CI Guest, Author at Children's Institute

Oregon Announces Preschool Promise Awardees

by CI Guest | Mar 23, 2016 | Early Works, Featured Programs, Grade Level Reading, Preschool

Oregon Announces Preschool Promise Awardees Last week, Oregon’s Early Learning Division announced their Preschool Promise award recommendations. The announcement marks an important step in the state’s process to increase publicly funded preschool opportunities for low-income children in Oregon. Preschool Promise, or House Bill 3380, was passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2015 with the goal of providing high-quality preschool in a variety of settings. Preschool Promise expands the types and number of providers that can receive funding for high-quality preschool programs in the state, and increases the number of families and children that are able to access the services. Early Learning Division staff estimate that the implementation of Preschool Promise will mean that approximately 1,300 more Oregon children will receive high-quality preschool in the 2016-2017 school year.

Gwyn Bachtle, an Early Learning Specialist in the Early Learning Division described the visionary goal of the new program as, “having children in programs that are quality-rated…and really working to increase the capacity of our communities.”

An award team, composed of state executive staff and three Early Learning Council members, reviewed applications from Early Learning hubs around the state. The hubs will be responsible for contracting with local providers and implementing the new preschool programming in their communities. Applications were evaluated based on demonstrated need; the capacity to support a mixed-delivery model; and the capacity to support high-quality preschool programs.

In total, ten hubs submitted a total of seven applications (one application was a joint application including multiple hubs) – with their combined requests reflecting the preschool needs of more than 2,600 children. Five of the seven applications were approved for funding, and these hubs will be working with the Early Learning Division closely in the upcoming weeks and months – gaining technical assistance and finalizing contracts with providers.

Awardees of 2016-17 Preschool Promise funding

Marion and Polk Early Learning Hub:
South-Central Oregon Early Learning Hub
Lane Early Learning Alliance
Southern Oregon Early Learning Hub
NW Regional Joint Application
NW Regional Early Learning Hub
Early Learning Washington County
Early Learning Multnomah
Clackamas Early Learning Hub

The Preschool Promise announcement is, as Molly Day, Early Learning Multnomah Director says, “a big deal. The state is deciding to invest in preschool, for its residents who are furthest from opportunity. Families in poverty, families that aren’t being served now…it is a lot of change all at once, and that makes it challenging, but it is a wonderful opportunity.”

“We hope this is just the beginning,” says Dana Hepper, Children’s Institute Director of Policy and Program. “There are many disadvantaged Oregon children who still lack access to high-quality preschool.” In fact, three-quarters of Oregon’s young children still don’t have access.

“The Children’s Institute is supporting the state to ensure successful implementation of Preschool Promise,” Hepper says. “We look forward to seeing the program grow.”

Three rural communities come together to create a vision for health

by CI Guest | Mar 3, 2016 | Health and Development

Andy Boe, Elkton School District Superintendent, and Scott Sublette, a leader in the Yoncalla community.

Dr. Beth Green, the researcher who leads the Portland State University team entrusted with the evaluation of the Early Works initiative, is walking down the street in rural Drain, Oregon when she is greeted by a stranger’s voice:

“Hey! Are you with that Ford Family project?”

Beth turns toward the voice; Dave Praeger gets out of his truck and introduces himself. They get to talking. In the back of his car, Dave has a large book named Yoncalla Yesterday. The book traces the history and genealogy of the small town which is the home of the Yoncalla Early Works initiative. Dave encourages Beth to keep the book, saying, “I know you’ll get it back to me somehow. And when you do, my number’s right inside.”

Beth recounts the story with a smile on her face – only here! Welcome to rural Oregon.

Fast forward one day to February 26th. Dave sat in the front row of the Drain Community Center, where the communities of Yoncalla, Drain, and Elkton came together to celebrate the kick-off of the region’s community health assessment. Over plates of lasagna, 50 community members reflected on what is known about the health of young children and their families in the region and to discuss can be done to improve the community’s health. The community health assessment is a first step to help the region understand it’s strengths, needs, resources and challenges when it comes to children’s health.

Conducting a community health assessment is a long-standing best practice in public health because it brings the voice of the community into visioning and planning. “Our goal is that the assessment findings will support the community to articulate a collective vision for health in the region,” says Elena Rivera, Children’s Institute’s Health Policy and Program Advisor. Along with members of the Yoncalla Early Works leadership team and researchers from Portland State University, Rivera is supporting the community health assessment process. “We know from research that the health of young children and their families has a huge impact on educational achievement,” she says, adding, “when a child grows up in a stable home and is connected to high quality health services, starting prenatally, they will be ready for success in school and life.” From this assessment, the Children’s Institute hopes to learn about the barriers communities face in meeting the health needs of families in rural communities. Our participation will inform our work with the legislature to strengthen the connection between early learning and health.

