eNotes
November 6, 2015In this Issue:
- Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children Source: Sesame Workshop - Retrieved November 6, 2015
- Implementing Parenting Interventions in Early Care and Education Settings Source: Child Trends - November 5, 2015
- The American Almanac of Family Homelessness Source: Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness - November 3, 2015
- Updates to the QRIS Compendium Source: BUILD Initiative - November 3, 2015
- Building Blocks: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2015 Source: National Women's Law Center - Retrieved November 6, 2015
1. Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children
The Sesame Street workshop has launched Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children, featuring a new character with autism, resources for families of children with autism, and The AMAZING Song, which celebrates young children with diverse abilities. The nationwide initiative was developed with input from parents, people who serve the autism community, and people with autism. It offers families ways to overcome common challenges and simplify everyday activities, while also fostering an affirming narrative around autism for all families and kids.
2. Implementing Parenting Interventions in Early Care and Education Settings
Child Trends has published a new guidebook to provide program, state, and child care network leaders an easy-to-use tool for selecting and implementing a parenting intervention. Implementing Parenting Interventions in Early Care and Education Settings: A Guidebook for Implementation (November 2015) may be used as a companion to the Compendium of Parenting Interventions recently developed by the Health and Human Services Interagency Parenting Group and the Head Start National Center on Family and Community Engagement for use across various community-based settings. As defined by these resources, a parenting intervention is a structured set of activities for children's primary adult caregivers intended to positively influence parenting behaviors and achieve positive outcomes for children. These interventions are implemented over a specific time period and can be offered in early care and education settings (including homebased) to engage parents in promoting their infants' and young children's development and learning.
3. The American Almanac of Family Homelessness
The recently published American Almanac of Family Homelessness (2015) describes the situations and characteristics of millions of children and their families who experience the challenges of homelessness every year in the U.S., as well as efforts that are being made across the country to better identify and serve these children and families. The report finds that although the incidence of homelessness is greatest among children under age six, homeless children are under-enrolled in prekindergarten programs in a majority of states.
4. Updates to the QRIS Compendium
The BUILD Initiative recently announced updates to its web-based Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Compendium. Data is now current through October 30, 2015 and new data elements have been added related to program density, technical assistance, and professional development. The QRIS Compendium compiles the latest details on QRIS in every state, territory and region/locality in the U.S.; provides answers to common questions; and allows users to compare data across different states. It is meant to help promote thoughtful design, analysis and ongoing improvement in early care and education systems building. If you have questions, please contact Sarah Friese.
5. Building Blocks: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2015
A recently published state-by-state report from the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), Building Blocks: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2015, compares data for February 2015 to data for February 2014 and 2001 on the five factors that determine the affordability, accessibility and quality of child care assistance in the U.S. The report finds that families in 32 states are better off under one or more key child care policies in 2015 than in 2014, but families in sixteen states lost ground. This is the third year in a row in which the situation for families improved in more states than it worsened, however the gains were modest.