8.4 Public-Private Partnerships

Lead Agencies must demonstrate how they encourage partnerships among other public agencies, Tribal organizations, private entities, faith-based organizations, businesses, or organizations that promote business involvement, and/or community-based organizations to leverage existing service delivery (i.e., cooperative agreement among providers to pool resources to pay for shared fixed costs and operation) to leverage existing child care and early education service delivery systems and to increase the supply and quality of child care services for children younger than age 13. 8.4.1 Lead Agency public-private partnerships Identify and describe any public-private partnerships encouraged by the Lead Agency to leverage public and private resources to further the goals of CCDF: Partnerships at the state, community, and local levels are a critical part to delivering services in Georgia’s early childhood education system. These partnerships are used to raise quality and expand access to high-quality early care and education programs. These partnerships are evident in the way the Lead Agency has expanded its voluntary quality rating and improvement system, Quality Rated. Throughout its development and expansion, Quality Rated has relied on support and funding from private and philanthropic sources. Upon achieving a star rating, child care providers receive cash bonuses for teachers and administrative staff funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and administered by a private partner - Care Solutions Inc. Quality Rated also has an advisory committee made up of representatives from private child care providers, faith-based child care providers, family child care learning homes, Head Start providers, technical college and university operated child care providers, and the Georgia Child Care Association. The goal of this committee is for partners to share frontline experience and expertise to inform improvements to Quality Rated policies and standards. The work of the committee was put on hold temporarily but will be reinstituted during the ongoing Quality Rated revision period. In 2023, the Lead Agency began developing a Quality Rated Nutrition and Physical Activity Endorsement. The endorsement will provide training and resources to child care providers to increase their capacity to appropriately support children’s healthy growth and development. The endorsement will be piloted in 2024; the funding is being provided by DECAL￿s Foundation through a private philanthropic partner ￿ The Whitehead Foundation. The Lead Agency also administers Georgia’s Pre-K Program, which operates through public-private partnerships at the community level. Georgia’s Pre-K Program is offered to all four-year-old children regardless of family income through funding from the Georgia Lottery for Education. A variety of providers offer Georgia’s Pre-K Program, among them private nonprofit and for-profit child care learning centers, public elementary schools, Head Start sites, military bases, and postsecondary technical institutions. The Lead Agency also promotes partnership and collaboration on child care issues at the community level by funding the statewide network of CCR&Rs. Partnerships are expanded through the work of the CCR&Rs with business and education leaders in their communities who provide technical assistance to child care providers of all types to increase the quality of care offered in the community. The Lead Agency also offers Community Impact Grants: 2Gen Innovation Grants, Trauma-Responsive Care Grants, and Community Transformation Grants. The 2Gen Innovation Grants encourage communities to create alignment opportunities between workforce and child care. The Trauma- Responsive Care Grants encourage communities to pilot or expand programs that increase understanding of how early childhood trauma can impact future learning and development of children. These grants also help communities build effective networks focused on identifying and understanding the needs of children in communities who may have had adverse childhood experiences. The Community Transformation Grants encourage communities to support projects that increase access to early childhood services and resources. These grants support creating early education partnerships among community agencies and other stakeholders that will design and implement innovative projects that address critical local needs. The Lead Agency will continue to increase the number of Community Impact Grants over the next three years and add a new type of grant, 2Gen Literacy Grants, that will promote literacy development within the context of family supporting the growth and learning of parents and children concurrently. The Lead Agency’s Community Partnership Coordinators work in each of DECAL’s six administrative regions to coordinate the delivery of state and local services to communities that want to improve the outcomes of young children and their families. Strategies for supporting communities include engaging with local stakeholders to align early childhood systems for children ages birth to eight, fostering public awareness of early education services, and serving as a resource for and referral to all DECAL programs and services. The Lead Agency partners with a variety of community organizations such as Georgia Family Connection Partnership, United Way organizations, and other child- and family-serving nonprofits to support community capacity in improving outcomes for young children. Deliverables of these partnerships have included increased business community awareness of the importance of early care and learning and better developed community networks for sharing information and resources across the early childhood system. The Lead Agency also partners with organizations focused on raising quality and increasing access to school-age care. This includes working with the Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network (GSAN) to provide training and technical assistance to school age providers and to build awareness on the importance and need of high-quality school age care.