 New America will like to welcome you to our virtual event. The program will begin momentarily. While we are waiting, I want to review a few housekeeping notes. This event is being recorded and the recording will be posted to the New America events page within 48 hours after the event. Attendees will be in listen-only mode and you will not be able to be seen or heard by your fellow attendees or panelists. Therefore, we encourage you to share your comments and questions in the Slido box located to the right of the video. Close captioning is available by hovering over the video and clicking CC at the bottom of the video. If you encounter any issues during the event, please contact events at newamerica.org. Thank you for joining us. We will begin momentarily. Hello and welcome to today's webinar. My name is Aaron Lohenberg and I'm a senior policy analyst with New America's Early and Elementary Education Policy Team. Our Early and Elementary Education Policy Team here at New America works to help ensure that all children have access to a system of high quality early learning opportunities that prepare them to thrive in school and in life. Today we'll hear about how three states are building an equitable and aligned early learning system for children birth through age five. New America is happy to partner with the National Institute for Early Education Research to highlight this exciting work. I'll now turn it over to Lori Connors-Cadros, a senior fellow at the Institute. Thank you so much, Aaron. It's really been a fantastic partnership and thank you to the events team. Very, very helpful. We're really excited to welcome you today to hear from Washington, Minnesota and Rhode Island, as Aaron mentioned. They are on a journey to build an equitable and aligned early learning system birth to five to have full access to quality early care and education. And as each of you know, this is challenging work. It's time consuming work and it really takes a village. So we'll hear more from them and their partners about their successes and their challenges. We'll spend a little bit of time in a facilitated discussion hearing about some of the bumps in the road and some of the ways that they've addressed political realities, funding realities, access realities, equity realities, and where they are right now. And they'll conclude with a little bit about where they're going forward. And we're very fortunate to have some resources for you all that are available from the federal government, which we will share around the early childhood early childhood state systems collective impact project and a peer learning community that we will be launching actually shortly. So we'll talk about that. We do encourage you to please put comments and resources or questions in the chat or I'm excuse me in the slide and we'll we'll access that. Next slide, please. So the goals of the webinar are you are, you know, fundamentally for you to actually get excited about some of the opportunities and progress that are being made in the states that we're featuring here. We know there are many other states that are working on these issues and we would also love to learn more about that. I think by hearing their processes and approaches that may help you problem solve or move forward in your own state work or local work actually we know that this isn't all about there's a lot of enabling conditions and we've certainly all been through a pandemic and still really dealing with that. But there is an opportunity now to really look forward for how we can build stronger, more equitable and aligned systems. And as I mentioned, we will share some resources with you so that following the webinar, you might have an opportunity to continue to get support and and do this work so we can go to the next slide, please. I'm really excited. The next section will be an opportunity for you to hear from each of these states and just a couple of their key partners actually and so I'm going to turn it now. Oh, well, excuse me. Go to the next slide. I'm going to introduce and just tell you about the state presenters because we're really pleased and I think to them that we have a fantastic representation from these three states. Karen Gantz, who is the birth to three and pre K E cap, which is their early childhood program administrator in the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families, which coordinates with their Department of Ed and others. Nicole Rose, who's the Assistant Secretary of the Early Learning Department of Children, Youth and Families, will be talking with you in a few minutes about the Washington State work. In Minnesota, we're joined by Jennifer Moses, who is the task force, the great start for all Minnesota's children. Task Force co-chair and she's pro program director of the Minnesota Children's Cabinet out of the governor's office. Shakira Bradshaw is the parent of a child under five and she is another co-chair of the task force and Sandy Samar also is a co-chair. Anna Quinn coordinates all this work and that you'll hear more about this as a legislative mandate that recently are going to be releasing a report and from Rhode Island, the great state of Rhode Island, we are going to hear from Kayla Rosen, who's the director of early childhood strategy at the Rhode Island's office of the governor. Lisa Nugent, who is the director of state pre K at the Department of Education and Nicole cello, who is the director of licensing in the Department of Human Services. So lots of great perspectives on that we'll hear today from these three states. Please go to the next slide. And now I'm going to turn it over to Nicole Rose, who will be speaking on behalf of the Washington team. Great. Thanks, Laurie. And I'd like to just give Karen a moment to say hello as well. If we could let her say welcome to everyone. Hi, everyone. It's so great to be here with you. And with that, I'll turn it back to you, Nicole. Thanks. So we're excited to talk about what we're doing in early learning in Washington state. And as I was reflecting on this. It really actually took me all the way back to race to the top. And so I say that I'm to say that we've had a long history in Washington to really get us to where we're going. The early start act in 2015 was really our state investment and commitment to making sure we carried forward the great work of the race to the top early learning challenge grant. And if we go to the next slide, what you'll see is that in 2020, 2021, we had a huge landmark investment known as the Fair Start for Kids Act, which was a $1.1 billion investment in high quality affordable childcare and early learning in Washington state. And one of the things that I really love about this act is that it is focusing on, I think, a variety of things to really make the system go as a whole. So we know that really at the center of what we're doing are children and families. But we also know that providers really need to have access to the tools and training that they need to be able to meet the needs of kids and families that are coming into their program. And so we really focused on with this act, looking at affordability, accessibility, quality, and then again supporting our providers. And one of the things that we're really committed to is family choice. And so we want to make sure that families actually have a choice of early learning options that meet their needs. Where they want them. And we want to make sure that that program best meet the needs of that child and family who's coming through that door, whether it's state funded preschool, whether it's a high quality childcare, whether it's home visiting. So really making sure that that continuum of options is available. I think that we all know the pandemic highlighted sort of the broken market and the real need of providers to have some additional supports to meet the needs of kids who are coming into their care. And so there are some great investments as it relates to trauma informed care. Equity grants meeting the needs of complex needs of children who are coming through the door that the Fair Start for Kids Act does as well. And then again, all of this is really in support Of making sure that kids have what they need for healthy development. So when we talk about affordability and accessibility. Some of that sometimes means Increasing our income eligibility limits. And so in Washington state that meant making a change from federal poverty level to state median income In programs like childcare where we have a copay. It also meant really capping that copay. Part of what it also means for us is how do we continue to align eligibility requirements for our kids and families so that we make our Systems a bit more easier to navigate. So we've not only looked at eligibility requirements, but we've also been able to put more slots out there. So we've added over 500 plus more pre case slots and we're serving more families through home visiting. So we're excited about the work that we have done. And we go to the next slide. I'm part of what this will show you is a little bit of what I was talking about around. We want to make sure that families and children are getting What they need where they need it. So we have a strong mixed delivery system in Washington state and families can receive services in a licensed family home. And a childcare center in outdoor preschool. And yes, even as it's raining here in Olympia today and in Washington state, we have kids who are an outdoor preschool in their rain gear. And then we do have quite a few of our kids who are served in schools, either by Department of Children using family run programs or by our partners at the office of superintendent of public instruction. So a variety of settings and a variety of program elements that we're trying to implement as well. And that is anywhere from licensed childcare To making sure that we have a strong quality foundation through early