Erin Helgren, the Early Works Site Liaison in Yoncalla, opened the meeting by describing the tight-knit nature of the communities, and the common values that bind them together. “We are a community that holds children close to our hearts,” she said.

Although Drain, Elkton, and Yoncalla are in close proximity to each other geographically – and although they have a combined population of 5,000 – the three communities, as Yoncalla School District Superintendent Jan Zarate noted, “have never collaborated on something of this magnitude. A community health assessment to tell us about the wellness of our families is unprecedented.”

Attendees discuss why they care about the health of children in their community

Indeed, the attendance at the kick-off was broadly reflective of this new sense of collaboration. The room was filled with parents and family members, the three mayors of the communities, educational leaders from all three districts, and representatives from: North Douglas Family Relief Nursery, North Douglas Community Health Alliance, WIC, Healthy Families Oregon, Early Head Start, DHS Self-Sufficiency, South Central Early Learning Hub, and the Douglas County District Attorney’s office.

Representatives from the local school districts set the tone by emphasizing the connection between health in early childhood and later school success: “Finding kids sooner, capitalizing on what they need, and wrapping that service around them helps them succeed,” said Andy Boe, Elkton School District Superintendent.

An attendee adds her square to the health quilt.

As the meeting progressed, Callie Lambarth, a research associate for the Center for Improvement of Child & Family Services at PSU, underscored that the decision to undertake a community needs assessment will be just that – community-based. To this end, Callie led community members through a series of questions like, “Why do you care about the health of children 0-8 and their families in North Douglas County?” and “What does a healthy community look like to you?” As the table groups discussed these questions, they were encouraged to share their answers with the larger group and, in one exercise, were asked to visualize community health by drawing a picture on a square of paper. These squares were then placed together on a board to create a community health “quilt.” Themes that emerged included access to healthy food, health care, housing, safe outdoor spaces, and a caring, welcoming, and collaborative community.

The meeting ended with an interactive exploration (via bingo) of some existing health data for the region, and the identification of potential “gaps” in the data. Interested community members were then invited to participate in the design of a community health assessment – whether as a Steering Committee member, community meeting attendee, or simply to stay connected via email updates.

Following the community health assessment kick-off, Children’s Institute and PSU staff will reach out to community members who expressed an interest in serving on the community health assessment’s Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will then convene bi-monthly to determine the focus of the community health assessment. Members will review existing community health data, identify needs and gaps, determine research questions, and outline a research methodology and design. The second phase of the community health assessment will involve primary data collection conducted by community members to inform future health programming for the community.

No matter how community members choose to participate in the process moving forward, everyone who attended the February 26th kick off meeting left with a greater knowledge of health in the region, a budding vision for what a regional health collaboration could look like and – of course –a to-go box of full of delicious lasagna to share with their families.

Family Resource Navigator at Earl Boyles is model for schools

by CI Guest | Feb 24, 2016 | Child Care, Health and Development, Parents and Families

“I brought some pictures,” Josette Herrera says, handing her cell phone to Josué Peña-Juárez. He grimaces as he looks at the black mold that just keeps coming back around the windows in Herrera’s apartment. The two have talked about it before, but Herrera has had trouble getting her landlord to address the problem.

“I’m worried about my kids,” Herrera says. One of her sons had pneumonia this year and she fears the mold is impacting her family’s health.

As the new Family Resource Navigator at Earl Boyles Elementary School, Peña-Juárez has many meetings like this – with families who need advice, support, or access to a wide variety of services. From housing support to counseling, from legal help to clothing and food, Peña-Juárez helps families find whatever it is they need. “I never say, ‘you can’t ask me about that,'”; he says.

The Family Resource Navigator position, which Peña-Juárez was hired to fill in November, is the only position of its kind at a public school in Multnomah County. Funded by the county and staffed by SUN (which is operated at Earl Boyles by Metropolitan Family Service), the Family Resource Navigator role is an innovative demonstration of what can happen when an elementary school also serves as a neighborhood hub. The role was created as part of the Early Works initiative at Earl Boyles because academic success for young children is dependent on a wide variety of factors that go well beyond what schools traditionally support.

