Week 1 - EDUC 6766

Well, I would have never thought that I would be this far into the program when I started about a year and a half ago but here I am. These classes move so fast that as soon as you think, I will never keep up, you are finished one class. One class moves into another and before you know it, here we are, almost at the end. I am so happy to share this final stretch of the journey with such knowledgeable, compassionate colleagues as all of you have been to me. I met all of you in the last class for the first time but because of the class size we soon bonded and I feel like I have known all of you for a long time. Everyone take a deep breath because here we go!!!

Early Childhood Systems - Week 8

          There was not as much discussion in this course as I have had in others, but the discussions that took place helped in my learning about early childhood systems. I was glad to have a colleague in Head Start and learned more about the challenges they are facing through funding cuts. Katy being from Minnesota definitely brought new insights to the class through her own professional work and through Minnesota's efforts in helping families and children.

Three consequences of collaborative learning

1. Listening to different perspectives - All colleagues have a different perspective on issues. Even those of us from Louisiana worked in different sectors of early childhood so our challenges and issues were different.

2. You are not alone - It doesn't seem to matter what sector of early childhood you are working in, some of the challenges are the same. This does not make the situation better but it did help me to see the bigger picture of early childhood education.

3. Suggestions and/or ideas - Throughout all my courses as well as this one, hearing ideas or suggestions from others in a related job, brought a fresh approach to my work. One colleague from another course worked for QRS in another state. She and I shared many ideas. Learning through Katy's experiences was quite informative and gave me insight to how Minnesota has chosen to make early childhood a priority.

Goal

I will use the knowledge and insights gained in this class to advocate for an increased demand in quality services for children and families.

Thanks to all of you who were there for me every week. I hope the New Year brings you all the things in life that are important and special to you. May we all keep our chins up and forge ahead in our work for children and families.

Hypothetical Family Situation

          I am a married white woman in my early thirties. I have two children ages four and two, and I am pregnant for my third child. I recently found out that my unborn baby has a brain abnormality and will be born with cerebral palsy. My husband and I are immediately devastated about how we will be able to care for a child with a disability. Our other two children were typical developing children and we feel unequipped to care for this child. My husband begins to worry about finances. He works at a job making about eleven dollars an hour and I work as an administrative assistant making about nine dollars an hour. We are considered to be lower middle class. We fall into that financial category of making too much money to receive resources, but yet struggle to keep up with expenses and needs of our family. We wonder how we will pay for medical bills, and other expenses related to a child with disabilities. I am also concerned about the emotional well-being of my two other children and how this will affect their development. I feel overwhelmed and lost. My husband and I do not have much emotional or hands on support from either of our families. His parents are very ill and cannot physically help with the children. My parents are elderly and also cannot help with the children. Our siblings all work outside the home and feel that they have too much to do just taking care of their own children. They do not ever offer to swap babysitting services so we can each have some time away. In light of the new developments, I do not think our families will be much help.

          After doing research, we find out that our baby will need health services in the form of possible surgeries, and medicine. After our baby is born there will be a need for various services such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. High quality early care and education will be essential in our baby’s development. Child care becomes an added concern due to the fact that we were recently denied subsidies to child care. Louisiana’s child care assistance program has lowered its gross income limits to $3030 per month (DCFS, 2013).  My husband and I bring in $200 above that limit. We are struggling with the challenge of paying for two children in child care. My four year old did not qualify for public preschool because of income limits and because he has no developmental delays. Because he scored too high on the assessment, he was denied enrollment in the public preschool program.

          Family leadership and support will be very important to my baby as well as the whole family. We will benefit from home visitations that help us care for a baby with a disability. Also, these families support services will be able to access our needs and be able to find resources for us. We will need education on policies and rights of families with children with disabilities. We will also need to network with other families. Cerebral Palsy of Louisiana will be helpful in making those connections with families and for providing necessary education.

References:

Cerebral Palsy of Louisiana (2013). Retrieved from http://www.cerebralpalsyla.com/

Department of Children and Family Services (2013). Retrieved from  http://www.dcfs.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=pagebuilder&tmp=home&nid=119&pnid=7&pid=136&catid=0     

Week 5 - Improving Early Childhood Systems

Early Childhood care and education is receiving more and more attention on the national level. Many organizations like the National Center for Children in Poverty, Children's Defense Fund, and others are working continuously on making better lives for children and families. They do this by promoting the benefits of good health, education, and overall well-being for children. Through their research, data is reported to states to help develop policies and laws affecting the early care and education of children.

One strategy that I think that is being used is to promote school readiness in children. Various research has proven that children who are school ready, have fewer academic, emotional, and behavioral problems. They achieve more later in life and become an asset to their communities. Organizations and advocates are promoting school readiness by the development of early learning standards. These standards say exactly what a child should know and be able to do within an age range. Although I am not in favor of "cookie cutter" child care programs, I am in favor of having a strong basis on which to begin the work in early childhood education. I am not in favor of dictating how the standards should be met or a mandated curriculum. By allowing teachers to develop their own lessons and activities, he/she will be able to meet the individual cultural, and academic needs of her/his students. I do not think that all children from all demographic areas learn the same way. When I visualize using standards, I think of traveling on a journey. If you have no plan or map, you will drive around aimlessly not getting anywhere. The same is true for teachers in an early childhood classroom. The standards present a plan from which they can develop a path for the journey.