achievers, which is our quality recognition and improvement system in Washington state. Families may be accessing childcare subsidy. They may be accessing early childhood education and assistance program or e-cap our state funded pre-K. And we do have a birth to three e-cap as well. They may actually be receiving both of those things subsidy and e-cap. Then we have a strong partnership with Head Start and a lot of our e-cap contractors actually do both Head Start and e-cap. And then again we see the work of our partners at the office of superintendent of public instruction as they are implementing developmental preschool And then transitional kindergarten, which is really a program that is serving those that are four years old in the school system when we know that access is an issue. Putting all of these things together really is how we're trying to maximize serving the most children possible. And we go to the next slide. One of the things that we have been tasked with doing as we think about this is making sure that we are working really collaboratively with our partners at the office of superintendent of public instruction. And so We have something that's called a proviso that is asking us to work together and is really asking us to think about what are some of the administrative efficiencies Or long term strategies that are really integrating these programs. Often families might not know what program they're in, but they know that they need access to something and we want to make sure that that's as coordinated as possible for them. So we've been working very closely with our partners to make that happen and have a joint report that is coming out soon that will talk about what are some of the things that are really needed to make this Work and on the next slide. I can tell you a little bit more around. What are some of the key things that we've really focused and on And so I talked about access. And as we think about access. I think all that we knew about supply and demand changed a little bit After COVID. And so part of what we really have to do is understand what's out there and also understand what is it that families want and need And as we think about that program capacity and making sure that enrollment is barrier free for families and that braiding and layering funds is as administratively burden free for providers. We've got to make sure that we know how those things work together. And so really thinking about how braiding and layering works and then thinking about what are potential barriers and opportunities around enrollment for families. And I think one of the things I would notice we can talk about that at the state level, but it's also really important to us. That we have regional and local conversations about that as that's where families and children are really receiving those services. I talked a little bit about quality and we want to make sure that we're children and families are going That they are accessing a high quality program and so making sure that families know what to look for as they're thinking about quality. Also thinking about what does quality mean for our professionals. What are the things they need to be able to know, see and do In order to promote quality and then what are the Trainings coaching ongoing mentoring that are available for providers as well. And what are things that are available to them at their fingertips, maybe not something that they have to leave their classroom for all day. But what is that quick tip that they can go to to access resources. I talked about a variety of settings and a variety of program types and so you might be thinking, well, how does the family know what program they're eligible for and how do you coordinate that recruitment and enrollment. And that is something that we are actively working on in our states and that's a real place where we see some things that are happening locally that are really great where you may have A school district who is using one screening tool to say, is this child and family eligible for this variety of programs, but what's the best one that's going to meet their needs. So they may use an e cap screening tool to see if they're eligible for e cap developmental preschool or transitional kindergarten. The other thing that we're exploring is how are we thinking about how we're communicating about program options for families, really thinking about this and sort of a larger sort of what is our public awareness campaign, not that we're there yet but really thinking about what are all the different options that are available for families. And how do we make sure that they make informed choices and how do we also make sure that there's enough program availability for them so that they have true family choice in where they are accessing services. And then data I don't think we can talk about serving kids and family sometimes without talking about data and I think we also know that our data systems can be disparate so we have information about childcare sometimes in one system state funded pre K and another transitional kindergarten and another system but how can we take a look at those bring those together. So what is it that we really need to be able to share with families and to know about families as we think about program enrollment and think about some next steps there so lots of work happening and I would say lots of work to still be done but excited about our partnership with OSPI and all of our other local partners like childcare where our educational service districts and all of our e cap contractors and head start grantees. Thank you. Thank you for the Zoom mistake. I said something brilliant and you all didn't hear it. But thank you so much, Nicole really appreciate hearing a high level overview of the journey that Washington State has been on. And I was reflecting that possibly it was almost 20 years ago that we first met when you were working on raised to the top. We've certainly, you know, done a lot a lot of work to build to build a great system and we'll hear more about it in a minute. So now it's my pleasure we can go to the next slide to introduce the Minnesota lead Jennifer Moses and she will introduce her team. I forgot to mention that Minnesota Rhode Island and Washington they participated in a peer learning community that we hosted last year, and that's how we got to know a lot about their great work and their great team. So, Jenny will talk a bit about the children's task force, but there's a lot of other work going on in Minnesota. Jenny. Thanks Lori. I'm Jenny Moses again with a program director with the Minnesota Children's Cabinet. We coordinate work across the 22 state agencies on behalf of children and families and I just want to share for those of you who are thinking about endeavoring into this work. We couldn't do it without a team and as Lori mentioned the team goes well beyond this, but for today's great start for all Minnesota Children's Task Force work. I'm just honored to be joined by my co chairs Sandy Seimer who is an early educator with Head Start and Shakira Bradshaw parent of children under five who are in early care and education programs so living this at the moment. And then as Lori mentioned one of our key ingredients to making this all happen has been Hannah Quinn our coordinator to keep us on track and really making sure the timelines are followed and speaking to the legislation so you'll hear from each of us a little bit with the exception of Hannah who can jump in if we lose our way as she usually does but first I'll turn it over to Shakira to get us started. Thank you Jenny. We are so glad to be here with you today I'm Shakira Bradshaw as Jenny said one of the three cultures for the great start for all Minnesota Children's Task Force. I'm a parent of two kids in the EC system so our task force work is of great importance to me. I'm starting to embed about the background of the task force, which was proposed by early care and education advocates and legislators inside in the law in 2021 by the Waltz Vanagon Administration. The legislation establishing the task force had bipartisan support. We were asked to develop a plan and implementation timeline that ensures all families have access to affordable high quality, early care and education that enriches and nurses and supports children and their families. This work is to develop a long term vision for the state, the implementation timeline must begin in July of 2025 and finish so later than July of 2021. Our task force has 15 voting members and 15 non voting members, and we represent many aspects of early care and education systems in Minnesota. Voting members include legislators and their directors, licensed family care providers, school center and head start based educators and a member of a federally recognized tribe. The non voting members include representatives of Cassie and business organizations as well as state agency employees, three of us with you today serve as the cultures. Legislation directed the task force to meet monthly between November 2021 and the submission of the federal report by February 1, 2023. I also wanted to know this evening that we have evening virtual meetings that allow for participation from across the state, including providers who cannot participate during regular business hours. Our provider deadline is coming up and we have submitted a draft report by our December 15 deadline, and I'll turn it over to Sandy now who will serve more about our process. And thank you Shakira, and to address the aspects of the ECS system required by establishing legislation. Task force members reviewed existing reports, materials and recommendations. They convened two working groups to meet monthly in addition to the full task force who researched and provided additional analysis and draft recommendations for the full group. And those working groups included the family and provider affordability working group