Mississippi Preschool Enrollment Top Ten in Nation!
Posted: March 19, 2015 Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Business Ethics, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi First, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Education, MS Department of Human Services, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi | Tags: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, child care Mississippi, equal access, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi child care, Mississippi First, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation Leave a comment
Child Care helps to place Mississippi in the Top Ten!
Disparate Intent?
Posted: March 17, 2015 Filed under: "Race to the Top", Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Business Ethics, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, Hechinger Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi First, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Education, MS Department of Human Services, QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi | Tags: 2007 Market Survey Rates, Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, child care Mississippi, child care quality rating systems Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, equal access, Hechinger Report, Kellogg Foundation, Market Survey Rates, Mississippi Child Care Quality Steps, Mississippi First, Mississippi School Readiness, Mississippi State Early Childhood Institute, Quality Rating System; DECCD-MDHS; CCDF Quality Improvement, Quality Rating Systems, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation Leave a comment
UPDATE:
The Education Appropriations Bill Passed. It will not go to Conference and the Early Learning Collaborative will not receive an increase in Phase I funding.
We will continue to work now to build an appropriation for the Child Care Development Fund in the next Legislative Session – 2016!
Click here and scroll down to read comments of “education 1st”.
Click here to read about Arizona and Massachusetts Early Learning Funding.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer proposed to provide $9.6 million in additional funding to address the growing need for child care assistance for children in CPS and to prevent 4,000 low-income children currently receiving child care assistance from losing it.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, in his FY 2014 budget, proposed to spend an additional $51.6 million for child care assistance to serve infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children who are currently on the waiting list. The governor also proposed to provide $30 million for a new initiative related to the state quality rating and improvement system that would support teacher training, professional development, and classroom grants; $13 million to increase reimbursement rates for providers serving children receiving child care assistance.
2012 Harvard Law School Legislative Recommendations for Expanding Early Childhood Education in Mississippi
Posted: March 9, 2015 Filed under: "Race to the Top", Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Business Ethics, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Head Start, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi Building Blocks, Mississippi First, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Education, MS Department of Human Services, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi | Tags: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, child care Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, equal access, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi State Early Childhood Institute, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation 2 Comments2012 Harvard Law School Legislative Recommendations for Expanding Early Childhood Education in Mississippi
At approximately the same time Rachel Canter of Mississippi First released her much touted 2012 Leaving Last in Line legislative brief, the Harvard Law School released other Legislative Recommendations for Expanding Early Childhood Education in Mississippi.
It is important to note that in many families today, both must work outside of the home, and these families benefit from full-time (and extended day) early childhood services. Many pre-K programs today particularly collaborative approaches combine program elements focus on cognitive, social and emotional development and childcare, however, are critical to meeting the diverse needs of young children and working parents.
Mississippi voters support a pre-k program so long as it sets high standards, includes private providers and preserves local control.
West Virginia created a public school preschool program in 1983 and passed legislation in 2002 to expand the initiative to reach all four year olds by 2012.
While state funding goes directly to the public schools, half of these programs must contract to collaborate with private centers and Head Start in order to meet the needs of all the state’s preschool children.
Collaborative Pre-K approaches can actually promote family values and benefit stakeholders such as Head Start and private childcare providers.
On February 23, 2015, Rachel Canter released an update to her 2012 State of Public Pre-k, sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation. Available child care data demonstrating public opportunity for pre-K instruction was not included in the report.
Child Care Pre-K Data Provided in Just Hours!
Posted: March 4, 2015 Filed under: "Race to the Top", Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Business Ethics, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Advisory Council, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Licensing, Child Care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, Delta Licensed Providers, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Early Learning Guidelines (ELG), General, Head Start, Hechinger Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi Building Blocks, Mississippi First, Mississippi Health Department, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Education, MS Department of Health, MS Department of Human Services, QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi, Uncategorized | Tags: "Race to the Top", 2007 Market Survey Rates, Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Licensing, child care licensing Mississippi, child care quality rating systems Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, equal access, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, Mississippi early childhood education, Mississippi First, Mississippi State Early Childhood Institute, QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System; DECCD-MDHS; CCDF Quality Improvement, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation Leave a comment
Child Care Pre-K Data Provided in Just Hours!
