Provider's Focus Magazine Spring 2021

FOCUS Magazine PROVIDER’S

Spring 2021

A quarterly publication for early childhood care and education professionals

A message from the new COO

Why block play is important for children

Changes in VPK

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Faces and Filed Bills

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Blocks, Play and Focus

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Changes at the ELCHC

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CHANGES AT THE ELCHC A message from the Chief Operating Officer

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TEACHER'S NIGHT OUT Get your tickets for this special educator event!

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BLOCKS, PLAY AND FOCUS Why block play is important to incorporate

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FACES AND FILED BILLS Changes in VPK

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TEACHER-CHILD INTERACTION Use the 3Ts in your classroom

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Q&A — HANNAH GOBLE Hannah is the new Director, Family Services

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Q&A — MEGAN FOLTS Hannah is the new Director, Provider Relations PROVIDER APPRECIATION Your work is meaningful.

14 COMPLIANCE CORNER

Are you in compliance?

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Provider's

FOCUS Magazine SPRING 2021

INTRODUCTION The Provider's Focus Magazine is a quarterly publication of the Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County (ELCHC). The ELCHC is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization located in Tampa, Florida.

The Provider's Focus is printed in limited quantity and distributed across Hillsborough County, Florida. It is also available in digital format at www.elchc.org in the Publications area of the website.

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PUBLISHER

SUBMISSION INFO

Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County

If you would like to submit an article to be included in the Provider’s Focus, listed below are the submission deadlines and requirements for the 2020-2021 publication year.

Articles should include the author's name, affiliation/title, and be typed in 11 or 12 point Arial, Calibri or Times Roman font. Any accompanying photos or artwork should be in high-resolution JPEG format (at least 300 dpi) and sent as a separate attachment along with the article (not inserted in the article or document).

Photo releases should accompany any photo submissions. Submit all to jjohnson@elchc.org by noted deadlines. Please note that submission of articles, information etc., does not guarantee publication.

Submission Deadline

For Issue

May 20, 2021

Summer 2021

August 13, 2021

Fall 2021

November 12, 2021

Winter 2021

February 11, 2022

Spring 2022

PRODUCTION MANAGERS Jonna Johnson, M.A. Jessica Salmond PHOTO COORDINATOR Jessica Salmond GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Jonna Johnson, M.A. Jessica Salmond CONTRIBUTORS Lorinda Gamson, ELCHC Lissette Godwin, ELCHC Jessica Salmond, ELCHC Megan Folts, ELCHC

ELCHC PROVIDER’S FOCUS MAGAZINE elchc.org Spring 2021

OPERATION OPERATION MOVING MOVING FORWARD FORWARD We have several changes at the ELCHC that we’re excited to share!

We’ve restructured our staff just a little!

I have stepped into the role of Chief Operating Officer. Megan Folts has stepped into the role of Director, Provider Relations, former regional manager Hannah Goble is now Director, Family Services, and former Family Services leader, Abigail Perez, has taken the position of Director of Community Relations & Impact.

But the changes aren’t stopping there!

The Family Services and Provider Relations teams have been organized under Operations. The Family Services team has set a few immediate goals to achieve. First, we want to decrease the amount of time parents wait for redeterminations and changes to be processed. This will help ensure providers are paid accurately and that there are no interruptions to a family’s eligibility or services. Secondly, we want to improve our communications and customer service so that families and providers receive the same information regarding our requirements and expectations. We have some innovative ideas to help create some new family communication resources such as videos and tutorials. Finally, we want to continue to move children off our waitlist and into child care services as quickly as funding is available so that we can serve more families and increase providers’ enrollments. With these goals in mind, Family Services has some new managers: Manager, Intake- Kimbra Bradley Manager, Eligibility- Janet Diaz Montes Manager, Eligibility- Kenya Dickinson-Rowe Manager, Eligibility- Eric Cruz Rebecca Cotto-Lopez recently retired as the Manager, Reimbursement after many years of service to School Readiness providers in Hillsborough County. We will miss her positive energy and incredible knowledge of School Readiness! Debbie Vega will be the new manager for our Reimbursement Team and will be working every day to ensure providers are paid accurately and in a timely manner.

The Screening and Assessment team will move from Provider Relations to Family Services under the leadership of their manager Colleen Costa. The Screening and Assessment team continues to follow up on children who may need additional supports or have concerns on their ASQs. Provider Relations returned to centers and Family Child Care Homes to conduct CLASS observations in April. These observations will help ensure providers are meeting the quality standards set by the Office of Early Learning and ensure that contracts are able to executed for the 21-22 year in a timely manner. The CLASS observers are conducting these observation with an emphasis on maintaining safety precautions.