“The family and community contexts are incredibly important to ensure kids reach academic benchmarks,” says Dana Hepper, Children’s Institute’s Director of Policy and Program. “We worked with our partners to pilot the Family Resource Navigator role because integrating health and family support with education is so much more effective than having three separate siloes.”

Peña-Juárez has been on the job for just three months, but the impact is clear already. “Folks are coming forward and saying, ‘I need this support,'” he says. “That means that they already trust. They understand that someone is here and responsive.”

As a parent at the school, Herrera is very glad that Peña-Juárez is there. After a previous meeting with him, she went to a local workshop and learned about how to document her mold problem and submit the documentation to her landlord. This time around, she and Peña-Juárez discuss drafting a letter and going to the post office together to send it using certified mail.

“There are a lot of resources out there that a lot of people don’t know [about],” Herrera says. The workshop to empower renters is just one example.

Peña-Juárez’s goal is not just to help Earl Boyles families in need. “I want more families to be engaged with the school,” he says.

He sees that many parents have ideas and strengths to share, and trust and communication are key to tapping these strengths.

Earl Boyles SUN Site Manager Youn Han is Peña-Juárez’s supervisor. “He’s been able to provide a lot of capacity around family stabilization,” she says. “He does intensive work and builds meaningful connections with families.”

Everyone involved is hopeful that other schools in other communities will learn from the demonstration. The Children’s Institute is working closely with Peña-Juárez to track how he spends his time and how his work complements and builds on other Early Works strategies.

This gives us information we can share with others around the state at multiple levels. We are not just learning what a Family Resource Navigator position looks like on the ground; we are also evaluating what impact this strategy has in driving towards key Early Works outcomes.

“I hope that eventually there will be a team of [Family Resource Navigators] at other school sites so that we would meet and coordinate our resources,” he says.

He also hopes to train people within the community to take over the role in the long-term. “They’re from here. They’ve invested time and energy in the community. We can support them in getting some skills and then have them in positions like this one,” Peña-Juárez says.

Family Resource Navigator at Earl Boyles is model for schools Peña-Juárez’s most important advice for other schools looking to create a Family Resource Navigator position is to hire someone who can speak the language and understand the culture of the families in the community. At Earl Boyles, where a large number of families speak Spanish at home, Peña-Juárez’s bilingual skills and cultural background are critical.

Han agrees that it’s very important to hire the right person. “The Family Resource Navigator position is really dependent on families trusting that person,” she says. “Choose someone trustworthy, a good communicator, and preferably someone who is already familiar with or part of the community.”

Herrera also agrees. “Having [Peña-Juárez] here has helped a lot, especially him being bilingual,” she says. “He understands and he’s not judgmental.”

Both Peña-Juárez and Han emphasized that the role must be part of a larger school culture that is open and compassionate.

“Earl Boyles is such a great school because everyone from the administration and principal to the teachers and staff supports making communication as open as possible,” Han says.

The 2016 legislative session: continuing to work for Oregon’s underserved children

by CI Guest | Jan 27, 2016 | Policy Trends

The 2016 legislative session Oregon’s 2016 legislative session begins on February 1 and the Children’s Institute is already meeting with legislators and attending hearings to discuss issues impacting Oregon’s at-risk young children and families. We have developed an advocacy platform built on the foundation of our 2015 legislative victories.

The Children’s Institute’s 2016 legislative priorities include:

Releasing the $17.5 million allocated to begin the Preschool Promise program and start providing preschool to more than 1,000 3- and 4-year-olds in the 2016-17 school year. Preschool Promise was created by the 2015 Oregon Legislature’s approval of House Bill 3380, which envisioned a future where all low-income children have access to a high-quality preschool that will meet their needs. Stakeholders have spent the past eight months fleshing out the details for how to spend this money, and now the Legislature must move the funds to the Early Learning Division of the Oregon Department of Education so that it can distribute the funds to the communities most ready to pilot the new approach.
Fixing a $5.2 million Head Start budgeting mistake. During the 2015 legislative session, lawmakers thought they were allocating $8.7 million to expand access to Head Start for low-income preschoolers. But due to a staff error in estimating the cost to continue the existing services, Head Start only received $3.5 million in new funding. This has left hundreds of Oregon’s most vulnerable children unserved.
Allocating $5.4 million to ensure young Oregon children who are identified with developmental delays get the help and services they need. Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education services help children from birth to five years old with a diagnosed developmental delay, along with their families. With Oregon’s commitment to universal developmental screenings, more children with delays are being identified earlier and accessing services. Unfortunately, funding for the program has remained essentially flat while the number of children and families served continues to grow. Intervening early saves money down the road in reduced special education costs.

