Interagency Collaboration and Early Childhood Education for Young Children with Special Needs

1
Interagency Collaboration and Early Childhood
Education for Young Children with Special Needs

• Presentation at the National Early Childhood
  Conference
• December 9, 2008

2
Interagency Collaboration

• Early Childhood Technical Assistance Consortium
• (EC TA Consortium)
• Good Start, Grow Smart (GSGS)
• Early Childhood Federal Partners Workgroup and
  Subcommittees

3
EC TA Consortium

• Goal to coordinate the work of various early
  childhood technical assistance projects working
  with States to avoid duplication, share
  knowledge, and improve delivery and impact of TA.
  
• The EC TA Consortium is comprised of TA projects
  funded through OSEP, the Office of Head Start,
  the Child Care Bureau, MCH, SAMHSA, ACF, as well
  as Foundations www.ectaconsortium.org/

4
Good Start, Grow Smart Initiative

• Early childhood initiative introduced 2002 as a
  Companion to No Child Left Behind
• Goal to improve early childhood programs to
  better prepare children to succeed in school
• Collaborative Federal effort to coordinate
  programs that support childrens early learning
• Workgroup membership includes representatives
  from branches within the Dept of Health and Human
  Services (Child Care Bureau, Office on Head
  Start, OPRE, ASPE), the Dept of Education (OSEP,
  OESE, IES), the National Institute of Child
  Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the
  National Institute for Literacy (NIFL)

5
GSGS Interagency Workgroup Activities

• Exchange information on new evidence of effective
  approaches to fostering school readiness
• Coordinate research agendas
• Share technical assistance resources
• Sponsored 2 roundtables of selected states that
  model collaboration in ECE
• Sponsored professional development research
  briefings to increase cross-agency understanding
  of programs and ongoing research efforts
• Present jointly at professional meetings
  conferences

6
EC Federal Partners Workgroup

• Maternal and Child Health - Dept of Health and
  Human Services.
• Early Childhood Comprehensive System (ECCS)
  Grants
• Workgroup membership includes representatives
  from branches within the Dept of Health and Human
  Services (Child Care Bureau, Office on Head
  Start, and Asst. Secretary of Planning and
  Evaluation (ASPE), the Office of Special
  Education (OSEP), Office of Juvenile Justice and
  Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), and Office of
  Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
  Administration (SAMHSA).

7
EC Federal Partners (cont.)

• Subcommittees Policy, TA, Finance and Outcomes.
  OSEP participates on these subcommittees.
• Subcommittees are the process of developing logic
  models, principles and core values and goal
  statements.
• Calls are monthly with a web portal to share
  documents

8
Whats Next?

• President Elect Barack Obama
• Education Initiatives - strong focus on early
  childhood and collaboration

9
Contact Information

• Gail Houle Associate Division Director Early
  Childhood Team
• 202.245.7381
• Gail.houle_at_ed.gov
• Beth Caron
• 202.245.7293
• beth.caron_at_ed.gov
• Julia Martin Eile
• 202.245.7431
• julia.martin.eile_at_ed.gov
• Dawn Ellis
• 202.245.6417
• dawn.ellis_at_ed.gov
• Christy Kavulic
• 202.245.7359
• christy.kavulic_at_ed.gov