Dear Members of the Quality Education Council

August 26, 2009

Dear Members of the Quality Education Council:

The Early Learning Action Alliance, as a group of organizations active in advocating for and delivering early learning services to our community, thank you for your leadership in education in Washington. We look forward to your recommendations on a program for early learning in basic education in your initial report due to the legislature by January, 2010. The following recommendations were submitted today to the December 1st Drafting Team convened by Superintendent Randy Dorn and Director Bette Hyde as they develop recommendations for the 2010 legislative session.

As a coalition, our mission is to ensure that every Washington child, starting at birth, has equitable access to the relationships, education, and opportunities needed to be healthy and ready to succeed, focusing on the span of early childhood from birth to age five. The Early Learning Action Alliance has a broad set of principles (Link to ELAA Principles), which we have drawn from to guide our recommendations. Using these as relevant for system planning, ELAA believes that a comprehensive early learning system should:

· Address all domains of early childhood development, including social and emotional development, early care and education, parenting information and support, and physical health.

· Provide access to and funding for high-quality services for young children and their families proven effective by trustworthy research.

· Focus first on young children at greatest risk of poor outcomes as we strive for high-quality early learning opportunities for all children in Washington.

· Build an early childhood system with a strong infrastructure that supports parents, teachers, caregivers, and programs that ensure parent/family involvement.

· Support diverse early childhood opportunities and settings that allow parents to make the best choice for their children and families, recognizing that most children are in multiple types of care.

· Take a long-term approach with clear annual steps to get there.

During the 2009 Legislative Session, our coalition strongly supported including a program of early learning for at-risk children in the new definition of basic education. Subsequent statements have clarified that the Governor’s intentions are more comprehensive than the original language she vetoed in HB2261. We applaud a comprehensive approach to building a quality early learning system. Members of ELAA agree that recommendations for the 2010 legislative session should prioritize the following when making initial investments:

I. Voluntary universal preschool for three- and four-year-olds should be included in an expanded definition of basic education (HB2261). The program should be phased-in, beginning with targeted interventions, and systematically expanded to ensure that all children are school ready.

II. Target public funds on early learning programs that are evidence-based in terms of the benefit to children and the return on investment of state dollars.

III. Significant investments need to be made into education, training, and compensation of the early learning workforce if we are to achieve a quality, comprehensive early learning system that ensures all children enter kindergarten socially, emotionally and cognitively ready to succeed.

IV. Quality early learning opportunities should be available for children in a variety of settings to draw on the strengths of diverse families, communities, and service providers.

V. Strengthen opportunities for all parents and other caregivers of children birth to age five to promote attachment and nurturing of essential adult-child relationships and to maximize existing resources to develop a fully-funded, coordinated and sustainable network of effective services and supports to parents and licensed and informal caregivers.

VI. Ensure adequate financing of an early learning system through local, state, and federal public and private funding sources and a plan to develop programs to scale.

The Early Learning Action Alliance appreciates your consideration of these initial recommendations, expanded upon below. ELAA is currently in the process of developing our annual legislative agenda and look forward to continuing dialogue with the Quality Education Council and the December 1st Drafting Team.

I. Voluntary universal preschool for three- and four-year-olds should be included in an expanded definition of basic education (HB2261). The program should be phased-in, beginning with targeted interventions and expanded to ensure that all children are school ready.

If a basic and amply-funded education is the right of every child in Washington State then being ready for school, both intellectually and socially, is a critical component of this right. Currently all children are protected under Washington State’s “Paramount Duty” apart from those children under age 5.

Washington State should seize this opportunity to build a culture of school readiness by including voluntary universal preschool in the implementation of the revised definition of basic education outlined in HB2261. Elements of this program should include:

o Inclusion in HB2261, under the direction of the Quality Education Council.

o A phased-in model similar to full-day kindergarten, beginning with children who are most at-risk.

o Parent choice of delivery model among a variety of state-approved, licensed providers.

o A clear path from early learning to K-12 education through coordinated planning between the early learning community, OSPI, LEAs, and ESDs.

II. Target public funds on early learning programs that are evidence-based in terms of the benefit to children and the return on investment of state dollars.

High-quality, comprehensive early learning results in significant returns on public investment. These returns not only benefit society in the long run but also offer immediate advantages to the K-12 system in the form of decreased need for remediation, special education, and grade retention.

