Project Director Report

State Advisory Council

Project Director Report

November 15, 2012

Workgroup Updates

Data Systems

The workgroup met on November 5, 2012 to review details for consideration in a data demonstration project using software similar to the Child Health Information Network (CHIN), that is being piloted by the P-20 Council. The intent of the project is to illustrate the linking of state agencies’ data systems to address the question of how children in regulated early care environments are doing versus those in unregulated care settings. The workgroup also engaged in dialogue with Mark Raymond, of the Bureau of Enterprise Systems and Technology (BEST), to finalize the position of the workgroup on the use of the birth certificate state file number as a unique identifier.

Action Items

• Continue to promote the collection of birth certificate state file numbers as a unique identifier in order to improve probabilistic matching of child data across state agencies
• Communicate with the Planning Team to determine if the timing is most opportune for a small scale demonstration project, or is there a greater need to focus on acquiring cross agency agreements on the full scale data sharing that is necessary to have an interoperable early childhood system.

Professional Development/Workforce

The workgroup met onNovember 13, 2012 with the primary focus of providing an update to the ECE Planning team on the mandates forECE teachers as outlined in legislation, 11-54, to have all teachers hold an Associate degree by 2015 and a Bachelor’s degree by 2020.

Action Items

• Guidance is needed from SDEto program administrators regarding Registry data to specify a designated Qualified Staff Member (QSM) for each classroom at their respective programs, not giving that designation to all qualified. This will allow for more accurate tracking.
• A subset of the workgroup will work on deconstructing existing data on teacher qualifications and extracting all “asks” of the legislation in order to provide an accurate status update to the Planning Team.

Early Learning Standards

While the workgroup did not meetthis month, the work of developing new Birth to Five Early Learning Standards continues to be underway.

Action Items

• In partnership with EASTCONN, the reviews by in-state experts of the draft standards have been compiled to inform the content validation phase of the process.
• A contract is being finalized with NAEYC to conduct age validation of the standards.
• National and state partners being sought to undertake the age validation study of the new standards.

Family Involvement/Home Visitation

A subgroup of members met on November 13, 2012 to develop recommendations to the ECE Planning Team on the integration of Home Visiting into the early childhood system.The group reached consensus on the need to articulate recommendations for home visiting that reflect partnerships in the home visiting models through layering and clustering of the services of various models, in order to provide services that best meet the needs of families.

Action Items

• To develop recommendations for a triaging system of services that includes, but is not limited to home visiting, with the use of a priority criteria instrument that assists in case coordination, leading to effective referrals.

• Conduct an analysis of the existing home visiting MIECHV approved models to inform the development of a priority criteria instrument.
• The Family Involvement subgroup of the workgroup has coordinated the Parent Forums being conducted statewide to inform the ECE Planning process.

Quality Rating and Improvement Systems

The workgroup met on October 11, 22, 26, and on November 2, 2012, for two full-day and two half-day sessions to finalize the recommendations for a Quality Rating and Improvement System.

Action Items

• Presentation of recommendations to the Cabinet Leadership Team and ECE Planning Team took place on November 7, 2012.
• Presentation to the full Cabinet membership on November 15, 2012.
• Recommendations to be posted on the ECE Cabinet website.
• The workgroup to participate in on-going dialogue with the ECE Planning Team to develop joint recommendation for a CT QRIS.

Health Promotions

The workgroup met, for the first time, on October 2, 2012, with the primary focus on orienting the group to the Cabinet’s role as the State Advisory Council as outlined in the 2007 Head Start Act, familiarizing the group with the goals of the other workgroups, and initiatingdialogue on the development of a Health Promotions work plan.

Action Items

• Finalize the charge to the workgroup, reach consensus on the goal of the group, and develop the work plan.

Public/Private Partnerships

Leah Grenier and Richard Sussman have been identified as co-chairs of the workgroup. Prospective workgroup members have been identified and the co-chairs are making initial contacts, for anworkgroup meeting in January 2013.

For more detailed updates and full summaries of workgroup meetings, membership and future schedule of meetings visit,

Submitted by Sherry Linton-Massiah