HS/EHS Support Services April 2024 Monthly Report

GULF COAST COMMUNITY SERVICES ASSOCIATION

Head Start/Early Head Start Support Services

April 2024 Monthly Narrative Report

LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES

• Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) The March 2024 Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) claim was completed and submitted to the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) for reimbursement. In March there were 21 food service days for the month. There were 16 eligible sites and 1,518 eligible children. The number of meals provided: 5,645 breakfasts; 5,698 lunches and 16,097 PM snacks served. Expected reimbursement for the month is $57,544.17.

• The April 2024 Storytime was read by GCCSA Head Start Raul Ysaguirre teacher, Ms. Celia Bocanegra, better known as ‘Ms. B’. After experiencing the solar eclipse earlier in the month, the children heard about the friendship between the sun and the moon. Through a tale of celestial friendship, “Total Solar Eclipse: A Stellar Friendship Story” explores the awe-inspiring phenomenon of a total solar eclipse and the unexpected ways we shine together. Ms. B’s class also shared their version of the solar eclipse after the story. What a great time! Translation was provided. Storytime broadcast live to all sites via ZOOM on their Promethean Boards every third Wednesday of the month

• The Head Start/Early Head Start Assistant Director attended the Houston Community College’s Child Development Advisory Board meeting which she serves as a member. She shared at this meeting the agency is currently recruiting children for both the Head Start and Early Head Start programs.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT (CD)

• Early Head Start: Threes: Theme 7“On the Go” - Week 4- Water- This week the children will explore traveling on water. We will talk about sea life. Theme 8- “Crawling Critters” Children will begin to focus on crawling critters, such as ants, spiders caterpillars, and beetles.

• Toddlers: Theme- 8 “Traditional Tales” - Week 1- “Three Little Pigs”This week the children will learn about the number three and how to outsmart a wolf. Week 2- “The Three Bears” - This week the children will enjoy the time-honored story of “The Three Bears” They will learn about manners, bears and the difference between real and make-believe. “Traditional Songs”- The children will sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and participate in activities that spring from the song's lyrics.

• Infants: Teachers implemented the Activity Trackers Card to plan activities according to each child’s individual need in both Infant classrooms.

• Raul Yzaguirre The April Theme at Raul was “Gardening” Investigation 1: How can we plan and care for our garden? Investigation 2: What grows in gardens? Investigation 3: Who helps garden grow? Investigation 4: How do gardens help people and the environment? Investigation 5: How can we harvest our garden?

CHILD DEVELOPMENT

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• Collaboration Campuses: HISD collaboration sites utilize several curriculums The primary curriculum is Savvas, Three Cheers for Pre-K. Theme 8: “Animals Around the World” How are animals the same and different? Each week students will explore activities to broaden their higher order thinking and connection to the real world. Week 1- “What can we learn about animals through stories?” Week 2 – “How do the feet of animals help them?” Week 3 “How does a caterpillar become a butterfly?” Week 4: “Where do animals live?”

• Stand-Alone Curriculum: Head Start Stand-Alone sites implement the Frogstreet Pre-K curriculum. April theme was Theme 7- “Things that Move / Cosas que se mueven”. Sub themes students studied: Week 1: Mysterious Movers/Movimientos misteriosos , Week 2: Theme 8: “Animals/animales” Farm Animals/Los animales: Week 3: Zoo Animals/Los animales del zoologico, Week 4: Bugs/Insectos. Week 5: Theme 9: “Changes/Cambios”- Chages in and Around Me/ Cambios en mi y en lo que me rodea.

• Plans have been finalized for the Week of the Young Child (April 6-12) and Teacher Appreciation Week (May 5 – 11). The Child Development team in collaboration with the Center Administrators and Operation Support have planned some exciting events for both weeks! Please be on the lookout!

Reveille celebrated Dr. Seus Day

• The Child Development team continues to work with our SHINE partner, Sonali Ravali in the roll out plans for the Teacher Success Rubric. A tool that will guide and enable them to monitor themselves in being a successful educator.