and the workforce compensation and supports working group. We also drafted revised and voted to approve recommendations for inclusion in the final report. As we started our work together. We also found common ground and a few essential commitments. First of all, to identifying historically disenfranchised groups have not experienced equity in the ECS system. The group agreed to center equity throughout their process of developing recommendations. Formal acknowledgement of a commitment to the mixed delivery system, recognizing that all types of providers and settings provide value to families and children, and family preference must be honored and respected by design. Acknowledgement that care and education cannot be separated. Every single experience a child has is a learning opportunity, making care and education inextricably intro point. And these commitments helped our group focus and move forward and finalizing our recommendations for the state. And I'll turn things over to Jenny to share more about these recommendations. Thank you so much and I'll just highlight again a couple of the pieces that have already been shared but one of the things that has allowed for considerable engagement and involvement of such a large diverse group of stakeholders. What was that we part of the legislation allowed for us to utilize virtual meetings, which in our state state open meeting law was not previously allowed so folks had to be in place and in person. So just as you're thinking about how you might implement this in your future thinking about those things because it has been incredibly helpful to have those 37 voices be a part of the conversation but as you know, and I'll keep us moving so we don't miss out on this we can go to the next slide. But as we've mentioned, our final report is not yet published it's due on February 1. We did submit the draft to Shakira mentioned in December, but I wanted to highlight a few of the major recommendations shown here. So there's a lot more we haven't included here so we'll make sure you all get blank and can dig in deeper but we want to give you the big picture. But for us the first big one is to create a family benefit system that provides affordable access to early care and education for all families with no family paying more than 7% of their income for services. To effectively expand affordability of early care and education programs through a new great start Minnesota program. This program would blend existing federal and state funding streams, along with additional funding needed to fully support the program. Under the proposed program, all families are eligible with the maximum payment lining up with 7% of income, the income affordability standard. Our second bucket of recommendations is to provide early child care program early child programs with adequate funding to deliver effective services for children and families. We ask that the state equitably fund providers for the services they offer Minnesota should pay programs based on the true costs of services, rather than market rates which are used for our current benefits programs. Current rates are limited by the price families are able to pay and rather than a rate rather than a rate that would cover the full cost of care and allow for fair workforce compensation. We're also asking that the early care and education workforce get paid at least a living wage. We are proposing a framework that increases early care and education wages aligned with experience and education and provides benefits including paid time off and health insurance to appropriately reflect the value that early care and education workforce provides to children, families, communities and our state. Finally, we want to invest in increasing access to effective programs to enable the early care and education workforce to make the task force vision of effectiveness, including high quality a reality for all children and families. Minnesota needs consistent and equitable standards and growth oriented accountability systems, a healthy business environment and clear consistently applied regulations and a cohesive high functioning infrastructure and ecosystem to support early care and education. Thank you. I think we'll send it back to Lori. And I will unmute myself this time. Thank you so much to the Minnesota team. A lot of really fantastic work that kind of is culminating over this report. We'll hear more about it in a few minutes when we get into a discussion. So I'm excited to introduce Kayla Rosen from the Rhode Island team and we'll take the next slide as well. Thanks so much Lori and I'm so happy to be here with my colleagues Lisa Nugent at the Department of Education and Nicole cello from the Department of Human Services. As folks know Rhode Island is a small state we're small but mighty. So there's about eight of us who do absolutely everything you'll see us in different combinations but we really work well together across agencies and across systems and that's really what we're going to talk about today. So, you know, we have a long history of collaborating across systems to achieve our shared goals and early learning. Currently our state strategic plan is anchored by five core goals. The first is to increase access to high quality affordable early education for children zero to five, ensure equitable access to timely talk targeted services, implement universal pre K improve system governance and financial sustainability and alignment and use data to inform initiatives and investments. We have a lot of projects underway like our fellow states on the call today and I'm sure everyone listening, including we're exploring the creation of an office of early learning, we're implementing innovative career pathways for early educators were piloting compensation strategies and more. Today we wanted to really highlight our work to expand Rhode Island pre K as an example of the type of inter agency work that is allowing us to leverage multiple systems in funding streams to achieve our shared goals for young children and families. So, Rhode Island pre K, we're very proud is one of the six programs in the country to meet all 10 of nears quality criteria. And since 2009, our program has expanded to about 2300 seats. Again, Rhode Island is small our birth cohorts are about 11,000 kids per birth cohort so 2300 is a pretty good proportion of our kiddos ages for and expanding pre K has been a goal of ours for over a decade and it's been consistent across the many different iterations of plans we've had from the pre kindergarten Education Act in 2008 shepherded by advocates and by the General Assembly to our third grade reading goal, our current early childhood care and education strategic plan and the governor's Rhode Island 2030 plan. And really excitingly in the last budget that passed in June, we were charged between the Children's cabinet which I facilitate the Department of Education and the Department of Human Services to put together a comprehensive growth plan with budget projections to reach 5000 Rhode Island pre K seats by 2028. This is big, because I would be doubling the program, but also represents that kind of forward thinking commitment that allows us to really be thoughtful about how we expand the program. And what was great to see in the legislation was that it required that that plan include how we would support the mixed delivery system as a whole, how we would recruit and retain qualified educators, and how we'd actually support the infant toddler too often when we talk about pre K we just talk about pre K, but we don't think about the impact on the rest of the system this actually demanded that we do which is exactly how we want to be thinking about it and was great to see that charge from legislative leadership as well. So, building on kind of all of our existing shared governance structures the work we've been doing with PDG. We developed a comprehensive plan, similar to our colleagues. It was about 65 pages not quite the 92 that you just mentioned, and we delivered it on December 30, just a couple weeks ago, which we're really excited about. Next slide please. So, just want to give a high level set of what the recommendations were in that plan. Just to, again, exemplify the type of interagency investments that we want to see that's required when we think about the holistic system. So the first was that we are actually poised to expand pre K with our existing framework we've been committed to the mixed delivery system from the set in Rhode Island pre K. And we want to make sure that we're continuing to maximize family choice by letting families matriculate where they might already be by choosing programs, potentially across district lines because right now you have to be within your school district and exploring those types of options. And we want to continue to optimize all of the public investments across early learning. As some of you may know from other webinars we've been able to braid funds with head start with CCAP and with our Rhode Island pre K dollars to be able to again maximize choice for families and support programs sustainably. The second recommendation was to make targeted investments across the mixed delivery system to allow classrooms to become ready for expansion. We know that many of the classrooms we already have are the early adopters who are ready to become Rhode Island pre K. To emphasize the program we need to support the next cohort of programs to be ready. And that allows us to invest in quality support across the system. So that we were actually kind of raising all boats when it comes to quality. The third recommendation was about developing piloting and implementing additional program models to meet the expansion goals. Right now we don't have Rhode Island pre K for three year olds. What does it look like to incorporate three year olds in the program in a really thoughtful way. We also spent a lot of time talking about early childhood special education, which is an area that I don't think always gets the attention it deserves. But we know our kids who are evaluated to have IEPs at age three, don't always have access to high quality programming, don't always have the same, you know, that the timing of when they switch from EI to early childhood special education impacts where they can go. We want to make sure that our students with special needs have equitable access to run pre K. And we want to make sure that that includes other their district boundaries, whether it's in the mixed delivery system, how we can make that happen. We also want to think about real time pre K and family child care. We currently don't have FCCs as part of the Rhode Island pre K mixed delivery system. We wanted to think about what that looks like going forward. And we want to make sure that we're supporting multilingual learners. I'm sure like many states, a big proportion of our young children are multilingual learners, yet they're not assessed for MLL status until they get to kindergarten. We want to think about how we help kids earlier. Fourth bullet is that we want to invest in ongoing program sustainability and operations to maintain quality. We have not raised the base grant amount for Rhode Island pre K in a decade, but we know that costs continue to go up. So how can we make sure that we're increasing the amount with inflation so it remains a sustainable program. Fifth, we want to make aligned investments across the mixed delivery system. So our report actually included a recommendation, a similar to what Illinois is doing of having an infant toddler set aside. So we're making aligned investments and infant toddler at the same time as pre K, as well as investments in early childhood special education. So go to the next slide. So some of our next steps. We just submitted that report. So we're hoping to see some investments in this next year's budget. But in the meantime, we were granted a $4 million one year PDG B five planning grant ACF, which we're incredibly grateful for. That's going to allow us to take some of the next steps we had recommended in the report, including enhanced family engagement and support. How can we recruit families in Rhode Island pre case they know about the opportunity, as well as review and design the pre K lottery to be more accessible for families. How can we develop those new models that I talked about. And how can we invest in infant toddler capacity, including a wage supplement program for early educators and infant toddler to try to support recruitment in that sector, as well as doing some aligned infant toddler strategic planning to kind of be a corollary plan to Rhode Island pre K, so that we were really looking at both parts of the system. So this is an example of the type of inter unity work. That's really possible and you bring the different systems together and just building on our shared history of strategic planning and Rhode Island. I'll pass it back to you, Lori. Thank you Kayla. Thank you so much. I do want to encourage you to now that you've heard kind of a high level overview from each state. So what their system is what their recent accomplishment is submit questions we will take those in a few minutes, we're about to move into a time of reflection and discussion. I'm going to ask some questions of each of the panelists so that we could kind of get under the hood and in their states if you will to understand more about about what they did and how they how they did it and how they made these accomplishments so thanks to each of the states for the overview. Right now we want to delve a little deeper and so I'm going to begin with Shakira. And Shakira can you tell us about your role on the great start for all Minnesotans task force, what you think the task force has accomplished, you know in your in your own mind, and from the perspective of a parent. I serve as one of the three co-chairs on the task force, we convene our group monthly to events or work. I also served on our family and provider of photobility working group to develop accommodation specifically in that area. Family affordability is an issue that is near and dear to me, as I currently have two children in the EC system. I have also learned a bit about the early care and education workforce through my time on this house for us. And I know how much they deserve higher compensation and more support. My children and our family are so attached to their teachers, we know how important consistency is in their lives and what a difference early childcare educators make. The task force is about to wrap up work together and we've accomplished so much. There are lots of open discussions you're able to come up with lots of recommendations to move our state forward. We didn't always agree on everything, but each of recommendations have received a majority of votes from our voting members. So I think that consistency was an important part of the process. We put together a robust report that contains big recommendations for our state to invest in ECE, which we know is investing in our future. And we heard from Jenny a bit more specifically about recommendations and we're looking forward to see how the state legislature will carry our work forward. Thanks. Thank you Shakira appreciate that. And Washington. Can you tell us more about the fair start act. How did it change the policy landscape for ECE and talk a little bit about the entitlement to serve all preschoolers by 2026 27. Thanks Lori. So there are so many policy changes that have resulted from the fair start for kids act legislation in childcare as Nicole said it capped co pays expanded eligibility and increased support for family friends and neighbor providers as well. And there is corresponding policy for that now in place. It provided health care for childcare providers and expanded funding opportunities and grant opportunities that has related in changed policy as well around supporting children with complex needs in classroom settings to reduce or eliminate children where it is occurring translation and better support for children who have dual who are dual language learners supports for the field around trauma informed supports and care. There have been equity grants and then increased funding for therapeutic intervention services for children birth to five. And specifically for pre K programming or cap. It changed the when we moved from F federal poverty level to state median income. It had increased the number of families who would be income eligible for our state funded pre K. So previously it had been 110% FPL it moved it to 36% state median income. Children are eligible on an IP that didn't change but we expanded by adding in children who were currently experiencing homelessness, or who had participated in part C services in our state. We also had a very specific piece for tribal children all tribal children in Washington are eligible for cap services at or below 100% of the state median income. And it increased policy changes around the children who are allowable to be enrolled into cap services up to 50% SMI. And that was a really big expansion of the family who would be eligible and could receive services. You and the staff were very, very busy then with all that policy change and then the related implementation, we could probably talk a lot more about that as well but we will save that as a question. Well, cello. From your perspective in Rhode Island. What do you think is the greatest opportunity for expanding red islands, you know, mixed delivery pre K program. And what's the greatest challenge. That's actually a really great question. It's really challenging to think of just one opportunity as there's really a number of great things when thinking about the high quality mixed delivery pre K. And specifically the ability for children for any type of children from all different types of childcare programs, particularly family childcare to be a part of a high quality pre K system and and really trying to identify and work. What it looks like is really exciting from an operational standpoint, the continued opportunity to work collaboratively with my wonderful colleague at the Rhode Island Department of Education Lisa Nugent towards that really one shared incredibly beneficial in such a short period of time here in Rhode Island. And it's really exciting to think about what else we can do with this collaboration to really benefit Rhode Island's children. To start to think about the opportunities, the greatest challenge a little bit aligns with the greatest opportunity, and that's the working across multiple agencies. It's really, it's really challenging can be very challenging to do work collaboratively with two very distinct very large agencies and all of the systems of checks and balances that kind of come with moving anything forward in one agency to provide multiple. So I would definitely say well it's a super exciting opportunity is also very challenging for us here at Rhode Island. Just curious, do you think it's getting easier now that you've kind of like paved the way with a few of the joint thing so there is, you know some kind of hope for the future. Yes, I would say, I would say that we've definitely like crossed on the hard threshold the hill is it might be still a little bit uphill but it's a lot like less steep we've definitely paved the way and it's exciting. Okay, great thank you, it is always challenging right it takes longer to collaborate even then does to work on your own but that's great glad to hear it. Sandy at Minnesota, it was so delightful to talk to you on the prep call. So what was it like for you co chairing the task for with so much writing on the recommendations. You know it's pretty impressive that the legislature established this and put some resources behind it, and some support to you all so what kept you up at night and what makes you the most happiest. Well, thank you Lori and that is really a good question. I'm, I was really honored and surprised to be selected to be on the task force to begin with and then to be asked to be co chair was a complete shock and such an honor. And so it made me so happy to be able to be a part of something that's really going to make a difference for children and families in Minnesota on one hand. On the other hand, I was terrified that somehow I was going to mess it up. It was so important. And this is that what what my life's work has been about is really supporting especially disenfranchised children and families. But the other co chairs Shakira and Jenny have been so wonderful to work with. And Hannah has just kept us on track and really laid out a process which has worked very well. And I just have to say that the opportunity to link arms with all the advocates and other people who are doing this work in Minnesota, and together for us to come to agreement and to move forward with something is such a thrill. And still, I mean we have one meeting left and I'm still like, Oh, don't mess it up Sandy because it is it's really important, but I also want to encourage other states that it is important to have practitioners part of the process, because then you also have an opportunity to be able to provide input and makes it really beneficial across the state. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. And it's must have been delightful really to have two other folks to work with really so that you each could share share your nightmares and your successes as well so good for you. Thank you. And Nicole, as the assistant secretary for early learning in Washington DC YF. Tell us more about the proviso fund it's not actually a word I was, I was familiar with, and a little bit more about the goals and maybe even the process of the joint report with with your Office of Public Instruction. Thanks Laurie. It's a, it's a great question and as folks were talking about and working across agencies I realized that one thing I didn't share is that in Washington State. The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is a completely separate agency and the superintendent of public instruction is actually an elected official. We have an elected official overseeing essentially your Department of Ed, and then the Department of Children, Youth and Families is a cabinet level agency and so the budget provides though really with a way to get dollars to both the Department of Children, Youth and Families, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the governor's way of asking us to work together to really think about how we're serving as many three and four year olds as possible with transitional kindergarten really focused on four and ECAP really focused on three and four year olds. And so, as I shared before some of the big things of this really are about administrative efficiencies and so for some folks part of what that means is, how does all of this intersect and play with licensing? Who's required to be licensed? What does that look like when you may be in a school building and you're offering not only state funded preschool but you may be offering transitional kindergarten and you may be offering childcare. Let's wrap around wrapping around both of those things. So what does that mean for that individual who is operating that? What are we thinking about quality together? Knowing that there is a system of quality in the K-12 system and what we've defined as quality and early learning and so sometimes that's really just doing some crosswalking and talking about what that looks like. Another question too about how does all of this work and come together? Again, it's not just Karen and Nicole and the assistant superintendent at OSPI and the director of early learning at OSPI having these conversations. This really has been a process that Karen and team have really led over the last couple of years, several years actually, of bringing folks together to really talk about what this means and there has been some real intentional focus as well on how we think about inclusion and how we're really meeting the needs of our littles who need access to developmental preschool and what that looks like. And one of the things I would also say is that we've really tried to leverage some of the other funding opportunities in our state or federal funding opportunities so we've taken a look at what we're doing with our birth to five preschool development brand around some of our pyramid approach and multi-tiered system of support implementation and really thinking about how we use these opportunities to continue to bring that forward. I mentioned our educational service districts which are districts that support each of our school districts in Washington state. They are huge partners in this as well as child care aware, but I think at the end of the day, the goal is really how are we serving as many children as possible with high quality services. How are we making that easier for families and easier for adult professionals who are providing this as well. Thank you. I have one small follow up for you all actually for anybody but Nicole in particular I occurred to me is I'm assuming that you've had to kind of ramp up your data system so that you are keeping track of, you know, how all this expansion is trending towards meeting your eligibility and other things so can you say anything about like, how do you know if this is working and what kind of data are you collecting and reports that you're giving to the legislature. So that is that was a great question and I think we could probably all spend all day talking about data and data systems and how they work and talk to one another. I think there's a couple of things that I would share one, both state funded pre K, as well as our K 12 systems so including transitional kindergarten are something that are forecasted by our case load forecast Council out of our office of financial management. So they are really watching as these policy changes come into play to see how many more children and families are getting access to these services. So that's one piece that's happening. The second thing that's happening as I talked about coordinated recruitment and enrollment you know there is a statewide steering committee that has come together and one of the things that they have really talked about is how do we get information about all of these programs into one spot so that families know what's actually available and it's not only about what is offered in my community but real time what is actually available in the moment when I need it. We are a long ways from being able to do that, but it is something that comes up in conversation. So I think those are the two big ways that we've looked at that right now but I want to give Karen an opportunity to jump in if there's anything she wants to add. Okay. Thanks. I'm going to turn to the last question for this part anyway. So Lisa Nugent in Rhode Island, and as pre K expands. How are you working at the department or with your colleagues really to build a continuum of early learning into the early learning. So once they're in pre K either three or I mean hopefully threes and then four is now going into, you know, kindergarten through third grade. So we actually have four things that we're working on right now. I think it helps that again, we are small so Kayla and Nicole and I are on calls, multiple times a week, which gave the early learning team here at the Department of People to actually talk to and collaborate with and work with on some of those pieces that we wanted to see expand better in the K 12 world. Coming from childcare myself K 12 was a little foreign to me. I'm not your typical department of that employee. So it was very different. I mean that our early learning landscape and our cure is and our childcare licensing do a really great job at holding our early years accountable and measuring quality. Don't always see the same type of accountability in the K 12 world. It's a little bit different we're a locally controlled state so there's only kind of so much you can do. And so one of my colleagues works on a kindergarten transition plan with our pre case to really help connect parents to the public school. They do things such as offering registration at the child care center, going to where the kids are, there have been videos made that are absolutely adorable with the kindergarteners showing the pre K kids where they're going to hang their coats up and trying to really make that connection for them. We've had kindergarten teachers come in and teach in our pre case. And we've had some of our pre K teachers go in and teach in our kindergarten so they can see how the other half lives. On top of that we also have the first 10 project going on in some of our districts right now, which has been really helpful on trying to map out what that's going to look like after that transition from pre K. I know for those of you who have kids or have been around kids as as childcare, we are constantly communicating with parents, we see them at pick up and drop off and you have that time to make that connection. And then you go to K 12 and maybe they're on the boss or you don't see the teacher every day. And how do we support parents in getting the information they need once their child goes to the public school, which has been very important. On our end. The biggest thing that we're doing right now is we're about to move some legislation forward that our public schools will be mandated to be part of our state to cure is system. And school preschools. Yes, all of our public school preschools. And so what that will be able to help us with is not only bring up the level of quality in those programs, but also for those principles to see what does high quality childcare look like, because that should also be in your kindergarten program, probably the first