It's hard to believe it’s been over a year since COVID impacted the way we all work. Thank you to all our providers for your hard work and dedication. You are essential to us and to the families you serve every single day!

— Lorinda Gamson, Chief Operating Officer PAGE

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ELCHC PROVIDER’S FOCUS MAGAZINE elchc.org Spring 2021

Are you in the Institute?

Membership Benefits: $25 annual membership fee Professional development opportunities Digital activity packs Discounts on classes and trainings Giveaways & raffles Networking opportunities and more!

The ELCHC Institute for Early Childhood Professionals (IECP) offers early care and education professionals – like you – a variety of opportunities to enhance the impact you’re making in the lives of our community’s children.

We’re dedicated to your professional growth and provide an array of resources and services focused on helping you enrich your skills, chart a successful career path and ultimately improve the quality of care delivered in early childhood programs.

Become a member today! elchc.talentlms.com PAGE

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ELCHC PROVIDER’S FOCUS MAGAZINE elchc.org Spring 2021

Blocks, Play and Focus

By Lissette Godwin, Regional Area Manager, ELCHC Teachers lay the building blocks for the future and as luck would have it children love block play. All too often we think of block play as a preschool focused learning center but what about our infants and toddlers? Regardless of a child’s age, babies to school age, blocks are an integral part of children’s development and learning. Block play provides the opportunity for children to develop a variety of skills that children will use throughout their lives such as: encouraging social emotional skills, gross and fine motor development, cognitive development, language, and communication and arguably the ability to just have fun. But how does block play stack up when looking at Teacher-Child Interactions and CLASS? EMOTIONAL SUPPORT AND RELATIONAL CLIMATE Block play in all ages provides an opportunity for children to practice their social emotional skills. You may default this line of thinking to preschoolers learning to wait their turn or sharing a limited supply, but even infants will reach for the same object and show frustration. Take this opportunity to model with your children how to use gentle touch and turn taking.

With your toddlers and preschoolers’, you can take this a step further by introducing appropriate language to problem solve disagreements.

Block play provides children an opportunity to show independence and responsibility We refer to this as Child or Student Perspective. Teachers support this by providing an environment where children may be creative and imaginative and encouraging them by following their lead. Making children responsible for selecting materials to use as well as putting things back when its time also builds children’s self-esteem as they begin to believe in their own ability to take care of their own needs.

CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION, FACILITATED EXPLORATION & LEARNING

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As mentioned before all children should be exploring block play. Blocks come in many materials and can even be home made with recycled boxes. Integrating block play in your Infant and Toddler classrooms will create an additional opportunity to facilitate your children’s exploration and creativity. Babies may begin to develop motor skills as well as eye hand coordination by trying to stack blocks and crawling to them. Make sure to be supportive of your younger children and adjust their experiences as necessary for a successful challenge. Cheer them along and most importantly PLAY with them, become a part of their learning.

Being a part of children’s play is key to improving your teacherchild interactions. This is where you have a chance to observe and challenge their thinking. Make a conscious effort to challenge children by “stirring the pot” and asking them to explain their decisions. In older children, block play can become a very involved and time-consuming project. Give children warnings of

ELCHC PROVIDER’S FOCUS MAGAZINE elchc.org Spring 2021

when time is running out. Make sure they know what is coming next, so they can prepare for transition into the next learning event and when possible, allow time for children to come back to their master projects to complete them later. There Is no harm in letting a project carry over to another day. In-fact, allowing children to work on one project over the course of many days allows for deeper understanding and solidifying concepts across curriculum and developmental domains.

INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT & EARLY LANGUAGE SUPPORT Block building lends itself as a strong foundation in cognitive growth. With our youngest learners we are working on very basic skills of persistence and language development and although you may not even realize it, introducing children to spatial sense and positional words that later will make a large impact on their mathematical learning. This is the time to talk, talk and talk to your babies and toddlers. Making sure to verbalize their actions, your own actions, and the actions of those around them. Label the items they are building with. Be as descriptive as you can including color, shape, size position and how many blocks and objects they are using. Introduce accessories for block play such as toy vehicles, animals and people that can be used with the blocks to expand children’s imagination and stories.

