PAEYC believes all educators deserve to feel valued.

“Governor Tom Wolf today announced a $1.4 million grant to increase the quality of Pennsylvania’s early childhood learning professional workforce.

The Higher Education, Early Child Care, and Community-based Partnership Working to Implement Innovative and Sustained Pathways grant will enable early childhood education staff to participate in and complete a credit-bearing Child Development Associate (CDA), associate degree, bachelor degree, and/or Pennsylvania PreK-4 teacher certification.

‘My administration is committed to expanding access to quality pre-kindergarten programs so our children have a positive start to their education,’ said Governor Wolf. ‘Having educated and knowledgeable early childhood educators creates quality classrooms, supports positive relationships with children, and advances the argument for increased compensation – early childhood teachers make an average of $9-$12/hour, even with a degree.’

The competitive grant, made available through Pennsylvania’s Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant, will support currently employed early childhood educators pursuing higher education. Drexel University, Carlow University, and Shippensburg University were successfully funded to build cross-systems partnership opportunities to identify and reduce barriers to access early childhood education degrees for currently employed early childhood educators.”

To read the full release from The Office of the Governor, click here.

The PA Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health recently released a new infographic, “3 Reasons Good Infant Mental Health Matters”. This provides relevant info and impacts of:

“Since 2011, Head Start programs that fail to meet certain performance standards have been required to compete for continued federal funding.

The competition process, known as the designation renewal system, is intended to weed out low-performing grantees in the federal early-childhood program. But soon after it was established, providers started complaining that the process for identifying low performers was sweeping up high-quality programs as well. Head Start serves more than a million infants, toddlers, and young children in every state and territory.

The Office of Head Start, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is now considering making some changes that would address those complaints. In a request for comments to be published in the Federal Register on Dec. 8, Head Start is proposing adjusting some standards of the designation renewal program, with the goal of zeroing in more closely on Head Start programs that really need to improve.”  (via EdWeek)

To make your voice heard, submit your comments on proposed changes.

“Pittsburgh educators and community leaders are part of a growing movement in cities across the country committed to improving access to high-quality pre-kindergarten programs as fundamental building blocks for a lifetime of learning.

Benefits for kids range from improvements in literacy, language, math and social skills, to decreased grade repetition and special education placement and increased rates of high school graduation and college enrollment.

The Pittsburgh Association for The Education of Young Children (PAEYC) recently released a comprehensive report – “Increasing Early Care and Education Opportunities in Pittsburgh: A Review of Pre-Kindergarten Expansion in U.S. Cities” – which compares pre-k programs among 17 cities to identify challenges and highlight opportunities for advancement.

Emily Neff, PAEYC public policy associate, served as lead author and editor of the report that she says will be helpful in planning next steps for Pittsburgh’s Early Childhood Education Task Force.”

Kidsburgh sat down with Neff to discuss results of the report.

Read the Full Article Here.

“Pittsburgh City Council is scrounging for every spare dollar to limit a potential tax increase.

City leaders including Mayor Bill Peduto have eyed adding a percentage point to realty transfer taxes, now at 4 percent, to fill an affordable housing trust fund that council approved last year. Others balk at the idea, fearing it could discourage home buyers from settling in the city.

On Wednesday, four council members backed a hybrid approach that would draw on other city sources to help cover the trust fund and improvements in early childhood education. Supporters said the move should draw the prospective tax hike below one percentage point.

‘We’re metaphorically turning over the couch cushions and trying to find every spare piece of change that we can,’ Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak said. Early childhood education marks ‘the highest return on investment for our citizens,’ she said, with research showing the programs reduce crime, drop-out rates and drug use.”

Read the Full Article at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Thank you to the following Pittsburgh City Council Members for introducing an amendment to add $2MIL to Pittsburgh’s FY18 operating budget supporting ECE capital improvements and quality:

– Corey O’Connor

– Natalia Rudiak

– Deb Gross

– Darlene Harris

We look forward to City Council voting on this next week. Thank you for your support!

