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As the foundation of a child’s educational journey, early childhood education is pivotal, yet the professionals who dedicate their lives to this field often face unique challenges that require our attention.  Recently DECAL’s Workforce Supports and Learning Division formed a Workforce Task Force aimed at understanding the needs, struggles, and aspirations of early childhood educators across the state.  Joining us this week to talk about their findings is Dr. Christi Moore, DECAL Director of Workforce Supports and Learning, 

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Today we’re unpacking a critical issue that touches nearly every family in Georgia: the State of Child Care.  Recently our Child Care Services Division completed a comprehensive study on the current state of child care across the state, especially after a worldwide pandemic...and there were some surprises. Joining us this week to talk about the State of Child Care in Georgia is Pam Stevens, Deputy Commissioner of Child Care Services, and Shayna Funke, Director of Research Partnerships and Business Supports in our Quality Innovations and Partnerships Division. 

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Voices for Georgia’s Children and DECAL are proud to announce that the 14th annual Georgia Pre-K Week is set to take place from October 7th to 11th, 2024. This event celebrates the 32nd year of Georgia’s Pre-K Program and highlights the importance of early childhood education across the state. Joining us to talk about Georgia Pre-K Week 2024 is Susan Adams, Deputy Commissioner for Georgia’s Pre-K Program and Instructional Supports, Judy Fitzgerald is Executive Director at Voices for Georgia’s Children, and we’re honored to have State Representative Jan Jones, who serves as Speaker Pro Tem for the Georgia House of Representatives. 

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When you think about DECAL, you think about CAPS, Child Care Services, Georgia’s Pre-K Program, Nutrition…but we also hope you think about our support services like SEEDS which stands for Social Emotional Early Development Strategies.  This is a program designed to increase social and emotional development among our youngest learners and decrease challenging behaviors in early childhood settings.  Joining us to talk more about SEEDS is Fachelle Garner and Emily Graham are Inclusion and Behavioral Support Specialists. 

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This week we’re highlighting early childhood workforce development opportunities in the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health space. Joining us is DECAL’s Laura Lucas, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Director, Dr. Bentley Ponder, Deputy Commissioner of Quality Innovations and Partnerships, and our guests from Georgia State University’s Georgia Association for Infant Mental Health (also known as “Georgia AIM”), Raynell Washington, Dr. Jordan Murphy from the Center for Interrelational Science and Pediatrics, and Audrey Idaikkadar, from Resilient Georgia. 

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Since Fall 2019, DECAL has had a group of volunteers working in their communities to share information with families about the resources available in our state. Our DECAL Family Peer Ambassadors are fathers, mothers, grandparents, foster parents, and other kinship caregivers of young children. They serve as leaders in their community, providing families of young children with information about child development and strategies they can use to support their children’s school readiness along with different resources available to families of young children. This month (September 2024) the program is celebrating it’s Fifth Birthday! Joining us today are Jenny Semendy, DECAL’s Child and Family Development Training Specialist, and one of our Family Peer Ambassadors: Ebony Tolbert from Atlanta. 

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The third week in September is Care Seat Safety Awareness Week which focuses on the proper use of car safety seats for children. The national campaign urges parents and caregivers to protect their children making sure they secure them in the correct car seat for their age, height, and weight. Joining us to talk about Car Seat Safety is Traci Reese, Program Manager with the Child Occupant Safety Project at the Georgia Department of Public Health and Jennifer Waters, our CCS Technical Assistance Unit Manager.  

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Licensed Family Child Care Learning Homes and Child Care Learning Centers in Georgia who are two or three-star Quality Rated are eligible for grants aimed at fostering early language and literacy skills of infants and toddlers. The LITTLE grants, standing for Lifting Infants and Toddlers Through Language-Rich Enviroments, equips providers with increased knowledge and skills in building responsive relationships, and developing and maintaining a social, emotional, and intellectual climate that supports child-initiated and child-pursued learning. Joining us to talk about LITTLE grants, as well as other services available through our Infant Toddler Specialists, is Thea Stevens, Infant Toddler Program Manager; Latasha Bailey, an Infant Toddler Specialist for the Central East Region, and Cindy Lancaster with Lemon Tree Academy-Monroe who is a previous LITTLE grantee. 

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New data from the CDC here in Atlanta show that vaccinations among kindergarteners has declined to its lowest level in decades and an estimated 750,000 young learners entered kindergarten during the COVID-19 pandemic who were not up to date on their school vaccinations. Joining us this week to talk about immunizations is Kathleen Holmes, Public Health Analyst with the CDC, and Bridget Ratajczak, DECAL Child and Family Development Supervisor, and the CDC’s Act Early Ambassador to Georgia.

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The second class of a two-generation academy created by Commissioner Jacobs has now graduated. The Georgia 2Gen Academy is presented each year by the Georgia Children’s Cabinet and facilitated by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia. Twenty-six representatives from state agencies, including DECAL and advocacy groups for children and youth, participated. Joining us to talk about Georgia’s 2Gen Academy are DECAL participants Nutrition & Physical Activity Supervisor Diana Myers, Head Start Collaboration Office Director Allison Setterlind, and CAPS Family Support Director Amanda Vanmeter. Also Joy Hawkins, Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement and co-chair with Commissioner Jacobs on the Georgia Children’s Cabinet. 

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