Preschoolers walk in the door with active imaginations already and Block play is a perfect opportunity to really engage their natural curiosity and STEM skills.

Encourage your preschool children to plan their design by drawing it out. Here again becoming a part of their play is critical. Make sure that you are asking those open-ended thought-provoking questions that make them think outside the box. Push them to evaluate their own work and what might have happened if they had made one little change. Use your current themes to connect their learning with block play. Believe it our not, the block center is a great place to teacher letters and sounds as well. Build that alphabet with blocks, create a parking lot for sounds. Remember those accessories we talked about in infants and toddler….

Use them here as well to push conversations and build vocabulary. Do not be afraid of using “big” words, you would be surprised how much children are capable of.

Ready for that last yet arguably most important piece?

Children who are having fun are more willing to take risk. This risk taking opens the doors to learning more complex concepts and most importantly the ability to remember what they have learned. They are also more willing to participate in activities if they are having fun. Don’t believe it? Think about yourself as an adult.

Would you rather be lectured to for an hour or play a game with your peers with the same topics integrated?

In the words of O. Fred Donaldson “Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.”

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ELCHC PROVIDER’S FOCUS MAGAZINE elchc.org Spring 2021

From faces to filed bills:

Changes in

By Jessica Salmond, ELCHC

Ha

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Mary Ann said her dad often teased her about being unable to keep a job because she was always switching it up, working in education as a kindergarten teacher, an owner/operator of a local child care facility, an adjunct at St. Pete College, a trainer at the Juvenile Welfare Board and serving as a consultant for several early learning coalitions.

But that changed when she became OEL’s West Central Region VPK Facilitator in 2005 and stuck wtih it for 16 years. “This job allows you to grow, you get to create

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Happy Retirement, Mary Ann!

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was under consideration.

As expansive as the early childhood education HB 419 had a substantial focus on VPK program community is in Hillsborough County, it really can be a and child assessments, as well as a more cohesive small world sometimes. transition to kindergarten strategy.

MaryAnn Goodrich, the Office of Early Learning VPK “West Central is ahead of the game on that one,” Regional Facilitator, retired at the end of March Jamie said. after 16 years in the position. But, the Transition to K was an area Mary Ann next person in this role is no stranger: dedicated much time to developing Jamie Harmon, previously one of our her region. Hillsborough County own ELCHC Quality Specialists, has has already been meeting for stepped into the position. this initiative for years, and in Jamie is the new regional the past year developed the facilitator, and will be responsible virtual Teacher Talk series, for supporting the VPK which brings together preschool delivery in the early learning and kindergarten teachers to stakeholders of Pinellas, Pasco/ talk about these settings with Hernando and Hillsborough parents of children nearing those counties. ages.

“Basically, if it has to do with VPK, But, with any changes or updates, I’m here to help,” Jamie said. rm F there must be support for early l Jamie will be leading VPK trainings and on a , ne on childhood educators. communities of practice, and offering i g w V P K R e “I’m preparing myself to be there for the technical assistance. But expanding beyond ELCs and the providers, because it may be a lot for that, she serves as the point coordinator for the them to take in at one time,” Jamie said. “I want them stakeholders involved in VPK. When new legislation to know, there are people in their corner and we’ll get or policy is funneled down from state, she’s going through it together.” to be there to lead trainings, assist with information The past year’s global pandemic put a spotlight on dissemination and connecting the dots between just how essential our provider community is — that different community partners.

“I love the VPK world. This is very exciting for me,” Jamie same energy needs to be maintained to be sure they are receiving the support they need for both their said.

Updates to the VPK program have been proposed and programs and their personal lives to succeed, Mary rejected for several years during the legislative session, Ann said.

“We’re asking educators to do more and more and but two bills seem to have gained momentum this more,” she said. “Support and resources are critical to year: House Bill 419 and Senate Bill 7011. At the time this success and that of the children they serve.” of this publication, HB 419 was passed, and SB 7011 new things,” she said.

During her years with OEL, she’s developed lasting relationships with educators, ELC’s, school districts, Head Start and various other stakeholders. While she’s retiring from this position, she said she’ll be “cheering on the sidelines and celebrating the victories, even the small ones!”

She’s trying not to plan her retirement and “let the universe bring what it wants to me,” Mary Ann said.

Despite her efforts, though, she has a list of things she wants to try, adventures she wants to travel, and time she wants to volunteer.

