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For child care providers in Georgia receiving CAPS funding, its crunch time!  In order to continue to receive CAPS payments for your children and families served, you must be Quality Rated by December 31, 2020.  Right now, around 54-percent of the programs receiving CAPS have been Quality Rated, and about 67-percent of children receiving CAPS are enrolled with a Quality Rated Provider, but that still leaves a lot of providers to be rated.  Here to talk about the CAPS/Quality Rated 2020 Deadline are Elisabetta Kasfir, Deputy Commissioner over the CAPS Program, and Dr. Bentley Ponder, Deputy Commissioner of Quality Innovations and Partnerships, which includes Quality Rated. 

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A special holiday episode featuring DECAL employees sharing their favorite traditions and wishes for 2020. Nutrition Health Educator Diana Meyers has suggestions on how to eat healthy through those holiday parties and dinners!

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When’s the last time you went to your local library?  If it’s been awhile, you’re missing out on some great resources and, even better, in today’s digital world, you don’t even have to leave your home to visit a library.  Joining us is Wendy Cornelisen, Assistant State Librarian with the Georgia Public Library Service.  

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In September, Commissioner Jacobs presented the Second Annual Baby Golden Radish Award to the Baldwin County School District for creating an innovative and successful Farm to Early Care & Education Program that advances the learning and development of its Pre-K and Head Start students.  Joining us to talk about Nutrition in the Baldwin County Schools and the Farm to ECE effort is Susan Nelson, Director of School Nutrition for Baldwin County School District; Lori Smith, Director of the Early Learning Center; and Diana Myers, DECAL’s Nutrition Health Educator.

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In June 2017, a new Georgia center with a mission to improve reading skills among young children officially opened at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville.  This was a $5.1 million initiative of former Governor Nathan Deal and named after his wife, Sandra Deal, who is a former schoolteacher and advocate for quality early learning.  We’re joined today by Dr. Theresa Magpuri-Lavell, Executive Director of the Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy.  

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A chat with Coy Bowles, lead guitarist for the Grammy Award winning Zac Brown Band, author of children’s books, and a member of the Board of Directors for the Georgia Foundation for Early Care and Learning. Coy joins us on the podcast after speaking to more than 700 DECAL employees at an All Staff Meeting held at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park.  

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From Criminal Background Checks to Open Records Requests, the DECAL Legal Unit stays busy supporting our departments as well as working with other state and federal agencies, and the general public.  Leading that team of 27 staff members is Chief Legal Officer Ira Sudman.  We are also joined by Greg Brown, Legal Services Officer with DECAL. 

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It's almost time for Open Enrollment for State of Georgia employees, including all of us here at DECAL.  This year Open Enrollment is October 21 through November 8.  Our guest this week is Sabrina Henry, Human Resources Operations Supervisor.  

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In 1996, the Georgia General Assembly created the Office of School Readiness to administer Georgia’s Pre-K Program, license child care centers participating in the Pre-K Program, administer federal nutrition programs and provide early intervention services. Eight years later, in 2004, Governor Sonny Perdue and the Georgia General Assembly created Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning to further streamline the state’s services to Georgia’s children from birth to age five and their families. The department was formed by merging the Office of School Readiness with units from the Department of Human Resources, the Department of Education, and the Georgia Child Care Council. We’re using this episode of DECAL Download to wish ourselves a Happy 15th anniversary and take a look back.

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With an annual budget of over $847 million, DECAL’s Finance and Administration Divisions play an important role in the success of our agency.  Supervising these important areas, as well as the Nutrition Division, is Rian Ringsrud, Deputy Commissioner for Finance and Administration.  Today we chat with Rian and then check in on our new 2019-2020 Georgia's Pre-K Program Teachers of the Year Heather Williams of the Central Georgia Technical College Child Development Center in Warner Robins/Houston County, and Johnathon Hines of Barack H. Obama Elementary School in DeKalb County. 

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