AN EMAIL REQUEST Tue, Mar 3, 2015 5:13 pm
From Debbie Ellis licensedprovider@aol.com
To rachel rachel@mississippifirst.org
Dear Ms. Canter:
On Monday, February 23, 2015, you released your Pre-K Report Book, The State of Public PreK in Mississippi.
In that release, you acknowledge your work is incomplete without due consideration of child care saying, “Unfortunately, we did not have the capacity to include childcare data in this iteration of the report. In the future, we hope to expand the scope of this report to include more information about the preK services offered by licensed childcare centers.”
Please be advised that the Mississippi Legislature has approved a Pre-K Collaborative – not the addition of traditional grade K4.
For that reason, March 2, 2015, I requested the child care data you do not have the capacity to collect.
In two short business hours, I was provided with the number of children age four (receiving child care assistance) enrolled in licensed child care programs this March, by county. (See below.)
Soon after, I received the number of children enrolled and participating in Mississippi Building Blocks – also a Pre-K Collaborator and equally funded for providing public preschool opportunities to children. (See below.)
Today, following additional requests for information, I received data showing the number of children, ages three and four, who are participating in QRIS, level 3, 4 and 5 preschool classrooms. (See partial list below.)
Finally, I can report that Mississippi Building Blocks also provides public opportunity to 286 (two-hundred-eighty-six) boys and girls age three.
Child Care data is readily available upon request from (but not limited to) the following sources:
Laura Dickson Director Division of Early Childhood Care and Development Mississippi Department of Human Services Laura.Dickson@mdhs.ms.gov 601) 359-4528
April May Executive Director Mississippi Building Blocks 403B Towne Center, Suite C Ridgeland, MS 39157 amay@msbuildingblocks.com (601) 898-1525
I am providing the child care data for your consideration. (I did try to publish my remarks on the website you provided for readers to report omissions and errors, but that link is either broken or the page was never made ready.)
Please note that the data is given by county in order to enable you to update your State of Public Pre-K Report as quickly as possible and with as little effort as possible.
(I know you will recognize the flexibility Pre-K Collaborations allow for states to offer a mixed delivery of services that offer parents choices and options for preschool enrollment. You consistently speak of parental choice when providing guidance in Mississippi Charter School implementation.) The models presented in the data are cutting edge, high quality full/extended day, full year and Zero to Five Programs that meet the working needs of parents.
I hope this information is helpful to you.
If ever again you lack the capacity or ability to fully represent Mississippi’s Early Learning Collaborative efforts to the public or legislature, please do not hesitate to call on me.
I am always happy to lift up Mississippi’s dedicated child care industry.
Child care keeps Mississippi working!
Sincerely,
Debbie Ellis Delta Licensed Child Care Providers 211 West President Avenue Greenwood, MS 38930
Rachel Canter – Fast and Loose with the Facts?
Posted: February 27, 2015 Filed under: "Race to the Top", Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Business Ethics, Child Care Advisory Council, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Licensing, Child Care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, Dependent Care Tax Credit, Head Start, Hechinger Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi First, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Education, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi | Tags: "Race to the Top", Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, child care Mississippi, child care quality rating systems Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, MDHS, Mississippi Child Care Quality Steps, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, Mississippi Health Department, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation Leave a comment
Rachel Canter is the Executive Director of Mississippi First, a 501c3 public policy non-profit specializing in improving public education in Mississippi. Mississippi First is involved in implementing Mississippi’s charter school and Pre-K policies, informing the public about Common Core State Standards, and implementing evidence-based sex education.
Pre-K Report Book: State of Public PreK in Mississippi
February 23, 2015
Mississippi First (MSF) has released a report, The State of Public Pre-K in Mississippi, as a follow-up to its Title I Pre-K Preliminary Report released in 2012.
