Planning for EEC FY2010 Grant Awards Policy and Program Committee April 6, 2009

Planning for FY2010 Grants Presentation Overview Review Current EEC Grant Programs: Type of Grants to be Administered Discuss Key Changes Proposed for FY2010 Review Timeline for Proposal Development and RFRs 2

3 Planning for FY2010 Grants Types of Grants Administered by EEC Allocation/Formula Grant: “Pass-through” funds awarded on a pre-set formula basis with established eligible entities. Continuation/Renewal Grants: Assumes continued funding, subject to appropriation to current grantees that remain eligible; Major program goals/requirements stay the same; Some programmatic, reporting or administrative changes can be implemented through Renewal process. Competitive Grants: With existing or new funds, based on budget language and appropriation; develop competitive RFR for distribution of funds; Board votes to approve RFR criteria including eligibility, required services and priorities. RFR posting and award schedule based on availability of funding and/or timing of final state budget.

INSERT CHART as a picture once Amy edits – use “paste special” Chart is at: S:\Board Files & Meeting Materials\Board Meeting Materials\Advisory Team\April 3\Grants 4 Planning for FY2010 Grant Awards Summary of FY2010 Grants

Family Access and Support Vision / Goals The Department of Early Education and Care seeks to establish/build on a local infrastructure of supports and services across the Commonwealth to ensure that every family with young children has access, in their community, to: High-quality, accurate and readily available information; Strength based family education and early literacy activities; Coordinated resources; Leadership opportunities to assess/design improvements to the local early education and care infrastructure and statewide policy; and An integrated and aligned network of parents and providers to ensure common school readiness goals; seamless transitions and effective inclusion of children with special needs across the community. 5

6 Family Access and Support Community, Family and Child Outcomes Information on early education and care options, parenting education, and community resources is readily available and accurate; and is available at locations in the community that families frequent and in languages spoken by families in the community. Children experience literacy, language and print rich environments at home, in their early education and care programs and at school. Specific strategies and outreach mechanisms are in place to engage hard to reach families including but not limited to those for who English is a second language, families experiencing homelessness, and families living in geographic isolation. All families with newborns or newly adopted infants are contacted by a local, knowledgeable resource person and offered information about resources in their community and access to information about healthy child development. XX% of the children and families participating in the Parent Child Home Program, where applicable, have been retained through the full two years of the program. Children in Early Intervention, who are eligible, are smoothly transitioned into special education programs and other community resources and programs.

7 Families with preschool children receiving special education services have options about where to receive special education and related services in settings with typically developing peers. Every community has at least one free, child safe, public space (library, community center) where families can take their children to play, find resources on parenting, support literacy, and network with other families. Families and educators have access to comprehensive services to support their children’s healthy development at home, at their early education and care program and in the community. Families have meaningful leadership opportunities in their communities, schools, programs. Training is available to assist in becoming effective advocates for their children. Data, collected locally and aggregated state-wide, is used to measure the need for and effectiveness of local early education and care strategies and programming. Prior to making a transition to a new program, all children and families are contacted by their teacher and are invited to visit the classroom/program. Family Access and Support Community, Family and Child Outcomes Contd.

8 Family Access and Support Problem / Opportunity Statement A consistent statewide system for identifying, assessing and addressing needs of families with children birth to five within a local community does not currently exist. Such an infrastructure would ensure that families across the state have access to more equitable and consistent information and services; and would allow community resources/funding to be targeted to meet identified local needs. EEC and other state and private agencies currently support multiple funding streams at the local level that provide among other things family support and engagement, early literacy activities, local community planning, services for children with special needs, etc. Many of these funding sources have common purposes and serve similar age groups of children but, may or may not, be delivered by the same agency or coordinated at the local level. For families, gaining access to services can mean contacting multiple agencies or individuals, which often lead to different sets of information or services. For local grantees, grant requirements can be burdensome, conflicting and can work against comprehensive planning and service delivery for families. For EEC, managing multiple grants to the same lead agency or within the same community can be administratively challenging and has not allowed for coordinated planning or establishment of a consistent and comprehensive local support infrastructure statewide.

Family Access and Support Current EEC Funding / Programs Local Family Access and Support 9 Program/FundingFY09 Funding and Grants Community Partnerships for Children Local Planning and Coordination $14.2 M Post9c= 12.67M 140 Grants Massachusetts Family Networks (MFN) $5.2 Million Post 9c= 4,216,556 42 Grant Parent Child Home Program (PCHP) $2.25 Million 25 Grants Joint Family Support Program (JFSP) $850,000 11 Grants Early Childhood Resource Centers $60,000 ( plus $10,000 in Special Ed. Funds in FY’09 to purchase materials related to children with disabilities.) 5 Grants Preschool Direct Services (Comprehensive Services Funding Only) $ (TBD) XX Grants Other State Funded, Community-Delivered Resources for this Population Include (but are not limited to): Children’s Trust Fund, Healthy Families: FY2009: $13.1 Million/Post 9c=$12.4 Children’s Trust Fund Family Centers: FY2009: $62,000/ program. Early Intervention: FY2009:$42.9 Million/Post 9c= $41.5.

