomplishments of this past year and activities planned is reported within the framework of EEC’s 5 Strategic Directions.

3 What EEC Must Report (at a Minimum)  Progress in achieving goals and implementing programs authorized under M.G.L. c. 15D;  Progress made towards universal early education and care for pre-school aged children;  Progress made toward reducing expulsion rates through developmentally appropriate prevention and intervention services;  Behavioral health indicators;  Rules and regulations promulgated by the Board related to civil fines and sanctions, including the types of sanctions and the amount of the fines; and  Findings and recommendations related to the study on the programmatic financing and phase-in options for the development and implementation of the Massachusetts universal pre- kindergarten program.

4 EEC System Components Standards, Assessment and Accountability Informed Families and Public Early Ed & Care and K- 12 Linkages Workforce & Professional Development RegulationsGovernanceFinance EEC Strategic Directions Quality Family Support, Access, and Affordability Workforce Communications Infrastructure EEC System Components and Strategic Directions: Legislative Report

Outline of Report Executive SummaryIntroductionFY11 Context Indicators of Success Strategic Directions Accomplished this year Plan to do next year Strategic Direction: Quality Accomplished this year Plan to do next year Strategic Direction: Workforce Accomplished this year Plan to do next year Strategic Direction: Family Accomplished this year Plan to do next year Strategic Direction: Communications Accomplished this year Plan to do next year Strategic Direction: Infrastructure Appendices 5

A Tough Economy, A Silver Lining 6 EEC saw a reduction in its FY2011 budget— more than $15 million--when compared with the final appropriations FY2010. EEC was able to absorb a significant part of this reduction through: Maintaining reduced access to childcare subsidy Hiring freeze Limiting consultants and contractors Securing alternative funding streams Offsetting some of this bad news was the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of initiatives funded by ARRA CCDF

Strategic Priorities and Accomplishments 7 EEC Board’s four key goals for FY11 State and local leaders understand how EEC initiatives serve and benefit their communities. Align resources to support programs to achieve quality standards defined by QRIS. Early educators should be properly compensated, and adequately trained through further developed professional development standards and opportunities. Continue to develop a delivery system of early education and care services that are known, and accessible to, families. These goals are in alignment with the three-year Strategic Plan developed by the Board, which includes the five core strategies.

FY11 Highlights: Overview 8 The purposeful creation of a statewide network of services for the Department’s key stakeholders: children and their families, providers and educators. State and local leaders understand how EEC initiatives serve and benefit their communities. A deepening of the partnerships among the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education public colleges and universities, the Department of Public Health and the Department of Housing and Community Development, as well as the continued development of existing partnerships with the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Transitional Assistance.

FY11 Highlights: QRIS 9 Launched January 2011 A key tool to help families, communities, and policymakers understand what constitutes quality Guides professionals in child development settings on a path toward quality Supports for programs to reach higher levels of quality Measure quality with evidence based tools Educator and Provider Support technical assistance Financial support for quality improvements

FY11 Highlights: Professional Development 10 Formal training in early childhood education Core Content knowledge Linked to child development and growth Higher-order set of skills and knowledge Literacy; Positive behavior management; Fitness and nutrition; and The science of growth and development Pathway toward proficiency and career growth Professional Qualifications Registry, one of the key elements in the PD Data Management System, will enhance EEC’s knowledge of the needs of the Commonwealth’s early education and care and out of school time workforce. As of January 2011, there were already over 32,500 educators in the PQ Registry, estimated at about half the current workforce.

FY11 Highlights: Literacy 11 Along with ESE, aligned the curriculum frameworks with the Massachusetts common core standards for English Language Arts Working to identify what is developmentally appropriate for children to learn that will serve as a scaffold for future learning Commissioned a literacy course birth to eight FY11 Highlights: Mental Health In partnership with DPH, designed a system to train more than 2000 education and care providers across the state to help educators address social and emotional development in the Center for Social and Emotional Foundation of Early Learning (CSEFEL)

FY11 Highlights: Community and Family Engagement 12 EEC is working to build a more robust and evidence- based engagement strategy, centered around the following elements: actively identifying families that are the most socially isolated and hence at greatest risk; ensuring that families, providers and others are informed about comprehensive services their community, specifically at 110 community resource centers across the state; and making high quality childcare services accessible through the state’s Child Care Resource and Referral Centers, and by training staff who work for the state’s 211 telephonic system. Focus community based efforts to support the development of early literacy knowledge, skills and abilities.

FY11 Highlights: Increased Access 13 Waitlist study resulting in significant gains turning over the waitlist ARRA Funding Child Care Development Fund (CCDF): $23.97M Head Start and Early Head Start: $10.1M IDEA through ESE: 10.2M Contracted childcare slots used to expand the number of slots for those in greatest need Average Caseloads for 2010 (January 1 – December 31, 2010): 55,345 children ARRA: 215 children DTA: 16,917 children Income Eligible: 32,390 children Supportive: 5,823 children

Looking Ahead 14 EEC continues to identify the projects that will define its work in the next months and years Fully implement QRIS New Statewide Early Childhood Data System Evaluation and Measurement of child growth De-coupling access to services from parental work status