• Child Development provided guidance, support, and encouragement to educators pursuing advancing their careers and contributing to their profession (Child Development Associate Credential (CDA), walkthroughs, mentoring, and coaching.)

• Child Development Specialists provided teaching teams with individual activities and support.

• HEALTH & NUTRITION (H/N): Head Start program requires within 30 calendar days after the child first attends the program, the parent must be consulted to determine whether each child has ongoing sources of continuous, accessible health care and health insurance coverage. Currently Head Start enrollment is at 1289 and EHS is at full enrollment of 80.

Children at Thompson participated in a science activity

HEALTH & NUTRITION:

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Within 45 calendar days after the child first attends the program a program must either obtain or perform evidence-based vision and hearing screenings.

Within 90 days HS must obtain determinations from health care and oral health care professionals as to whether or not the child is up-to-date on a schedule of age appropriate preventive and primary medical and oral health care, based on: the well-child visits and dental periodicity schedules as prescribed by the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) program of the Medicaid agency of the state in which they operate, immunization recommendations issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and any additional recommendations from the local Health Services Advisory Committee that are based on prevalent community health problems.

• The Compliance Department has completed their 2nd round of CACFP internal audits, 4 centers did not have any findings. The 3rd and final round of audits has begun for the school year.

• On Friday, April 19th, the children at Thompson participated in a science activity. With help from the teachers and staff, the kids set up 4 controls: Coke and mint mentos, sprite and mint mentos, coke and fruity mentos, and sprite and fruity mentos. Each control set off a different reaction, which the kids were able to make their hypothesis about beforehand. This was a great way for the kids to get outside and learn more about predicting what will happen based on what they already know

• The Health Department held their Spring HSAC Meeting with close to 40 staff and community members in attendance.

• The nutrition team held a Civil Rights Certification training, a requirement for CACFP.

• The nutrition team and Center Administrators continue to hold monthly check-in meetings with our vendor Healthy Lunch Box to express strengths and concerns. The meetings have been very productive, and improvement has increased.

Environmental Quality for lead in drinking water. Pasadena and Richey are pending.

• EHS, Reveille, and Garden Villa completed the process of testing their center with the Texas Commission on

• DentaQuest continues to provide oral health presentations for our centers. DentaQuest has visited Reveille, Garden villa, Richey, Pasadena, Thompson and Early Head start for a total of seven (7) children’s presentation, two (2) parent meetings and ten (10) site visits to deliver dental kits and literature

SPECIAL SERVICES (SS):

• Head Start and Early Head Start requires that 10% of the Funded Enrollment includes children with disabilities. Head Start only recognized children with a disability that are eligible for services under Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). At the end of April 2024, it was determined 124 Head Start children and 7 Early Head Start Children are enrolled in the program that are identified with disabilities GCCSA has a total of 131 children identified (8.6%). 91 children are identified with a speech impairment, 19 with Autism, 11 with Non-Categorical Early Childhood and 2 with Other Health Impairment and 1 with Hearing Impairment. In addition, the Special Services Department has 115 suspected Head Start children enrolled and 0 suspected Early Head Start children enrolled.

• The Special Services Manager met with Mekea Simon Coordinator 1 for the South Division for HISD to continue following up on all children referred to HISD. This is to ensure children are evaluated and provided with the services they need.

• IDEA is a law that makes available free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children who are identified with a disability. The Local Education Agency (LEA) holds the authority to identify children with disabilities. Please see the “Identified Children Per Campus” chart showing the number of children with disabilities per center.

Suspected Children:

• GCCSA’s Special Services Department is continuously enrolling children with suspected disabilities and their families for the 2023-2024 program year. As of the end of April 2024, 78 children have suspected speech concerns, 11 children have suspected Autism, 8 children have suspected social emotional concerns, and 15 children with both disability and social emotional concerns for a total of 114 suspected children suspected children. Please see the “Suspected Children Per Campus” chart showing the number of children with disabilities per center.

