2019-2020 Annual Report

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), Head Start and Early Head Start provides a comprehensive child and family development program for children six weeks to age five and their families. UAMS Head Start/Early Head Start utilizes evidence-based approaches to serving low-income children and families in a compassionate and partnering manner. Children receive services that promote child development across all domains including concrete support to meet emotional, dental, and physical health needs and developmentally appropriate school readiness experiences. Children benefit from warm, nurturing, and effective interactions based on leading edge research and science on brain development.

Families participate in a wide variety of family support and strengthening activities, from parent education and leadership opportunities to family development activities that support each family’s specific goals for their child and their family. Head Start services are responsive to each child and family’s ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage. The goal of the program is to improve child and family outcomes, including school readiness, by providing a continuum of comprehensive services that support children’s development and family functioning. We see this report as an opportunity to share an overview of the services we provide and how they benefit children and families. We give a warm thanks to the many volunteers, UAMS professionals and the community at large for their generous giving of time and support.

The 2019-2020 School Year was challenging in ways no one anticipated. When Covid-19 forced schools to pause in-person learning, our program quickly adjusted to Virtual Learning and staff working from home. Seeing the challenges being faced by our parents, our Family Enrichment Workers began doing outreach to families to assess their changing needs. The hardships of our families ranged from unexpected job loss to food insecurity and struggling to provide diapers for their babies. Our Health Team collected information on families that needed diapers and formula for their infants and distributed these supplies to our schools, where families could pick them up. It is important that we continue to help children and families through these trying times.

To foster a datainformed culture that will drive programmatic actions and decisions in order to construct a strong foundation for children, families and the community to build on for future generations.

Head Start/ Early Head Start

To collaborate with the community and families to identify positive resources and diverse partnerships that will help to build strong supports for meeting the school readiness and health needs of all children/families.

To coordinate innovative staff retention, professional growth and staff morale initiatives that promote high-quality program services for children and families.

Goals

To positively impact the lives of children, families, and staff in our community through the delivery of high-quality education and family engagement services.

Enrolling High Need Families

Eligibility of Enrolled Families

Below 100% Poverty, 82%

Most of the children and families enrolled in our program qualify based on their income. We do have a small percentage of families who qualify because they are receiving public assistance, are homeless or are over income, but still in need of services.

Retaining Children

98% of children who aged out of our Early Head Start program, transitioned into our Head Start program. This is a priority for us because it supports continuity of care for both children and families.

Number of Children Enrolled for Multiple Years

290

EHS Children who Transitioned to Head Start

52

Enrolled for 2 Years Enrolled for 3 years or more

Families have a choice in where to enroll their children. We appreciate when families choose to keep their children in our programs from year to year.

2% EHS Children who Transitioned to Head Start Transitioned to Head Start Did not Transition to Head Start

98%

Supporting Language Development

Almost one fifth of our students are native Spanish speakers who are learning English. We encourage families to promote their home language with their children. This is especially important when children are infants and toddlers because it helps their brain learn how to develop the skills of language and communication. Once children enter preschool, we begin helping them to speak and understand English in addition to continuing to communicate in their home language.

% of Children by Home Language

% of Children by Home Language

Spanish, 18%

English, 82%

Improving Access To Healthcare

% of Enrolled Children with Medical and Dental Homes

*Early Head Start children are not expected to have a Dental Home until they are 1 years old.

It is important for children’s overall health that they have a primary medical home and dental home. This ensures the family has a provider to call or visit when there are concerns for their child’s health and for routine care.

Supporting Healty Children

EPSDT (Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment) helps to find and treat any health concerns early in life, so children can receive the services they need in order to thrive.

The number of children who are up to date on their EPSDT Schedule is low this school year. This is due in part to the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic, which made it more difficult for families to go to Dr. Appointments and for staff to collect documentation.

of Enrolled Children Up-to-Date on EPSDT Schedule at End of Enrollment

%

Facilitating Disability Services

and toddlers)

families through the

This ensures that our youngest children have therapies help prevent the need for interv

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Recieving Disability Services

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% with IEP or IFSP

% without IEP or IFSP

Head Start and Early Head Start programs prioritize children who are receiving disability services through their Local Education Agency (for preschool children) or Part C organization (for infants and toddlers). We also prioritize children with developmental concerns and walk families through the process to get their children evaluations and services. This ensures that our youngest children have access to quality developmental therapies before they enter

Intervention at an early age can help prevent the need for intervention as children become older.

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Partnering With Families

Our Family Services team helps families set goals to move toward self-sufficiency and out of poverty. They provide referrals or services families may need to reach their goals or address any pressing needs.

Our Program partners with ReadyRosie, our parenting curriculum that provides twice-weekly videos, which models ageappropriate learning experiences caregivers can do with children and allows families to communicate directly with program staff.

