Karen Hill Scott and Company

KHS is a national innovator in developing content, organization models, and systems that help families reach their potential. Our work reflects the multiple ways we have done this - from improving the content of children's television, to developing sound educational policy and programs, and by helping families directly.

Our consulting work is currently focused on designing cutting edge child development systems. We have developed a signature strategic planning and development process that is scalable and versatile enough for use in any size locale. Our strength is in working with multiple stakeholders with divergent interests to build convergence around a super-ordinate goal. For example, in Los Angeles County we worked with over 600 key stakeholders to develop a Universal Preschool system that will serve 150,000 children, making it the largest public preschool system in the country when it reaches scale.

We are known for being results and outcome oriented, while pushing the envelope on innovation. In Los Angeles, the Master Plan was completed in one year, replete with many novel system attributes such as the 5 star quality rating system, a parent investment fee, family child care hub model, special needs inclusion project, workforce development and capacity building model, and use of GIS mapping to identify areas most in need of targeted resources. Within a year of planning our firm had incubated the launch of the system and completed a knowledge transfer process to the new non-profit administrative entity (LAUP).

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

The Packard Foundation's Children, Families, and Communities (CFC) Program works to ensure opportunities for all children to reach their potential. Our central goal is to achieve quality early education for all children through Preschool for California's Children.

The goal of the Preschool for California's Children subprogram is to secure high-quality preschool opportunities for all three- and four-year-olds in the state by funding leadership and constituency-building, technical assistance and systems building, research, and public preschool programs in selected California communities.

Center for the Study of Child Care Employment

Through research, policy analysis and policy development, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) focuses on issues relating to the several million teachers and providers currently working in center-based and home-based early care and education settings in the United States. CSCCE currently receives support for its work from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation, the National Institute for Early Education Research, and the Schumann Fund for New Jersey.

Our work explores such questions as:

• Who comprises the early care and education (ECE) workforce in California, and in the U.S. as a whole? Who comprises its leadership?
• How does California’s ECE workforce vary across the state in terms of professional preparation, race and ethnicity, language, and age?
• What is the skill and knowledge needed in order to be an effective ECE teacher?
• What are the best strategies for expanding and revamping higher education programming to ensure that a linguistically and culturally diverse ECE workforce can gain access to relevant opportunities for professional development?
• How can public policy support building a skilled and stable ECE workforce?
• What workforce policies and investments are necessary to create publicly funded preschool services for California’s four-year-old children?

California Child Care Resource & Referral Network

The California Child Care Resource and Referral Network (Network) is the oldest, most well-established system of child care Resource and Referral (R&R) agencies in the United States. The Network combines practical knowledge at the local level with extensive experience in working on state and national child care policy. The unparalleled public and private support for child care R&R services in California is acclaimed throughout the country.

The Network remains committed to supporting on-going efforts to ensure that quality preschool becomes available for all California children by:

• Advocating that any emerging universal preschool system:
  1. Provides a high quality program;
  2. Provides equitable access for all children;
  3. Addresses the developmental needs of preschool children;
  4. Honors the needs and input of parents;
  5. Includes and builds on the strengths of the existing child care system,
  6. Meets family needs, including full day/full year services; and
  7. Provides for adequate training/education, support and salary to recruit and maintain a high quality workforce.
• Facilitating a broad-based dialogue on issues of high quality in preschool programs at the state and local level.
• Facilitating broad-based input from the early childhood field and parents in the emerging universal preschool system standards and curriculum giving special attention to English-language learner issues and the needs of children with disabilities.
• Ensuring monitoring of the impacts that the emerging universal preschool system has on the child care infrastructure for other age groups and advocate for strategies to mitigate impacts.
• Providing technical assistance and licensed child care supply data to assist communities with preschool planning.

We believe that these continued advocacy efforts will be strengthened by addressing the challenges of preschool implementation and integration with the existing child development system in California. Through increasing collaboration and dialogue with current partners and the inclusion of respected leaders of well-established quality center based programs our collective vision and advocacy for preschool will be improved.

First 5 Association of California

The FIRST 5 Association of California works to improve the lives of California's youngest children and their families through an effective, coordinated, and inclusive implementation of the California Children and Families Act at the local and state levels. The Act, also known as Proposition 10, was enacted in 1998 to create a comprehensive and integrated system of information and services promoting early childhood development from prenatal to age 5, as well as to support the needs of parent of young children. The ultimate goal is to enhance the health and early growth experiences of children, enabling them to be more successful in school and to give them a better opportunity to succeed in life.

To support preschool expansion and quality improvements in California, the First 5 Association has, for the past three years, convened a working group of county commissions and their partners (County Offices of Education, local school districts, and others) to discuss ways of leveraging resources, sharing best practices, and working towards statewide policy solutions. Through these convenings, the Association seeks to support the many county commissions which have already committed local Proposition 10 resources to quality preschool expansion. For more information about the Association’s efforts, please contact:

Sherry Novick, Executive Director
sherry@f5ac.org

Moira Kenney, Statewide Program Director
moira@f5ac.org

Low Income Investment Fund

LIIF works to ensure access to high quality preschool spaces for all families, particularly those living in low income neighborhoods. We do this by providing financing and other assistance programs for the creation, expansion, improvement and preservation of preschool facilities throughout California and in New York City.

We provide intensive services in 13 California counties (Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, Kern, Los Angeles, Merced, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Solano, Ventura. See website for more details.)

LIIF's programs are responsive to the specific needs of the communities we serve, yet share common strategies that include

• Provision of grants, loans, and services to create, expand, and improve quality preschool spaces;
• Assistance to operators in finding additional sources of financing for facilities development;
• Provision of training and materials that increases operators' capacity to develop and manage preschool businesses and facility projects;
• Connection of operators to experts in real estate and business development;
• Building of partnerships to support co-location of preschool facilities within housing, education, and community developments; and
• Informing policy in support of increased operating and capital funding.

American Institutes for Research (AIR)

AIR, a not-for-profit education research firm, works with local First 5 commissions, county offices of education, school districts, child care resource and referral agencies, local child care planning councils, and providers to plan, develop and evaluate preschool and other school readiness initiatives. AIR provides technical assistance on the development of county-specific preschool plans, by working with local teams to:

• Develop plans for improving and expanding access to quality programs;
• Assess the local supply and demand of early care and education by program setting, zip code, and school district. To access your county’s supply and demand data, go to ftp://needsassessments.air-ca.org. Username: guest2, Password: Preschool2 (password is case-sensitive);
• Provide GIS maps to illustrate areas of greatest need;
• Estimate the cost of expanding and upgrading services to quality standards;
• Identify new funding sources and fiscal leveraging opportunities;
• Assist with the development of state and federal grant applications;
• Help counties identify priority areas for preschool expansion; and
• Develop options for phasing in preschool and other school readiness programs.

AIR also helps federal, state and local entities evaluate the effectiveness of preschool and other early childhood programs. We are currently involved in evaluating Preschool for All programs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties.

AIR offers a number of resources to assist with preschool planning, including the California Preschool Planning Toolkit and the First 5 California Preschool for All: Step by Step Toolkit. To contact AIR, you may reach Susan Muenchow at 650-843-8153 or smuenchow@air.org.