Nathan Duke, Author at Trying Together

News

September 22, 2026

Application Deadline for PA NAPSACC Grant is October 2

Licensed child care providers can help young children build healthier eating habits by applying for the 2026-2027 PA NAPSACC Wellness Grant.

The Pennsylvania Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (PA NAPSACC) grant helps providers to strengthen nutrition and physical activity practices and policies while helping children to build healthy habits.

Application Process

Applications must be received by midnight on Friday, October 2. Participating programs can receive:

Individualized technical assistance
Support from a child care health consultant at no cost
Guidance with self-assessment, action planning, policy development, and continuous quality improvement
Up to $500 in grant funding upon completion of grant requirements

An informational webinar will take place for participants on Tuesday, October 27 at 12:45 p.m. There are 75 spots available in the program, and enrollment will be on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 12 a.m. on Monday, November 2.

Past participants may apply, but priority will be given to programs that have participated no more than once since 2020.

To be eligible, providers must serve a minimum of four children, ages 3 to 5 years, in Pennsylvania.

More information on the program and eligibility is available online.

News

Early Childhood Educators Asked to Take Survey on Resources for Children Experiencing Homelessness

The Pennsylvania Youth Homelessness Coalition is conducting a statewide survey to better understand which resources and services are helping children and youth experiencing homelessness succeed in school as well as where additional supports are still needed.

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State Head Start and Early Head Start programs and other partners who work with children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness are asked to participate and help the coalition to reach others who may have valuable perspectives.

The survey takes about five to 10 minutes to complete. Those who take it are asked to share it with others in their networks, especially:

People with lived experience, including parents and young people
ECYEH staff
School district McKinney-Vento/homeless liaisons
Teachers, principals, counselors, and other school staff
Community-based organizations serving children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness
Early childhood programs and other partners whose work connects with families experiencing housing instability

The survey asks about approaches that have been successful in helping students experiencing homelessness participate and succeed in school as well as resources or supports that schools and communities still need.

Survey participants are encouraged to think particularly about spending in the following categories:

Programs to support outreach, identification, housing navigation, and casework support for unstably-housed students and families
Creating basic-needs pantries in schools – including washers and dryers – so students who might be living in motels or shelters have access to facilities and supplies they might lack
Emergency, short-term housing
Supporting timely transportation to and from school via gas cards, bicycles, and public transit passes
Investing in therapeutic services for students experiencing homelessness
Academic tutoring and support outside the classroom

Responses will help to inform the PA Youth Homelessness Coalition’s statewide advocacy efforts to strengthen educational support for children and youth experiencing homelessness.

The survey is available online.

News

TEACH Scholarship Application Process Open for Spring Semester with Updated Income Criteria

Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) has updated income criteria for the TEACH scholarship as the application process for the spring semester has opened.

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Applications for the scholarships – which supports staff retention and program quality by helping early learning professionals to advance their education while continuing to work – are accepted on a rolling basis, but priority consideration is given to complete applications submitted by Friday, November 13. The spring semester begins in mid-January.

OCDEL recently announced that it had updated TEACH income criteria for the scholarship. Early childhood professionals can now earn up to $25 per hour, while directors can earn up to $30 per hour.

Eligible applicants must:

Work directly with children in a state Department of Human Services-certified child care program for a minimum of 25 hours per week year-round
Be a Pennsylvania resident
Be employed with a sponsoring program for at least six months before enrolling in a course through the scholarship program
Make $25 or less per hour (or $30 or less per hour for directors)
Be interested in pursuing coursework at a partnering college or university toward a degree or teacher certification in PreK-4/Early Childhood Education

Those interested in applying can learn how to do so on the PACCA website, where applicants can also find an enrollment checklist.

News

September 21, 2026

Honor Child Passenger Safety Week By Learning the Correct Way to Use Car Seats, Booster Seats, and Seat Belts

Keeping children safe in a vehicle is a duty that extends to the entire year but Child Passenger Safety Week – which runs from September 20 to 26 – is a great time for caregivers to learn important information on the correct way that car seats, booster seats, and seat belts should be utilized.

The Pennsylvania Traffic Injury Prevention Project has provided a fact sheet that shows the correct way for children to be placed in rear-facing car seats, forward-facing car seats, booster seats, and seat belts.