grade program. They don't quite know what they're looking for and this is really going to bring that into light so that they have it in their buildings they can see what it looks like. And we're very excited about that piece of legislation that's moving forward. And the last pieces in our K 12 world, we are really moving to high quality curriculum adoption. And they're using ed reports to make sure that their curriculum is actually a green curriculum, and that is truly helping the quality level go up and the understanding go up. So, curriculum is really important there's a webinar later today I'm going to join the National Academy of Sciences has a study of pre K curriculum and thinking that through just a little follow up Lisa do you require a certain research based curriculum. Yes, implementation right yeah yeah so in our. Our pre case we have a list of endorsed curriculums that have gone through the rigor through here. And then in our K 12 they're actually using ed reports and they have to have a green gateway curriculum and implement that way. Great thanks so much. I'm sorry I had one other, I'm not sure everybody knows what big 10 is I think you said or the the first 10 project first 10 sorry. So, my colleague works on that she's working with that I believe with EDC and it's really the first 10 years of life. Right, and connecting families. Right, it's a community based project so just so that others in case we see we have a couple questions coming in but I'm going to hold them off for a moment. Thank you all so much that was really helpful I love having this conversation. So I just wanted to give each state a moment to say what's next or to add anything else because some of you said what's what was next in your, in your presentation, but to just have a couple of kind of conclude this part and then in a few minutes we'll go to the questions that are being submitted. So now's the time. And then after that will have Elena share about the resources that can support you in your work and building an aligned system so right now I'll turn it to Kayla I know you had a next step slide but was there anything else you'd like to add in your position or for Rhode Island. Yeah, just just happy to say I know we focused on pre K but really as we think about where we're going it's the whole system and so for us, we're, we're focused right now in particular and what does that corollary plan look like for infant toddler. To make sure that we have its clear set of goals and strategies around our zero to threes to make sure that we're aligning the system as a whole. We also like every state talk every day about compensation. I want to make sure that we are thinking about how we're getting to a place of pay parity and fair pay for our early educators which, you know, that's a very big problem and would have been easier to build back better had passed in lieu of that we're in a really hard situation but there's there are things that we can do and want to make sure that we're continuing to be as innovative as we can. And like I said we're leveraging PDG as an example to do that. I have to say that I've worked a lot with the PDG B five states over the years and I think that that's been a very powerful tool funding and resources from the federal government to move systems building forward it's rare that we get funding for a real system building and we need it so thank you so much Karen did you would you like to say anything more about maybe what what you're looking forward to in the next few years what you what you think you will be working on for your systems building in Washington. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, thanks Laurie. So, obviously, we're going to be continuing our joint work with our partners at OSPI with specific focus around the coordinated recruitment and enrollment, and then really looking at how we can expand that. We also have some really strong partnerships that we've been working on through OSPI funding around working to make sure that we're providing integrated services between ecap and developmental pre K so leveraging that so we both sides of the house there are really interested in expanding that the continued alignment and integration work that's happening with childcare programming and you know work related funding connected to childcare. We have some things that we need to do specifically within ecap around really being clear what we need to do to have recap ecap reach entitlement as we as we get closer to that goal in 2627. And then I think for us we we have some very exciting pathway work that we're doing specifically in ecap for smaller providers, so that we're trying to create easier pathways for family home providers and smaller childcare providers to provide state funded pre K. And then some specific pathway work for developmental pre K and school district providers. And then our longest pathway really is with tribal providers and meeting our government to government obligations that has resulted in significant increased eligibility for tribal children. We're moving towards creating tribal tribal compacts versus contracting with tribes in the future as well which is very exciting and we're looking forward to that. What does a compact mean versus a contract, meaning agreement kind of. Yeah, okay. It just it honors our government to government relationship with tribes and it really has us giving them they have more sovereignty ultimately in and determining the services moving forward, while still making sure that they're meeting the needs that are in law and are in lack. Great. I'm going to start this what this question now is going to be for anybody but I'll ask, you know the Minnesota team to possibly start. The question is, does any state have parent nation or some other similar program incorporated in your work. You know, by the nature that you have a parent co chairing you're obviously seeking to develop the leadership of parents are there other any formalized programs or strategies that any state is doing really to support parent parent leadership. I can get started. I think I'll just share quickly about Minnesota's next steps like clearly it's we want to deliver our report in a few weeks and make sure that gets out there. But we're also working as co chairs to empower our members to continue to advocate for our recommendations. And then as many of you mentioned really taking that coordinated approach to the work both internally to state government and externally. I just wanted to share a quick highlight, because I hope that our task force members. Interestingly enough, as part of our plan we were asked to or recommendations to create a plan for implementation to begin in 2025. And we are just like over the moon that our governor's budget has taken some of these recommendations into account and their work helping us proposing steps that could help us work towards those towards realization of our vision and so some of that of what's included in our administration's budget budget is child and dependent tax credits funding for early learning scholarships program which would expand eligibility for zero to three and prioritize parents or children who are who have parents who are incarcerated increasing our C cap rates, creating more opportunities for mixed delivery pre K. We also have some family navigation tools community resource centers and hubs, and then really thinking about how we, we heard as many of you have mentioned the compensation piece and the importance of the stabilization grants in Minnesota 70% of the stabilization grants must have been used for compensation and the administration's budget budget proposal has what is being called retention payments, which would require 100% of the funding to go to compensation. And then again, we had had a recommendation to explore what governance is needed, and the governor's budget proposes establishing a new agency that would consolidate early childhood at and create a transition that would allow for bringing other family programs in. So I think we want to really center children and families and all that we do. And I would just highlight that another piece of work separate from the Great Start Task Force. That is really this parent leadership pieces are preschool development grants through work with child welfare at the Department of Human Services is standing up a parent leadership program. And you know that will be our work over the next year but so we're really trying words just getting started with that work here formalized work I would say in Minnesota. Thank you and I apologize. I went to the questions before I asked you to say what what you're looking forward to it I appreciate you you adding that. Did anybody else from the other states want to talk at all about either parent nation or parent leadership. There's no in Washington State that we do have a parent advisory group that meets and talks about all things DCYF. And then our Washington State Association of Head Start and ECAP for many years now has put together what they call parent ambassadors, who really are ambassadors for Head Start, ECAP childcare subsidy. They're working through some leadership training, and in fact are up on the hill right now advocating for things as we're in legislative session and so it's really an amazing opportunity and it's always great to see them grow and you see them in different roles throughout the year so those are some of the things that we've done and I know that ECAP does some reaching out to families directly around some of the things that are working for them as well as all of them mobility mentoring work as well would offer to Karen if there's anything else she wants to add. Yeah, I would just add that we have, we're actually in the process of setting up an ECAP specific parent feedback group as well so that we can get specific parent voice to the state office on key issues and areas of growth and then we do work in multiple