Child Care and
Early Education Advocates
Could Be
Celebrating Soon!
Last Friday,
June 5, we learned that, when convened, the special legislative session will
include a vote on:
Also, the
legislature passed and the Governor signed a DHS Bill including:
$10.02
million in additional funding to reduce the CCAP-Basic Sliding Fee waiting list
New
investments in home visiting and nurse-family partnership programs
Implementing
recommendations of the Child Protection Task Force
You Are Invited to a
Discussion
Where Do We Go From Here?
Facilitated by Cisa Keller, Think Small’s director
of early childhood
quality development
At the next meeting of
the Early Childhood
Directors Group
Thursday, June 18th - 10:00
am – noon
Think Small - 2021 Hennepin Ave. E., Mpls 55413
Join other center directors
to discuss the status of early childhood policy and funding issues and how to
prepare for 2016 and beyond.
EC Directors
Group meetings are open to all
Note: my
phone has changed to: 651-523-7295
MinneMinds Message of the Week
"Early learners and
vulnerable families win this year -- tens of thousands of three- and
four-year-olds who might have fallen behind will attend high quality early
learning programs of all types next year because of bi-partisan investments
made by the State Legislature and Governor Mark Dayton."
The
following Session Update is from the MinneMinds
Coalition:
Special Session Education Budget Revealed: major investments
in early learning!!!
Last Friday afternoon
(06.05.15) the full budget was released, as agreed to by Governor Dayton and
legislative leaders.
The budget includes nearly
$90 million in new early learning funding targeted for low-income families, in
addition to $2 million each for the Northside Achievement Zone and St. Paul
Promise Neighborhood, as well as new investments in the Child Care Assistance
Program and Home Visiting from the Health and Human Services budget.
This includes more than $48
million in new funding for early learning scholarships, bringing the total early
learning scholarship fund to $104 million. By our calculations, this will
provide a scholarship for approximately 20,000 3- and 4-year-olds over the next
two years!
While we can never be 100%
assured that additional changes won't be made to the bill, this is likely to
reflect the final budget. This would be a huge session for early
learning, particularly for vulnerable Minnesotans -- coming close to
doubling the amount of funding for early learning access for low-income
families.
Please make sure to share
this message with others as you talk about the end of session and the education
budget in the coming days and weeks.
You can see the spreadsheet
breakdown of the E12 bill here
Read Frank Forsberg's
statement on the E12 budget here
We expect a special session
to be called sometime in the upcoming days to actually pass legislation.
Does Your Center Protect Children
From Sun Damage?
Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the
United States. Just a few sunburns can place someone at risk for skin
cancer later in life. During National
Melanoma/Skin Cancer Month check out the CDC's website on protecting children from the sun. Every child care program should have written policies
and practices to promote sun safety
Resources:
