On October 28, celebrate Lights On Afterschool, a nationwide event celebrating afterschool programs and their important role in the lives of children, families, and communities.

About Lights On Afterschool

The Afterschool Alliance organizes Lights On Afterschool to draw attention to the many ways afterschool programs support students by offering them opportunities to learn new things—such as science, community service, robotics, Tae Kwon Do and poetry—and discover new skills.

The events emphasize that millions more kids need quality afterschool programs. This year, there will be two online events for people to participate in.

River City Drumbeat Screening and Webinar

GOOD DOCS is providing complimentary access to River City Drumbeat, a new documentary about the River City Drum Corp. afterschool program from October 24 to October 28. Go to GOOD DOCS sign up to receive a code to stream the film.

On October 25 at 6 p.m., the Afterschool Alliance will host a conversation with River City Drum Corp. as participants watch short clips from the film and discuss aspects of the program and its impact. Register for the webinar.

Youth Town Hall

On October 28 at 6 p.m., youth from programs around the country will share reflections on the past year and a half and how their afterschool programs have impacted their lives, perspectives on what youth need to thrive, and hopes for the future. A special segment will be devoted to recognizing the powerful role of afterschool program staff and mentors in shaping the lives of young people. Register for the town hall.

Find Other Events

Communities nationwide, including many in western Pennsylvania, are celebrating. Find local events online. For more information and the toolkit, visit the Lights On Afterschool webpage.

The Pennsylvania Key Infant-Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) Program is offering a new service — Virtual Office Hours.

About Virtual Office Hours

IECMH Consultants are available by appointment to provide IECMHC Virtual Office Hours consultation via telephone or video conference.

The virtual office hours visit is a short-term, collaborative, problem-solving conversation to help you find next steps for:

• child social-emotional concerns

• child behavioral or developmental concerns

• emotional well-being of teachers and caregivers

• partnering with families

Who can request an appointment?

Services are available at no cost to families, child care professionals and specialists supporting Keystone STARS child care programs such as”:

• teachers, directors, and staff in a center, family, and group-based child care program

• families with children attending child care programs

• early intervention professionals

• Keystone STARS quality coaches

• mental health/behavioral health agencies

• home visiting and family support programs

How can IECMH Virtual Office Hours help?

Consultations can help adults strengthen their relationships with young children and build their capacity to respond to their social-emotional needs. IECMHC can help:

• figure out what’s really going on when a child exhibits challenging behaviors.

• reflect and respond to problem behaviors with the power and impact of nurturing relationships.

• build partnerships with families.

• share community resources.

Appointments are held on the first and third Fridays of the month, or other days/times by request. To schedule an appointment, register online.

On September 28, 2021, the City of Pittsburgh Council unanimously approved a Will of Council introduced by Councilwoman Deb Gross to support the stabilization of child care through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funds.

Will of Council

Following the state’s announcement of the availability of the ARPA stabilization grants, the council applauded Governor Tom Wolf’s administration on the opening of the grant application to get money directly into the hands of the providers. The Will of Council further calls upon the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the administration of Governor Wolf to release details about the disbursement of the remaining $400+ million in ARPA discretionary child care funding, and to quickly release these funds. Doing so will support child care providers, and families who have been adversely affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Both announcements follow the release of survey results from Start Strong PA, a statewide child care advocacy campaign. The results indicated a child care workforce staffing crisis from 92% of respondents, contributing to the decreased availability of more than 34,000 early learning slots for children. With ARPA, providers can use the stabilization grants to support personnel costs such as wages and recruitment/retention bonuses. Additionally, the Will of Council calls on the state to reinstate the Education and Retention Award with improvements to support equity.

While the ARPA stabilization grants are a critical first step, child care providers need continued relief funds, as well as longer term solutions to solve the child care crisis. 

Read the full Will of Council online.

The 2022 Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) participant Area Eligibility information is now available.

About the Programs

At the start of every fiscal year, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) releases a special tabulation of data provided by the Census Bureau for CACFP and SFSP that establishes area eligibility. This information is effective as of October 1, 2021.

The FNS mapping tools have also been updated to reflect the new data. The map can be viewed online. The data set is also available for download on FNS open data site.

Program operators caring and serving meals to children may be eligible to participate in CACFP and receive reimbursements for serving healthy meals and snacks to children. Eligible public or private nonprofit child care centers, outside-school-hours care centers, Head Start programs, and other institutions which are licensed or approved to provide child care services may participate in CACFP, independently or as sponsored centers. Learn more about CACFP.

The Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) has extended COVID-19 Child Care Works (CCW) payment practices until further notice.

CCW Practices

The suspension of various regulatory provisions under the state disaster emergency declaration that were set to expire on September 30, 2021, are now extended until further notice. Due to this extension, CCW payments to child care providers will continue to be based on their current enrollment with the following exceptions:

• Providers who have been closed by Certification due to a negative sanction will not be paid.

• Providers who have reported permanent closure will not be paid.

• Providers who temporarily closed more than 14 business days due to COVID-19 exposure.

Eligible providers will continue to be paid based on their current enrollment for children who remain eligible for CCW through normal invoicing and payment methods.

Providers must continue to track and report the attendance of children on invoices. Child care providers must mark COVID-19 related absences as “CA” (COVID absence) to distinguish it from a non-COVID related absence on a paper invoice or include a note on an online invoice.

For more information, read OCDEL’s full announcement.

The new process for Keystone STARS pre-designation and designation applications, which was supposed to launch on to Pennsylvania’s Professional Development (PD) Registry on October 1, 2021, has been delayed until early 2022.

Learn More

In response to the increasing demands on early learning programs across the commonwealth due to the rise in COVID-19 cases and pandemic conditions, the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) is delaying Keystone STARS designations for one year and the go-live date for the new streamlined Keystone STARS Designation System in the Professional Development (PD) Registry.

Only those programs who wish to forego an extension or wish to move up in STAR levels will need to complete designation activities through Sept. 30, 2022. Programs wishing to do so prior to the launch of the new streamlined Keystone STARS designation system in the PD Registry will continue to use the current STARS document uploader to submit evidence and documentation to their Quality Coach.

Programs wishing to forego the extension or move up in STAR levels following the launch of the new STARS designation system in 2022 will be required to use the new system to upload evidence and documentation to their Quality Coach. All programs will continue to have the ability to upload documentation and evidence into their Document Vault during the one-year extension.

The extensions will also provide additional time for programs to become comfortable and familiar with using the Document Vault feature and will help them store important designation information in a centralized location for future designation purposes.

OCDEL will release additional guidance related to the rollout of the streamlined Keystone STARS Designation System in the upcoming months and will continue to offer training for both providers and ELRC staff until the go-live date in early 2022.