– Theresa Kail Smith

– Bruce A. Kraus

– R. Daniel Lavelle

– Dan Gilman

– Rev. Ricky Burgess

#PittsburghECEWins for:

Allegheny County Department of Human Services | Allegheny County Family Support Network | A+ Schools | Child Care Works | Council Of Three Rivers American Indian Center | Hug Me Tight Childlife Center Inc. | Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh | Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visit Program | The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) | One Pennsylvania | PA Early Learning Investment Commission | Office of Child Development & Early Learning | Partner4Work | PennAEYC Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children | Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers | Pittsburgh Public Schools | Pre-K for PA | Project Destiny, Inc- CCAC | TekStart

PA’s Promise For Children is offering a variety of family-friendly, web-based, outreach information.

Take advantage of the many resources available in both English and Spanish:

• Milestones Checklist
• Monthly early learning activities: Low or no cost ways families can help their children learn. All activities align with the PA Early Learning Standards.
• Choosing quality child care in Pennsylvania Guide
• Book lists for kids of all ages
• Family and community partner stories: Read stories and share yours! Send your story to Mary at marhal@pakeys.org.
• Social media: Follow PA’s Promise on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram!

The Afterschool Alliance is teaming up with Quaker Oats to provide an easy-access guide to keep kids healthy.

This toolkit will provide afterschool programs with creative ideas centered around health and wellness, including:

• lesson plans;
• activities;
• games;
• and a variety of other resources!

Learn more here.

PAEYC’s parent organization and affiliate, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), recently released a statement and video supporting what they feel tax reform needs to achieve.

It would:

• prioritize the elements of the PACE (Promoting Affordable Childcare for Everyone) Act, a bipartisan, bicameral piece of legislation designed to help more families afford child care by taking the important steps of making the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) fully refundable, increasing its value, and indexing it to inflation;
• ensure families are treated to the same promise of consistency and certainty as corporations, by making individual tax cuts permanent, not temporary; and
• demonstrate the fiscal responsibility necessary to ensure that not only taxes, but also mandatory and discretionary funding, would all be best positioned to support continued and future investments in our children, families, and educators.

However, these goals do not align with Congress’s recent tax reform proposal. The tax bills that emerged:

• fall short on many solutions for addressing affordability in child care;
• create additional burdens for our current and future workforce in accessing higher education;
• and impede the short- and long-term funding available for foundational and successful federal early childhood education programs like the Child Care and Development Block Grant, Head Start, Medicaid and SNAP, each of which provide critical support for our country’s young children, families and educators.

NAEYC and PAEYC both strongly believe that individuals and policymakers who are geographically, demographically, and ideologically divided on many issues can come together around the importance of investments in early childhood education.

Call your Senators TODAY and ask them to vote NO on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by saying:

• As a constituent, I am disappointed by this version of tax reform, which I believe is a missed opportunity to prioritize working families with young children.
• The provisions in this bill do not meet the needs of families who struggle to pay for child care nor of educators who want to pursue higher education. In addition, they threaten the short- and long-term health of important programs that do support families such as Medicaid, SNAP, and the Child Care and Development Block Grant.
• For these reasons, I oppose the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and hope you will do so as well.

Celebrate the holidays with PAEYC during Giving Week from November 28 – December 3, 2017, and double your donations by shopping on Giving Assistant!

When you shop at participating brands and donate to PAEYC, Giving Assistant doubles your cash back earnings, and automatically doubles your donation amount to us. With just a few clicks, you can shop and support early childhood education.

To participate in the Double Cash Back, Double Giving Event:

1. Visit GivingAssistant.org

2. Set up your account (takes less than one minute)

3. Select PAEYC in your account setings

4. Begin your holiday shopping to earn double cash back and give double donations!

Feel good about your holiday shopping while supporting PAEYC!

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