Category Archives: Childcare

Board to consider options to maintain on-campus child care program – Daily Republic

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By Susan Winlow

Members of the Fairfield-Suiusn School District governing board will consider plans Thursday to salvage the district’s child care service for teen parents and move it from Sem Yeto High School to Fairfield High School.

The child care agenda item is a return topic, ready for a vote from the school board.

School staff initially sought to end the child care service portion of two programs – the parenting program for parenting teens and the Career Technical Education Child Development program, which uses the nursery as a lab component. Board members overwhelmingly disagreed and sent staff back to the drawing board to find a way to keep the child care service viable for both programs.

via Board to consider options to maintain on-campus child care program.

District staff recommends keeping baby nursery initially targeted for elimination – Daily Republic

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By Susan Winlow

Parenting students who use the district’s child care nursery in the Fairfield-Suisun School District could have a reprieve next year instead of facing the decision of what to do with their children while in school, or whether or not to even stay in school.

Governing board members, unsatisfied in March, sent district staff back to the drawing board because eliminating an at-school child care option for parenting teens wasn’t something they were prepared to do.

Satisfaction made members of the governing board smile Thursday as they heard from several members of a committee that formed to look at what could be done with the child care nursery, other than the prior proposed elimination when Sem Yeto moves to a wing of Fairfield High School next year.

via District staff recommends keeping baby nursery initially targeted for elimination Daily Republic.

Fairfield-Suisun school board to review child care nursery options – Daily Republic

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By Susan Winlow

The child care nursery – a dual component of both the parenting program and the Childcare Career Technical Educational pathway at Sem Yeto High School – is back on the agenda Thursday at the Fairfield-Suisun School District board meeting after staff recommended at the March 26 meeting that it be discontinued to save money and reallocate human resources.

Board members told staff to come back with a plan for continuing the nursery next year, which serves as child care for student parents and a lab for the child care program students.

Sem Yeto is relocating to Fairfield High School next year and the district plans to close the Dover site for a year for repairs and possibly bring back a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school in 2016-17. Staff proposed to bring the child care program over to Fairfield High School, but not the nursery, and no solid plans for an alternative were forthcoming at the time.

via Fairfield-Suisun school board to review child care nursery options Daily Republic.

District looks to discontinue nursery service for parenting teens – Daily Republic

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By Susan Winlow

Staff is looking for approval Thursday during the Fairfield-Suisun School District board meeting to relocate the Independent Study Program to the Sullivan Interagency Youth Services Center, move the Child Development Career Technical Education Pathway program to Fairfield High School and save some money by discontinuing the nursery/child care services associated with the child development program.

The Independent Study Program is currently located on the former Dover Middle School campus, along with Sem Yeto High School, and serves 53 students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

via District looks to discontinue nursery service for parenting teens Daily Republic.

Child Care Block Grant Slated for Senate Passage – Education Week

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By Lauren Camera

An update to the Child Care Development Block Grant program could be on President Barack Obama’s desk by the end of next week, if Congress holds to schedule.

The Senate will begin the process of taking up the measure on Thursday with final passage expected early next week, according to a Senate aide.

The measure, which has not been updated since 1996, would require states to conduct comprehensive background checks on child-care providers, something only about a dozen states call for now. It would also give parents more information about available child-care options, including faith-based and community-based providers, and allow parents to choose a program that best suits their family’s needs.

via Child Care Block Grant Slated for Senate Passage – Politics K-12 – Education Week.

U.S. Senate Approves Child Care Block Grant Bill – Education Week

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By Alyson Klein

The Child Care and Development Block Grant program would get a makeover for the first time since the mid-1990’s, under a measure that sailed through the U.S. Senate amid much bipartisan backslapping and self-congratulation.

The Child Care bill, which passed 97 to 1, is one of the first bipartisan education measures to clear the chamber recently, giving some advocates hope that Congress may finally be able to tackle the lengthy logjam on education issues.

The CCDBG program was initially designed as a way to help low-income parents cover the cost of child care so that they could go to work or further their education. The Senate bill doesn’t seek to dramatically expand the scope of the program, but it would add a new focus on program quality and safety.

via U.S. Senate Approves Child Care Block Grant Bill – Politics K-12 – Education Week.

Business, military signal strong support for public preschool, but Republican lawmakers unswayed | EdSource Today

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Early childhood education advocates are working to make it clear that not everyone supporting President Barack Obama’s proposal to vastly expand federal funding for preschool and infant and toddler care is a tax-and-spend liberal.

“This has become a bipartisan issue in the real world,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said recently in a sound bite that has become standard language in his stump speech for the president’s proposal to invest $75 billion over the next decade for states wishing to create or expand public preschool for 4-year-olds and early care for infants and toddlers.

Business, military signal strong support for public preschool, but Republican lawmakers unswayed | EdSource Today.

EdSource Today: Early childhood advocates cheered by $55M in restored funding

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Child care and early education advocates were pleased to see $55 million restored for state preschool and child care programs in the budget compromise working its way to the governor’s desk.

“It’s a start,” said Assemblymember Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, who has pushed for several measures aimed at expanding and improving early childhood programs in the state. “We’re not doing as much as we hoped, but we are beginning to see dollars directed back into preschool and early child care.”

Early childhood advocates cheered by $55M in restored funding | EdSource Today.

EdSource Today: Early education advocates disappointed with governor’s revised budget

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Early education advocates in California were hoping for increases in preschool and child care funding in the governor’s revised budget, released Tuesday. No such luck.

“The governor talks a lot about educational equity and equality of opportunity,” said Scott Moore, policy analyst for the early education advocacy group Early Edge California. “He is really missing the boat when it comes to preschool.”

via Early education advocates disappointed with governor’s revised budget – by Lillian Mongeau.

EdSource Today: Early childhood funding stays flat in governor’s budget

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After years of funding cuts to early childhood programs, Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed budget would keep funding levels nearly the same as last year.

“There was no restoration of the cuts from recent years, but no additional cuts,” said Rachel Ehlers of the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Brown’s budget allocates $2.2 billion, including designated federal funds, to cover child care and state preschool for 340,000 children in the 2013-2014 fiscal year. Some funding would be moved around within the CalWORKS child care program for low-income children, but it would not affect the number of children served or the overall funding available.

via Early childhood funding stays flat in governor’s budget – by Lillian Mongeau.

The Educated Guess: Dearth of child care options for low-income families in Los Angeles County

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by Lillian Mongeau

A report out today by a coalition of government organizations and early learning advocates, shows just how severely the $1.2 billion cut to state funding for early childhood education has affected Los Angeles County. Since 2008, 1,400 locations, or 15 percent of licensed child care centers in the county that had served 11,200 infants and toddlers have closed.

Laura Escobedo, the child care planning coordinator for L.A. County, said nearly a third of the statewide cut, or about $400 million dollars, came out of her county’s budget. Much of the data in today’s report was gathered by Escobedo’s organization in cooperation with L.A. County Head Start and Los Angeles Universal Preschool. Escobedo said they knew there had been a reduction in child care spots and they wanted to pinpoint how severely that reduction had affected individual neighborhoods and districts. Once the data was compiled and worked into a single database, Escobedo said it was clear to her that funding cuts have brought the early childhood care system in her county to the brink.

via Dearth of child care options for low-income families in Los Angeles County – by Lillian Mongeau.