Rear-Facing Car Seats

Children should ride rear-facing until at least 2 years of age or until they outgrow their rear-facing car seat by height or weight. A rear-facing seat is considered the safest because it spreads crash forces across a child’s body and the back of the car seat, cradling the head, neck, and back. Plus, it is more convenient for placing in and out of the car.

When installing the seat, make sure it does not move more than an inch side to side or front to back. It should be at the recline angle specified by the car seat manufacturer. If you use a latch, the seat should be in a vehicle seat position allowed by the vehicle manual and car seat instructions. It should never be placed in front of an air bag.

To adjust the harness, tighten it so it is snug with no slack. The chest clip should be placed at armpit level, and harness slots should be at or below a child’s shoulders.

Forward-Facing Car Seats

Children should ride forward-facing when they are over 2 years of age and have outgrown the weight or height limits of the rear-facing car seat. They should remain in the forward-facing harness until the highest height or weight allowed by the car seat.

For installation, make sure the car seat is in tight and does not move more than an inch from side to side or front to back. If you use lower anchors, be sure the child is within the weight allowed by the car seat manufacturer. The child’s head should be within the car seat’s shell.

To adjust the harness, tighten it so it is snug with no slack. The chest clip should be placed at armpit level, and harness slots should be at or above a child’s shoulders.

The seat’s tether limits the forward movement of the child in a crash. Caregivers should follow the vehicle manual’s instructions to locate tether anchors and use the tether with the seat belt or lower anchors.

The types of forward-facing car seats include:

Forward-facing convertible: This seat goes from rear-facing to forward-facing, securing a child forward-facing once they have outgrown the rear-facing mode.
Combination car seat: This seat is used forward-facing with a five-point harness; once the child outgrows the harness, it can be used as a booster seat.
All-in-one seat: This seat can be used forward-facing, rear-facing, and then as a booster seat.

Booster Seats

Children ride in booster seats once they outgrow the weight or height limits of the forward-facing car seat and are at least 4 years of age. Booster seats position a child so the vehicle’s seat belt fits correctly over their body. Caregivers should always use the lap and shoulder belt to secure the child.

Booster seats are recommended because they lower the risk of injury by 45% among children ages 4 to 8 years when compared to a seat belt, which is designed for adults.

When adjusting the seat belt, make sure the shoulder belt lays across the center of the chest, while the lap belt lays across the upper thighs – not the stomach. The child should sit without slouching.

The types of booster seats include:

High back: Supports a child’s head, neck, and spine, and provides side impact protection; may ease the transition from a car seat with a harness to a booster seat.
Backless booster: Position the vehicle head restraint behind the child’s head; often used for older children before they transition to a seat belt.

Seat Belt Readiness

For a child to move from a booster seat to a seat belt, you must be able to say yes to all five of these items:

The child’s back is against the vehicle seat; no slouching.
Knees end at the front edge of the vehicle seat and feet are on the floor.
The shoulder belt lays across the center of the shoulder and the center of the chest, not across the neck or arm.
The lap belt lays across the upper thighs, never across the stomach.
The child can remain in the correctly seated position for the entire trip.

For more information, check out the Pennsylvania Traffic Injury Prevention Project’s tip sheet. And find information about recalls on car seats on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.

News

Confluence Podcast Episode Discusses How Providers Can Protect Programs from Falsified Documents

The latest Confluence podcast episode on The Pennsylvania Key’s website discusses how early childhood education providers can protect their programs from falsified documents.

The episode, How to Protect Yourself from Falsified Documents in Your Child Care Program, is a conversation between podcast host Ruby Martin, director of Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning’s (OCDEL) Bureau of Certification Services, and Brad Hamm, the regional manager of the bureau’s Central Region.

Tips for Preventing Falsified Documents

In the podcast, Martin and Hamm discuss what falsified documents might look like, how to prevent receiving them, and the repercussions of submitting them.

“The deceit that occurs through falsified statements can be devastating to your program if health and safety are compromised,” Martin said. “Taking the extra step to make sure this is not occurring is important.”