Near-term policy prioritization should utilize proven research that supports the following elements in a comprehensive birth-to-five early learning system:

o A longitudinal data system (including an age-, culturally-, and developmentally-appropriate kindergarten readiness assessment) that informs parents, educators, and policymakers on child outcomes, which programs are successful, and where problems exist.

o Investments in proven, voluntary, home visiting program models to reach at least 50% of 0-5 children at 185% of poverty level that will increase school readiness and other protective factors and decrease risk factors for children, as illustrated by Nurse Family Partnership, Parents as Teachers, Parent Child Home Program and Early Head Start.

o Align Head Start and ECEAP standards to strengthen the quality of early education and care for low-income children and families.

o Adoption and implementation of a quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) with: a clear set of standards and expectations about what constitutes high-quality early childhood education; incentives and supports to enable teachers to achieve high standards and provide quality care; support to parents in understanding what makes high-quality early childhood education; and data systems that track the provision of the supports and quality attainment listed above in addition to child outcomes.

o Implementation of a coordinated and well-integrated system for screening and referrals for health, vision, hearing, mental health, and developmental delays that will help children be school ready and reduce the need for costly interventions later on in life.

o Building strong linkages between K-12 and early learning by supporting integrated transition work and articulation among early learning professionals and K-3 teachers and principals.

o Research-based programs modeled after the successful federal Early Head Start programs that serve infants and toddlers during critical brain development both in high-quality center- and home-based settings.

The single most important predictor of child outcomes in early learning is the effectiveness of the care. Effective teachers and caregivers build a social, emotional, and cognitive foundation for success in school and life. Further, rigorous research has established that the quality of care is inextricably connected to the compensation, education, and training of teachers, with compensation as the strongest predictor of quality in the classroom. In order to ensure all children have access to high-quality early learning experiences, Washington must significantly increase educational opportunities, compensation, and incentives to attract and maintain a skilled and qualified workforce.

Elements of a high-quality professional development system that focuses on serving children birth to age five should include:

o Substantially increased access, incentives, and support for relevant and age-appropriate education and training for early learning professionals (including scholarships, coaching, and mentoring programs).

o Compensation across the system that appropriately reflects the cost of high-quality education and care, beginning with the expansion of the evidence-based and proven-effective Early Childhood Education Career and Wage Ladder and the creation of a parallel program for family child care providers.

o Complete work and implement elements of quality rating and improvement system designed to incentivize and increase provider quality standards.

IV. Quality early learning opportunities should be available for children in a variety of settings to draw on the strengths of diverse families, communities, and service providers.

A multitude of different individuals and institutions have historically played key roles in children’s lives before they enter the public schools; parents, as children’s first and most important teachers, often utilize a variety of early learning settings to fit the needs of their children and families, such as public or private child care centers, family child care homes, and family, friend, and neighbor care. Current policy recommendations must recognize that an early learning system should be delivered through a coordinated system of financial supports, incentives, and guidelines for these different settings. Some examples, in addition to professional child care, include:

o A continuum of evidence-based home visiting programs such as Nurse Family Partnership, Parents as Teachers, Parent Child Home Program, and Early Head Start that provide timely, individualized information and support within the child and family’s natural environment.

o Strengthen existing supports and programs for Family, Friend, and Neighbor caregivers such as Play and Learn groups and library partnerships, so that parents have the ability to choose from a range of programs meeting high-quality standards that support informal care settings

o Parenting and caregiver information and referral lines in multiple languages to ensure that parents and caregivers have access to child development information, stress reduction and resources.

o Parenting classes and cooperative preschools through community and technical colleges.

o Promote continuity of care for children in subsidized child care and early education settings by pursuing policies which assure that children are not excluded from early learning programs because of a change in their parent’s work status, such as extending the current reauthorization period from up to 6 months to 12 months.

o Quality early learning should be accessible and affordable for all parents. One short-term policy priority should include limiting child care subsidy copayment amounts to no more than 10% of a family’s gross monthly income. On a long-term basis, provider reimbursement rates should be increased to reflect at least the 75th percentile of the full market cost of child care throughout the state.

o Strong training, technical assistance, referral, research and evaluation to ensure continuous improvement in child outcomes, as illustrated in programs provided through the Washington State Child Care Resource & Referral Network.

o Paid family and medical leave (comparable to other developed economies in terms of number of weeks and amount of pay) should be implemented to assist parents of newborns and newly adopted children during the first critical weeks. The program could be funded by a worker-paid payroll tax

o Parents and informal caregivers should have a role in decision making, as illustrated in the ECEAP/Head Start models which engage parents through a Policy Council.

o Strengthen parent engagement by allowing families participating in Work Source to count volunteering at a local program/school and/or at home in a structured learning environment as part of their work-related activities.

o Provide ECEAP with the flexibility to serve additional at-risk three-year old children.

o Promote strong public awareness of the importance of and support for high-quality early learning environments, which requires a significant commitment to an intensive and culturally appropriate on-going communications strategy, e.g. Thrive by Five Washington demonstration communities in White Center and East Yakima.

VI. Ensure adequate financing of an early learning system through local, state and federal public and private funding sources and a plan to develop programs to scale.

o Part of financing an early learning system in Washington should include a basic education funding stream for voluntary universal preschool. Basic education funding is not zero-sum and additional revenue for preschool in basic education should not be at the expense of funding for other programs within basic education.

o New state revenue is needed to fulfill the state's goals for early childhood education. Early learning is education. This must be recognized as new state funding streams for K-12 and higher education are identified.

o State strategies should align with opportunities to leverage federal and private investments in order to maximize state investment in early learning.