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january 2011
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Tough Legislative Session Now Under Way
 No question about it. The 2011 legislative session is only a couple of weeks old, and it will undoubtedly be a tough one for legislators, early learning advocates AND children and families. There is a lot to fight for, but the reality is that many hard decisions will need to be made.
The early learning community has a shared list of priorities for the session. In partnership with other early learning organizations, Thrive will focus on three areas when talking with and presenting to legislators:
- Maintain the Department of Early Learning and current investments in early learning
- Protect existing funding for and put into law the Home Visiting Services Account - a fund created last session that matches public and private dollars
- Support statewide phase in of WaKIDS, the kindergarten readiness assessment being tested this school year
If you're interested in helping to protect all of the great strides our state has made in helping young children and families, please contact Molly Boyajian at Thrive - mollyb@thrivebyfivewa.org; 206.621.5567. She will get you connected with the right people and organizations.
What we're sharing with legislators
A lot of reports are being released and work sessions are happening right now in Olympia to share the progress made during the last year to advance early learning in our state. It is especially important this year because it is also a key opportunity to educate the many newly elected legislators on the importance of early learning investments. Here are three important reports you should know about:
- Early Learning Plan and DEL/OSPI/Thrive's 1-Year Action Plan: www.del.wa.gov/plan (See more info below)
- Seeds to Success: Washington now has our first baseline ratings for Seeds to Success, the voluntary quality rating and improvement system our state is developing for licensed child care. The University of Washington, in partnership with the Department of Early Learning and Thrive, released the preliminary ratings in a progress report about field test's second year. Rated during the summer and fall, the 93 family home and child care sites participating in the two-year field test of Seeds to Success earned an average 1.04 on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 as the top score. According to the report, there are many good things happening in licensed child care, but there is more work to do in providing children with high-quality learning environments.
- WaKIDS: The Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS), a kindergarten transition process that allows families, kindergarten teachers and early learning professionals to gather and share information about incoming kindergarteners, is being tested this school year but a preliminary data report submitted by the University of Washington is providing some food for thought. The preliminary results suggest that more than a third of those children participating in WaKIDS enter kindergarten below expected skill levels. In the area of language, communication and literacy, nearly half of the children enter with skills below the expected grade level. While only preliminary, this important data will help teachers, families, early learning professionals and policymakers understand how to move forward and help kids succeed in school. The Department of Early Learning and Office of Superintendent are leading this work.
HAPPENING AT THRIVE
New Year, New Board Members, New Energy
Thrive has three new board members! At its January meeting, Thrive by Five Washington's Board of Directors welcomed state Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, chair of the Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee; Anson Fatland, senior program officer at The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation; and Laura Peterson, vice-president of State and Local Government Operations for The Boeing Company.
The Thrive board currently has 23 members, including four legislators representing both parties and both houses of the Legislature, and three ex-officio members: the governor, state superintendent of public instruction and director of the state Department of Early Learning. Members serve three-year terms.
McAuliffe, Fatland and Peterson join an active and committed board of state, community, business and philanthropic leaders, many of whom helped create Thrive almost five years ago. The board is currently co-chaired by Gov. Christine Gregoire and Jackie Bezos of the Bezos Family Foundation.
EARLY LEARNING COALITIONS
 Quarterly Statewide Gathering for Early Learning Coalitions to be Held Feb. 7
About 70 people from the 10 Early Learning Coalitions Thrive supports will come together on Feb. 7 in SeaTac for their quarterly statewide meeting. These meetings are always a great opportunity for the coalitions to learn more about what's happening at the state level, think about how they might connect their local efforts to the state's work and connect with their colleagues doing similar work across the state. We also like hearing about and learning from their work, too! At this upcoming meeting, coalition members will discuss a number of topics including regional governance; early learning advocacy; "Love. Talk. Play." - a new statewide parent awareness and outreach campaign; and developing and strengthening network ties within each coalition and between the coalitions.
ONE YEAR ACTION PLAN FOR THRIVE, DEL & OSPI
Early Learning Joint Resolution Partnership to focus on 11 key strategies in 2011
It was a difficult process to prioritize all of the important strategies of the Early Learning Plan and all of our critical ongoing work, but we finally did it. The Department of Early Learning (DEL), Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Thrive by Five Washington - the members of the Early Learning Joint Resolution Partnership - have picked 11 strategies from the new Early Learning Plan that we will help implement over the year.
Want to know what those 11 strategies are and which organization will take the lead? Read the Early Learning Joint Resolution Partnership 2011 Priority Strategies for the Statewide Early Learning Plan.
DEL, OSPI and Thrive will report on our progress in December 2011.
BIRTH TO THRIVE ONLINE
Have you heard the latest?
Are you up to date with what's happening in the early learning world? Here are some of the hot topics from the past month:
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