DEVELOPING STATE PLANS TO IMPROVE SERVICES FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS

1. DEVELOPING STATE PLANS TO IMPROVE SERVICES FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS ZERO TO THREE Policy Center Webinar Andrea Booher March 23, 2010

2. All planning is strategic. Planning is an ongoing process. Planning has many benefits: Setting priorities Developing a process to identify and resolve issues Keeping the work focused Building commitment Evaluating results and adjusting in light of experience Key Points about Planning

3. The Planning Process • Involve a diverse group of key stakeholders. • Develop a common vision and set of values/principles. • Analyze needs and assets. • Create both a long-term plan and shorter-term priorities for implementation. • Establish benchmarks and track progress toward outcomes.

4. Infants and Toddlers in the Policy Picture • A Self-Assessment Checklist for States • www.zerotothree.org/checklist

5. Infants and Toddlers in the Policy Picture • Four sections • Each item rated • Services and policies • Factual and subjective

6. Baby Matters • Baby Matters: • A Gateway to State Policies • and Initiatives • www.zerotothree.org/babymatters

7. Baby Matters

8. Shifting the Paradigm for Infant and Toddler Policy • A Place to Get Started • www.zerotothree.org/gettingstarted • Part of the policy guide, which is • available at • www.zerotothree.org/policyguide

9. Shifting the Paradigm for Infant and Toddler Policy • Infant and early childhood mental health consultation • Developmental screening • High quality home visiting services • Permanent placements for children in foster care • QRIS inclusive of infants and toddlers • Early Head Start expansion • Early childhood professional development system • Collaborative planning and decision-making structures

10. Discussion with States • Facilitator: Barbara Gebhard, ZERO TO THREE • Maryland: Margaret Williams, Maryland Family Network • Pennsylvania: Debi Mathias, Office of Child Development and Early Learning

11. Overview of Maryland’s Planning Process • Led by nonprofit intermediary with State Department of Education leadership • What Should We Do? • How Should We Do It? • How Should We Pay for It? • Mantra: The plan must be research- and practice-based, approved by key stakeholders, informed by content experts, and sufficiently detailed to guide statewide program and policy developments for the next decade.

12. Overview of Maryland’s Planning Process • 2 years to plan • 5 foundations • 1 facilitator with graduate students • 6 months to execute • 49 stakeholders • 48 pages and a disc, pictures and charts LifeStockPhoto

13. Overview of Pennsylvania’s Planning Process • Convene a Team • Application process for selecting members, ended up with 27 members • Chaired by foundation leader • Committee members included high level government, health care, early intervention, infant-toddler child care experts, early intervention, Early Head Start, university faculty, education association representatives, and cross-sector systems thinkers • Survey the Landscape • Reviewed report and progress on the BUILD Infant-Toddler Task Force: Recommendations to Promote Infant and Toddler Development – Establishing an Integrated and Coordinated System for Infants, Toddlers and their Families in Pennsylvania, February 2006 • Reviewed status of infants and toddlers in Pennsylvania (Risk and Reach Data) and identified gaps • Reviewed elements of early childhood systems, policy and planning frameworks, and resources • Reviewed innovations in other states including programs, evaluation and research in the areas of quality programs, professional development, early identification, home visiting and financing

14. Overview of Pennsylvania’s Planning Process • Develop the Vision • Brainstorming exercise – what are we celebrating about the work in PA and how does that reflect the values that we hold, improvements that have been made, and accomplishments to support families? • Developed a vision statement for the infant-toddler work “Children are our future. We share in the responsibility to guarantee for each child the opportunity to thrive in the early years of life, and for each parent the knowledge and resources to nurture their child’s development. Therefore, we intend to create a future in Pennsylvania where every infant and toddler is supported with a comprehensive continuum of high quality, integrated educational and behavioral health services that are responsive to individual family needs.” • Create the Deliverables and Follow Up Mechanisms • Goal - end up with a handful of agreed-on ‘Big Ideas’ with strategies and benchmarks for implementation • Created the report with background, research support and recommendations • Handed off recommendations with next steps to appropriate group/individual • Assigned person to check in on progress and update community

15. Process • What resources, tools, or activities were particularly useful to your planning group? (Pennsylvania) • Data reports from PA (Reach and Risk) http://www.pakeys.org/pages/get.aspx?page=EarlyLearning_Reach • Maintaining a system viewpoint • Examples from other states • Policy and planning resources from ZERO TO THREE and CLASP (Center for Law and Social Policy) • National Infant & Toddler Child Care Initiative (NITCCI) – Strategic Planning Toolkit • ZERO TO THREE Self-Assessment Checklist for States • Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care Project • State CCDBG Plans to Promote Opportunities for Babies and Toddlers in Child Care and Tool to Examine State Child Care Subsidy Policies and Promote Stable, Quality Care for Low-Income Babies and Toddlers

16. Process • What resources, tools, or activities were particularly useful to your planning group? (Maryland) • Informants (Knitzer, Lombardi, Melmed, Ramey, etc.) • One-page program summaries • Unusual suspects – business leaders, housing developers, and venture capitalists

17. Process • How did the groupdeal with conflicts, bridge differences, and build consensus? (Maryland) • (income targeting, multiple generations, dosage, and illegal family, friend and neighbor care providers) • Use of a straw man • Brought the matter to all 3 work groups for consensus of each, then to Leadership Council for decision

