#### Washington State

**Head Start-State Collaboration Office**

**2004 Annual State Profile**

# Key Personnel

Director: Sangree M. Froelicher

> Head Start-State Collaboration Office
>
> Division of Child Care & Early Learning (DCCEL)
>
> P.O. Box 45480
>
> Olympia, WA 98504-5480
>
> Phone: 360-725-4686
>
> Fax: 360-413-3482
>
> <froelsm@dshs.wa.gov>

Project Assistant: Rachel Blacke

Region X ACF Office: Nancy Hutchins

Region X ACF, DHHS Office

2201 Sixth Ave.

Seattle, WA 98101

Phone: (206) 615-2615

Fax: (206) 615-2575

<nhutchins@acf.hhs.gov>

**A. Briefly describe your accomplishments in the following areas. Where
possible,**

**indicate the goals from your work plan and the desired and actual
outcomes.**

1\. Help build early childhood systems and access to comprehensive
services for all low-income children.

In Washington State, 3 statewide system-building efforts have combined
to create one plan***: KidsMatter: Improving Outcomes for Children in
Washington State.*** The 3 systems development organizations leading
this effort are: Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (DOH), the Build
Initiative (Public-Private Partnership), and the Head Start-State
Collaboration Office (HS-SCO).

Over the past 18 months, public and private partners in Early Childhood
across the state have developed and are supporting the use of this
common plan (framework) to:

-   Implement/enhance activities & strategies to improve early childhood
    outcomes

-   Build public will re: early learning and school readiness

-   Build public-private partnerships to better support children and
    families

The HS-SCO in Washington State is a full partner (participating in and
financially supporting) in developing the ***KidsMatter: Improving
Outcomes for Children in Washington State.*** To date, the Kids Matter
strategic plan has developed Goals, objectives, strategies and outcomes
for: parents and caregivers; the early childhood system; and children.

> In addition to these systems building efforts, the HS-SCO also
> represented Head Start in many "Systems" focused meetings and
> conferences that work to enhance educational, social and emotional
> outcomes in early childhood programs. These activities occur at the
> state, regional and national level and play a vital role in
> information sharing, technical assistance, and strategic action
> planning for early childhood education. These activities also show the
> comprehensive nature in which the HS-SCO participates in systems
> building at the state and regional level.

2\. Encourage widespread collaboration between Head Start and other
appropriate programs. Describe your accomplishments and outcomes in the
eight priority areas.

-   **Health Care**

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-   Participated in and financially supported the 9^th^ Annual Healthy
    Child Care Washington & Head Start Health Symposium "Healthy and
    Ready to Learn". (Oral Health Track)

-   Participated in and financially supported the Department of Health,
    Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems in its strategic planning
    efforts.

-   Participated in and financially supported the CHILD Profile
    conference (Health Education Materials and Immunization Registry).

-   Participate on the Bright Futures Steering Committee. The BF project
    aims to utilize BF principles and materials to help enhance outcomes
    of existing health promotion systems for children and their families
    enrolled in Head Start and ECEAP (our state pre-K).

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-   **Welfare**

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-   Goal from work plan: To **supply** eligible client **data** to
    HS/EHS programs for recruitment and enrollment purposes so that
    children and families participating in TANF services may easily
    access HS/EHS programs and services. **25 TANF Data Share
    Agreements** were developed between DSHS and HS/EHS programs
    (including 2 tribal programs). Moreover, the HS-SCO coalesced and
    copied the data onto 25 CDs for easy usage by HS/EHS programs in WA
    State.

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-   **Childcare**

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-   Sponsored and supported the development of early learning guidelines
    in Washington State (these guidelines were a requirement of the CCDF
    funding)

-   .

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-   **Education**

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-   [Professional Development Forum]{.underline}: The HS-SCO brought
    together public and private leaders who have existing interest and
    activity in early childhood and out-of-school care professional
    development to envision their next steps together toward developing
    a collaborative, coordinated plan for Washington State. **Goal of
    the Forum:** To develop a foundation for a Washington State plan by:

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-   Improving understanding of the work and interests of Forum
    participants

-   Developing a shared understanding of guiding principles for the
    development, content and implementation of the professional
    development plan

-   Improving understanding of what a professional development plan
    might include

-   Defining some components of a professional development plan around
    which participants wants to collaborate (setting priorities)

-   Defining and committing to next steps to develop a Washington State
    Plan in a collaborative, coordinated, and planful manner

> **Outcomes for the Day**: By the end of the day, Forum participants
> knew

-   What newly formed group was going to lead systems planning efforts

-   What the next steps are for planning, and who will carry them out

-   What the next steps are for each Forum participant

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-   [Head Start and ECEAP Professional Development and Education
    Partnership]{.underline}: For over a year, the HS-SCO has convened
    the Region X Office, ECEAP HQ, WSA, HS T&T/A system to develop
    common goals and objectives around professional development and
    education of teachers and staff. A matrix of goals, objectives and
    specific strategies were developed. The meetings have since stopped
    due to scheduling conflicts with between partnership partners.

