APPENDIX III
Connecticut Appropriations Committee RBA Templates
Part I, Quality of Life (Population) Result for
Early Childhood Care and Education
Part II, System Accountability for
Early Childhood Care and Education
Part II, Program Accountability for
State Department of Education School Readiness Initiative
Part II, Program Accountability for
Department of Social Services Child Day Care Center Program
Part II, Program Accountability
Department of Public Health Community Based Regulation
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Final 4/13/2006
Connecticut Appropriations Committee RBA[1] Template
Part I, Quality of Life (Population) Result for
Early Childhood and Education Summary Sheet
Quality of Life Result:All Connecticut children begin kindergarten healthy and ready for school success within their developmental potential.
Key Funding Information: (Dollars reported in millions)
Total Current Funding: $533.0 $533.0
Funding Distribution
Federal: $262.9
State: $266.1
Capital Projects Subtotal
Other Funds (Not Federal or State) $4.1
Projected Changes Funding: There have been changes in funding for the identified programs since SFY 2002-2003. This information is being compiled.
Need to Turn the Curve
Measure 1: Preschool Enrollment Across Connecticut.
Statewide, about three in four children attend preschool in their fourth year of age. These data are derived from parental reports when they enroll their children in public kindergarten. There has been little change in this measure.
Measure 2. Reading Proficiency on the 4th grade CMT.
Comparison of 4th grade reading scores over the past four years for the state show an important decline in 4th grade achievement.
Measure 3: Children in poverty.
First, one in four children in the State of Connecticut lives in families with incomes below “economic self-sufficiency.” Second, over the past five years, the proportion of children living in poverty according to this measure has increased by slightly more than 10%.
Measure 4: Low Birth Weight Among Connecticut’s Infants.
In 2002, 3258 low birth weight babies were born in Connecticut. Importantly, this curve has “turned” in the wrong direction. After decreasing from 1998 to 2000, the percentage of low birth weight babies has returned to its 1998 levels. / Measure 1. Preschool Enrollment Across Connecticut
Measure 2. Reading Proficiency on the 4th grade CMT
Measure 3: Children in Poverty
Measure 4: Low Birth Weight Among Connecticut’s Infants
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Final 4/13/2006
Connecticut Appropriations Committee RBA[2] Template
Part I, Quality of Life (Population) Result for
Early Childhood Care and Education
Quality of Life Result:
All Connecticut children begin kindergarten healthy and ready for school success within their developmental potential.
Why is This Result Important?
Children’s ability to succeed in the first years of schooling rests on their healthy development during the first five years of life: their health status, language, cognitive and emotional development, and their social skills and behaviors.
Children who enter kindergarten behind in these key areas are more likely to be behind in critical learning skills, like reading, in 4th grade. These early achievement gaps predict later academic failure and correlate with incarceration and welfare dependency as young adults.
Ensuring that all children are at age-appropriate levels of development reduces the likelihood that they will enter kindergarten behind. Interrupting the trajectory of academic challenge during kindergarten through third grade will contribute immensely to later academic success.
In addition, national economic studies show a robust long term “return on investment” of 16% per year, or 800% over a 20-year period when investments are made in early childhood development (home visiting and quality early care and education). Demonstrable short-term savings in special education costs are also now being shown in Connecticut.
Key Funding Information: (Dollars reported in millions)Total Current Funding: $533.0
Funding Distribution
Federal: $262.9
State: $266.1
Capital Projects Subtotal
Other Funds (Not Federal or State) $4.1
Projected Changes in Funding: There have been changes in funding for the identified programs since SFY 2002-2003. This information is being compiled.
Indicators and the Story Behind Them
Measure 1. Preschool enrollment across Connecticut
(Source: State Department of Education Strategic School Profiles)
Across all communities, there has been little change in preschool enrollment over the period 2001 through 2004. Statewide, about three in four children attend preschool during their fourth year of age. These data are derived from parental reports when they enroll their children in public kindergarten.
The real story is revealed when these data are analyzed by the economic capacity of the communities. Great disparities emerge, with those in the poorest communities attending preschool much less often than children in wealthy communities.
Measure 2. Reading proficiency on the 4th CT Mastery Tests
(Source: State Department of Education CMT data)
Comparison of 4th grade CMT reading scores over the past four years for the state shows an important decline in 4th grade achievement.