ways to solicit feedback from parents and families through the contractors who have policy council requirements and other parent leadership requirements as well. Thank you. A question for Rhode Island, but it may be something that others want to address that's really about how you're working to preserve infant toddler seats while expanding pre-K. I think you mentioned that was going to be part of your next steps of work, but you may have some initial ideas and others will I think that whenever we talk about expanding one part of the system that serves one age group we always want to think about, you know, what the impact is on other other children and ensure everybody has access to. So do you want to say anything at all about how you're thinking about that I know that was part of your recommendations. So we have there's kind of work that's already happened and then work that is forthcoming to address this so so far the way that we expand pre-K is through a grant award where classrooms from across the mixed delivery system apply to the Department of Education for Rhode Island pre-K funding. As part of that application, they have to attest that no children are displaced from their current classrooms as a result of opening a pre-K. So it is, it is a fundamental part of the application that has meant that many of the people who opened the program to start had an empty classroom. So they were able to take a classroom they'd never been using before in their building and turn it into a Rhode Island pre-K, meaning that no classroom was shuttered it just created more capacity. As we've continued to expand the empty classrooms available are not as many. So what we were able to do is create new funding models that allowed programs to take existing classrooms of pre-school aged children four year olds and turn them into Rhode Island pre-K with pre-K dollars coming in as kind of a last dollar funding to increase quality to be able to hire that bachelor's degree teacher whatever that piece was. Again, still the requirement that no children were displaced as a result of opening that classroom, which has allowed us to preserve infant toddler. The other piece is that Rhode Island pre-K by coming in as a different funding source, not based on kind of a per child cost but really a classroom based grant. It covers part of the rent of the building it covers part of the utilities it covers that kind of whole organization cost, which allows, you know, the childcare operator to be savvy with their budget and reinvest within other parts of their facility. We want Rhode Island pre-K to be a fun source that is helping to sustain the entire system, it can't solve everything it will not solve everything, but it can help. And so we've been able to keep programs open in a couple cases because we're able to make that grant. As we go forward though, you know, it continues to be a concern and certainly when we talk so much about pre-K, and the dollars are going there, it certainly signals to the system that pre-K is the investment to go after. And we certainly don't want people not to open infant toddler classrooms or choose that their next thing be pre-K and not infant toddler. We need to keep both parts of the system robust. And so some of the things we've done so far is we have early childhood facilities bond that passed and their priority points for those who are opening infant toddler classrooms. And some of those recommendations that I talked about in the report are kind of those forward looking, how do we continue to make sure that infant toddler is a prioritized area. Thank you. I'm going to open that up to any of the other states because it's such an important and critical and sometimes complex issue about how, how to expand both and somebody else earlier said, you know, keep all boats afloat. There is some needs to be some intentionality around how you're supporting the infant toddler seats. I know in Washington you had a burst of three pilot. Am I right about ECAP? So I don't know if you want to say anything about that. But just to take a couple of minutes before we close out the Q&A time and go to resources since that's such an important topic for folks. Yes, we through PDG grant funding. We piloted a burst to three ECAP programming. We have 178 spots. So it's small and is there is high demand for more of that. And, you know, we have worked through, you know, our decision package process to incorporate it into stabilization across child care and a specific focus on our infant toddler system as well. So, and those that funding have now moved out of PDG and is has the state is funding it. So, that's fantastic. We, yeah. So we have the seeds we planted the seeds and we have something that now is established that we are hopeful will grow over time. And I will say that I did a report for PDG B5 Alabama did a similar pilot of their pre-K program with for burst to three got some good data and we're able to go to the legislature and got some sustainable funding. So I think that that's really important to pilot, see what needs to happen and get data on it. Anybody, Jenny or anybody from Minnesota? Sure. So we to go back to some of our original recommendations, it really does go back to some of the cost of care versus right cost. The market rates and thinking about that. And then also some of the work that is planned through this next round of the preschool development grant funding is really some human centered design around mixed delivery. And that's another way that we're also trying to do some work around pay parity for compensating participation of a variety of mixed delivery educators to participate in this with us to really think about what what will it take to make this successful to ensure that infants and toddlers have access to care, as well as the three and four year olds that we plan to do and we're really trying to do this very locally and in some of the proposed legislation which we tried to propose last time but if you tuned into Minnesota not a lot happened in our legislative slash session this past year but we're very hopeful for this year was really to think about local planning. Because many communities as we've, as the other states have talked about also like there are unique needs for children and families and we don't know that what will work in Rosal will work in Rochester will work in Duluth. And so trying to think about that planning more locally so really providing some compensation and and facilitation to have that conversation and planning happen. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that and thank you to all the state presenters. I learned some new things today and I hope those listening did as well. So we're going to move now to some resources for everybody. As I mentioned will we are sponsoring and it's out on many lists serves and in our various newsletters that will be hosting a peer learning community, a building equitable systems for tomorrow's children it's funded by the Alliance for Young Children, prenatally through the early years of schooling is kind of our north star but taking you where you're at and we'll be doing a series of kind of consultations and meetings together, learning from each other as well as individual TA so I encourage you to apply for that. It's due on Monday the 23rd but if you're very if you're interested you can reach out to me and we can, we can chat if you need a little bit more time, very simple application. So now I'm excited to introduce you to Elena Shearer. She is the Federal Project Officer out of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, ASPE and HHS. We're doing a project called the Early Child Assistance Collective Impact Project, and they've developed a set of tools and then a set of recommendations for the federal government. A lot of the work that you all are doing in states needs to be supported and kind of there's a bidirectionality and dependence interdependence on federal regulation being aligned and federal funding be aligned that then flows down to the states and that administrative efficiencies and increased access so I'm going to turn it over to Elena now to share with us a little bit about that project and some of the resources that they've invested in to support your work. Thanks so much Lori. I'm really pleased to be here today to talk about the Early Child Assistance Collective Impact Project. I want to first acknowledge our partners at the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau for their partnership and funding for this work. Next slide please. Just a quick note that I'm here representing myself and not the official position of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Next slide please. I just wanted to start off by saying I'm so impressed by all of the innovative and exemplary work being done in Washington State, Minnesota and Rhode Island. Our hope is that the Early Child Assistance Collective Impact Project is really aligned with the work that you're all doing. And our project really aimed to re-envision a coordinated approach to program implementation that can advance equitable early childhood and family well-being outcomes. As you can see from the figure on the screen, we took a really comprehensive and multi-generational vision of what the early childhood system is. We recognize that families don't live their lives in our program silos and so it was really important for us to think about a comprehensive system that included programs that serve expectant parents, children ages 0 to 8, and their families, all that share a goal of thriving children and families. Next slide please. Again, the states you've heard from today are all really excellent examples of the innovation that states can accomplish within our existing authorities. But through our project activities and over the years, we've really heard that lack of alignment and coordination of requirements at the federal level is a significant