18. Process • How did the groupdeal with conflicts, bridge differences, and build consensus? (Pennsylvania) • By having a well-planned, expertly facilitated group process • Began with a “big tent” vision and over time, with discussion and activities, ended up with a product that the committee could fully endorse. Some of the well-known specific strategies included: • Ground rules for the committee • Spirit of compromise, how can we have win/win with differences, where do we agree • Priority setting, weighing options • Realistic filters, accomplishable

19. Product • What priorities were identified in your plan? (Maryland) • Hubs • Child care • Special services Debbie Rappaport

20. Product • What priorities were identified in your plan? (Pennsylvania) • Develop a statewide infant-toddler service program to assure that the most vulnerable infants and toddlers receive quality early learning. • Assure early identification and referral through developmental screening. • Support a qualified multidisciplinary workforce of professionals with infant-toddler expertise in the service delivery system. • Assure the provision of behavioral health services as necessary to enhance the social and emotional health of infants, toddlers and their families.

21. Product • How did you disseminate the plan to key stakeholders and cultivate support for its recommendations? (Pennsylvania) • BUILD listserv – emailed to over 8,000 • Build Early Childhood E-News is a biweekly e-newsletter to inform early learning professionals, the early childhood community, policymakers, community leaders and the public on developments in early childhood education and care in Pennsylvania. The newsletter is free and open to anyone. • Shared at committee meetings - Early Learning Council, Early Learning Career Preparation and Development Committee, and Early Childhood Mental Health Committee • Posted on the PA Key website

22. Product • How did you disseminate the plan to key stakeholders and cultivate support for its recommendations? (Maryland) • Local Management Boards • Public Policy Committee • Early Childhood Work Groups – LAP • Everybody’s Everything

23. Results • What has been accomplished so far related to the priorities in your plan? (Maryland) • Merger • Infrastructure has remained intact • Several initiatives involve the model

24. Results • What has been accomplished so far related to the priorities in your plan? (Pennsylvania) • Develop a statewide infant-toddler service program to assure that the most vulnerable infants and toddlers receive quality early learning. • Pennsylvania was able to add to our continuum of infant-toddler services - Nurse Family Partnership, Parent Child Home Program, Early Intervention, CCW • Keystone Babies was released as a pilot project funded through ARRA for applications in February 2010, decisions about funding were announced in March. Anticipated to add funding into 25 Keystone STAR 3 or 4 subsidized child care infant-toddler classrooms to improve outcomes for 200 children. • http://www.pakeys.org/pages/get.aspx?page=Programs_Other • Pennsylvania applied for and became an Early Head Start grantee • serving 128 infants and toddlers in home- and center-based settings • beginning March 2010

25. Results • What remains to be done, and what are your next steps for moving forward? (Maryland) • 327 more to go • Build on existing programs • Prove the model Andrea Booher

26. Results • What remains to be done, and what are your next • steps for moving forward? (Pennsylvania) • Assure early identification and referral through developmental screening. • The ECMH Committee is reviewing recommendations at the March meeting and laying out next steps to move ahead in this goal area. The committee and OCDEL have already recommended consistent use of Ages and Stages developmental screener across systems. • Support a qualified multidisciplinary workforce of professionals with infant-toddler expertise in the service delivery system. • Early Learning Career Preparation and Development Committee is reviewing the recommendations at the March meeting and developing a subcommittee to work on more detailed recommendations. • Assure the provision of behavioral health services as necessary to enhance the social and emotional health of infants, toddlers and their families. • The ECMH Committee is developing strategies for each of the next steps.

27. Reflections • What challenges have you faced, and how have you dealt with them? (Pennsylvania) • Qualification and compensation issues in the ECE field exacerbated in the infant-toddler setting due to cost of providing high quality services. Required minimum qualifications and salaries for EHS and Keystone Babies. • Coordinated follow-up and benchmarking the success of implementation after the committee was dissolved. Assigned to paid staff at OCDEL. • Public and political will-building for continued investment in infants and toddlers. Continuing to strategize.

28. Reflections • What challenges have you faced, and how have you dealt with them? (Maryland) • Few expansion opportunities and all competitive • Economic model incomplete • Focus on Pre-K Comstock

29. Reflections • What have been the main keys to success? (Maryland) • Staying active and visible – public policy • Being part of all early childhood initiatives, not just 0-3 • Building social network

30. Reflections • What have been the main keys to success? (Pennsylvania) • Ability to leverage high level cross-sector planning committee and come to consensus on recommendations • Ability to secure funding to implement recommendations • Ability to ‘house’ recommendations in already functioning committees for implementation Andrea Booher

31. Reflections • What advice would you offer to other states as they develop infant-toddler plans? (Pennsylvania) • Maintain a cross-systems approachwith diverse planning partners • Create a visionand a sense of urgency • Build in accountability, identifiable outcomes and be able to describe what success looks like within a recommendation or strategy • Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good • Leverage the strengths of the system in your state and be flexible and prepared to move quickly if opportunities arise; prioritize specific realistic goals that can be accomplished so there is success around the work

32. Reflections • What advice would you offer to other states as they develop infant-toddler plans? (Maryland) • Make sure all options are on the table • Involve influencers, wherever they are • Keep it a short, tight process with a clear goal in mind Andrea Booher

33. Contact Information • Barbara Gebhard • bgebhard@zerotothree.org • Margaret Williams • mwilliams@friendsofthefamily.org • Debi Mathias • demathias@state.pa.us • Please visit www.zerotothree.org/policywebinars to download all the materials for this webinar LifeStockPhoto