This decline has occurred during the same period that Connecticut has focused additional and specific resources on early reading ability.
As important as the decline in reading proficiency is, there is also dramatic difference in reading performance between children of poverty (as measured by eligibility for the federal Free and Reduced Meals Program) and those of moderate and higher incomes. Poor students perform only about half as well as other Connecticut 4th graders.
Measure 3: Children in Poverty
(Source: State Department of Education Strategic School Profiles)
There are many risk factors leading to low academic performance for children growing up in poverty. Measuring the number of children eligible for the federal Free and Reduced Price Meal program quantifies that risk and helps to tell two important stories.
First, one in four children in the State of Connecticut lives in a family with income below “economic self-sufficiency.” These families earn less income than is necessary to pay for basic necessities (like housing, child care, transportation, health care, and food) without governmental assistance. In Connecticut, economic self-sufficiency occurs at about 200% of the federal poverty level. Data for this indicator is based on students’ eligibility for the federal Free and Reduced Meal Program (FRPM), which is set at 185% of the federal poverty level.
Second, over the past five years, the proportion of children living in poverty according to this measure has increased by slightly more than 10%. A robust research literature has proven that living in poverty is correlated with poor health outcomes, reduced language and cognitive development, as well as school un-readiness and academic underachievement.
Measure 4: Low birth weight among Connecticut’s infants
(Source: Annie E. Casey KidsCount online data)
Children born at low birth weight face substantial developmental challenges. Conditions associated with low birth weight babies include delayed language, cognitive and physical development.
On this indicator, Connecticut does as well as the nation, with just under 8% of babies born at low birth weight. In 2002, 3258 low birth weight babies were born in Connecticut. Importantly, this curve has “turned” in the wrong direction. After decreasing from 1998 to 2000, the percentage of low birth weight babies has returned to its 1998 levels. The national goal from the “Healthy People 2010” initiative is 5%.
What Will It Take To Do Better?
The state and its partners will need to significantly expand access for all children in Connecticut to quality pre-kindergarten experiences. In addition, ensuring children’s age-appropriate development requires a partnership across many sectors. Essential partners include families, the governmental and provider sectors at the state and local level, philanthropy and employers.
A commitment is required among partners to track the annual health and readiness status of young children from birth to school entry and to provide family-friendly well-child assessment coupled with service or treatment when identified as a need.
For most Connecticut families, parents and pediatricians will already be tracking their children’s development. However, for children at risk of delayed language or cognitive development, or who demonstrate delayed social or emotional development, early and high quality service and supports – involving the children and their adult family members – must be provided to
turn the curve of un-readiness at entry to kindergarten.
Tracking the development of all children who receive state or federally supported services – and providing for effective early intervention as necessary -- should become a top priority for state agencies and their local partners. This action will assure both (a) the promotion of school readiness and (b) the early and cost-effective remediation of early developmental problems.
What is the Role of State Government?
State government does not (on most occasions) raise children. Families and communities raise children. The role of state government is therefore four-fold:
§ Develop and utilize data to identify the needs of at-risk children and, with communities, establish community-specific plans for engagement
§ Establish standards of program quality and best practice
§ Allocate and award funds based on expected specific outcomes
§ Evaluate progress on child/family outcomes and continue funding what works
Recognizing the dramatic challenges to Connecticut’s future citizenry, workforce and economic security revealed by these (and other) indicators, the Governor requested and the Connecticut General Assembly established in statute the Connecticut Early Childhood Education Cabinet. The Early Childhood Education Cabinet has been charged to produce a multi-year strategic plan to ensure that all children born in 2006 stand at the kindergarten door ready for school success.
Part I of the Early Childhood Investment Plan, to be released in June 2006 will present the framework for system and program improvements, as well as for governance and accountability improvements (including cross-agency management issues and data development). Part II, to be released by early November, will provide a multi-year cost analysis, funding recommendations, and recommendations for building a multi-year accountability and research agenda.
Budget options for the next Biennial Budget will be submitted with Part II of the plan. The focus of the plan will be on children born in 2006 and thereafter, to assure that they reach normal developmental milestones at each of their annual well-child visits, beginning in 2007. We will also focus on communities with larger number of at-risk children whose programs are supported with state and federal funds.