Hamm listed a variety of documents that could be falsified by existing or incoming staff members:

Trainings that staff claimed to have – but didn’t – attend
Degrees or diplomas
Health assessments
First Aid or CPR certificates
Fire and emergency drill documentation
Zoning and occupancy permits
Deleted camera footage that might have been useful for an investigation

“Case law makes it clear that altering documents constitutes deceit,” Hamm said. “Whoever is responsible for submitting documents has an obligation to vet them to make sure there is no falsification there. If a document doesn’t look right, question it.”

The background check process can be arduous, Martin said, but employers should be sure to give materials they receive a close look.

“If someone hands you a form or a background check, you’re usually thankful to have it – and it’s one more thing to check off,” she said. “But it’s important to review the information that staff hands to you.”

The Confluence’s monthly podcast helps listeners to understand the complexities of OCDEL’s Bureau of Certification Services. To listen to podcast episodes, visit The Pennsylvania Key’s website.

News

September 17, 2026

Celebrating Relative Providers During Family, Friend and Neighbor Appreciation Week

From September 13 to 18, Home Grown celebrates its fourth annual Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FNN) Appreciation Week to honor those who care for the young children in their life.

This week, we join Home Grown in celebrating the 460 relative care providers who reside in Allegheny County. Relative providers include grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings, and are a core pillar of Pennsylvania’s child care infrastructure.

Families often rely on these caregivers for child care during nontraditional hours, such as evenings and holidays, or because they share the same language, culture, values, and traditions. Relative care providers are vitally important because they give stability, intergenerational connection, and a nurturing learning environment to thousands of children across Pennsylvania.

Advocating for Relative Care Providers

For the past year, Trying Together has partnered with Home Grown and the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania on the Thriving Providers Project. This initiative is focused on strengthening the economic stability of home-based child care providers through direct cash payments and policy innovation. In Allegheny County, 19 caregivers are participating in this pilot project.

Through the project, relative child care providers have consistently identified economic insecurity, administrative barriers, and limited access to resources and supports as challenges to providing stable care.

The program’s mission is to support and stabilize caregivers and improve the availability and quality of child care for children and families- and there’s evidence that the support works.

Relative care providers participating in the program have shared the ways the direct cash payments have helped them, saying

The direct payment helps with unforeseen circumstances
Direct cash transfers have enabled providers to not worry about meals and utilities and be able to afford to stay home and provide care
The payments help with purchasing diapers, wipes, and snacks

To learn more, see the Thriving Provider Project webpage and Home Grown’s FFN Appreciation Week page.

News

September 16, 2026

Pittsburgh’s Recreation Centers to Extend Hours When Schools Are Closed or Have Early Dismissal

Mayor Corey O’Connor’s office announced this week that the city’s recreation centers will extend their hours on days when Pittsburgh Public Schools are closed or have early dismissal.

The extended hours are intended to bridge the gap in care coverage free of charge for families.

Learn More

The centers will open at 8 a.m. on full-day closures and 11:30 a.m. on early dismissal days. Registration, which is required, opened this week. Caregivers can register at the recreation center where their child or children will attend and they may select multiple eligible dates during the school year, including:

Early Dismissal Days

September 18
October 9
October 23
November 20
December 18
February 12
February 26
March 12

School Closure Days

September 21
October 12
October 16
November 3
December 28-31
January 19
January 20
March 10
March 22-26
May 18 (Election Day; some centers will not offer care on election days if they serve as polling locations)

Snacks will be provided in the afternoon on early dismissal days, while lunch and snacks will be provided on full days. Special programming and partner visits on these days will be posted on CitiParks’ social media accounts.

“It’s important that our local families have free options for where kids can go on their days off school to play, discover, and explore,” O’Connor said.

News

High Schoolers Explore Early Childhood Career Through Child Care 101 Program

Through a partnership between Trying Together, Learn and Earn Homewood Children’s Village, and The Shady Lane School, high school students had the chance this summer to explore early childhood education as a future career.

Providing Real-World Experience

In its second year, Child Care 101: Learn and Earn is a six-week summer program for rising sophomores and seniors that provides hands-on learning, conversations with early childhood professionals, and real-world classroom experience at The Shady Lane School. The program gave the 10 participants in the program the opportunity to envision themselves in the field.

