NEW YORK CARES

2012 and 2013

The QUALITYstarsNY center/school- and family-based standards are complete and posted on

the QUALITYstarsNY website.

The NYS Education Department (SED) agreed to allocate funds from its federal Race to the Top

grant to support implementation of QUALITYstarsNY in 2012-2014. About 300 early learning

and development programs in the communities around persistently low achieving public

schools will be involved. The focus in 2012 is expected to be recruitment of program

participants and outreach and engagement of partners to work with these programs to conduct

assessments, develop QIPs and support implementing those plans. Ratings of programs in these

communities will not be published until 2014.

In 2012, with private funding, QUALITYstarsNY will be implemented in two communities on

Long Island, again enabling new programs to participate in QUALITYstarsNY. The learning

community model will be replicated in these two communities as well.

Implementing QUALITYstarsNY through 2012 is supported entirely by time-limited federal funds

and private philanthropy. ECAC funding will expire in 2013 and SED funds will decline in 2013

and end in August 2014. State investment is necessary for QUALITYstarsNY to continue.

QUALITYstarsNY has adopted the State’s 10-region structure for economic development to

guide implementation, meaning that whenever possible, activity will occur in each of the

regions as implementation proceeds. A multi-year implementation plan and budget have been

developed; the expected total annual investment needed for full implementation statewide is

approximately $100 million.

Implementation of QUALITYstarsNY is proceeding with emphasis on readiness, quality

improvement and development of necessary infrastructure.

Readiness.

QUALITYstarsNY is currently implementing three readiness training workshops

designed to help programs become more familiar with the standards and using the

Environment Rating Scales for self-assessment and program improvement. The workshops are

entitled:

Introduction to QUALITYstarsNY

Self-Assessment: Preparing for Program Improvement (using the Environment Rating

Scales)

First Steps for Quality Improvement

REFLECTION

This week I have been able to explore what my state is doing about our fight for our young children's education.I came across  a very educational piece that reasured me that our most vulnerable population will not be forgoten.This article also reflects many of my goals and what I expect of quality care for our children.

. As many as 100,000

children, including the large majority of infants and

toddlers, are currently not served, and much needs

to be done to expand this system gradually as it

is improved to better meet children’s critical early

developmental needs.

The elements outlined in this strategic plan for early

childhood care are a starting point for an improved,

better integrated, and over time, expanded early

childhood care and education system. We start by

refocusing the mission of the entire early childhood

care system to emphasize child development. This

means better aligning the expectations of parents,

providers, and public administrators to the needs of

children. It means redirecting the early childhood

system toward the goals of facilitating child care

quality, access, information, and choice. We continue

by bringing together the disparate systems of care

across different city agencies. The steps we are taking

toward a better integrated early childhood care and

education system are meant to comprehensively

serve the diverse needs of families in a consistent

way. It will allow families to better access and use

combinations of care that match their needs, and to

make developmentally appropriate transitions in care

as individual children’s needs change.

This plan sets the strategic direction to provide more

effective services to support the development of

young children and their families. By reallocating

services to areas of high need, ACS effectively meets

more of the need for care in the city, with its limited

resources. ACS currently pays for contracted slots that

may not be used. This plan will eliminate vacancies

and reinvest the funding for those slots to serve

additional children in high need areas. Moreover,

with the coordination of contracts and vouchers,

Children’s Services will increase utilization, reduce

vacancies, and help to better meet the increased

demands of public assistance families seeking more

stable care arrangements. Most importantly, ACS will

target resources on program quality enhancement

efforts so that more of New York City’s young children

attend high quality programs that nurture children’s

development.

Implementation of

Rethinking Child Care will require

up-front investments. ACS needs the human capital

to implement the strategies laid out in the plan, while

also maintaining the day-to-day operations of an

overstretched child care system. First, this will include

supporting current personnel to carry out this vision

for our early care and education system. For example,

eligibility workers will spend more time on final

eligibility determinations and technical assistance

to programs than on face-to-face appointments

with clients. This shift in responsibility will require

professional development opportunities for CCHS

staff. Second, Children’s Services will need additional

staff to accomplish the goals of

Rethinking Child Care.

