Early Childhood Education: It takes a Village
‘RCPS and CCLC took bold action steps to meet the Governor’s goals’
“Inequity in early education begins in the first critical years before a child reaches kindergarten, when about 90 percent of the brain is developed,” said Virginia’s Secretary of Education. Increasing preschool access to all families, regardless of income level, as well as improving quality, and creating public/private partnerships in Commonwealth communities, has gained increased attention by the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation. Developing a consistent standard for comparison of early learning programs is also underway at the state and national level.
There is well documented evidence that having an early childhood education when children are age birth to five impacts future success in life in a variety of important ways. This includes statistics that indicate lower rates of teenage pregnancy, juvenile delinquent behaviors, social and emotional issues, and greater career success after high school. Data collection efforts by the University of Virginia will begin on August 30, 2019 from the eleven pilot communities, including Rappahannock County. Teacher surveys and local childcare facility leaders from around the state have been providing answers to questions being posed by Virginia Early Childhood Foundation’s administrative team, to gather crucial information necessary to determine how best to meet current needs.
Rappahannock County is well ahead of this initiative due in part to Rappahannock community leaders, including both public and private entities, and 21 local partners who committed to being part of meeting identified goals in December of 2018. A community leadership team has been meeting monthly to formulate and carry out plans to meet the challenges outlined in the Governor’s initiatives, specifically to improve the current fact, that “70 percent of economically disadvantaged families lack access to quality, affordable, early care and education,” according to First Lady Pamela Northam.
Rappahannock County Public Schools (RCPS) Superintendent, Dr. Shannon Grimsley, accepted the role of administering funds provided by the Board of Supervisors, when Head Start left Rappahannock County last August. With assistance from Child Care and Learning Center (CCLC), additional funds to partially support current needs, through the formation of a second classroom called the First Step Collaboration at CCLC, were secured in January 2019 through an award of a Mixed Delivery and Preschool Development Grant. This provided some funding to assist CCLC in fulfilling their commitment this school year to meet preschool needs for county families who were applying for a preschool experience. During year two of the grant, both the public school and CCLC preschool classrooms are now full.
Dr. Grimsley stated, “I know I speak for many educators when I say that it is about time legislators and the department of education are paying more attention to the dire need for high quality early childhood education, especially in rural areas where funding and resources are scarce. Our hope is that, through the First Step Collaboration project, we have created an exemplar for public/ private partnerships that can leverage and optimize multiple funding streams to serve the most families. However, we still have a long way to go to ensure funding formulas adequately direct dollars toward addressing this need in rural areas.”
RCPS and CCLC took bold action steps to meet the Governor’s goals by utilizing private and state funds to form local partnerships immediately after Head Start removed themselves from the county. CCLC hired a Project Director and Family Support Coordinator to oversee a wellformulated action plan using the state’s administrative Preschool Development team to guide progress this year. I will say as CCLC’s First Step Collaborative Family Support Coordinator that Rappahannock County is proud to be part of this national movement to improve quality, allow greater access regardless of income, and build relationships with community partners toward the goal of improving early education for all.
Forming a Childcare Provider Collaborative in November of 2018, efforts were initiated to begin building key relationships among child care educators, in order to work together to offer Rappahannock a variety of
early education options. This effort has strengthened a commitment to reach specific goals of the Governor’s office, including improving quality and increasing access to more families. County families can now be linked more easily to local resources, understand the benefits of applying for Child Care Assistance through the Department of Social Services, and trust that family day homes, school and center based licensed facilities partnering in this effort can meet their children’s developmental needs with some oversight of quality being provided. All of the Child Care Providers in the collaborative have agreed to take steps to offer families, who qualify to use state dollars, an opportunity to enroll at their facilities so more low income families can access services and get back to work.
It will soon become easier for families to understand their community options and for local governments and systems to strengthen what is being offered. Currently, there is no mandate for participation, however early childhood education sites already choosing to participate in the Preschool Development Grant include the RCPS Preschool class, Child Care and Learning Center, Baby Bear Day Care and Preschool, Hearthstone School, and Belle Meade Montessori School. Belle Meade intends to open a Preschool component this year. Eve Brooks, CCLC Board member, stated, "Expanding State and Federal funding for child care subsidies would enable all these sites to offer more subsidized child care, so all families can afford quality care that improves school readiness and greater success in life."