Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education 2014 Media Symposium Bobby Cagle, MSW

1. Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education 2014 Media Symposium Bobby Cagle, MSW Commissioner

2. What is DECAL? • Created by State Legislature in 2004 • Merged Office of School Readiness with units from Department of Education, Department of Human Resources, and Georgia Child Care Council • One of only three agencies of its kind in the nation focused on children ages birth to five

3. What is DECAL? • Georgia’s Pre-K Program • Licensing and regulation of child care programs • Federal Child Care and Development Fund including Georgia's CAPS Program • Federal Nutrition Programs • Quality Rated • Head Start State Collaboration Office • Oversight of Georgia Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies

4. Strategic Themes • HEALTH & SAFETY – Promote safe and healthy early care and learning programs • QUALITY – Improve quality of early care and learning programs • ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE – Foster organizational excellence through stakeholder engagement, enterprise solutions, and workforce development

5. DECAL in the News: Child Care Laws

6. National Fingerprint Background Checks • New state law requires all employees of Georgia’s approximately 6,000 child care facilities to undergo national fingerprint-based background checks. • Law requires all new employees hired on or after January 1, 2014, to have satisfactory national background checks based on fingerprints, not just a name search of Georgia records. • Existing employees hired before January 1, 2014, will have until 2017 to meet the requirement, unless they move to a new child care facility.

7. Race to the Top: Early Learning Challenge Grant • Georgia is one of six states awarded funding through the Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC). • Georgia was awarded $51.7 million to be used over a four-year period, the highest amount awarded among the six grants. • Impacts not just individual students and families but also the state’s future workforce and economy.

8. Race to the Top: Early Learning Challenge • Georgia’s application focused on four specific strategies: • Access to high quality opportunities • Investment in early childhood educators and high quality programs • Integration across programs and services • Measurement and data capacity expanded

9. Race to the Top: Early Learning Challenge • Examples of Projects: • Increase Quality Rated Access and Availability • Quality Rated Validation • Investments in Early Education Workforce • Intensive Training on new Early Learning and Development Standards • Scholarships to improve educational qualification • Kindergarten Entry Assessment • Statewide Family Engagement and Community Grants • Further development of Unified Data System

10. RTT-ELC: Next Steps • Georgia has three months to submit Scopes of Work with specific deliverables and milestones. • Federal DOE and HHS have three months to approve the Scopes of Work. • Georgia can begin expending funds (up to 10%) before the Scopes of Work are approved. • DECAL will work with each participating agency to finalize agency scopes of work, interagency agreements, and budgets.

11. RTT-ELC Teamwork • Governor’s Office • Governor’s Office of Children and Families • Governor’s Office of Student Achievement • Georgia Department of Community Affairs • Georgia Department of Economic Development • Georgia Department of Education • Georgia Department of Public Health • Georgia Public Broadcasting

12. Quality Rated

13. Quality Rated • Georgia’s voluntary system to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early care and education programs • Currently, 293 rated programs with 1,290 programs participating • In November, 2013, hosted 73 of state’s top child care programs at a conference at Lake Lanier Islands. The three-star programs included 35 child care centers, 36 family day care homes, and two group day care homes.

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