In this Issue:

• Preschool and ECE in the News
• Plan4Preschool Documents and Resources
• May County Showcase: Contra Costa County
• Plan4Preschool Notes

Preschool and ECE in the News

The May 19th special election resulted in the overwhelming defeat of Propositions 1A through 1E, including Proposition 1D-which would have diverted $600 million from First 5 to help patch the budget deficit. The only Proposition to pass, 1F, did so overwhelmingly, and will prohibit elected officials from receiving pay increases in budget deficit years. Even with these results, it is likely that additional painful cuts will be made to health and education programs, as California now faces a deficit exceeding $21.3 billion dollars.

Plan4Preschool Documents and Resources

The Santa Clara County Office of Education is currently working to create a county-wide preschool plan for Santa Clara County. Plan4Preschool is hosting the planning outputs from the first meeting of the Santa Clara County Preschool Planning Initiative including workgroup activities and vision for the county.

The P4P Webinar webcast is still available to view for members who would like to learn how to optimally utilize the Plan4Preschool web portal.

May County Showcase: Contra Costa County

Planning for Contra Costa County's Preschool Makes a Difference program began in March 2004 in anticipation of the passing of the universal preschool ballot measure in 2006. First 5 Contra Costa led the planning effort with its partners the Contra Costa County Office of Education (CCCOE), the Contra Costa Child Care Council, and the Contra Costa County Employment & Human Services Department (CCC-EHSD) to develop a countywide plan for universal preschool. Over 100 parents, educators, school directors and principals, and community associations worked to develop the plan. Though the bill did not pass, planners in Contra Costa are implementing a pilot version of the Preschool Makes a Difference plan.

Starting July 1st, 22 preschoolers living in Pittsburg and Antioch will enroll in preschool through a pilot scholarship program based on the Preschool Makes a Difference Plan. These children live in families considered "working poor" - they earn too much to meet eligibility requirements for state preschool or Head Start, but cannot afford preschool. Participating children will start kindergarten in 2010 or 2011 and have little or no preschool experience.

Families will select preschools from a prescreened list of 26 family child care and private or public centers that demonstrated high-quality early learning programs. Most of the preschool programs are accredited and received at least a 6.0 or higher on the Environmental Rating Scales. Of the 26 participating programs, six are Head Start Centers, one is a private preschool, one is a parent-child co-operative center and 18 are family child care centers.

The Preschool Makes a Difference Pilot will offer ongoing professional development activities for providers, Raising a Reader, linkages between programs, families, and local elementary schools through transition activities, and parent education classes to support parents as their child's first teacher. The pilot program will run for two years while being externally evaluated for quality and effective learning. Pending the outcome of the May 19th special election, plans are being considered to pilot another Preschool Makes a Difference Scholarship program in Richmond/San Pablo.

The Preschool Makes a Difference Strategic Plan and the Profile of Child Care Needs in Contra Costa County: 2006-2015, developed by the Contra Costa County Local Planning Council for Child Care and Development can be found on the Contra Costa County Showcase page. More information on preschool efforts in Contra Costa County can be found on the First 5 Contra Costa website.

Plan4Preschool Notes

How do I use Plan4Preschool? Log in and visit our orientation page to learn about Plan4Preschool’s tools and features.

Can I send you my recommendations? We welcome and encourage your feedback! Please fill out our Feedback Form or send us an email and let us know how we can improve P4P.

Can you give my organization a demonstration of how to use Plan4Preschool? Sure! Contact Ariana Sani for more information on getting P4P presenters out to your organization or classroom.

I want to help promote P4P! Expand P4P by word-of-mouth and demonstrate the power of community networking! Forward these newsletters on to your friends, co-workers, students and anyone who is working towards the cause of advancing preschool in California.

We encourage you to use P4P to help to build and strengthen preschool in your community and in California!

Karen Hill Scott, Ed.D.
Plan4Preschool

Sign up | Change E-mail Settings | Visit Plan4Preschool

Contact information of Plan4Preschool Members is kept private and will not be shared with third-parties. To find out more, read our Privacy Policy.