Coalition Rationale

“The Journey Begins With Us”

The Coalition for School Readiness

A Brief Synopsis and Benchmarks                                                             

The Rationale: CDE Funding Terms & Conditions/Los Angeles County Office of Child Care Recommendations

The Resource & Referral Contractor shall:

• Assist community and public agencies in planning, coordinating and improving child care in the service area.
• Provide technical assistance to existing and potential providers of all types of child care services.

Source: California Department of Education Funding Terms and Conditions for Child Development Programs

• Child Care Resource and Referral agencies should serve as liaisons to school districts, individual schools, and the larger child development community. In this capacity, these agencies would identify the full range of child development resources within specific service areas and facilitate communication between child development programs and individual schools.
• Child Care Resource and Referral agencies should serve as a contact point, facilitating multidisciplinary training for kindergarten and child development program teachers and families of young children
• Child Care Resource and Referral agencies should serve as local clearinghouses on training and educational options in their respective service areas.

Source: “Time for School: Transitioning From Child Development to Kindergarten, Los Angeles County Policy Roundtable for Child Care & Los Angeles County Office of Education

The Project: The “Coalition for School Readiness”

Project Purpose: To improve readiness outcomes for children in LA County

Coalition for School Readiness Milestones:

Transition Process

• Transition Inventory – Transition from preschool to kindergarten and the complete ‘transition process’ was one of the key projects that the Coalition tackled. The general consensus was that the benefits and value to children of the ‘transition process’ is not fully realized in Los Angeles County. Coalition activities included facilitated round-table discussions and an transition activity inventory.
• Transition Technical Assistance – Charles Drew Head Start Transition Specialist, Celia Piz, was instrumental in sharing transition materials and activities with coalition members. Ms. Piz shared transition meeting, presentations and activities that she implemented with parents, kindergarten teachers, and with other ECE professionals.
• Transition Information Dissemination – Literature, articles and research were made available to coalition participants.
• Transition Information Product and Technical Assistance for Parents and Families – Ms. Piz shared that she established a transition introduction process for the parents of the children that will be attending kindergarten with her child.
• Product: “Children’s Educational Expectations” – The “Children’s Education Expectations” includes a section of the CCFS Child Care Resource & Referral Toy Lending Library that offers materials, toys, manipulatives and literature to assist parents learn what activities to use to assist their children develop the skills that they will need to enter kindergarten and higher grades. The materials and activities are designed to assist parents to develop skills as delineated by the California Department of Education CDE.

ECE Quality Discussions and Round Tables

• California Preschool Learning Foundations
• Developmental Appropriateness – A common challenge that continuously surfaced during coalition meetings was the consistent lack of ‘developmental appropriateness’ of much of what is being done to and with children in various education settings. Local school districts as well as health services infrastructure appear to be relatively callous, disingenuous and condescending towards parents seeking to question and/or clarify issues involving their child.

Special Needs Resources

• Coalition participants received a presentation of special needs and access to special needs services and resources. Resource & Referral offered specific training in the area of special needs (until the funding ran out). Coalition participants were informed that they can find out updated and current special needs information by contacting the CCFS Resource & Referral office.

Advocacy

• “Community Voices” is a Resource & Referral collaborative project. CCFS R&R collaborates with the other R&Rs in Los Angeles County and the state of California. Coalition participants were provided with updates about parent advocacy and parent leadership development projects.

Active ECE Partnerships

• Beach Cities Association for the Education of Young Children
• Charles Drew Head Start
• The Children’s Collective
• Compton Community College Child Development Advisory Committee
• Connections for Children
• Crystal Stairs
• Drew Child Development Corporation
• KC Outreach and Resource Center
• SPA 6 School Readiness Task Force
• Paramount Unified School District
• Los Angeles County Office of Child Care
• Los Angeles Metropolitan Association for the Education of Young Children
• The Salvation Army
• Tweets Child Care

Partnership Projects

• Product: “Children’s Educational Expectations”
• Community Voices
• Charles Drew Head Start/CCFS Parent Training
• Charles Drew Head Start Policy Council
• SPA 6 School Readiness Task Force – Health Fair Project
• Collaborative Child Development Training

Monthly Meetings

The strategies of the Coalition for School Readiness includes planning and hosting monthly meetings where ECE community stakeholders engage in dialogue; exchange and share ideas; as well as focus on issues impacting the quality of life factors for children. Issues such as child development appropriateness, preschool to kindergarten transition policy requirements, processes, challenges, activities, etc. have been part of the discussions, to date. 

The Coalition for School Readiness is open to all ECE professionals, K-12 Professional Educators, Administrators, Preschool Professionals, Child Development Center Directors, Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies and other advocates.

Meetings are generally scheduled for the first Thursday of the month in the Carson offices of the Center for Community and Family Services, from 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. The meetings are open. The only requirement is to RSVP so that we can accommodate all of our participants.

Monthly Meetings’ Focus

The Coalition for School Readiness utilizes and shares with coalition participants, data and demographics from an array of sources such as the LA County Office of Child Care, the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network, the Los Angeles County Children’s Planning Council, First 5 LA, and the California Association for the Education of Young Children.