Family Access and Support Proposed Required Objectives / Services OBJECTIVE 1: Increase knowledge of and accessibility to early education and care programs and services for families with children prenatal through school-age. OBJECTIVE 2: Facilitate collaboration and community planning between local early education and care partners and stake holders. OBJECTIVE 3: Provide support and guidance to families with children transitioning between and among early education and care settings, home and school. Objective 4: Support early education and care programs across the public and private sectors in delivering high- quality services. 10

Family Access and Support FY2010 Proposal To move towards the vision outlined above including creating greater access for families achieving greater efficiencies in administration at the state and local level EEC proposes to allow: communities with multiple grants/funding streams supporting similar goals to submit one joint proposal to start (or continue) working towards comprehensive planning and delivery of local family access and supports. greater flexibility in service delivery and across funding streams but create increased accountability through outcome measurement (see above). FY2010: Communities will also be required to develop or maintain a single/consolidated local planning council/entity responsible for meeting the goals of the funding and to work through any issues related to inconsistent service areas. Although participation in the consolidated grant application will be strongly encouraged, but voluntary, in FY2010 it may be required or implemented through a competitive bid process in FY2011. All communities/grantees, whether they participate in the consolidated application process for FY2010 or not, will be expected to work towards the community, family and child outcomes described above and also to begin a collaborative community planning process. 11

Family Access and Support Discussion Questions 1. What supports can EEC provide during FY2009 and FY2010 to assist communities in moving towards collaborative planning and coordinated funding? 2. How should Commissioner’s Districts and/or communities with greater educational risk factors be prioritized within existing resources? 3. Should the near/long term vision be birth to school-age or birth through school- age? 4. What should the base level of funding be for local planning and coordination efforts? How can this be determined? 5. When the geographic area for different grants is not the same, how should service area be determined? 6. What funding would be needed to fully implement the vision across the state/how does current funding address these gaps? 7. What is the relationship between CPC PD/Accreditation grants, and the Program and Practitioner Supports component of the QRIS and local family support infrastructure? 8. Amount of cost savings that could be realized through consolidation of grants. 12

Areas of potential modifications related to: Increased accountability and guidance Refined expenditure parameters Administrative simplification Additional system-building/policy development Suggested modifications based on feedback from: FY08 UPK Evaluation UPK Working Group (subset of Advisory Team) UPK family child care sub-group (subset of UPK Working Group plus additional stakeholders) UPK grantees Internal grant review process 13 Planning for FY2010 Grant Awards Universal Pre-Kindergarten Classroom Quality Grant Renewal Overview

Increased Accountability and Guidance Collect grantee data (beginning, mid, and end of year) organized around specific indicators to increase accountability, provide additional guidance, and obtain better information about grant outcomes. Indicators might include but not be limited to: Level of staff compensation Staff/teacher qualifications Teacher/provider to child ratio and group/class size Research-based instructional practices and how assessment information being used to affect instruction and program practice Family engagement/involvement Level of services to meet comprehensive needs of children and families Quality of transitions for children/families Grantees would be required to provide quality improvement plan and relate proposed grant activities to indicators. Analyze extent to which funds benefiting UPK classrooms/homes vs. non-UPK classrooms/homes. 14 Planning for FY2010 Grant Awards Universal Pre-Kindergarten Renewal: Potential Modifications

Refined Expenditure Parameters Limit educational materials/technology expenditures after first year of funding to certain % of total (e.g., 15%) based on UPK evaluation findings and grant reviews Require that family child care systems pass-through certain proportion of funds directly to UPK providers (e.g., 50%) Administrative Simplification Consolidate agencies with multiple sites/providers into one contract with site-specific budgets 15 Planning for FY2010 Grant Awards Universal Pre-Kindergarten Renewal: Potential Modifications

Additional System-Building/Policy Development Ongoing UPK evaluation Additional networking/training opportunities for grantees to share best practices Pilot mentoring initiative to link UPK and non-UPK programs Pilot family child care system initiative focused on building high-quality coaching capacity Assess how to continue to move UPK grants to program level (vs. classroom) Identify ways to better include public school programs (e.g., grant structure, eligibility criteria, expenditure parameters) 16 Planning for FY2010 Grant Awards Universal Pre-Kindergarten Renewal: Potential Modifications

17 Planning for FY2010 Grant Awards Professional Development/Accreditation In development

18 Planning for FY2010 Grant Awards Professional Development/Accreditation In development

Planning for FY2010 Grant Awards Proposed Timeline 19 TimelineActivities April 14Board will discuss proposed changes for FY2010 for: UPK Professional Development Accreditation MFN PCHP CPC Local Planning and Coordination Late AprilRenewal RFRs posted for: CPC Local Planning and Coordination Massachusetts Family Networks (MFN) Parent Child Home Program (PCHP) Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) State Supplement for Head Start Programs Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation CPC Professional Development* Accreditation Building Careers Parent Child Home Program (Timeline for Preschool Direct Services and Federal Special Education Funding is TBD) Late MayResponses due July 1Grants begin