• Multi-Disciplinary Team Meetings: The department assists with monitoring Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) meetings. MDT meetings are held to ensure that children who are enrolled are given the opportunity to maximize the benefits of the program. For the month of April 2024, the Special Services Department obtained and attended 0 new MDT meeting reports from the agency’s content areas for a total of 71 meetings year to date.

• Specialists’ Outcomes meetings were held this month. Meetings were held to discuss the status of children enrolled in Head Start & Early Head Start. Three separate meetings were held to allow small group discussions for MDT I, II and III.

GCCSA Disabilities and Mental Health Providers Services - (Advance Plus, Carr Speech, Personal Touch, Eaden Counseling, Providential Counseling and ANC-D Psychological Services) The Mental Health Providers continue to visit campuses weekly to provide consultation and support to staff and children. The Disability Providers continue to visit campuses to evaluate and provide speech therapy services to the students.

DEPARTMENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS FROM THE PREVIOUS MONTH:

• Week of the Young Child was celebrated April 8 – 12. Week of the Young Child is celebrated nationally that honors our children. GCCSA celebrated each day with a different theme: “Music Monday” , “Tasty Tuesday” , “Work Together Wednesday” , “Artsy Thursday” and “Family Friday”!

• The Child Development Specialists in Collaboration with Center Administrators and Human Resources conducted virtual interviews and submitted candidate recommendations to hire Teacher/Teacher Assistants/Teacher Aides. The Health & Nutrition Manager conducted interviews for the Health Specialists’ vacant position. Interviews were also held for the Child Development Manager’s position.

• Middle of the Year (MOY) children’s assessment data was reviewed with Center Administrators this month. The data shared demonstrated the learning children achieved middle of the year.

• Specialists Outcomes meetings were held to discuss and collaborate on the needs of children and families enrolled in the program.

Site Observation April 2024 Report:

Site Observation Summary chart indicates the center visits made by the Health & Nutrition Associate, Child Development, Family Empowerment, Health, Nutrition and Special Services Specialists for the month of April 2024. All GCCSA Site visits are required to provide support and meet the needs of children and staff at GCCSA Head Start and Early Head Start Centers.

HS/EHS Professional Development:

• The Child Development and Special Services teams attended the PAX training, a behavioral training

• Managers attended an Annal Review training presented by members of the HR team.

CPR/First Aide:

• For the month of April 2024, there were five (5) staff that attended CPR/First Aide class, there were four (4) Teaching staff and one (1) Cook/Custodian.

New Hire Orientation:

• For the month of April 2024 there were nine (9) Family Service Specialist’s and Three (3) Teaching staff that started on April 22, 2024 orientation We welcome all New Hires!

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES/EVENTS/TRAINING HOSTED BY DEPARTMENT:

May 6 – 10 Teacher Appreciation Week

May 7 Teacher Appreciation Reception

May 20 – 24 New Hire Orientation

May 21 Spring Child Development Advisory Committee Meeting

May 30 Specialists Outcomes Meeting & Reporting

UPCOMING CONFERENCES TRAININGS HOSTED OUTSIDE OF GCCSA:

May 14 Texas Department of Agriculture MegaCon

REQUIRED TRAININGS:

(Training that must occur because of funding or regulatory requirements)

• CACFP Required Training & Bi- Weekly CACFP & Cook Training

• CDA Training

• Civil Rights Training (annual)

• CLASS and Teacher Success Rubric Training for new and returning staff.

• Child Abuse and Neglect Training annually

• CPR & First Aid Training

• Coaching and Mentoring Strategies CD Specialists & Teachers

• Conscience Discipline Training (overview)

• Disability & Mental Health Training & Social Emotional Development for Children

• ERSEA Training - required annually.

• Food Handlers Certification

• Developmentally Appropriate Practices, Health and Safety, Teaching and Learning Environment, Curriculum & Assessment

• HS/EHS Policies and Procedures Training: Practice-Based Coaching, Effective Classroom Management.

• Medication Administration Training

• Orientation for New Employees, Parents & Providers

• Pedestrian Safety at First Parent Upcoming

• Technology in the Classroom Training

• SIDS/ Shaken Baby training.