For instance, with a renewed commitment to high

quality care, Children’s Services will need to hire

additional personnel to provide technical assistance

for helping programs. Without a doubt, Children’s

Services needs to invest in personnel to accomplish

this needed, but ambitious plan.

With this plan, the Administration for Children’s

Services has embarked on an ambitious and viable

process to improve early childhood development

programs throughout New York City. This plan has

already guided efforts to improve management

functions and ease the child care access for parents

and programs. The positive outcomes for the City as

a whole and for families are numerous: the City and

ACS will incur savings and eliminate inefficiencies

throughout the system to reinvest in children;

providers will have fewer administrative burdens and

receive greater support to improve their programs;

families will have greater access to higher quality early

care and education services; and most importantly,

young children will have greater developmental

opportunities.

This is the future we choose for our city’s children.


http://www.nyc.gov/html/acs/downloads/pdf/rethinking_new.pdf

LINKS

I found another link and thought I would share.

 

 

Afghanistan Humanitarian Aid for Children

Save the Children's groundbreaking report about humanitarian aid in Afghanistan By the numbers: Population- 28,395,716 Size: slightly smaller than Texas 70% of the population live below the poverty line 1 in 4 children die before reaching their 5th birthday 72% of the population over age 15 are illiterate Only 50% of all Afghan children between the ages of 7 and 13 attend school ( Afghanistan’s turbulent modern history has been shaped by decades of internal conflict and extreme natural disasters, especially drought. With an estimated population of 30 million, this landlocked country at the historical crossroads of Central Asia is extremely poor and highly dependent on foreign aid as it struggles to rebuild. After years of war and severe poverty, combined with poor security, the country is considered to be among the most dangerous places for children to be born. Emergency Update from Kabul: Deep Freeze in Afghanistan Causes Great Sorrow Challenges for Children Emergency Relief and Recovery Impact and Programs Support Save the Children Challenges for Children The challenges are daunting, especially for children and women. Even though political and economic uncertainty and personal and community insecurity still exist in much of Afghanistan, Save the Children is committed to helping Afghan families and communities. For almost 30 years Afghan children have been affected by conflict. Only half of children are in school today, many work in the streets or in fields and homes to support their families. Children in Afghanistan face one of the worst chances of survival of anywhere in the world. One in four children dies before their fifth birthday, most of them from preventable diseases and malnutrition. Emergency Relief and Recovery Nearly 3 million people in Afghanistan are affected by a drought that has caused crops to fail, leaving many in a constant struggle to feed their children and families. The harsh Afghan winter makes in even harder to reach the most vulnerable communities whose next harvest season will not begin until June 2012. Save the Children is working hand in hand with public and private partners to help avert a child hunger crisis. Parents need support to buy food for their children as they cannot depend on fall harvests to feed their families. Save the Children is advancing a plan to temporarily employ parents of children in need on projects to improve local reservoirs, agricultural canals and other critical drought-related projects. Impact and Programs Child Protection: Save the Children fights for children’s right to protection. We work closely with local communities, religious leaders, parents, teachers and the government to create and help maintain measures and structures that can prevent and respond to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence affecting children. Health: Save the Children works with families, communities and health care workers in homes, health posts, clinics and hospitals to promote basic health, well-being and survival, particularly for children under age 5 and for women of childbearing age. In addition to government healthcare leaders and administrators, we train and support community health workers living in some of the poorest and most remote areas in Afghanistan. Education: For many children in Afghanistan, being beaten and humiliated is a daily reality. Afghanistan still legally permits teachers to physically punish children. Save the Children works to change that and to provide successful models of violence-free schools that can be used all over the country. Last Updated February 2012

FOLLOWING A LEAD

• health worker
• nutrition
• Guatemala

Kelly Walker is a registered nurse from South Carolina who recently visited Save the Children’s health and nutrition programs in Guatemala. She is a member of Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses (AWOHNN) and is working with Save the Children to help raise awareness about the role of frontline health workers in the lives of mothers, newborns and children around the world.

