DCF Meeting Planned for November 6

CERCLE will be convening another meeting with DCF to discuss DCF's payment process to child care providers, on Wednesday, November 6, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (CONNCAT), 4 Science Park, New Haven. Cindy Butterfield, DCF's fiscal manager, as well as other representatives from DCF, will be in attendance. Come with questions, concerns, and bring any unpaid invoices you may have. Space is limited. Spanish translation is available. RSVP HERE.

NIEER/SDE Research Survey - Seeking Director Participation

Child care center directors are being invited to participate in a research opportunity that will help the CT Department of Education (SDE) improve the quality of preschool for children with disabilities and for all children.

CSDE is contracting with the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) to learn about the settings in which preschool children with IEPs receive services, including child care centers, Head Start, and public schools. As part of this you may be contacted by NIEER to complete a survey about your preschool programs. Information will only be reporting in aggregate. NO identifiable information will be shared with CSDE or anyone else. Information collected through the survey will be used to improve preschool in CT, including targeting resources where they are most needed and developing professional development topics.

You will receive an electronic gift card when you complete the survey.

NIEER will also be hosting an informational webinar about the study:

Monday November 4 at 3:30 p.m.

You can join the webinar using the following:

Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/577544896

Meeting ID: 577 544 896

+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)

Federal Budget Update: Bad News for 2020 Census

(Update provided by Partnership for America's Children): It looks like the FY 2020 Appropriations bills may not get finalized until next spring, halfway through the fiscal year that started October 1, 2019. This is bad for all of the government, but it could be devastating for the decennial census if it cannot get the giant increase in funds needed in time.

The Census Bureau needs to double or more its funding in decennial census years, in order to hire the temporary staff needed to conduct the census, place ads educating people about why they should fill it out, and a host of other essential functions.  Both the House and Senate bills include this giant jump in funding, with the House bill better than the Senate.

Right now, the House has passed ten of the twelve appropriations bills, but the Senate has not passed any, although ten of the thirteen are ready for consideration by the full Senate.  The government is operating under a "continuing resolution" or CR that extends all funding at the FY 2019 rate through November 21. Then one or more of three things will happen:

• Before November 21, Congress will pass and the president sign some or all of the FY2020 appropriations bills;
• Congress will pass a new CR to continue funding the government at its current level, possibly including some "anomalies" that allow higher spending for particular programs, for any parts of the government that have not yet had their FY2020 final appropriations bills signed into law;
• Or, Congress and the president will not be able to reach agreement on a CR, and we will have a government shutdown of any parts of the government which have not yet had their appropriations bills finalized.

The U.S. House Democrats proposed quadrupling the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) grant pool to $200 million. These grants are available through the U.S. Department of Education, which awards the funds to colleges to help low-income student parents pay for child care - either on-campus at a daycare or preschool, or off-campus with an accredited provider. In 2018, Congress tripled CCAMPIS funding from $15 million to $50 million. A number of colleges in Connecticut - Capital Community College, CCSU, Gateway Community College, Goodwin College, Housatonic Community College, and Naugatuck Community College, have all been recipients of CCAMPIS grants recently. NPR's "All Things Considered" took a look at the program and why some consider, even with the recent funding boosts, it's still a drop in the bucket. Click HERE for the story.

Childhood Conversations/Together We Will Request for Presenters

The 2020 conference is seeking presenters for Friday, April 3, 2020, at the Hartford-Windsor Marriott. The conference theme is: "Together We Will...Explore the Landscape of Equity and Bias Through the Lens of Social-Emotional Learning." The conference planners are seeking workshop proposals that provide participants with the opportunity to learn about relevant and timely topics related to equity and bias in the context of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). Proposal deadline is Friday, November 29. The RFP can be found HERE. 

Submit Comments to Federal Office of Child Care

The federal Office of Child Care has issued a notice seeking comments by December 2, 2019 on how to expand access to high-quality, affordable child care. As you craft your comments, please keep these two key messages in mind:

We need public investments to achieve the goal of expanding access to high-quality, affordable child care. Child care costs are straining families’ budgets, and workers and providers make so little that they struggle to support their own families. We need public investments to fill the gap between what families can afford to pay and what workers need to make to support themselves and provide the high-quality care children need. (In short- it’s all about the money!)

Regulations, such as ratios, class sizes, and teacher qualifications are essential for the health and safety of children in care and for ensuring the experiences are high-quality. (Again, to do this well and equitably requires more resources!).

CT-AIMH to Host "Raising of America" Film Series Events

The "Raising America" film series continues on November 18. The CT Association for Infant Mental Health (CT-AIMH) will host showings of "Raising of America," a five-part series, changing the conversation on early childhood. Ideally, by attending all three showings (the first was October 21), you will see all five parts to the series. The remaining showings take place November 18 and December 9, at the Connecticut Women's Consortium, Hamden Center II, 2321 Whitney Avenue, Suite 401, Hamden. Coffee and a light breakfast will be available. For more information or to register, click HERE. 

CT-AIMH 2019 Fall Conference

The CT Association for Infant Mental Health (CT-AIMH) will hold its fall conference on November 21, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Woodwinds in North Branford. This year's conference topic is, "Embedding the Diversity-Informed Tenets into Your Work with Infants, Children and Families." Please register by November 1. Registration can be found HERE.

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.