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.
In recent years, Nebraska has opened new opportunities for genuine investment in the development of children who stand to lose or gain the most from their earliest experiences. Among these, the Sixpence Early Learning Fund rises to the top as an investment opportunity that meets the most stringent criteria for quality, fiscal accountability and demonstrable results.
This week President Obama signed S.1086, the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014, into law. The bill, as described in a previous blogpost, reauthorizes funds through fiscal year 2020 for child care investments, and includes high-quality early learning as a requisite component.
Deliah Kearnes knew something remarkable had happened when her daughter recently told her what she wanted to do when she grew up. For months, Kearnes had watched anxiously as her child struggled to learn and develop a sense of belonging in a child care setting. When the new Educare Winnebago opened its doors earlier this year, however, that began to change.
The Nebraska Legislature’s Education Committee is touring a Sixpence program in Broken Bow today to learn more about the innovative public-private partnership before holding a public hearing on its visioning process for a statewide strategic plan for education as mandated by LB1103.
As a County Attorney, it’s my job to do everything possible to protect the public. Putting people behind bars who commit crimes is one way I do that. But I know from my personal experiences in the courtroom that we can’t simply arrest, prosecute and incarcerate our way out of our crime problems. We have to implement strategies that keep people from turning to crime in the first place.
In 2013, the Nebraska Legislature passed LB507, establishing the Step Up to Quality Child Care Act – resulting in Nebraska’s Early Childhood Quality Rating and Improvement System. The implementation of Step Up to Quality is in the early stages but much has occurred in its development that will provide valuable information for moving forward.
An astonishing 75% of young adults in the U.S. could not qualify to join the military due to (1) failure to meet the educational requirements, (2) criminal convictions, or (3) being overweight. Moreover, one in five U.S. military recruits score too low on the Armed Forces Qualification Test to join the Army.
Thousands of Nebraska high school seniors will graduate in the next couple of weeks and celebrate the milestone with family and friends. Graduating high school is a significant achievement that impacts the well-being of our state.
Quality early childhood education leads to healthy lifestyle choices that help prevent chronic disease, says Nobel prize-winning economist James Heckman. Professor Heckman released new longitudinal findings of adults who participated in the Abecedarian study as children, and says they show that quality early education have long-lasting health benefits that could lead to reduced health care spending.
Challenges facing rural parents who lack higher education are affecting their children’s early development in language and other areas, said Dr. Lynne Vernon-Feagans last week at the annual CYFS Summit on Research in Early Childhood in Lincoln.
April 6-12 is the Week of the Young Child, sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and Nebraska AEYC. “Early Years Are Learning Years” is the focus this year.