In 2023, DCYF updated its needs assessment. We learned that challenges compensation and benefits and mental health, persist. Families still struggle with access, especially those who are already marginalized. This update guides all grant activities, which include an update to the state's comprehensive B-5 Strategic Plan. This is known as the Early Learning Coordination Plan (ELCP).

2019 PDG-R funds supported the development of the Early Learning Coordination Plan (ELCP), published in 2022. It supports state leaders in coordinating programs and funding to improve access to Early Care and Education services, reduce duplication, and leverage partnerships for system alignment. The ELCP provides recommendations based on the findings from the statewide Needs Assessment for cross-system approaches to strengthen the Early Care and Education workforce.

Impact for Families through the ELCP Network

Strategies found in the ELCP's Strong, Stable, Nurturing, Safe, and Supported Families section are being applied throughout the state. Coordination is needed to amplify the impact. The ELCP Impact Network will use PDG-R funds to integrate family-focused coordination. This will build on local and state initiative work already happening in Washington Communities for Children, the Poverty Reduction Workgroup, and the Essentials for Childhood and Strengthening Families Locally. DCYF will form a subgroup of the ELCP Impact Network focused on this ELCP section. In the first 12 months of this three-year grant, the group will assess the current state of other groups' work and initiatives.

Several community of practice meetings will share how best to deliver public services and benefits, make these services and benefits accessible, and provide advocacy that promotes these services and benefits.

Data collected during the process will be represented and communicated in plain terms via a DCYF-created dashboard. Data will be used to inform decision-making at the state and local level and when making future updates to the ELCP.

Help Me Grow (A free service that connects parents to resources in their community)

DCYF will maximize family participation and engagement through three core Help Me Grow activities:

• Build a bidirectional referral pathway between Help Me Grow (HMG) and Child Care Aware of Washington (CCA of WA)
• Integrate state outreach for Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) with HMG to better support family access
• Develop a HMG pathway for Tribal communities

Bidirectional Resource Pathway

Parents find child care options and Early Achiever Quality Levels through CCA of WA by completing an online form or calling the Family Center. These resources are available in multiple languages.

Depending on where they live, parents access HMG, our statewide referral system, by calling their local HMG resource or visiting a partners' office. They are connected with a culturally and linguistically attuned Family Resource Navigator. Navigators help families find local resources, establish health insurance, track developmental milestones, access social services, and more. The HMG website and partner offices provide services in Amharic, English, Russian, Spanish, Somali, and Vietnamese. Additional interpreters are available.

While CCA of WA and HMG are invaluable resources for families looking for resources, connecting the two would increase their effectiveness. DCYF will invest PDG-R funds to make sharing information between HMG and CCA of WA possible. For example, a parent might seek child care by calling CCA of WA's Family Center, but in that same phone call learn that HMG can refer them to services they need to support a child with complex needs.

The bidirectional or two-way referral pathway is predicted to serve an additional 1,000 families. This will connect families to developmental screenings, early intervention, child care, and wrap-around services.

DCYF will support and promote awareness of the pathway and CCA of WA and HMG resources by creating culturally attuned and accessible outreach materials in multiple languages.

Connect Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML)

Enrollment in the state's PFML benefit started in 2020. PFML is run by Washington's Employment Security Department (ESD). PFML gives parents greater fiscal support for their family and children's health. It can be used during major life events such as pregnancy, birth, or illness.

HMG helps families apply for PFML by walking them through applying and with language access. Data shows that some people are less aware of PFML, especially Black, Asian, American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN), and low-income families.

During the PDG Planning Grant, DCYF supported WithinReach, a statewide nonprofit, to create a Community Facilitator Network (CFN). This CFN helped PDG understand what was stopping families from using PFML. Listening sessions showed that families wanted to learn about PFML during health appointments. However, child health providers do not currently have the resources to communicate with families about PFML. During the PDG Planning Grant, DCYF tested messages, materials, and outreach to health providers. These health providers should then support directing families to Help Me Grow to apply for PFML.

Using PDG Renewal Grant funds, DCYF will take the next step in two ways:

1. DCYF will send the tested messages and outreach in the medical field, to help link families to HMG. 
2. Help Me Grow will continue to meet with ESD to explore a bidirectional referral pathway between PFML and HMG. This may also include ESD supporting outreach.