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-   **Community Services -- Not applicable this year**

-   **Family Literacy Services**

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-   Partnered with Even Start at the Office of the Superintendent of
    Public Instruction to sponsor the development of the Washington
    State Early Learning and Development Benchmarks (early learning
    guidelines from Birth to Kindergarten Entry)

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-   **Services to Children with Disabilities**

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-   Sponsored the Infant and Toddler Early Intervention Conference for
    professionals working with young children who have disabilities.

-   Sponsored, facilitated and coordinated a Children with Special Needs
    review group of the draft early learning and development Benchmarks
    (early learning guidelines).

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-   **Services to Homeless Children and Families --**

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-   Sponsored and supported Rural Resources Community Action HS program
    in delivering a domestic violence prevention and intervention
    training/curriculum to Head Start and Early Head Start programs at a
    statewide interdisciplinary conference. The focus of this curriculum
    was how to integrate domestic violence prevention principles into
    program work with homeless children and families.

3\. Facilitate Head Start's involvement in the development of state
policies, plans, processes and decisions.

> The HS-SCO:

-   Has provided a single point of contact for Head Start within the
    State;

-   Worked closely with the state association with recruiting HS/EHS
    participation in state planning efforts. We recruited and secured
    many Head Start/Early Head Start directors, staff and parents to
    participate in the following statewide planning and initiatives:
    Benchmarks Advisory Panel, Benchmarks Review Groups, School
    Readiness Summit, Higher Education Articulation efforts, CCDF
    planning efforts and Professional Development Forums.

-   Connected groups working on related issues and assured local Head
    Start representation on various state work groups and committees;

-   Developed and conducted conference presentations on the issues of
    collaboration, and national early learning policy and regulatory
    trends;

-   Invested HS-SCO dollars in a number of cross agency and community
    organization collaborative initiatives;

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-   **The Washington State Early Learning & Development Benchmarks**
    (early learning guidelines) -- The HS-SCO sponsored the development
    of the Benchmarks as a partnership effort between the Office of the
    Governor and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction
    (separately elected officials who both have purview over programs
    and services for children Birth to Kindergarten entry.) Head Start
    directors, staff and parents have been involved in the development
    and implementation of the Benchmarks.

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-   In February 2004, the HS-SCO sponsored, developed and produced (in
    partnership with the Governor's Office and OSPI) a "Guide to the
    Formation of the Washington State Early Learning and Development
    Benchmarks". This booklet was produced to guide the Core Team in its
    development process. In addition to the guide, the Governor and
    Superintendent appointed a 35 person advisory panel to an
    "Ambassador" role for the project, as well as, provide input in:
    refining the guiding principles; draft Benchmarks; formats for
    production; and implementation and evaluation plans. The HS-SCO
    recruited 4 HS/EHS personnel to sit on the Benchmarks Advisory
    Panel.

-   **Washington School Readiness Summit** -- On November 8, 2004, the
    HS-SCO sponsored and produced the first ever Washington School
    Readiness Summit (SRS) in partnership with a public-private State
    Action Team. 500 people attend the SRS from across the state.
    Participants were from all across the state, representing: child
    care programs and providers, preschools, child care resource and
    referral, K-12 educators, Educational Service Districts, higher
    education, health programs, medical providers, business,
    philanthropy, faith-based organizations, state and local
    governments, and local teams (including parents, caregivers, early
    learning providers, kindergarten teachers, schools and community
    representatives).

> ***[Goals for the Day]{.underline}***

-   Create awareness and understanding of the Washington State Early
    Learning and Development Benchmarks as a tool for improving the
    quality of children's early learning experiences.

-   Build and promote school readiness partnerships*.* The idea for
    school readiness partnerships stems from the National Education
    Goals Panel's definition of school readiness as involving three
    components: the readiness of children, the readiness of schools, and
    the supports in communities for children and families.

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-   The Benchmarks went through a Stakeholder Review and Input Process
    (from November 2004-February 2005). The HS-SCO sponsored 10 regional
    review forums to provide an opportunity for communities across WA
    State to give input into the development of the Benchmarks. The
    HS-SCO convened, facilitated 2 HS/EHS focus groups (staff, parents
    and directors) to review the Benchmarks. Additionally, the HS-SCO
    convened and facilitated a Children with Special Needs affinity
    review group.

-   The Benchmarks were printed and distributed in July 2005 to a
    multitude of early care and education stakeholders, including
    programs in the K-3 system.

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-   **The Professional Development & Education Initiative** -- The
    impetus for continuing this initiative was to create more
    professional and career development opportunities for Head Start
    teachers and other early childhood education and care professionals
    by promoting state-level planning that increases access to higher
    education through exploration of credit, curriculum and articulation
    issues.