Through the Early Works program, the Children’s Institute has deepened our understanding of how important early learning opportunities are for Oregon’s young children. At Earl Boyles Elementary in east Portland, we see the smiling faces of 3- and 4-year-olds entering the preschool. And we hear from kindergarten teachers, reinforced by the data, about how dramatically preschool is improving these children’s school readiness. At Yoncalla Elementary in Yoncalla, we work with a wonderful community preschool struggling to meet growing parent demand while lacking local funding.

These stories mirror communities across Oregon. Getting more children served in high-quality early learning remains a top priority for The Children’s Institute. We will be working throughout the legislative session over the next several weeks to urge legislators to continue making headway for Oregon’s youngest children. We will also continue to report on our progress and on developments during the session.

Preschool Promise: Oregon Launches Mixed-Delivery Preschool

by CI Guest | Dec 7, 2015 | Preschool

Preschool Promise: Oregon Launches Mixed-Delivery Preschool In January, the Oregon Department of Education’s Early Learning Division will begin accepting applications for a brand new stream of state funding for early learning: Preschool Promise. Preschool Promise will bring access to publicly-funded, high-quality preschool to more than 1,000 additional Oregon children each year.

The program will begin to address gaps in who has access to high-quality preschool. The funding pays for preschool for kids from families whose income is up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Opportunities for families of color and in isolated areas will also increase because the program’s mixed-delivery approach is designed to be culturally-responsive and geographically wide-ranging.

During the 2015 legislative session, Oregon committed $17 million to the new program; the funding will go to high-quality preschools in a variety of settings including Head Start programs, preschools run by elementary schools and school districts, and private preschools.

The Children’s Institute worked closely with state leaders to develop the idea for Preschool Promise and helped to write the bill that was ultimately passed. We also played a key role in advocating for the legislation by conducting legislative visits, lining up testimony, and building a coalition of business and education organizations and groups working with communities of color that endorsed the bill.

“Thanks to the Oregon Legislature’s unprecedented investment in early childhood, we have a chance to show what we can do collectively to serve children and families,” says Gwyn Bachtle, Preschool Promise Program Coordinator at the state’s Early Learning Division. “Preschool Promise reflects that investment and we are looking forward to building a strong base for children to be successful throughout their educational careers.”

After the session ended in July, the Children’s Institute advised the state as it determined how the funds should be distributed. In January, all 16 of the state-designated “early learning hubs” will be eligible to apply for the funding on behalf of qualified preschools in their areas. A statute passed by the Legislature in 2013 authorized the creation of the regional early learning hubs that would focus on creating an aligned early learning system to ensure children arrive at school ready for success and families are supported to be healthy and stable.

Each of the hubs is a collection of program and service providers that prioritize aligning K-12, early learning, health services, and human services.

“Preschool Promise is an important step forward for Oregon,” said Dana Hepper, the Children’s Institute’s director of policy & program. “But getting the bill approved is only the first step. The Children’s Institute and our partners now will be working with the Early Learning Division to ensure that this program establishes a good foundation and that it rolls out and grows in a way that supports a diverse group of providers all focused on quality. That will be the key to building a program that works for all Oregon children.”

The program is tied to other state programs that are improving Oregon’s early learning system. For example, Oregon’s Quality Rating and Improvement System is how the state both determines whether a program has the quality to qualify for the state program and supports quality improvement. Programs that participate receive a star rating and learn how to improve that rating.

The application process emphasizes key readiness indicators that hubs must have in place to ensure the funding is used in a way that will make a difference for kids. These indicators were determined through a process that included hearings and meetings with more than 300 community members to get their input.

Here are the indicators the state has determined it will be looking for:

Demonstrated Need and Connection to Community – includes indicators related to community needs, community and provider engagement, and parent engagement.
Capacity to Support a Mixed Delivery Model – includes indicators that address areas of organizational capacity, financial qualifications, and governance.
Capacity to Support High-Quality Preschool Programs – includes indicators aligned with accountability to outcomes, capacity to promote high-quality early learning, commitment to continuous quality improvement, and collaborative and effective professional development.

Early Learning Hubs selected to receive Preschool Promise funding will be announced in March, and participating preschools will start to reach out to families and hire staff in April and May (to reach out to families and hire staff). The state funding with then will begin serving preschool children in September 2016.

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