Early Learning Days of Action    

May 30th kicked off our Early Learning Days of Action in collaboration with the National Women's Law Center. We are using this opportunity to promote both the President's and the Governor's initiatives to invest in early childhood education. A series of press conferences are taking place across New York State from May 30th to June 14th.

Related Media:

NY Early Learning Days of Action RebelMouse page with photos, videos and tweets.

June 5th New York Times Op-Ed by Gail Collins Power to the Preschoolers

May 30th Public News Service article NY Leads the Way in Push for Pre-K and Kids’ Concerns

Press Events:

May 30: Buffalo, see press release, photo and opinion
May 31: East Meadow, Long Island
May 31: Rochester, see press release, media and photo
June 3: Syracuse, see media and photo
June 5: National Early Learning Day of Action Tweetchat at #PreKForAll. See sample tweets and a review of the tweetchat
June 5: Huntington, Long Island, see press release and media
June 5: New York City
June 6: Binghamton, see media
June 7: Albany, see press release, photos and media
June 7: Rockland County
June 14: Central Islip, Long Island

       Have You Signed On?

President Obama announced a bold initiative to increase access to high-quality early care and learning for the nation’s youngest learners. Getting Congress to approve this initiative will take a groundswell of support. Let’s show the President and Congress that New Yorkers support his plan. A letter of support from statewide organizations will be sent to the White House in June, following the June 5th Early Learning Day of Action under the Strong Start for Children Campaign. Can we count on you to add your organization's endorsement to this letter? Email your organization's name to Betty Holcomb at: bholcomb@ccinyc.org to be added to this letter.

                Resources

Early Learning: America's Middle Class Promise Begins Early, a U.S. Department of Education video shows educators providing personal testimony on how high-quality early learning positively affected their students. June 5, 2013.

Increasing Access to High-Quality Early Childhood Education in New York, White House, Office of the Press Secretary. June 4th state data on the President’s plan to increase access to high-quality early childhood programs.

Organization sign-on letter in support of the President's early care and learning initiative.

The State of Preschool 2012 is NIEER's 2012 State Preschool Yearbook profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States. April 2013. See SCAA & CCI's press release on this yearbook.

We Can Do Better: 2013 Update, Child Care Aware® of America’s Ranking of State Child Care Center Regulations and Oversight, is the fourth in a series of reports beginning in 2007 that scores and ranks the states on 11 program requirements and four oversight benchmarks for child care centers. The report emphasizes that progress has been made but more emphasis needs to be placed on quality through quality rating and improvement systems such as QUALITYstarsNY. See New York's ranking.

From Chapter 53 of the 2013 Laws of New York: New Pre-K Funding in the Budget bill. April 2013.

Coalition Memos in Support of bills introduced in the 2013 Legislative Session. April 2013.

Early Care and Learning in the New York State 2013-14 Final Budget, a comparison of final budget items with WBNY's Legislative Agenda. April 2013.

Child Care in the NYS Budget SFY 2009-2014, an overview of appropriations by the Empire Justice Center. April 2013.

WBNY March 12, 2013 Budget Update

WBNY 2013 Legislative Agenda. Winning Beginning NY believes that New York State cannot continue to choose between access and quality. Instead, we must increase access to high-quality early care and learning programs.

The Pre-K Crunch, How New York City Parents Struggle to Find Pre-Kindergarten Slots, a new report from Public Advocate Bill de Blasio showing demand for Pre-K seats far ourstrips supply across the city. March 2013.

Ready for Kindergarten, Ready for College Campaign, a partnership of Winning Beginning NY, the Public Policy and Early Education Fund, the Alliance for Quality Education, and Citizen Action of New York, recommend that New York State create a Ready for Kindergarten Innovation Fund to assure that children enter Kindergarten prepared to succeed. October 2012.

Quality: What it Is and Why it Matters in Early Childhood Education. This Schuyler Center policy brief explains why quality matters, demonstrates what quality looks like, and details how it should be measured. Finally, it posits this recommendation: New York State should invest in increased access to high-quality early care and education programs. September 2012.