In Louisiana, early learning standards have been developed and child care programs are starting to be trained on them. By 2015 all early learning programs including public PreK, Head Start, and private child care will be mandated to use these standards. I do think this is a good idea. All programs will be working from the same plan so that the end of the journey is school readiness. Not all children will follow the same path in getting there but the end result should be school readiness.

Parent, Family, and Community Engagement

When I heard the stories from parents in Head Start, I could not help but think how rewarding it must be as a Head Start staff to hear what a difference you made in families' lives. How professionally and personally rewarding to know that you were responsible for some one's success in life.

Involvement in Head Start has allowed many parents to accomplish things that they did not think they were capable of doing. Head Start empowered them to put themselves on committees and Parent Councils. By taking these steps, many parents gained self-esteem and realized that they were worth more than they thought possible. Once their self-esteem was raised, many went to school and obtained degrees. I am always touched by the many stories I hear from teachers in my local Head Start centers. They are very similar to the stories on the website. They began as parents with no education, no money, and no hope. Now they have education, and a rewarding profession where they make a difference in families and children. By allowing so much parent involvement, Head Start is also creating that much needed bond between parent and child. Parents are the first and most influential teachers a child has and Head Start understands that children will develop to a higher level with the parents' involvement.

The value of hearings these stories is priceless. Unfortunately, I do not think enough of the public, policy makers and/or government officials hear these stories. I have been in the early childhood field for 26 years. I knew nothing about Head Start until 6 years ago when I started working for the state. I was almost ashamed that this very advanced, effective program existed and I knew nothing about it. What stands out most for me is that these stories are not just some parents they chose to put on a website. I can go into any Head Start center in my surrounding region and hear the same stories. That is when you know a program has truly reached its goals in parent involvement. However, I know that they want to do more and they have to work to ensure this goal is continued.

Parent involvement is absolutely necessary in all strands of service in the early childhood field. In the child care strand, parents think involvement means showing up for holiday parties or bringing any supplies needed. They do not think of themselves as partners in their child's development. Especially in private child care, parents feel like they are paying you to teach their child and they should not have to do anything. We must continue to advocate for a change in this mindset.

Quality Programs for all Children

I really do not think that public opinion of early childhood care and education in the next five years will change if there is no change in parent education. Over the past decades, we have seen an increase in children attending early childhood programs. For most of these working parents, they see these programs as babysitters with an added perk of learning outcomes. I am not trying to be skeptical but I am basing my opinion on what I have seen in the past 5 years. There are numerous research articles about the benefits of quality early childhood programs, but early childhood professionals read them. There is information about brain development and the science behind it from the Center on the Developing Child. Usually early childhood professionals receive the online newsletters.

My point is that I have worked for the QRS program in Louisiana since the inception. We have worked with private child care centers educating them on the benefits of quality early childhood. They have worked to improve their interactions with children, increased the professional development of staff, and learned the benefits of relationships in the brain development of infants. They have worked to implement requirements for a high star rating in QRS. For the most part, we have turned the child care providers into believers. They see the positive results. However it is so disheartening to hear about a 4 star center having to close down because they do not have enough children enrolled. Worse than that for me is to see a 1 star center or no star rating center have a waiting list and other higher star centers that can barely pay their bills.

The bottom line is that parents have not understood the research, nor have they bought in to the concept of quality. In their eyes, they still just need a place for their child to go during the day. I had a preschool for children ages 3 -5 for 15 years. In 2001, my parish piloted the LA4 Prek program in public schools. By 2004, I had closed my doors. I actually had parents tell me that their children will never get at these school programs what they received from me but it was free and it did not really matter because it was just "daycare". These were parents who had their second and third child with me.

We as early childhood professionals can continue to advocate as I always do, but until we get parents to understand the benefits to quality care and education, we may not have much influence on policy makers. After all, these children belong to these families. If politicians are not hearing them advocate, they probably think that families do not find this situation important. Unfortunately I think that is true. I would like to advocate for more parent education so that they can understand the long-term outcomes for children who were cared for in quality systems.

Week 1 Public Policy and Advocacy

Why did you choose this specialization?

I have been working for state government for the past six years in the Child Care Quality Rating System. I ran my own child care center for many years and never knew all what was involved in policy making in government. After working in this government capacity, I want to know more about public policy and advocacy involving children and families. My work has sparked my interest and I now I am interested in gaining more knowledge so that I can move forward in the early childhood field. Children are helpless in speaking for themselves nor does our society value their opinions. I want to be a voice for children in my community.

Why are advocates essential in the early childhood field?

As I stated above, children do not have a voice so they need others to be a voice for them. Many other groups advocate on behalf of themselves. Children do not have the power to do that. Our society does not value children and their knowledge of issues affecting their lives. Others like early childhood professionals have to step in and take a stand for children. They have the knowledge and the passion for the future of children and are called to advocate on their behalf. Our society as a whole does not understand the importance of early childhood and the impact that quality early childhood programs have on the future of a community. There is more work being done to promote children rights, but more needs to be done and continued.

What do you hope to learn about public policy and advocacy?

I know at this point I am unsure about everything involved in public policy and advocacy, but I have very general goals that I am sure I will refine as I gain more information.

1. To learn how funding streams affect our early childhood programs.
2. To learn how advocacy affects early childhood policies.
3. To understand policy making in the early childhood field.