Specialized Tribal HMG Pathway

Washington shares borders with 29 federally recognized Tribes and peoples who are members of many more tribes. The PDG Planning Grant built relationships over the first two years of the program. DCYF will create a Help Me Grow connected with local culture for Tribal communities and UIOs. 

DCYF's Office of Tribal Relations will support the project teams as they create the pathway. DCYF will also work with communities and partners at both the local and state levels. The agency will also provide technical assistance to new Tribal and urban American Indian/Alaska Native communities using HMG.

There are many options that could be explored. 

1. Working with Native-Hub, a national source-and-referral linkage system for Tribal families. 
2. Developing a bidirectional pathway with a UIO in a specific county. Or,
3. Working with a Tribe interested in starting HMG.

Play and Learn

Play and Learn groups are where young children can learn and play with children their own age. They are in the same building that their parents use to learn about child development and local resources.

The first Early Connections Play and Learn program started in DSHS Community Service Offices (CSO) in rural communities. It works with migrant and Tribal families involved in child welfare, using TANF and Family, Friends, and Neighbor (FFN) care. The program also gives an entry point to other DCYF services like: Home Visiting, Early Intervention, Developmental Screening, Head Start and ECEAP. In both cases, DCYF uses PDG funds to support QUIQ, an AI program. This AI texting service connects families to Play and Learn, direct-provider services, and collects some data. DCYF plans to use the drop-in Early Play and Learn groups ongoing at four Community Services Offices in central Washington.

There is a need to develop relationships within Tribal communities. This will build learning services that are based on family needs and in places families trust.Connections made during the PDG Planning led to placing a Play and Learn group in a Tribal building. Using PDG Renewal Grant funds, DCYF will expand Play and Learn to a group in Yakama Nation. The Yakama Nation participated in focus groups involving tribal elders, families, early learning, early intervention, and school employees.

This new Yakama Nation Play and Learn will serve about 30 more families per month. Data from the QUIQ texting service will show the usage. Data will also show new usage of early learning services. DCYF will see how it connects families to Head Start, ECEAP, Developmental Preschool, Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT), and Home Visiting programs.

Recruiting and Retaining New Providers

Our approach to recruitment and retention will include comprehensive pre-service training, and an increase in support for providers serving infants and toddlers.

Comprehensive pre-service training: Pre-service training: Training requirements can be confusing. Using PDG-R funds, DCYF will integrate online pre-service trainings into our Shared Services Hub. This currently serves licensed family homes and centers. The trainings for incoming educators will pull together all hiring requirements, saving educators the time to locate them. Making sure early educators and service providers have the tools and knowledge to do their jobs well is important for recruitment and retention. This prevents burnout and keeps talented, skilled providers in the Early Care and Education workforce.

The PDG-P grant funded a plan that makes regular improvement to Shared Services and business capacity possible. DCYF hired a staff member to gather data, outreach in community, resolve business needs, and the adopt business supports. DCYF contracted support to create landscape analyses and frameworks from this data.

Providers told DCYF they need more from the Hub that supports the goals of recruitment and retention. DCYF also learned providers need technical support and a menu of options. Washington state's diverse workforce also needs support that align with their cultures and languages.

DCYF will integrate pre-service requirements into the Shared Services Hub that support onboarding efforts. Supports will include:

• Guided access to how to complete a requirement;
• Payment for completion;
• Scheduling and coordination requirements in a bundle;
• Support in finding and hiring qualified staff;
• Language access; and
• Mentors and coaches who reflect the languages and cultures in the workforce

The training will guide providers to complete their job role requirements. It will cover:

• Account creation in the workforce registry;
• Health and safety training in all state and federally required health and safety standards. This includes CPR, first aid, and bloodborne pathogens training;
• Applying for a background check; and
• Technical assistance for early childhood education options

Shared Services will include start-up training virtually, in person, and in multiple languages. It will also include support to navigate systems like stackable certificates, degrees, and other credential completions. Finally, it will pair providers together and strengthen professional networks. These strengthened social connections will support workers while completing their role requirements.

Increased support to serve infants and toddlers: The first three years of life are a critical time in a child's brain development. Providers and staff are passionate about serving infants and toddlers with specific needs. This professional goal for providers is challenging to meet while sustaining a business in the current child care market. Targeted professional development opportunities help but are currently limited for ECE professionals working with children aged birth to three. Opportunities for those working in monolingual or bilingual Spanish early learning settings are especially limited. Career longevity often suffers as a result.

