Weekly Digest: June 18, 2009

DSS Child Care and Development Block Grant Plan Now Available for Comment

The Child Care and Development Block Grant application by the Department of Social Services is now available for public comment. The document can be found on the Department of Social Services website at http://www.ct.gov/dss/site/default.asp

The public is encouraged to comment on the plan and must do so by June 24, 2009.

Oregon Uses Stimulus Dollars to Promote Professional Development

On May 11, public and private partners in Oregon launched a new statewide initiative, the Education and Quality Investment Partnership (EQUIP), to improve the quality of the state's early childhood workforce. EQUIP uses $2.9 million in federal Child Care and Development Block Grant stimulus funds and $200,000 from the Oregon Community Foundation to create incentives for early care and education professionals to attain higher levels of education and training. The program provides education awards that are tied to the Oregon Registry, a voluntary, statewide program that documents the professional achievements of the early care and education workforce.

Members of the partnership come from the public and private sectors and include the Oregon Community Foundation, the Children's Institute, the Oregon Commission for Child Care, the Oregon Child Care Division, the Oregon Child Care Resource and Referral Network, and the Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education at Portland State University. EQUIP is the result of the partnership's strategic early planning and collaboration that enabled Oregon's child care administrators to quickly make use of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Acts funds when they were made available earlier this year. 

Visit the Zero to Three website at http://policy.db.zerotothree.org/policyp/view.aspx?InitiativeID=751&origin=results&QS= to read the full state policy update and learn more about Oregon's stimulus strategy.