> [Goals]{.underline}
>
> The GHS-SCO sponsored and supported the work of the Washington
> Association for Educators of Personnel in Early Childhood Programs
> (WAEPEC is a group of two and four year college faculty and
> administrators in ECE) in securing approval for the standardized AAS-T
> degree in Early Childhood education, and to seek articulation
> agreements with four-year colleges based on this new degree. The goals
> of this work was to:

-   Provide access statewide to a consistent, professional-technical
    associate degree focused on Early Childhood Education (ECE);

-   Provide a degree that meets immediate employment needs as well as
    provides transfer opportunity, in order that students may advance
    within the chosen filed of ECE; and

-   Develop articulation agreements and work toward securing approval of
    AAS-T degree with the Washington four-year colleges/universities.

######### Outcomes

> Over the last year, the HS-SCO supported these goals through a
> contract with Olympic College and WAEPEC to:

-   Write a position paper on Effective Early Childhood Teacher
    Preparation that includes:

    -   Need for Educational Preparation for Early Educators

    -   Existing higher education system components in place for teacher
        preparation

    -   Identify educational needs and requirements' challenges ECE
        personnel face in advancing their skills and education in the
        higher education system, and recommendations for addressing
        these needs/challenges.

-   Provide technical assistance to ECE Coordinators at the community
    and technical colleges to finalize and receive campus approval to
    offer the AAS-T degree;

-   Develop and distribute information about the AAS-T availability to
    the early childhood education and care community;

-   Develop articulation agreements and work toward securing approval
    with the following Washington four year colleges/universities based
    on the AAS-T degree: Western Washington University; Eastern
    Washington University; Washington State University; City University;
    St. Martin's College; Evergreen State College; University of
    Phoenix; Heritage College; Praxis Institute; and Central Washington
    University

**B. Briefly discuss the following aspects of your work:**

1\. Describe how you have supported and collaborated with the Regional
Office on ACF priorities (e.g. Fatherhood, Faith Based and Community,
Healthy Marriage, Youth and Rural Initiatives), Regional priorities, TA
Network, professional development, legislation, CAP Agencies, Head Start
association, and other activities.

> The HS-SCO supported and collaborated with the Regional Office, the TA
> Network, and the HS Association by including them in all of the HS-SCO
> projects and initiatives (Benchmarks, School Readiness Summit,
> Professional Development Planning and Goal Setting Forums, and other
> Conference planning efforts.) Individuals from the RO, TA Network and
> the HS Association were invited to participate in all levels of the
> planning and implementation of these projects.

2\. Describe strategies you found to be successful in overcoming
barriers.

-   **Be inclusive from the very beginning** -- Invite new and unusual
    partners to the table from the on-set of visioning and planning
    phases of any new project;

-   **Gather necessary information & conduct assessment** -- Spend time
    upfront researching the stakeholder terrain, and assess the need and
    strengths of topic/issue;

-   **Share information and be transparent in processes** -- Once
    information has been gathered, and topics assessed, share findings
    and recommendations widely and openly to create an atmosphere of
    trust, credibility and openness;

-   **Stay Focused, Choose Aspiration/Goals** -- Employ tight
    facilitation of any project, process or forum to ensure needs being
    met but also not allowing the goals and objectives to hi-jacked.

-   **Embrace Uncertainty** -- Everything can't be mapped out perfectly
    from the beginning, some of the most effective strategies have been
    generated once the project is in full-swing.

-   **Create a Framework for Operations Management of Groups or
    Initiatives** -- The GHS-SCO in Washington State has created a
    framework of simple rules that help groups and projects organize and
    inform collectively.

3\. Indicate barriers that exist and the technical assistance support
that is needed.

> When exploring, and considering the design elements of an early
> childhood care and education system in Washington State, thinking
> ought to emerge from our State objective. At this juncture, Washington
> State has not defined a unified objective (s) for early childhood care
> and education. As with most States in the nation, Washington has
> multiple early childhood care and education programs, each of which
> has their own infrastructure, funding stream/resources, and
> leadership. Because of this context, Washington State still has the
> significant challenge of determining our State objective (s) for
> children age birth --five. Fortunately, this context is about to
> change. New legislation passed in 2005 to create an Early Learning
> Council in the Governor's Office. The purpose of the council is to
> provide vision, leadership, and direction to the improvement,
> re-alignment, and expansion of early learning needs of children and
> their families.
>
> The technical assistance and support needed to help the early learning
> council reach their aims is for the federal bureaus to provide more
> flexibility in the guidelines around blending and braiding funds.
> There are currently many papers and guidelines around blending and
> braiding funds. However, they are out-dated, and in need of
> revisioning. Please sponsor a national panel of experts (including
> people from individual states) to review and revision the braiding and
> blending of funds documents.