As a perinatal registered nurse, I have a great deal of knowledge about global health issues in my head. But my recent trip to Guatemala with Save the Children put the families affected by these issues into my heart.

This was my first time in Guatemala, a beautiful but heartbreakingly poor country. In the rural villages where Save the Children works, families travel by dirt roads, fetch drinking water from streams and subsist on homegrown corn. Their homes are filled with love, but little else. Without electricity, appliances and heat, families huddle around wood-stoves – the heart of every home

It was in one of these homes that I met Juana and her newborn baby, Marlene. I was making house calls with a local health worker named Isabella. Watching Isabella care for Juana and Marlene, I was amazed at both the simplicity and efficiency of her work.

During the home visit, Isabella weighed Marlene, now a healthy 11 pounds, and gave her a well-baby check-up. To help ensure baby Marlene gets the nutrition she needs to grow and thrive, Isabella educated Juana on the importance of breastfeeding to build her baby’s immune system and avoid disease. Save the Children’s staff told me that counseling new mothers on breastfeeding is extremely important in villages like these where chronic malnutrition threatens children’s health and survival.

Malnutrition is often tied together with other illnesses. Most times, the illness is treated but the malnutrition continues – which means that another illness will surely present itself. A new report by Save the Children states that by the age of two, chronic malnutrition permanently stunts children’s physical growth and brain development and leaves them more vulnerable to disease.

We continued to follow Isabella as she visited a number of local families and checked on the health and growth of the children. Throughout the day, the connection between Isabella’s role in her village and my job on a busy hospital floor became clear – both of us are health care givers, trusted advisers, and friends to offer support or a smile.

It was then I knew that I had to be a voice for babies like Marlene who deserve to grow-up free from the threat of malnutrition and preventable diseases and for health workers like Isabella so that they can continue to do their lifesaving work.

This March, I’m taking what I learned in Guatemala and I’m bringing it to Capitol Hill at Save the Children’s Advocacy Summit. And, in my heart, I’m bringing babies like Marlene and health care heroes like Isabella. They need me to be their voice in Washington, where I’ll speak out in support of these lifesaving programs. Won’t you join me and be their voice, too?

This week I followed a link on my newsletter and found out how my orginization helps children.I got to see first hand all the different countries as well as the different divisions that the orginization is divided into.This was a very interesting story hope you enjoy reading it.

HOW OTHER COUNTRIES VIEW EARLY CHILDHOOD

SINGAPORE
Prime Minister Lee of Singapore;

"I think we should do more to nurture the whole child, develop their physical robustness, enhance their creativity, shape their personal and cultural and social identity, so that they are fit, they are confident, they are imaginative and they know who they are.

"Every child is different, every child has his own interests, his own academic inclinations and aptitudes and our aim should be to provide him with a good education that suits him, one which enables him to achieve his potential and build on his strengths and talents. Talent means talent in many dimensions, not just academic talent but in arts, in music, in sports, in creative activities, in physical activities.

"We need to pay more attention to PE, to arts and music and get teachers who are qualified to teach PE and art and music.

"Give each one a tailored and holistic upbringing, so you get academic education, moral education, physical education, art and a sense of belonging and identity. We aim to build a mountain range with many tall peaks but with a high base, not just a single pinnacle where everybody is trying to scramble up one single peak. And we are realizing this vision."

EQUITY

Global Section:

International Women's Day: Special podcast on education and gender equality

©© UNICEF/NYHQ2007-1045/Olivier Asselin

A girl carrying her slate and schoolbooks on her head smiles in the village of Essaout, Senegal.