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Hannah Goble has worked for the Early Learning Coalition for 6 years, starting in Provider Relations as Provider Quality Specialist. Her passion for early education began 16 years ago when she was given the opportunity to be a 2-year-old teacher and has continued to grow. During her years in early education she's become an enthusiatic advocate for inclusion. She moved to Florida from Kentucky.

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DIRECTOR, FAMILY SERVICES

HANNAH GOBLE

What are some of your goals as it relates to the ELCHC’s Family Services?

Some of my goals include improving the communication between provider, ELCHC and families. I hope to create processes that allow for easier access to the ELCHC Family Services Department. I also hope to increase access to behavior and inclusion supports within our provider community by offering these services to families as we are working with them to establish their School Readiness Services. Lastly, I would love to see play groups and parenting classes offered to families so they can be the best advocates for their child.

What challenges and opportunities do you see?

Our coalition size is definitely a challenge. At any given day, one of our Family Services Specialist could be working with upwards of 100 families.

While working with so many families allows for many opportunities to support and better our community, it can be tricky to resource. Some of the opportunities I see include reducing wait time for families to access services, less transferring of calls, and quicker response time from the ELCHC. We aim to do this by resourcing our Family Services Department to meet the demand from the community.

What is one of the biggest issues facing families in our community, and what’s one step you would take to tackle it?

Equitable access to high quality child care is one of the biggest issues our families face. This is also something they may not know is an issue. Using local data, I hope to identify areas in our community where we can help increase the level of quality in our child care facilities. We all know that the key to life success is access to early education, but the real emphasis should be on quality. Our most vulnerable children should be in our highest quality programs.

The Family Services department often works with providers for specific issues. What’s something you hope to build upon within Family Services that will also benefit providers?

Improved collaboration and communication between our Provider Relations department and our Family Services Department will ultimately benefit providers. It can often be confusing and frustrating when different departments in an organization provide conflicting answers to questions.

We aim to improve this communication to help streamline communication between our two departments, as well as, to the family and provider.

Anything else you’d like to say?

I am very humbled and excited to begin this work within Family Services.

As someone that has directly worked in child care programs, worked in early intervention and worked with child care providers, I have a holistic understanding of how the system can be better for both families and providers.

What challenges and opportunities do you see?

Our early learning educators are the front line serving the children and families in Hillsborough County. This presents an opportunity in that, if we can make strong connections and provide resources to support our early educators, we can better support our community. The challenge is overcoming barriers and finding meaningful solutions to real-life issues that our providers face.

What is one of the biggest issues you see taking place in the provider community, and what’s one step you would take to tackle it?

Providers communicate to us that they are struggling with hiring and retaining qualified teachers. To tackle this issue, we need to collect more data on the depth of the issue while listening to providers on what we can do to help.

We also need to continue to work to expand and promote programs such as INCENTIVE$ that invests the early education workforce.

What can providers expect from your leadership in this role?

Providers can expect a goal-driven, passionate leader that works to find solutions while building up the community. I think providers will see from my leadership as well as my counterparts better connection between functions of Provider Relations and Family Services. We are striving to better connect our work and fill gaps to improve our service to providers and families.

Anything else you’d like to say?

Just that I am honored and humbled to take on this new role and excited to connect with our wonderful, hard-working, passionate child care providers in this community while leading Provider Relations forward.

MEGAN FOLTS

What are some of your goals as it relates to the ELCHC’s Provider Relations?

My main goals as it relates to Provider Relations addresses three areas: - Communication. We need to communicate well with our child care owners, directors, and teachers. The School Readiness and VPK Programs come with different requirements and changes and it is our role to communicate those things well. We also need build bridges of communication with providers and also between ELCHC departments to identify and address gaps in services.

- Provide Resources. The most important years of a child’s life for healthy development and long-term success are the first formative years. Our providers are tasked with this great opportunity to profoundly change a child’s life. Provider Relations has a team of early education trainers and certified coaches that are a resource for our providers. My goal is to leverage this resource and improve how we engage with and support providers to improve child-teacher interactions, amplify kindergarten readiness, and build social and emotional skills in Hillsborough County’s youngest learners.

- Advocacy. The data and research tell us that equitable access to high-quality education can help to close opportunity gaps in our county, state and nation. With my background in public policy and over a decade of experience in this field, I know one thing to be true more than anything else--- we must advocate for our providers, families and the early education field as a whole. Through the work that we do in Provider Relations we must listen and learn from our child care provider community and the families they serve to share their stories. Ultimately, we must work toward bringing practical, sustainable and robust change to the early education system.