Using PDG-R funds, DCYF will enhance ECE program support and improve recruitment and retention by increasing capacity in our statewide Infant Toddler Specialist Network to deploy developmental screening, referrals, and Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND). FIND is an evidence-based intervention that supports social and emotional growth by increasing the number of conversational turns between adults, infants and toddlers, which promotes language development and has been found to be effective in multilingual programs. In addition, qualitative data shows that FIND promotes awareness of child development among teachers.

FIND is relationship-based and trauma-informed and uses real-time video clips of classroom interactions to promote children's development. With FIND, early learning professionals are more engaged and responsive to a child's development. Coaches film interactions between children and their caregivers that promote healthy brain development. Coaches review edited clips that demonstrate the positive interactions. Children learning multiple languages benefit from additional opportunities to engage in conversations. There currently is a waiting list for FIND.

Developmental screening also positively impacts provider and staff retention. Screening assists providers, parents, and health professionals to identify children's strengths and areas where they may need additional support. The state's Infant-Toddler Specialist Network provides training and support with universal developmental screening, but additional support is needed.

DCYF will add a coach to our statewide Infant Toddler Specialist Network. The coach will:

1. Provide a 10-week filming and coaching intervention of FIND to home-based and center-based teachers working with children aged birth to three; and
2. Provide training and access to the ASQ-3 and ASQ-SE developmental screenings.

This will increase the availability of developmental screening with referrals to early intervention. Enhanced data collection will track:

• How many ECE teachers participate in these professional development opportunities;
• How many children aged birth to three are impacted by the work; and
• How many children are referred for additional screening to either early intervention or developmental preschool.

DCYF will further explore the connections between this work and the Washington State Department of Health developmental screening database for Washington families.

After a year, an additional 20-30 ECE professionals and 120 children will have access to ECE environments and teachers who have received training and coaching in either FIND, developmental screening, or both.

We hope to learn more about how to coordinate developmental screening work with other state efforts to support early screening, referral, and service delivery for children with complex needs. DCYF will develop a plan for expanding FIND and developmental screening.

Supporting the Mental Health and Wellbeing of the ECE Workforce

Our Shared Services Hub combines business and mental health supports, like trauma-informed care training. The Hub was developed with PDG funding and serves around 1,600 programs. During PDG-R, DCYF will increase its Shared Services Hub supports for mental health and well-being. This update will add the coordination of reduced-cost health care benefits (including mental health) and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

DCYF will use the findings from the business supports landscape analysis (see Activity 1) to identify health and well-being supports providers need. DCYF will develop an implementation strategy for a phased delivery approach. We will compile and coordinate options available to providers that can be accessed at a shared cost.

Examples of possible additional offerings could include YMCA membership to promote physical health, subscription to a wellness/wellbeing app, and support with accessing health and mental health benefits.

DCYF will work with a group of 20 ECE programs to co-design, test, and analyze the shared cost model for the various options. Mental health and wellbeing supports will be made part of the Shared Services Hub. Depending on demand and interest, DCYF will revise to meet the needs of programs that are accessing the shared services.

Strengthening Career Pathways and Professional Development

The ELCP has a vision of A Strong and Supported Early Learning Workforce. This goal is possible through better workforce training, building up career pathways and making clearer access to professional development.

Early Childhood educators and staff are often overwhelmed when they go through onboarding and staff qualifications. Some Early Childhood educators leave the field because it is too complex.

With career pathways and professional development, Early Childhood Educators can sustain long and fruitful careers. During the PDG Renewal grant phase, DCYF will focus on more support in career navigation.

At this time, there is no single resource to review all requirements. Using PDG renewal funds, DCYF will build a simpler resource for Early Childhood Educators to review and meet qualifications. The resource will be created for use individually or with support from staff.

Expanded career navigation: DCYF currently administers the online ECE Career Planning Portal. This portal helps users learn about career paths in early childhood education, including certificates and degrees. The portal supports individuals with education options, financial aid resources, and locating advisors in the ECE profession. While the Portal is effective, it lacks a personalized approach in terms of culture and language. 

 Using PDG-Renewal funds, DCYF will create a new Professional Development and Workforce Systems Navigator role. The Navigator will provide:

1. Guidance for users at the start of their career path;
2. Support for new applicants' entry into the field; and
3. Support for career navigation. 

The Navigator will work with professionals and community organizations to provide accessible and consistent support. They will focus on increasing visibility of a career path and providing clear options for professional growth. 