MSF states the report represents a clear picture of the number, types, and characteristics of pre-K providers in each Mississippi community.
That is only half-true.
The State of Public Pre-K in Mississippi lists all Title I and Head Start Pre-K Programs in Mississippi public school districts.
It DOES NOT, however, provide any detail regarding Pre-K classes serving children receiving child care assistance through the Child Care Development Fund who attend level 3, 4 or 5 centers.
It provides NO information regarding children in public opportunities for Pre-K through the equally funded Building Blocks pre-K classrooms.
It includes NO information from the Early Years Network on qualified early learning professionals or curriculum used in child care classrooms, and NO information from the Mississippi Department of Health or DECCD regarding the number of children age four being served in child care even though such information and data should be readily available upon request.
Ms. Cantor knows exactly what public opportunity data she chose to include in her Pre-K Report Book and more importantly, she knows the public opportunity data she chose not to include.
On page 9, she states:
3. Lack of information about childcare
“The greatest limitation of this report is its lack of information about childcare and other private preK efforts. We estimated in 2011 that licensed childcare held seats for 36.5% of four-year-olds, making any report about preK incomplete…”
Without all the data, the manipulated but erroneous conclusion to be drawn…with great fanfare… is “Over half the state lacked public pre-K access in 2012!”
That is the platform she has built to demonstrate the need for Phase II funding of a Mississippi First guided Pre-K expansion plan that DID NOT PASS MUSTER with national experts who examined her work.
On October 10, 2014, Mississippi submitted an application, prepared by MDE and Mississippi First, competing for the award of a Preschool Development Grant.
On December 10, 2014, the Associated Press reported Mississippi had missed out on its share of $250 million in federal money to expand its fledgling prekindergarten program.
It was soon revealed that one U.S. Department of Education Grant Reviewer critiqued the plan saying, ‘There are no details about how this proposal would coordinate with the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990.’
In response, State Board of Education member Danny Spreitler of Amory, who runs a foundation active in expanding and improving child care in Monroe County, said Mississippi needs to improve coordination among the groups that fund and regulate child care.
However, as evidenced by the nature of The State of Public Pre-K in Mississippi released by Mississippi First ten weeks later, Ms. Canter is either not listening or is incapable of leading the needed changes necessary to minimize attitudinal Pre-K expansion obstacles.
The PEW Center on the States has advised at a minimum, collaborations involve school districts sub-contracting with qualified private providers to deliver a Pre-K program.
Click here to review the MSF Pre-K Report and verify child care industry data exclusion.
Click here to read “Mississippi misses out on federal preschool money – again”.
Early Learning Collaborative Act
February 27, 2015
The language of the Mississippi Early Learning Collaborative Act of 2013 is linked on Ms. Canter’s Mississippi First website.
She speaks of the legislation often.
Lines 228 through 233 of the Legislation read as follows:
“The department shall make an annual report to the Legislature and the Governor regarding the effectiveness of the program. The PEER Committee shall review those reports and other program data and submit an independent evaluation of program operation and effectiveness to the Legislature and the Governor on or before October 1 of the calendar year before the beginning of the next phased-in period of funding.”
PEER Committee Reports Released in Calendar Year 2014, demonstrate that an independent evaluation of Collaborative Program operation and effectiveness has NOT BEEN COMPLETED.
Do you suppose Ms. Canter has simply overlooked this lawful pre-requisite for Phase II funding or does her demand for public accountability of taxpayer dollars apply only to small business child care providers serving low-income children – a double standard?
Click here to read lines 228 through 233 of the Mississippi Early Learning Collaborative Act.
Click here to read all 2014 PEER Committee Reports.