We also provide preventive health education when families enroll in our program. Our Health Specialists meet with families to review children’s health data and works together to address any needs or concerns.

The Head Start/Early Head Start program provides additional services and referrals to families as needed

Engaging Fathers

Fathers and male caregivers can be powerful influences in children’s lives. We encourage fathers to participate in our program in all the ways above. During our 2019-2020 school year, 130 men collaborated with us to complete Strengths and Needs Assessments, The Family Map, and to set goals for their families.

Achieving Child Outcomes

% of Early Head Start Children who Met/Exceeded Age Expectations for 2019-2020 School Year

Our program uses Teaching Strategies GOLD to assess each child’s development and learning. Due to Covid-19, we were only able to accurately assess children for the Fall and Winter periods. From March to June our program pivoted to virtual learning to keep staff and families safe.

Our School Readiness Goal is for 80% or more of children to meet or exceed their age expectations for each development and learning domain. Children in our Early Head Start program met this goal for physical development, cognition, and literacy. We anticipate we would have seen additional gains in all areas, if we had been able to assess our students for the Spring and Summer periods.

Preparing Children For Kindergarten

% of Head Start Children who Met/Exceeded Age Expectations for 2019-2020 School Year

Social/ Emotional Language and Literacy Math and Science

Fall 2019 Winter 2020 School Readiness Goal

Our 3- and 4-year-old children were assessed for the Fall and Winter periods of the 2019-2020 school year. Like our infants and toddlers, our preschool classrooms pivoted to Virtual Learning from March to June. Still, you can see 80% of our students met or exceeded age expectations for Language and Literacy Development. We also saw significant growth in the Social/Emotional and Math/ Science domains. The percentage of children meeting or exceeding expectations in Social/Emotional Development increased by 19 percentage points and by 25 percentage points in Math and Science.

Effective Teaching

2019-2020 Average CLASS Scores

CLASS is a tool that helps us measure how effective our teachers are in preparing young children with the skills they will need to be successful in school. The scoring scale is a 1-7. Higher scores indicate better quality teaching. Instructional Support continues to be a lower scoring area for Head Start programs nation-wide.

Our program average is above the National Average in Instructional Support by 1.01 points. We are below the National Average in Emotional Support by 0.20 points and Classroom Organization by 0.42 points.

We plan to continue coaching teachers whose scores are below the national average, so we can help them to improve their scores.

Supporting Children And Families During Covid-19

On March 13th, we pivoted to Virtual Learning and suspended on-site programming because of the COVID-19 pandemic in our community. We quickly navigated uncharted territory and devised a plan to support nearly 700 children and families across our center-based and home visitation programming. Our priorities centered on meeting our families’ basic needs at home while continuing to educate and engage their children during a critical period of development. We also worked hard to keep our staff connected and supported during this difficult period. Below is a closer look at our efforts:

Supporting Families, Students and Staff:

 Provided baby wipes to families 194 times and diapers and pull-ups a combined 227 times through pick-up and home delivery.

 Contacted families weekly to assess any needs.

 Connected classrooms with their teachers through MyTeachingStrategies Family Tab. Here teachers posted lessons and suggested activities for families, and caregivers shared student work with teachers.

 Held virtual activities and lessons via zoom.

 Conducted virtual Home Visits, Parent-Teacher Conferences and Developmental Screenings.

 Maintained full staffing levels while working from home and utilized MyPeers platform to complete remote work.

 Maintained departmental communication, professional development, and resources through Zoom.

 Loaned Ipads and computers out to staff who did not have access to devices at home.

Helping Families In Challenging Times

While our school buildings were closed and our program was utilizing Virtual Learning, Family Enrichment Specialists (FES) reached out weekly to families to assess their needs in the categories listed to the left. FES provided referrals and services to help families maintain stability. The highest need our families experienced in the beginning months of the pandemic was loss of income. The lowest need for our families was housing. This shows us that most families were able to maintain stable housing despite experiencing job loss.

Providing For Infants/Toddlers During Crisis

Once the Covid-19 pandemic started, we realized we had the means to provide infant/toddler food and diaper supplies to families. This chart shows the number of times we provided the stated needs to families. We provided baby wipes to families 194 times and diapers and pull-ups a combined 227 times. We provided infant formula and baby food the least number of times.

Providing Summer Programming For Head Start Children

Would like original photo without “Mask up Everyday” then will remove broom and dustpan

Knowing we had an obligation to provide our critical early childhood education programs to children who needed them, we began a slow, multi-phase in-person classroom reopening process in June. First, we welcomed back our infant/toddlers at our four EHS locations, our threeyear-olds with current IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) and children transitioning to kindergarten. Before opening our classrooms again, we engaged in extensive planning and consultation with local, state, and federal organizations and our staff, to ensure we were providing a safe environment for our children and employees.

