6.4 Early Learning and Developmental Guidelines

Lead Agencies must develop, maintain, or implement early learning and developmental guidelines appropriate for children from birth to kindergarten entry. Early learning and developmental guidelines should describe what children should know and be able to do at different ages and cover the essential domains of early childhood development, which at a minimum includes cognition, including language arts and mathematics; social, emotional, and physical development; and approaches toward learning. 6.4.1 Early learning and developmental guidelines a. Check the boxes below to certify the Lead Agency’s early learning and developmental guidelines are: i. [x] Research-based. ii. [x] Developmentally appropriate. iii. [x] Culturally and linguistically appropriate. iv. [x] Aligned with kindergarten entry. v. [x] Appropriate for all children from birth to kindergarten entry. vi. [x] Implemented in consultation with the educational agency and the State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care or similar coordinating body. vii. If any components above are not checked, describe: b. Check the boxes below to certify that the required domains are included in the Lead Agency’s early learning and developmental guidelines. i. [x] Cognition, including language arts and mathematics. ii. [x] Social development. iii. [x] Emotional development. iv. [x] Physical development. v. [x] Approaches toward learning. vi. [x] Other optional domains. Describe any optional domains: The above components are all included in New Jersey’s Birth-3 Early Learning Guidelines and the NJ Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards. Additional domains in the NJ Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards include: ￿ Visual and Performing Arts ￿ Health, Safety and Physical Education ￿ Science ￿ Social studies, Family and Life Skills ￿ World Languages, and; ￿ Technology vii. If any components above are not checked, describe: c. When were the Lead Agency’s early learning and developmental guidelines most recently updated and for what reason? The NJ Council for Young Children began the process of developing Birth to Three Early Learning Standards in 2010. A review of the draft version was conducted May 2012 through August 2012. The review involved the feedback and contribution from many individuals and groups throughout the state. In 2007, the Department of Education embarked on revising and aligning the preschool standards directly with the New Jersey’s K-12 Core Curriculum content standards. In 2009, after extensive review by education experts, stakeholders, and the public, the State Board of Education adopted the Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards, with additional revisions. In 2013, the standards were modified to directly align with the Common Core Standards, and Approaches to Learning was added. The standards are currently being reviewed and revised. d. Provide the Web link to the Lead Agency's early learning and developmental guidelines. Birth to 3 Early Learning Guidelines: https://www.nj.gov/education/earlychildhood/b3/docs/NJB3Standards.pdf NJ Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards: https://www.nj.gov/education/earlychildhood/preschool/docs/PreschoolTeachingandLea rningStandards.pdf NJ Quality Standards for Afterschool: https://www.njsacc.org/standards/ 6.4.2 Use of early learning and developmental guidelines a. Describe how the Lead Agency uses its early learning and developmental guidelines. The guidelines developed for both NJ Birth to 3 Early Learning Standards and the NJ Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards are based on an educational philosophy for achieving desired educational outcomes through the presentation of an organized scope of sequence of activities with a description and/or inclusion of appropriate instructional materials. The early learning and preschool standards are not curriculum, but are the learning targets for a curriculum. All early learning/preschool programs must implement a comprehensive, evidence-based curriculum in order to meet the standards. The chosen curriculum must align to the NJ State Standards/Early Learning Guidelines. They are the foundation of learning standards for the programs. b. Check the boxes below to certify that CCDF funds are not used to develop or implement an assessment for children that: i. [x] Will be the primary or sole basis to determine a child care provider ineligible to participate in the CCDF. ii. [x] Will be used as the primary or sole basis to provide a reward or sanction for an individual provider. iii. [x] Will be used as the primary or sole method for assessing program effectiveness. iv. [x] Will be used to deny children eligibility to participate in CCDF. v. If any components above are not checked, describe: 7 Quality Improvement Activities The quality of child care directly affects children’s safety and healthy development while in care settings, and high-quality child care can be foundational across the lifespan. Lead Agencies may use CCDF for quality improvement activities for all children in care, not just those receiving child care subsidies. OCC will collect the most detailed Lead Agency information about quality improvement activities in annual reports instead of this Plan. Lead Agencies must report on CCDF child care quality improvement investments in three ways: 1. In this Plan, Lead Agencies will describe the types of activities supported by quality investments over the 3-year period. 2. An annual expenditure report (the ACF-696). Lead Agencies will provide data on how much CCDF funding is spent on quality activities. This report will be used to determine compliance with the required quality and infant and toddler spending requirements. 3. An annual Quality Progress Report (the ACF-218). Lead Agencies will provide a description of activities funded by quality expenditures, the measures used to evaluate its progress in improving the quality of child care programs and services within the State/Territory, and progress or barriers encountered on those measures. In this section of the Plan, Lead Agencies will describe their quality activities needs assessment and identify the types of quality improvement activities where CCDF investments are being made using quality set-aside funds.