Providing high-quality environments that close the achievement gap for young children can be costly, and as early childhood education (ECE) providers seek to meet quality standards in Step Up to Quality it's important that their businesses possess a sound financial strategy. Here's a look at the Iron Triangle which focuses on three key metrics that make ECE programs financially viable.
Nebraska Step Up to Quality celebrated its first birthday July 1 and celebrated a year of working to improve early care and education quality, and increase positive outcomes for young children to close the achievement gap.
Appropriations Committee Chair Mello sees tremendous opportunity for policymakers to improve the lives of Nebraska's children and families while continuing to build on our state’s overall economic momentum.
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.
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.
As child care professionals, we know that good quality early childhood environments matter.
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.
Tell us about yourself — how did you get started with your child care business? I began U.N.I.Q.U.E. Childcare and Family Services Family Home in 1997 in the North Omaha community. The mission and vision of our child care is: Using Necessary Involvement to provide Quality Unlimited Education to children and their families. We currently serve eight children and are licensed for 10.
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.
Providing child care can be challenging, especially when children come from varied economic backgrounds and home environments. Research shows that children’s experiences during their first five years profoundly affect social, emotional and cognitive skill formation, and healthy life outcomes.