This year, International Women's Day is focusing on the theme: “Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all.” Though significant progress has been made towards gender parity and equality in education, many challenges remain. According to latest UNICEF estimates, girls make up more than half of the 101 million children of primary school age that are not in school.
To look at the advances made and challenges ahead for girls’ education, moderator Amy Costello spoke to Tamara Kreinin, executive director of Women and Population at the United Nations Foundation, and the Honourable Ambassador Professor Samson Kagengo Ongeri, Kenya’s Minister of Education and UNICEF Champion for Child-Friendly Schools.
“The girls are still being pushed aside for the boys, and we have to put them front and centre,” said Tamara Kreinin. During her 25-year career in the private and public sectors, Kreinin has worked around the globe on issues affecting young girls and adolescents. Ms. Kreinin says that girls are still often left out in data collection and programming. “You often times find that when there is a program for youth, 90 per cent of the participants are boys.”
Honourable Ambassador Professor Samson Kagengo Ongeri discussed the experience of the Kenyan government in bringing more girls into their educational system.
Despite the strides that Kenya has made in many parts of the country, getting girls in nomadic districts to attend school has proved challenging. The enrolment for boys in the nomadic areas reached 50 percent, compared to only 22.5 percent for girls due to high drop-out rates for girls and early marriages.
However, there has been progress. “We have been able to create mobile schools, we’ve also been able to create low-cost boarding schools in order to attract the young boys and girls into our schools,” said Minister Ongeri.  “And also by the provision of other services like HIV and AIDS programmes and water and sanitation programmes we have been able to maintain our retention rate reasonably within reach

EXCELLENCE

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Budget Watch: This Week...

March 29, 2012

Paul Ryan's Budget Passes the House

Today, the budget introduced last week by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) was narrowly approved by the House of Representatives. This budget would cut discretionary spending even more than agreed to in last year’s bipartisan Budget Control Act, and would increase funding for defense instead of cutting it, as agreed to last year. Additionally, it would further cut taxes, thus requiring even more spending cuts in future years if deficit reduction is to be achieved.
The Ryan budget breaks a bipartisan agreement last year (The Budget Control Act) that would reach an agreed upon spending threshold by taking half the $1.2 trillion in cuts from programs that serve vulnerable Americans and half from defense. Essentially, his budget takes all the cuts from programs that provide Americans with important services and serve children, families, the elderly, and people with disabilities. By cutting discretionary spending below the level agreed upon with Democrats last year, Ryan’s budget sets up another partisan battle on spending and tax issues that will make a budget deal virtually impossible before the November elections (all spending bills must be passed by beginning of FY 2013, October 1, or the government shuts down unless there is some temporary extension of spending). Senate Budget Chairman Conrad has announced that he will not pass a budget this year, but has filed a deeming resolution setting the FY 2013 spending limits agreed to last year.
Specifically, Ryan’s budget calls for $5.3 billion in reduced spending, and nearly $4.4 trillion in lower taxes over 10 years compared to current policies, on top of the $5.4 trillion cost of making the Bush tax cuts permanent. It would cancel the scheduled cuts to defense (“the sequester”) agreed to as part of the budget deal last year ($600 billion over 10 years) and would instead increase spending on defense (by $228 billion through 2022) and shift all those scheduled cuts to domestic programs. He does not specify how those savings would be reached, but the budget includes instructions to the authorizing committees to find enough savings for this purpose. About half of the cuts in the Ryan budget ($2.5 trillion) are from health care programs – block granting Medicaid, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and voucherizing Medicare. By block granting Medicaid, Ryan’s budget would cut spending by $810 billion over 10 years, and additionally give states the power to cut eligibility, benefits, and payments to doctors and hospitals, and raise costs to the poor. The Ryan budget would also repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), eliminating the Medicaid expansion to lower income Americans, canceling all the subsidies to low and middle income Americans to help purchase health insurance starting in 2014, and cutting funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by nearly $29 billion in two years alone. Without the ACA, the 30 to 32 million Americans who would be expected to gain health coverage under the ACA would not get coverage, and in addition, millions of people who are already covered would lose their health coverage.
The Ryan budget would also cut funding for food stamps (SNAP) by about $133 billion over 10 years, and block grant the program, making assistance contingent on work or training, and subject to time limits and work requirements. Additionally, Ryan’s budget calls on six committees to find $261 billion in cuts to mandatory programs, so the other cuts that would necessarily result have not yet been identified.



As always cuts are meant for the poor and our children who are the most vulnerable.Do politicians realize that health care is the most important factor for being able to pursue a good education?I am always amazed at how so many well educated law makers have no clue on what Early education involves and child development is.