DIRECTOR, PROVIDER RELATIONS

Megan moved to Tampa in 2017 to join the ELCHC team after working for the Office of Early Learning in Tallahassee for 5 years. Raised by a family of enthusiastic early educators, Megan’s passion for early childhood education was instilled at a young age. This led her to pursue a Master’s of Public Administration at Florida State University, where she focused on program administration and education policy.

ELCHC PROVIDER’S FOCUS MAGAZINE elchc.org Spring 2021

Providers, you are loved.

Here are just a few of the comments we received on our "Brag on the 'Book" for Provider Appreciation Day.

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ELCHC PROVIDER’S FOCUS MAGAZINE elchc.org Spring 2021

Teacher’s Night Out + EARLY CHILDHOOD CONFERENCE

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The Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County is excited to announce our one-of-a-kind event combining our conference and provider appreciation is sold out! Due to COVID-19 restrictions, our capacity was limited.

Special thanks to Gold event sponsor:

And to Lowe's for donating beautiful centerpieces for our tables!

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ELCHC PROVIDER’S FOCUS MAGAZINE elchc.org Spring 2021

Provider Profiles Reminder: Providers are responsible for updating all their profile documents. Please contact your contract specialist before making any changes to your profiles. This will allow a smoother and faster process for you and the Coalition.

NEW PAYMENT RATES The Office of Early Learning (OEL) established rate increases for School Readiness providers.

Increases are for care levels infant through 5-year-olds. Per OEL, these new rate increases became effective January 1, 2021. The rate change may have resulted in some parents being owed a credit for overpayment providers are responsible to ensure parents’ accounts are properly credited. ELCHC staff have created new rate tables in the OEL Portal for all School Readiness providers. By now, you should have received your contract amendment in the OEL portal for the coalition rate increase. If you have decided to increase your provider pay rates that you are charging parents, please notify your contract specialist by email. Please be on the lookout for additional requests by email from your contract specialist to process the necessary paperwork for provider pay rate change. If you have any questions, you may contact your regional Contract Specialist.

TIER 2 MONITORING What is Tier 2 Monitoring?

• Onsite/ or Desk review monitoring conducted by the ELCHC of School Readiness programs • Review of School Readiness Requirements using the School Readiness Statewide Monitoring Tool Who is monitored?

• 120 randomly selected providers • Any provider with over 95% of their total licensed capacity consisting of School Readiness children • Any provider serving over 100 School Readiness children at a single location • Any provider that is the subject of a complaint • Providers who were high risk* on a previous Tier Two monitoring OR did not complete a required corrective action plan *High risk providers are monitored twice a year PAGE

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ELCHC PROVIDER’S FOCUS MAGAZINE elchc.org Spring 2021

WHAT WE ASK FOR DURING TIER 2 MONITORING: • School Readiness Child Care Certificates/Vouchers • Immunizations/Physicals “Shot Records” • Current month sign-in & out forms • Previous month sign-in & out forms • All staff files • DCF transcript/Credentials • Confidentiality Agreements • Clearinghouse Background • Attestation of Good Moral Character • Use of the approved curriculum • Documentation of reported absences for at-risk children as required by the Rilya Wilson Act • Documentation of reported absences for School Readiness Children if they missed 5 consecutive days without any contact from parent/guardian • Proof of Parent co-payments for the current contract/school year • Maintain records for 5 years • Payment Certificates (Final Reimbursement Reports)

• Sign-in & out documentation • Enrollment (payment certificates) and Attendance certifications (portal attendance and attendance from the School District from when SR was at Net park) • Documentation to Support Excused Absences • Proof of parent co-payments • Copy of private pay rate sheet the provider gives parents • Parent copayment collection (method for documenting and collecting required copayments and issuing receipts) • Information and Documentation for unusual incident for the current contract/school year • Worker’s Compensation Insurance • Reemployment Assistance Insurance (940 Form or 941 Form “FUTA/SUTA) • General Liability Insurance • Any insurance changes

CE TEAM

THE COMPLIAN QUESTIONS? 813-515-2340 Extensions:

REGION 1

REGION 3

REGION 5

Dallas Garcia ext. 416

Jessica Sladky Jones ext. 225

Ally Perrino ext. 449

REGION 2

REGION 4

Yelena Sanchez ext. 410

Tasha Williams ext. 345

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