Over the course of six weeks, the program’s participants worked at Shady Lane and met on Fridays to explore topics, including an introduction to the early childhood field, child development, health and safety, engaging activities for young learners, and career pathways in early childhood education.

For one activity, students were broken up into small groups and given eight minutes to play with an item from Trying Together’s Lending Library. They then completed a worksheet where they had to decide for which ages the item would be appropriate, which areas of development it supported, and how many stars they would assign it based on whether they would like it in their own future classroom.

“It was fun to see the students grow over the course of the program, in terms of how they approached discussing behaviors from merely being bad to thinking about what the child might need and how educators can support them,” said Lindsey Vicoria, the Career Pathways program manager at Trying Together. “From day one, students were very curious and asked a lot of thought-provoking questions about working with young children.”

Vicoria said students shared in surveys taken at the end of the program that Child Care 101 made them consider careers in the field.

“It was great, the teacher was amazing, and after this I was thinking about being a part of childhood education as my career,” one student wrote.

Career Pathways Opportunities

To learn more about Trying Together’s professional development opportunities, check out our fall 2026 Professional Development Catalog.

Courses offered this fall include professional development opportunities in the following areas:

Assessments and Supportive Services (Early Intervention)
Child Development
Classroom Environment
Curriculum Development
Family and Community Engagement
Guidance and Behavior Management
Health and Safety
Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI)
Professionalism and Program Organization

News

September 15, 2026

OCDEL Releases Tips for Providers and Educators on Air Quality Warnings

Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) has released some tips for child care providers and early educators on what to do during air quality warnings.

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OCDEL receives guidance from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on air quality and when it is appropriate to take children outside during air quality warnings.

Although it is important for children to go outside daily, keeping them indoors when outdoor air quality is unsafe protects them from breathing pollutants.

Outdoor air pollutants include:

Wildfire smoke containing toxic gases and particles
Industrial, construction, or traffic-related pollution
High pollen levels

Child care providers need to know when daily or hourly air quality is unsafe for outdoor play. Poor air quality can cause breathing problems, especially for children with asthma and allergies.

Providers should check the Air Quality Index before allowing children to play outside. The colors in the chart include:

Green – good air quality
Yellow – moderate
Orange – unhealthy for sensitive groups (such as those with asthma)
Red – unhealthy
Purple – very unhealthy
Maroon – hazardous

News

Trying Together Names Blueprints Early Learning Director as September Advocate of the Month

Trying Together has selected Brenda Fronzaglio, the early learning director for Blueprints in Washington, as its September advocate of the month.

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Fronzaglio was nominated by Valerie Williams, Trying Together’s kindergarten transition program director, and Donna Shriver, owner of Smart Kids Child Care Learning Center.

“She truly understands that quality learning is the cornerstone for our young children,” said Shriver, who has partnered with Fronzaglio in advocacy efforts. “Brenda is committed and supportive to the children, families, and early childhood educators, and actively advocates for them.”

Fronzaglio said that she understands the importance of early childhood education because she benefited from it herself.

“As a Head Start graduate, I know firsthand that advocacy can change the course of a life,” she said. “Someone saw potential in me, they invested in me, and made sure I had access to opportunities that my family may not have been able to provide at that time. And because of that support, I entered school ready to learn and, most importantly, ready to believe in myself. When I hear the word advocacy, I don’t just think about speaking up for others – I think about the people who spoke up for me before I was able to speak up for myself.”

She said that advocacy is important to her because when she can share the difference that early care and education programs make in the lives of children and families, especially those who are most vulnerable, she is able to help others to understand why supporting such programs matters.

“Advocacy means making sure that every child, regardless of where they come from, has the chance to succeed,” Fronzaglio said.” It means giving families a voice and connecting them to resources they need to thrive. It means standing up for programs like Head Start that open doors and create opportunities for generations to come.”

Blueprints, which is part of the Community Action Network, connects people with tools, resources, and support, and its programs are designed to support families across all stages of life with early childhood education, financial and career support, housing stability, and services for older adults. Its no-cost early learning programs include Head Start, Early Head Start, and Pre-K Counts. Blueprints offers center- and home-based program options.