Appendix A, Data development Agenda: Priorities for new or better indicator data
§ Percent of children enrolled in HUSKY who receive timely, regular pediatric and oral health services
§ Percent of children on target at their annual well-child visit
§ Percent of children with developmental issues identified and receiving appropriate services
§ Percent of children in poverty and percent of low birth weight babies are proxies for readiness and health, but more useful indicators are needed (see Part II: Early Childhood Care and Education System Template)
§ Percent ready at entry to kindergarten according to standardized assessment
Appendix B, Funding Detail
The budget figures presented at the population level are the latest available that identify all state and federal expenditures directed at affecting the stated quality of life result. These were compiled as part of the Early Childhood Partners (ECP) initiative in fall 2004 based on expenditures in the Fiscal Year 2002-2003. These figures were presented to the Early Childhood Education Cabinet at its November 2005 meeting and were then revised to reflect comments from Cabinet departments. The ECP initiative is in the process of updating these figures with projected spending in FY 2005-2006 and approved budgets for 2006-2007.
The goal of the ECP Initiative is to create a comprehensive, integrated early childhood service system to increase effectiveness and efficiency of state investments. (See the initiative web site for details at www.ecpartners.org.) This planning effort is supported through a grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration under the State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems initiative.
As part of the ECP planning process, agency staff worked with each state department to identify state programs that should be considered part of Connecticut’s early childhood service system and collected information from the departments on the total expenditures by program for FY 2002-2003. Table A-1 and Figure A-1 summarize the results by department. The programs identified were those involving departmental investment in services falling under one of the five domains specified in the ECP planning guidance. The figures do not include resources used by DCF for child protection.
Table A-2 and Figure A-2 present the same data by these five domains and for program infrastructure investments (e.g. data collection). There are substantial investments in children’s social-emotional health under the HUSKY program that are included under Health because a breakout of these costs for children ages 0-5 is not readily available.
Table A-3 lists all the programs included in this analysis with total funding, by department.
The data have been refined after the submission of the draft Strategic Plan in July 2005 based on comments. The figures have been revised upward by $47 million since the presentation of the scan to the Cabinet in November 2005 due to the receipt from DSS of new financial data for the HUSKY A and HUSKY B programs broken down by age group and a revision in the data for the DPH Child Care Licensing program.
Table A-1. Early Childhood Investments, FY 2002-2003 (in millions of dollars), by Department and Source
Table A-1. Early Childhood Investments, FY 2002-2003Department / State / Federal / Other / Total / %
DSS / 155 / 155 / - / 311 / 58%
DPH / 20 / 45 / - / 65 / 12%
SDE / 51 / 7 / - / 58 / 11%
Head Start / - / 51 / - / 51 / 9%
DMR / 30 / 5 / 4 / 40 / 7%
CTF / 5 / 0.1 / - / 5 / 1%
DCF / 4 / - / 0 / 4 / 1%
DMHAS / 0.2 / - / - / 0.2 / 0%
Total / 266 / 263 / 4 / 533 / 100%
% of Total / 50% / 49% / 1% / 100%
Table A-2. Early Childhood Investments, FY 2002-2003
(in millions of dollars), By Department and Domain
Table A-2. Early Childhood Investments, FY 2002-2003Department / Health / Early Care and Education / Family Support / Parent Education / Admin and Infra-structure / Social-Emo-tional / Total / % of Total
DSS / 181 / 126 / 0 / 1 / 3 / - / 311 / 58%
DPH / 19 / 3 / 42 / - / 0.4 / - / 65 / 12%
SDE / - / 48 / 10 / - / - / - / 58 / 11%
Head Start / - / 51 / - / - / - / - / 51 / 9%
DMR / 40 / - / - / - / - / - / 40 / 7%
CTF / - / - / 0.1 / 5 / 0.1 / - / 5 / 1%
DCF / - / - / 0.5 / 1 / - / 3 / 4 / 1%
DMHAS / - / 0.1 / - / 0.1 / - / - / 0.2 / 0%
Total / 240 / 228 / 53 / 7 / 3 / 3 / 533 / 100%
% of Total / 45% / 43% / 10% / 1% / 1% / 0% / 100%
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