First Five Nebraska is an initiative of Early Futures Partnership
First Five Nebraska is an initiative of Early Futures Partnership
The Nebraska Department of Education held a hearing on June 2 to take comments on its revisions to Rule 11. The most significant changes to the Rule related to requirements for prekindergarten programs that provide parent education.
Balancing a wide variety of public interests and with great bipartisan support, the Nebraska Legislature again recognized the critical importance of children’s early years prior to adjourning the 2015 legislative session on May 29. Of preeminent importance to First Five Nebraska is public policy that recognizes the development of the brain in the early years literally shapes the learning capacity for the rest of a child’s life. Here's a summary of our highest priority bills from the 2015 legislative session.
With true bipartisanship, Nebraska senators passed and Governor Ricketts signed legislation to allow partnership between child care providers and schools to help young children receive the kinds of early experiences known to foster cognitive and character skills that lead to success in school and life.
The budget stabilizes future funding for Sixpence, Nebraska’s birth to age 3 early learning fund and increases funding for incentives and bonuses in Step Up to Quality.
Nancy Perez was introduced to Sixpence as a teenager when pregnancy complications forced her to drop out of school. Through Sixpence, she discovered her passion for early chlidhood education, and now is a Sixpence parent educator. She was the first parent educator in Nebraska to receive a perfect score on the HoVRS, which the University of Nebraska Medical Center administers to evaluate parent coaches and they support they give.
As child care professionals, we know that good quality early childhood environments matter.
Next week is Children's Book Week. Reading to children helps increase their vocabulary, comprehension, concentration, memory and curiosity.
Reading poetry to children facilitates their language, cognitive and even physical development, but most of all, it's fun!
High-quality early education is especially advantageous when children start younger and continue longer, says a new report from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.
The partnership formed between Sixpence Early Learning Fund and Step Up to Quality in LB547 will mean that more kids at risk will benefit from early care and education programs that meet the rigorous, high-quality standards known to narrow the achievement gap.
Child care and education fall under the purview of two different systems in Nebraska, and each approaches early childhood from a unique standpoint. For the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees child care, the issue revolves around ensuring that children’s fundamental requirements for health and safety are met while in care. Nebraska’s education system, on the other hand, focuses on whether children begin kindergarten ready to learn and prepared to advance academically. The science of early childhood development tells us that these two aspects of child development shouldn’t be addressed as separate considerations. Early child care environments are, or ought to be, learning environments—just as the health and safety of young children are necessary for quality learning to occur.
LB489 allows child care providers to partner with school districts to receive Sixpence Early Learning Fund grants, making them critical partners in local efforts to close the achievement gap for Nebraska's youngest, most at-risk children.