ANNUAL REPORT Fiscal Year 2018-2019
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ANNUAL REPORT Fiscal Year 2018-2019 The mission of the Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County is to promote school and life success for all young children and their families through quality school readiness services and supports. ELCHC BOARD OF DIRECTORS AAKASH PATEL (CHAIR) DR. SHAWN H. ROBINSON, ESQ., (VICE CHAIR) Elevate, Inc. Law Office of Shawn H. Robinson, Esq. LYNNE HILDRETH (SECRETARY) JOSEPH N. MCELROY (TREASURER) Moffit Cancer Center DEX Imaging TRACYE H. BROWN LUKE A. BUZARD, CPA, CIA Hillsborough County Public Schools TECO Energy ANGELA CHOWNING DAISY CINTRON Hillsborough County Child Care Licensing St. Timothy Catholic Early Childhood Learning Center DR. GINGER CLARK DR. LISE FOX Hillsborough Community College Your 1 Resource Training DR. DAPHNE FUDGE DR. LESLENE GORDON Your 1 Resource Training University of South Florida MARY HANCOCK LYNN HILDRETH Mary Go Round Child Care Centers Moffitt Cancer Center DIANNE JACOB DR. JACQUELINE JENKINS PNC Bank Hillsborough County Head Start/Early Head Start DR. STEPHIE HOLMQUIST JOHNSON APRIL MAY Holmquist Educational Consultants (HEC), Inc Department of Children & Families SANDRA MURMAN CANDY OLSON Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners Retired, Hillsborough County Public Schools KELLEY PARRIS SANDY SHOW Children’s Board of Hillsborough County Hillsborough County Public Schools JODY TONER CareerSource Tampa Bay TABLE OF CONTENTS Evaluation of Direct Enhancement Services 04 Comprehensive Consumer Education 06 Provider Financial Supports 06 Training and Technical Assistance 07 Quality Activities for Infant and Toddler Care 08 Monitoring 08 Inclusion Data Summary 09 Number of Children Served in School Readiness Program 09 Total Number of Children Disenrolled 11 Total Number of Providers by Provider Type 11 School Readiness Provider Revocation 11 Voluntary PreKindergarten (VPK) Provider Revocation Fiscal Summary 12 Segregation of School Readiness Program funds, Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program funds, Child Care Executive Partnership Program (CCEP) funds, and other local revenue 12 Details of Expenditures by Fund Source 13 Total Number of Coalition Staff and Related Expenditures for Salaries and Benefits Attachments 15 Attachment A – List of Trainings by Topic Area 23 Attachment B - Number of children served in the school readiness program, by provider type, enumerated by eligibility priority category, reported as the number of children served during the month, the average participation throughout the month, and the number of children served during the month. 24 Attachment C - Total number of children served in each provider facility. Early Learning Coalition Hillsborough County FY18-19 Annual Report 3 EVALUATION OF DIRECT ENHANCEMENT SERVICES Comprehensive Consumer Education Parents who need child care faced with the challenging task in their search for quality services within a program that is also convenient, affordable, and aligns with their goals for their child’s educational attainment. In response, Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County’s (ELCHC) Family Services team has developed a holistic approach to delivering a variety of strategies and resources to support parents seeking the right place for their child. The ELCHC’s Family Services Specialists are trained as Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) Specialists and offer unbiased information and guidance to families about child care options, information to help families identify quality early learning programs, financial assistance strategies and referrals to other community programs and resources as needed. Permanently staffed at three locations in Hillsborough County, the ELCHC Family Services team has kiosks available to ensure families have access to the technology needed to complete the online School Readiness (SR) and/or Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) application process. In addition, the ELCHC has partnered with six Children’s Board of Hillsborough County Family Resource Centers to ensure families in all areas of Hillsborough County can easily access technology. In addition to supporting the School Readiness and VPK application processes, the ELCHC maintains a comprehensive database of child care providers throughout Hillsborough County, including licensed child care centers and family child care homes as well as license-exempt facilities. Family Services Specialists use this data to create customized lists of facilities for families seeking child care. All CCR&R are available to families and child care providers, even those child care providers not contracted to delivery ELCHC Early Learning Coalition Hillsborough County FY18-19 Annual Report 4 programming, free of charge. During FY 18-19: • Responded to 