ED Committee Public Hearing Date Changed to 3/6

The Education Committee's Public Hearing has been scheduled to Friday, March 6, starting at 10 a.m., in Room 1E. While we don't have the agenda yet, we expect these bills to be heard.

• Childcare Business Incubator Bill (HB 5213) FACT SHEET
• Care4Kids eligibility (HB 5220) for parents in EvenStart or school for the high demand occupations of nursing, manufacturing and teaching (including ECE)
• HB 5222, which would provide a 90 day job search for families living in a homeless shelter for more than 2 weeks.

If you'd like us to sign you up to testify on Friday or would like more information on how to testify, email Merrill @[email protected].

Save the Date: Advocacy Day 2020

Please save the date of Wednesday, March 25, for CT Early Childhood Alliance Advocacy Day. It is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Old Judiciary Room, with advocates branching out after the program to speak to their legislators. More details to come, but now is the time to be contacting your legislators or their aides to schedule a meeting. Ask for an appointment shortly after noon. You can start registering for Advocacy Day HERE.

Count All Kids Census Campaign Update

We are RACING towards the 2020 U.S. Census and we need your help to make sure every child is counted. Did you know in the 2010 Census, 1 in 10 children under the age of 5 were NOT counted? We have to reduce the undercount, so our towns, our cities, our state, receive the resources needed. An undercount equals underfunding.  We are working diligently to prepare materials, plan webinars, etc., in order to help you, trusted community messengers, ensure a complete count, including children.

We encourage child care providers, who are seen as trusted messengers, to consider hosting "Census Parties" as we get closer to April 1 (which is "Census Kick-off Day"). We encourage you to plan activities around counting and when parents come for pick-up, ask them to fill out the Census while they are there with you. It takes less than 10 minutes to fill out and can be done on a Smartphone, tablet or computer. If you're interested in hosting a Census Party, contact Melvette Hill at [email protected]

In addition to the Census Parties, the Alliance has access to a children's book called "We Count," which helps explain the Census. Currently, we have books available in English and Spanish. To obtain the books, we will need one of your organization's members to complete a short training session to become "Census Experts" (Wednesdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. online). To register for the training, click HERE. To fill out the Google form for interest in the books, click HERE.

Finally, if you follow us on Facebook or Twitter, you will see our daily Census posts. Please feel free to share these posts via your social media accounts, so we can bring more awareness to the upcoming Census. If you're looking for us on Facebook, search "CT Early Childhood Alliance," or "CT Association for Human Services." If you're looking for us on Twitter, search "CTECA" or "CAHS_org."

There is still uncertainty, which is why people need to be reassured by those they trust that the Census is safe for them to take part in. But they also have to be careful, because scam mailings are possible. The U.S. Census Bureau offers this resource to help determine if a mailing is from them or its a scam. Remember, an invitation to take the Census online or by phone will be hitting mailboxes around March 12. Anything prior to that is most likely a scam. If the person doesn't complete the Census one of those two ways, a paper copy will be sent, followed by an enumerator at the door.

Important Census Dates to Remember:

March 12-20: Initial invitations to respond online and by phone will be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Areas that are less likely to respond online will receive a paper questionnaire along with the invitation to respond online or over the phone.

March 16-24: Reminder letters will be delivered.

March 26-April 3: Reminder postcards will be delivered to households that have not responded.

April 8-16: Reminder letters and paper questionnaires will be delivered to remaining households that have not responded.

April 20-27: Final reminder postcards will be delivered to households that have not yet responded before census takers follow up in person.

May 13-July 31: If a household does not respond to any of the invitations, a census taker will follow up in person.

Conference Registration Now Open!

The 2020 Childhood Conversations/Together We Will Conference registration is now open! The conference will focus on a one-day event this year, Friday, April 3, 2020. This year's conference will focus on exploring the landscape of equity and bias through the lens of social-emotional learning. The keynote will be nationally-known speaker, Dr. Rosemarie Allen, Associate Professor, School of Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Early bird rates are available. Register today!

Support for the Alliance comes from of our members and our funders: Alliance for Early Success, Children's Fund of Connecticut, Connecticut Community Foundation, CT Early Childhood Funder Collaborative, a project of CT Council of Philanthropy; Community Foundation of Greater New Britain; Community Foundation for Greater New Haven; Hartford Foundation for Public Giving; and the Partnership for America's Children.