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39 | P a g e FFY 2025–2027 CCDF State Plan

appropriate Lead Agency (or designated entity) staff on identifying and serving children and families experiencing homelessness. i. Describe the Lead Agency’s training and TA efforts for providers in identifying and serving children and their families experiencing homelessness. DECAL CAPS created a new functional area, CAPS Provider Relations that includes four teams, one of which is the Education and Outreach team which is responsible for developing and delivering training to child care providers. This team has built on the work undertaken in previous years and to refine training and resource materials, collaborates with experts in serving children and their families that experience homelessness. The Education and Outreach team has completed the ECKLC Head Start Training Modules ￿Supporting Children and Families Experiencing Homelessness￿ and has collaborated with Head Start and the Department of Education to create a training session for child care providers on the topic of identifying and supporting children and families experiencing homelessness. ii. Describe the Lead Agency’s training and TA efforts for Lead Agency (or designated entity) staff in identifying and serving children and their families experiencing homelessness. The Lead Agency’s CAPS program contains a stand-alone Quality Assurance and Training (QA&T) unit. This team conducts training for newly hired Lead Agency staff on CAPS policy and how the policy is implemented. Also, children experiencing homelessness are a priority group for the CAPS program, so training includes information on identifying and serving children and their families experiencing homelessness. All new CAPS staff are also required to complete the Head Start Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLCK) Training Modules ￿Supporting Children and Families Experiencing Homelessness￿ during their onboarding training to help them identify and serve children and families experiencing homelessness based on guidance from the McKinney-Vento Assistance Act. The QA&T unit also conducts weekly updates for new and existing staff, to provide added support and address all policy changes, policy clarifications and best practices, including children and families experiencing homelessness. Additionally, staff responsible for determining eligibility for initial determination and redetermination use interview scripts with guiding questions to help them identify children and their families experiencing homelessness. Interview scripts include questions staff are required to ask families to determine if they meet the McKinney-Vento definition of homelessness. Further, an internal Homelessness Committee meets regularly to coordinate efforts among the divisions in the Lead Agency to connect with and serve Georgia's homeless populations. 2.5 Promoting Continuity of Care Lead Agencies must consider children’s development and promote continuity of care when authorizing child care services and must establish a minimum 12-month period for each child, both at the initial eligibility determination and redetermination. 2.5.1 Children’s development Describe how the Lead Agency’s eligibility, enrollment, reporting, and redetermination policies promote continuity of care in order to support children’s development. The Lead Agency