 Professionals will have access to individualized consultation using a variety of supports, self-guided resources, and tools. Using PDG-Planning analysis and data gathering, DCYF will also develop a protocol for navigator/educator interactions.

Data Integration Improvements

Data is critical to DCYF's efforts to support program quality. Integrated, user-friendly data on Early Childhood Education programs and workforce quality is essential to improve access to high quality care. While our state holds a wealth of data on these elements, further data integration is needed to be effective.

Using PDG Renewal funds, DCYF's Office of Innovation Accountability and Alignment (OIAA) will continue to integrate ECE workforce and provider data. This effort will build on activities funded by previous PDG grants that integrated child-level data from childcare, ECEAP, and ESIT. Continuing this work will allow DCYF to produce statistics over time on child care settings. DCYF's early learning data system will also include data on the workforce, Early Achievers Quality Levels, and childcare Licensing. The data will reveal how vulnerable children are being served over time and in which settings.

The data integration work will also support access to, and future development of, the Child Universal Success Platform (CUSP). CUSP is an industry-leading Early Childhood Integrated Data System that melds population and administrative data from the state and local level. When integration is complete, the data will be used for a public needs assessment with interactive digital components.

Pyramid Model

PDG Renewal funds continue to grow the Washington State Pyramid Model (WAPM) into the profession of early learning. WAPM uses evidence-based practices which support young children's social and emotional development. It also prevents and addresses challenging behaviors. This framework empowers early learning providers with ongoing education. Data show these efforts positively prevent and reduce behavior that adults perceive as challenging. It builds social and emotional growth of the child, which is the greatest sign of kindergarten readiness.

Building on previous PDG-funded efforts, DCYF will continue to grow WAPM by giving 30 pyramid model trainings per year.

DCYF will continue working with OSPI to increase the involvement of children B-5 with special needs.

DCYF will continue to train coaches to introduce them to the WAPM for children aged three to five years. These efforts increase the knowledge and skills in WAPM-positioned Coaches who serve childcare providers. They will be better about to respond to children with intensive behaviors, disabilities, and other challenges.

DCYF will continue to utilize WAPM onboarding/new workforce trainings, video series, and toolkits. These weave trauma-informed care and social emotional learning into the Washington State Pyramid Model.

Open-Source Curriculum

DCYF will develop high quality curriculum at no cost to childcare providers. This curriculum, guided by Washington's 2023 review, will create an engaging experience for all learners. It will use bite-sized, media-rich resources that link to the Early Learning and Development Guideline. It will give educators education credit from the University of Washington (UW). Along with the curriculum, educators can access classroom ideas, activities, and a coach they can use in their home language. Regional Coaches will be trained through the Coaching Certificate program at the UW. Coaches will lead communities of practice and use Early Achievers and ECEAP standards.

This program will help providers meet Early Achievers quality improvement goals. It will make access to statewide funding through ECEAP more attainable. DCYF will develop the base curricula in Spanish, Somali, and English. It will use a process that ensures the ideas resonate with the communities that are served. After it's complete, DCYF will develop coach-aligned resources and a curriculum course. Next, we will train Early Achievers Coaches on the curriculum through the Coaching Certificate at UW and prepare the state infrastructure to support implementation. Finally, we will pilot the curriculum. The pilot will provide access to all curricula materials and begin regional coach communities of practice. We will also track data over time to evaluate the short-term impact.

The development of free, open curriculum will provide more pathways for many types of programs. Those that serve families who use child care subsidies, rural programs, family childcare programs, and programs serving historically marginalized populations.

Program Performance Evaluation Plan (PPEP)

The Preschool Development Renewal Grant Birth through Five evaluation team supports decision-making by providing reliable information. The information is used to answer questions about our PDG funded projects and their connection to Washington's Early Learning System. The evaluation team creates data results that are understood and can apply to decisions, prioritizing the needs of communities furthest from opportunity.

The Project Performance Evaluation Plan (PPEP) will be updated using strategies from the most recent PDG award. It will include OIAA evaluators, conversations with project teams, implementation science, and more.

DCYF's PDG B-5 Program Performance Evaluation Plan (PPEP) partners in and outside the agency are key to the planning of this update. Key partners include DCYF leader, units, and external partners in the ELCP Network.

The evaluation team work to build strong relationships, center equity, reveal power, and work with partners.