Safety Precautions for Classroom Reopening

 Temperature checks

 Daily COVID-19 health screenings

 On-site health services team for children with symptoms

 Masks required for staff/children ages 2+

 Increased cleaning and sanitizing procedures

 Replaced shared materials from classrooms with individual materials

 Classroom practices to promote social distancing

 COVID-19 health education for students through social stories

 Prohibiting classrooms from intermingling

 Limiting visitors to our buildings

 Instituting drive-up procedures for dropping of and picking up children

required for staff/children ages 2+

Increased cleaning and sanitizing procedures

Replacement shared materials from classrooms with individual materials

Classroom practices to promote social distancing

-19 health education for students through social stories

Prohibiting classrooms from intermingling

Limiting visitors to our buildings

Instituting drive-up procedures for dropping of and picking up children

Highly Qualified Teachers

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Education Levels for Teaching Staff

Education Levels for Teaching Staff

Our teaching staff have the qualifications necessary to support children’s early learning. 46% of our teaching staff have an AA or higher in Early Childhood Education or a related field. 29% of our staff have a CDA (Child Development Associate) Credential specific to the age group they work with and 24% of our staff are in enrolled in the process to obtain their CDA Credential.

Our internal CDA Credential program is fully paid for by our agency and allows students to work full-time in our classrooms while taking coursework that directly impacts their work with children. It involves a portfolio process, student observation and a final assessment. This program allows us to take staff who may not have the education they need and support them through the process of obtaining a credential. This helps us develop a qualified workforce.

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teaching staff have the qualifications necessary to support children’s early learning. 46% of our staff have an AA or higher in Early Childhood Education or a related field. 29% of our staff have

2019-2020 Head Start Annual

Responsible Financial Management

The next few pages discuss our programs financial records. On this page you can see our revenue allocation with the highest amount being for Program Operations. On the next page you will find our expenditures for our Base Grant and T/ TA broken down by program and type of expense. The final page on finances shows our Proposed Budget for FY 2021 and our USDA Expenditures and Reimbursements and our current American Rescue Plan Funds Award allocation and expenses.

UAMS continues to demonstrate strong financial and operation controls. Our FY20 internal audit has been completed with no findings.

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The next few pages discuss our programs financial records. On this page you can see our revenue allocation with the highest amount being for Program Operations. On the next page you will find our expenditures for our Base Grant and T/TA broken down by program and type of expense. The final page on finances shows our Proposed Budget for FY 2021 and our USDA Expenditures and Reimbursements and our current American Rescue Plan Funds Award allocation and expenses.

UAMS continues to demonstrate strong financial and operation controls. Our FY20 internal audit has been completed with no findings.

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USDA Funding And Proposed Budget

USDA Expenditures and Reimbursements

Proposed Budget for FY 2021

UAMS Head Start/Early Head Start EARLY HEAD START Program Expenditures Only

For the Grant Period April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2023

Reporting Month: October 1-31, 2021

American Rescue / HEAD START EARLY HEAD START

TRACKING DATA

We track data using Child Plus, Teaching Strategies and E-Deca

FEDERAL MONITORING RESULTS

Our FA-1 federal monitoring which took place during the week of April 13th, 2020 detected no non-compliance nor areas of concern

Thank You

Volunteers

Thank You to the over 874 volunteers who helped our program run effectively this school year.

Stuff the Stocking

Thank You to our Stuff the Stocking volunteers who provided children with gifts during the holiday season.

Thank you to our Policy Council Members and our Governing Board for continuing to support our program and help guide us as we work to improve the lives of children and families.

Policy Council Members

Adrienne Akbar

Kelsey Foreman

Shantanna Wainwright

Sheila Lawrence

Kinatta Vaughn

Briana Thompson

Arielle Loring

LaShunda Sadler

Selene Sosa

Ashely Grant

Governing Board

Dr. Frances Harris Internal Medicine—Private Practice

Mr. Brad Robertson Executive Director for United Way for Pulaski County

Mrs. Tashel Mullings Policy Council Chair

Dr. Richard Trevino Professor of Sociology

Dr. Jennifer Hune Graduate Advisor, Associate Professor, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Dr. Charles Field Community Rep.

Angela Withers

Kimberly Tate

Tashel Mullings

Andre Mullings

Jasmine Robertson

Myeisha Floyd

Wanda Cor’ney: State Manager –Parents As Teachers (PAT)

Robert Coates –St. Mark

Dr. Billy Thomas UAMS Instructor of Neonatology

Mrs. Renee Kovach

Director-Certified Personnel Human Resources Dept., LRSD

UAMS DFPM-RED

Thank you to the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine Research and Evaluation Division (RED) for continuing to partner with us in using the Family Map and the WISE curriculum.

Head Start/ Early Head Start