Parent Support and Education – This strategy will provide parent support and education services based upon a child’s developmental milestones.

Children are best understood through their developmental progress rather than their age.  Providing information to support parents in the growth and development of their children will assist them in meeting their individual needs.  Adult education and family literacy opportunities benefit both the parent and child by encouraging learning at home. Strategies to meet this objective may include positive discipline, ways to cognitively stimulate infants and children, stages of child development, and infant care.  Strategies will be developed by Collaborative partnerships and reviewed on an annual basis.

The expected outcomes for the Parent Support and Education Objective are to increase parent education, support, and family literacy opportunities.

Early Childhood Intervention - The Special Needs Demonstration Project offers screenings, assessments and referrals for service, addressing the early mental health and socio-emotional development of children.  The Project is funded jointly through the state and local commissions, and under this plan, will be enhanced and renamed the Early Childhood Intervention Program. 

As a requirement of the State Match, the Early Childhood Intervention Program is required to use Ages & Stages Developmental and Social-Emotional Screening Tools, the Parental Stress Index, and other screening tools to assist parents and early childhood service providers in understanding a child’s overall health and development.  The results of these screenings are shared with the family through a child study team model, bringing parents, caregivers and early childhood specialists together to develop a plan to meet the child’s individual needs.  That plan may include referrals for further educational assessments.  The parent education and support of this component will assist parents in better understanding their child through developmental milestones.

The expected outcomes of the Early Childhood Intervention Program are to provide comprehensive developmental screenings, early identification of children with special needs, and parent education and support for families with young children.

Quality Early Care and Education– This strategy will enhance the quality of early care and education programs by providing training and technical assistance opportunities for all care environments.

Quality early care and education services are offered in educationally rich environments.  Previous investments in quality early care and education environments assisted providers in attaining national accreditation.  This proved successful in increasing the percentage of licensed, accredited spaces in child care centers by 14 percent, bringing the total to 24 percent countywide.  Through this priority, a continuum of quality care environments will be established spanning from environmental rating scales to nationally accredited programs.  Funding will be utilized for professional development activities, curriculum, environmental supports, and mentoring.  The program will be modeled after the California Early Childhood Mentor Project.

The expected outcomes of the Quality Early Care and Education Objective are to increase the number of early care and education providers utilizing environmental rating scales and achieving national accreditation.

Early Education – Funding allocated through this objective will provide school readiness services in communities with a focus on engaging parents with children between the ages of 0-4 years in their child’s early learning.

The National Educational Goals Panel reports that early educational experiences increase a child’s academic health and social outcomes. The evidence based practice for early education programs used in planning will be the Head Start and Early Head Start Guidelines.  Both programs require services be delivered to families through child development staff in the homes of parents, through group socialization and in existing early education settings.  In addition to the educational components of the program, children receive developmental, health and behavioral assessments.  Families receiving services are included in program governance, and are offered education and support services.  Providing quality, intensive educational activities and experiences for young children will foster social, emotional, and intellectual growth.  Program strategies will be developed by collaborative partnerships and reviewed on an annual basis.

The expected outcomes for the Early Education Objective are to increase school readiness by providing early education experiences for all children including those with disabilities and other special needs.

School Readiness - The current state funded School Readiness Program provides Kinder-camps for children in eligible schools, countywide transition protocols for early care and education providers and kindergarten teachers, and trainings to increase communication, resources, and networking of early educators. 

School Readiness Programs first received four years of match funding from the First 5 California Commission (CCFC) in 2002.  Applications for the second round of funding are currently in progress for FY 2006-10.  The application prioritizes elementary schools for services by low Academic Performance Index (API) scores or by the predictive data elements identified in the Harvard Report.  In the 2002-2006 School Readiness Program, four elementary schools were prioritized:  Bijou Community, Camino, Georgetown and Pioneer Schools.  Reapplication for state funding requires school readiness strategies to be maintained at these schools and expand to newly identified, low API Schools.  According to 2004 API scores, Bijou Community School is the only low performing school.  As a result, services will continue in the four schools identified in the 2002-2006 Application.

According to the CCFC, school readiness incorporates four essential and coordinated elements: child development, family functioning, child health and Community Collaboration.  The 2006-11 Plan will include strategies to expand upon previous school readiness activities: (1) moving from child transition plans to district level transition plans, (2) expanding the number of school based transition activities to schools with low preschool participation rates, and (3) providing early education programs to families with young children not participating in licensed early care and education programs.