The Gallo Show (Supertalk Mississippi) 
February 18, 2015
In response to controversy resulting in the dismissal of a young lady hired by Mississippi First to provide training to teachers responsible for sex education in middle schools, Rachel Canter sent an Email to Paul Gallo of Supertalk Mississippi in which she not only disassociated herself and her organization from the person in question, she actually attempted to minimize any concern for MSF’s involvement in such debacle by stating:
“Furthermore, Mississippi First has no current contracts with the Mississippi Department of Education nor have we ever for sex education.”
That is true.
Mississippi First has no current contracts with the Mississippi Department of Education.
Mississippi First contracts for training and technical assistance in sex education are with the Mississippi Department of Health!
I do not make judgment of the highly qualified young lady hired and quickly fired (I do not know what the MSF personnel policies for social media are) – my point is this… any sex education consultant Ms. Canter hires (even if it be a Sunday School teacher) will guide sex education practices and policies for Mississippi teens.
The name of the actual agency through which Mississippi First works will not change its consultant’s reach into sixth, seventh and eighth grade classrooms!
Such manipulation of the facts – what was voluntarily disclosed by MSF to guide Mr. Gallo’s discussion prior to his radio show, and what was not (apparently) disclosed (based on the questions he raised during his show) has led some of that broad listening audience to now question more than just the scruples of the sex education consultant suddenly let go at Mississippi First.
Click/Watch The Gallo Show below. Begin your review at mark 96 minutes (96:00).
http://www.supertalk.fm/archives/audio-archives/gallo-archives/?recording_id=12639
See below: Sex Education Contract between Mississippi First and the Mississippi Department of Health.
Pre-K Policies? St. Louis Preschool Teacher of the Year fired over a pull-up!
Posted: February 23, 2015 Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, CCPP-approved Provider, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, MS Department of Education, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi | Tags: Administration for Children and Families, child care Mississippi, e-Childcare™, Mississippi early childhood education, SECAC Mississippi Leave a commentPre-K Policies? St. Louis Preschool Teacher of the Year fired over a pull-up!
As Pre-K Collaborators and Rachel Canter of Mississippi First produce a video to campaign for Phase II funding for Pre-K Collaborators, we are reminded that the Early Learning Collaborative Act calls for Administrative Procedures (and public hearings) in the development of policies governing preschool and Collaborations.
Review the Early Learning Collaborative Act, lines 305 – 312.
State Superintendent Carey Wright recently named Jill Dent as State Director of Pre-K Collaboration.
It should, then, be of no surprise to anyone that NO administrative procedures have been announced by the Mississippi Department of Education regarding Pre-K policy! Jill Dent left her position at MDHS following two failed attempts to reduce the amount of child care assistance provided to low-income parents through failed administrative procedures. (Click here to see “Judge blocks Mississippi’s child care finger scanning plan: Hinds County Chancery Court Judge Denise Owens ruled Thursday that the state’s economic impact statement for the program is so incomplete that it didn’t meet a legal requirement for a good faith effort.”)
Does Mississippi even have a policy prohibiting pull-up diapers in preschool?
See what has happened to one preschool teacher in St. Louis.
Angry parents protest firing of St. Louis Teacher of the Year over dirty diaper
Fox2Now reports that the firing of popular teacher Kelly Hahn involves a 3-year-old who showed up in a pull-up diaper, a violation of school rules. When Hahn discovered the boy had slightly soiled his diaper she left it on and immediately called the parent, instead of removing it right away. Another staffer at the Wilkinson Early Childhood Center where Hahn teaches called the Missouri Department of Family Services.
Click here to read the entire article on Fox News today.
Pine Belt Directors Network Conference
Posted: February 20, 2015 Filed under: Child Care Advisory Council, Child Care Licensing, Child Care Mississippi, School Readiness Mississippi, Uncategorized | Tags: child care Mississippi, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, Mississippi licensed child care Leave a commentEmail: bubba@playschoolcc.com
2015 MECA Conference Registration
Posted: January 28, 2015 Filed under: Child Care Mississippi, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, School Readiness Mississippi | Tags: child care Mississippi, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Mississippi early childhood education, Mississippi School Readiness 2 Comments
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