1,025 online inquiries related to child care needs • Assisted more than 22,500 walk-ins from families visiting our three locations • 11, 746 North Florida offices (located within CareerSource) • 5,288 NetPark location • 5,505 Dale Mabry location • Responded to more than 77,000 phone calls from Hillsborough County families interested in School Readiness, VPK and/or additional resources for young children. To promote awareness about the availability of CCR&R services for all Hillsborough County families with young children, regardless of income, ELCHC team members attend more than 20 events per year in collaboration with local government, faith-based organizations and other non-profit partners. The ELCHC team attends the events to provide parents with young children information about how to locate quality early learning environments, the importance of early literacy programs and age-appropriate milestones that are important in their child’s development. The ELCHC hosts an annual event called Day of Play, dedicated to advancing the awareness that play is a vital component in the early development of young children. This free day of fun is a play date that highlights a wide assortment of activities for children birth to school age. Day of Play was held Sunday, March 3, 2019 at Al Lopez Park featuring exhibitors from community agencies, partner resources, child care programs and other non-profits with programs and services catered to families with young children. More than 30 exhibitors participated in Day of Play, sharing their organization’s resources, services and program information with more than 5,000 attendees. The Coalition has initiated key partnerships with media entities that target parents and children within the local Tampa Bay area. The ELCHC provides outreach and awareness about CCR&R at key events hosted Beasley Media and Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine. The ELCHC hosted the Early Learning Construction Zone at Beasley Media’s Kids Day held on Saturday, July 21, 2018 at the Florida State Fairgrounds with more than 10,000 attendees providing information regarding School Readiness, VPK and parent choice. The ELCHC partnered with Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine at their Back to School Bash on Saturday, August 4, 2018 to provide information about VPK to more than 7,000 families. Early Learning Coalition Hillsborough County FY18-19 Annual Report 5 Provider Financial Supports The ELCHC had the priveledge of incorporating new iniatives to incentivize and motiviate School Readiness providers to successfully adhere to School Readiness state requirements for child care performance standards, implement developmentally-appropriate curricula and related classroom resources that support curricula, provide literacy supports and professional development opportunities which improve the overall consistency and quality of School Readiness programs throughout Hillsborough County. As a result of a community needs assessment taken by the ELCHC, the Hillsborough Infant/Toddler Initiative was created. Programs selected to participate in the Hillsborough Infant & Toddler Initiative were recruited in areas identified as high-needs areas/communities. These early childhood programs agreed to increase their enrollment of children receiving School Readiness funding by opening new classrooms or enhancing their current classroom environments. Participating programs apply for grant funds through the program to enhance children’s development through their access to safe play spaces and age-appropriate learning materials. Grant funds are awarded by the ELCHC once action plans are developed by each program stating the purpose of the grant funds and the action steps to document how materials and furnishings will be used once they are received. Updates to the action plan are required by each program and pre and post photos will also be used to document classroom environment changes because of the furnishings and materials purchased with the grant funds. School Readiness providers on a Quality Improvement Plan had the opportunity to apply for a Support Grant. These providers agreed to participate in classroom observations using the Environment Rating Scales (ERS). Based on the results of the ERS, providers could order classroom materials if developmentally-appropriate as approved by ELCHC staff. The ELCHC provided T.E.A.C.H. scholar participants and their program sponsors with a stipend to reward their educational pursuits during the 2018-2019 funding year. School Readiness Scholars enrolled in T.E.A.C.H. as of July, 1, 2018, employed by the same program that sponsored their continuing education, received a monetary stipend to acknowledge continued educational goals which helps improve the overall quality in our early learning programs. The Child Care WAGE$® FLORIDA Project is designed to increase stability