The expected outcomes of the School Readiness Program are to increase school readiness for children through early education programs and the use of transition plans and School Readiness activities for school districts, and children.

Health Access – The goal of this objective is to maintain support for outreach, enrollment and retention of children 0-5 years and pregnant women into the health insurance programs provided through the ACCEL Initiative and the Healthy Kids Healthy Futures (HKHF) Regional Health Insurance Initiative.  HKHF includes El Dorado, Sacramento and Colusa counties.

In order to ensure healthy growth and development, and identify potential health and/or developmental concerns early, children should have regular well-child visits and receive immunizations at appropriate stages.  To facilitate access to these important services the ACCEL Initiative and the Healthy Kids Healthy Future Regional Health Insurance Initiative are working to identify families eligible for health insurance programs, enroll these families in the programs, and connect these families and their children to medical homes.  The ACCEL Initiative has adopted a Pathways model that identifies the health needs of children and families and sets them on pathways towards positive health outcomes.   In 2001, an estimated 616 of the 9,133 children (7%) 0-5 in El Dorado County did not have health insurance, 488 of these children (79%) would be eligible for either Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. 

The expected outcomes of the Health Access Objective are to ensure children have medical insurance, a medical home, and utilize services for both preventive and emergency care.

Oral Health Access - The goal of the Oral Health Objective is to increase the number of providers in the Health Access Program to ensure outreach, enrollment and retention of children 0-5 years into dental insurance programs.

Access to early oral health care prevents tooth decay in young children and pain and suffering due to decay which can lead to other health and developmental complications in young children.  The California Smile Survey screened 10,949 kindergarten children statewide during the 2004-2005 school year.  The survey found that more than half of kindergarteners have experienced tooth decay and more than a quarter of them have untreated decay.  The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry encourages parents and other care providers to help every child establish a dental home by 12 months of age.  This program will follow the Pathways model adopted by the ACCEL Initiative for health insurance, medical homes and medical services.

The expected outcome of the Oral Health Access Objective is to increase the number of dental providers accepting Medi-Cal, Healthy Kids and Healthy Families insurance products. 

Home Hospital Visitation – The goal of this objective is to support and expand Home Hospital Visitation services providing nurturing and positive emotional support to all newborns and their mothers in the County.

Families with newborn children face emotional and socio-economic challenges as they adjust and adapt to their newborn child (ren).  Many families face additional challenges that complicate this adjustment period including challenging medial needs of the child or parent, siblings or family economics.  Home-Hospital Visitations will provide new parents with community resources and link to existing commission programs, priorities, and initiatives.  The visits will provide an opportunity to assess whether a family has health and dental insurance, are connected to a medical and dental home and promote child development through parent education and early education services.  Program strategies will be developed by collaborative partnerships and reviewed on an annual basis.

The expected outcome for the Home/Hospital Visitation Objective is to ensure all children born in the county receive support to address postpartum, neonatal care, and family support.

The commission will take the lead in promoting systems change in the 2006-2011 Strategic Plan through planning and evaluation.  The Strategic Plan provides a framework for decision making in both early childhood programs and service delivery.  Evaluation of the programs and systems funded by the commission will provide valuable information to be considered in annual program planning and funding.   Community leadership is essential in ongoing program development and will be promoted through Community Service Directories, Mini-Grants, and Community Strengthening.

Community Services Directory – The focus of this objective is to maintain support for the publication and distribution of the El Dorado Community Services Directory both in hard copy and electronic format through the Internet so that service providers and clients have an easily accessible, up-to-date guide to utilize in referring clients to essential services in our county.

The El Dorado County Community Services Directory is a resource for service providers working with children and families.  The Directory is managed and monitored by commission staff allowing for opportunities to expand and update information. Copies are available in both English and Spanish.

This strategy seeks to define target populations for usage, estimate the number of directories needed, and develop a corresponding distribution plan.

Mini Grants – Mini Grant funding will be allocated for the purposes of improving the health of children, family functioning, and children’s readiness for school.

Mini Grants provide an opportunity for community, public and private agencies, and groups and individuals to collaborate with the commission to support their mission. Through mini grant funding, the commission identifies areas of community need, new partners, and innovative program applications related to the Strategic Plan. 

The objective of Mini-Grant funding is used to support one time, short-term funding opportunities that encourage innovative approaches to support the three result areas of the Strategic Plan.