barrier to the ability of states to really do robust and sustainable systems building work. So in partnership with MCHB, ASPE funded a team at Mathematica and the Center for the Study of Social Policy to engage in really deep analysis and conversations with the field to identify and facilitate opportunities and develop recommendations for alignment, coordination and equity across federal early childhood programs. We centered our work on five elements of interest for looking at alignment and coordination that we see as key weavers for change, as you can see in the figure on the slide. So these elements include eligibility criteria, needs assessments, outcomes and performance measures while being metrics and equity. Next slide please. I'm going to mention to a series of interviews with states and federal staff that you can find a summary of on our website. The Mathematica and CSSP team did a deep analysis of federal statute regulation and guidance across early childhood programs. Next slide please. So I'm going to walk really quickly through these tools and then show a quick example of how they can be used together to answer key questions of interest. First we developed a catalog, which is a really detailed compilation of information from federal statutes, regulations and program guidance across 36 federal programs across the five key program elements described earlier. The catalog is an Excel spreadsheet and includes separate tabs for each source, so a tab for statute, a tab for regulation and a tab for guidance. We then have a crosswalk that aggregates the detailed information in the catalog to highlight dimensions of those elements both within and across programs. We then have a synthesis document that really pulls out the key findings on whether and how programs align in their requirements across those five elements. There are two supporting documents available as well including a methods memo that provides source documentation for statute regulation and guidance and then a how to use document that describes how individuals can navigate and use the catalog crosswalk and synthesis together. Next slide please. So I'm going to walk really quickly through just one example focused on eligibility that demonstrates how we think folks could use the documents together. So just one approach is that users could first review the catalog to gain a clear understanding of federal program requirements, and then turn to the crosswalk and synthesis to examine whether other programs have similar requirements. So in this example on the slide we I know the font is small we don't expect you to be able to read the font. I just want to walk through here you can see catalog entries reporting program eligibility requirements for three programs snap headstart and TANF. And you can see in the bottom you're looking at the statute tab so you're looking at information on eligibility requirements for three programs. And we include eligibility information at the state level at the program level and at the individual level. Next slide please. So in the crosswalk you can see how that information from the catalog is translated into the crosswalk. So as you just saw in the catalog, all of the eligibility information is reported in one column. The crosswalk then translates those dimensions into multiple columns. So you see the same programs snap headstart and TANF. Different dimensions include things like whether states have discretion to define their means tested requirements, what that means tested threshold is and whether there's any cross program eligibility so whether eligibility and one program confers eligibility in another program. Next slide please. So here you can see just a screenshot of those findings related to cross program eligibility in the synthesis. So you can see how these three documents really tie together to help answer key questions and again this is just one way to use these documents. I would also choose to start with a synthesis to obtain counts of how prevalent requirements are across programs, and then turn to the crosswalk to identify programs with or without certain requirements, and then move to the catalog for more detailed statutory or regulatory language. Next slide please. As I shared earlier one of our goals for the project was to really gather recommendations to improve alignment and coordination across programs and the Mathematica and CSSP team developed 10 recommendations for federal actions to build a coordinated and comprehensive early childhood system. And these recommendations were drawn from all project activities including the catalog and crosswalk and conversations with folks in the field. Next recommendation has a list of sub recommendations or actions, one that focuses on systems level coordination across federal agencies to advance a unified system, and a second section that individual program offices can take to promote systems building to their individual grant recipients. Next slide please. So I'm just going to quickly walk through the high level recommendations and really encourage you to take a look at our website for the more detailed action steps included in each. The next set of recommendations focus on building a foundation for interagency coordination at the federal level and includes things like a supportive infrastructure shared vision and guiding framework and common definitions. Next slide please. The next set of recommendations focus on aligning and coordinating program elements through streamlined eligibility requirements, needs assessments and common outcomes measures. Next slide please. And then a set of recommendations focused on it, involving and empowering people to build and sustain the system through elevating family voice and building a capable and well respected and diverse and well compensated service delivery workforce. And then finally, recommendations for improved federal data and coordinated research through integrated data systems and a research agenda. So I know this was a very quick overview, but overall these recommendations reflect a series of actions that the project activities told us could both individually and collectively create progress towards achieving this comprehensive and coordinated early childhood system that supports equitable family health and well being. The project produced an amazing array of ideas including recommendations that range from those that could be accomplished in the short term and with current flexibilities to those that are really aspirational and might require significant time effort and resources to implement. Well the primary focus of this project was to generate recommendations that address unintended federal barriers to systems coordination, we know that many of these recommendations can and are being implemented in states tribes and localities and we really encourage you to consider what recommendations can help to facilitate and sustain a coordinated and aligned system in your state. So thank you very much. We're really pleased to share this project with you. Thank you Elena. You know I'm, I'm actually really impressed with the materials and the resources. A number of the state folks talked about working on coordinated eligibility and enrollment and that is happening across a number of states. So I imagine the tool and the crosswalk could really really help with that. A lot of times I know I've heard and experienced that, that there is a belief that you're not able to, you know eligibility doesn't align but then if you look deeper there is actually the opportunity to do so. So a question I had a lot of two questions Elena one is if folks do have questions about how you use the crosswalk or the tools or the tabs or anything like that. Is it on the website how who they would contact. Yes and actually in the next slide is our contact information is there as well we're happy to answer questions as is the project team from. Okay, yeah that on in the resources tab is the link to the project website which has a lot of information. What is Elena I'm curious as to the recommendations I know there had been some work at the federal level with an interagency coordination. So where are these going what authority does ask behalf say to move them forward and make them turn them into an action. Thank you so much for that question so we contracted with with two research firms to really tell us what needs to happen so we at the federal level are still in the process of really reviewing these closely and thinking about what actions might be most promising and actionable and we look forward to sharing more about where we're taking our next steps in the coming months but we are looking at these closely and thinking about. You know again what what of these recommendations are most promising and actionable for us to start with. Thanks well I hope I hope you're able to make some progress and if we get to have a webinar in a year we we see that progress but we're about to the conclusion and I want to thank everybody who joined us today, whether it's morning or afternoon for you all. It's been really fascinating and actually humbling, because each of these folks have worked very hard over many years represent tons of folks behind them and supporting them. So thank you so much. And we are really in this together to every time I, I've been at this for a long time and I and I think of every, every child I ever, ever worked with and we want each of them to have a fantastic experience every day every year, as well as the parent so. Thank you, you everybody for your fantastic work in this regard feel free to reach out to myself or Aaron. And you'll be getting links as I said to the materials and we look forward to our continued work together. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the afternoon. Thank you so much to our state presenters. Each of you really added a fantastic perspective and important insights. So thank you. Have a great day.