eNotes
February 7, 2022Updates from the ECTA Center
Early Childhood Implementation Snapshots
Early Childhood Implementation Snapshots highlight helpful resources for early childhood system leaders and other professionals who provide implementation support for systems and programs using evidence-based practices to improve child and family outcomes. Each snapshot includes: a brief topic introduction with resource and tool links; a state spotlight that describes its program's experience and recommended resources; and considerations for centering equity. The first series of ECI Snapshots focuses on the four essential support structures of the Statewide Implementation Guide for successful implementation: statewide leadership team, professional development network of program implementation coaches, implementation sites and demonstration sites, and data and evaluation systems.
Indicators of Effective Technical Assistance Practices
Indicators of Effective Technical Assistance Practices facilitate TA provider understanding, use, evaluation, and improvement of those practices. Effective TA provides a pathway to improvement through activities and materials that promote new behaviors, practices, beliefs, and understandings of staff in the systems served. Identified are nine key practices that ensure that TA successfully supports state and local leaders to bring about the desired changes in systems and practices.
News from the Field
Bipartisan, Bicameral Legislation Introduced to Protect and Support Children with Disabilities
Representatives Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), Rodney Davis (R-IL), and Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) recently introduced the Funding Early Childhood is the Right IDEA Act (H.R. 6532), a bipartisan, bicameral bill to restore full funding for educational and early-intervention services for children with disabilities. Children and families' need for early intervention and pre-school special education services has only increased over the past several decades. However, federal investments have not kept pace with the number of students requiring these services. Congressman DeSaulnier said, "I am proud to partner with my colleagues in the House and Senate on both sides of the aisle in introducing the Funding Early Childhood is the Right IDEA Act to ensure that the programs that promote inclusive, quality education for infants, toddlers, and preschool children with disabilities have the resources they need."
43rd Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of IDEA 2021
For 43 years, this resource has been reporting the country's progress in: providing a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for children with disabilities under IDEA, Part B, and early intervention services to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families under IDEA, Part C; ensuring that the rights of these children and their parents are protected; assisting states and localities in providing IDEA services to all children with disabilities; and assessing the effectiveness of efforts to provide IDEA services to children with disabilities. The annual reports to Congress reflect a history of persistent commitment and effort to expand educational opportunities for children with disabilities.
How Build Back Better Advances Racial Equity in Child Care and Early Education
One of the Build Back Better (BBB) Act's most significant effects would be in reshaping the childcare and early education field through long-overdue changes that will begin to address racial inequities - both for families and providers - through alleviating many of the socioeconomic barriers that uphold those inequities. That's according to this report developed by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). The resource provides an overview of the BBB Act's Birth through Five Child Care and Early Learning Program; describes the historical racial inequities in the childcare and early education system; and outlines how the BBB funding will be foundational in creating an equitable childcare and early education system.
Jack Shonkoff Calls For "ECD 2.0"
Jack Shonkoff, chair of the committee that wrote the groundbreaking report, Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development in 2000, released a call to action to advance the way early childhood stakeholders engage with the world. Called "Re-Envisioning Early Childhood Policy and Practice in a World of Striking Inequality and Uncertainty", the overarching point of Shonkoff's statement is that the existing circumference of early childhood development is correct but drawn too narrowly. He offers a way to build on these foundations - Early Childhood Developement (ECD) 2.0. Shonkoff leads Harvard's Center on the Developing Child.
Accessible Learning Across the Lifespan
Discover Accessible Learning Across the Lifespan in these four short videos produced by Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) Center, in partnership with Bridge Multimedia. The videos are designed to start conversations about the importance of accessibility and accessible materials. The series builds an understanding of what accessibility means; introduces viewers to a variety of accessibility features that are built into devices used every day; teaches how building accessibility into design workflow is essential to creating inclusive experiences for everyone; and shares ideas for making the workplace more inclusive for people with disabilities.
Collaborating with Spoken Language: Interpreters and Translators: A Primer for School Leaders
This guide provides school leaders with research-based knowledge and resources related to language access, qualifications of interpreters and translators, and sustainable options to ensure equity in communication. Developed by the National Association of Educational Translators and Interpreters of Spoken Languages (NAETISL), this publication acknowledges the essential role that bilingual school personnel and trained interpreters play in strengthening home-school connections.