Early Childhood Resources

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KECCS Plan

• The KECCS Plan Graphic provides an easy-to-view map of the Plan’s established early childhood goals, objectives, strategies, and outcomes.
  
  
• The Executive Summary offers background information about the Kansas Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Plan.
  
  
• The Implementation Tracking Tool is a new and improved database that provides a central place for early childhood stakeholders from across the State to view and document those activities that support the five goal areas of the KECCS Plan.
  
  
• KECCS Plan in Your Community is a Powerpoint presentation that can be used to inform local communities of the KECCS Plan.
  
  
• The State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems website offers links to all ECCS grantees.
  
  
• The Maternal and Child Health Bureau is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and provides funding for the KECCS Plan and all other ECCS projects.
  
  
• Project Thrive, housed in the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University, gives technical assistance to ECCS grantees.

• The Early Learning Coordinating Council Issue Statement on the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act

• The University of Kansas, Institute for Educational Research and Public Service created an economic indicators database that is designed to assist local and state entities as they pursue grant funding. The database, created in Excel format, contains a collection of economic indicators broken down by county in the state of Kansas. Please read the accompanying instructions, in Word document, before using the database.

School Readiness Framework

• The Kansas School Readiness Report provided initial information to inform the development of the Kansas Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Plan.
  
  
• The National Governors’ Association Task Force on School Readiness offers recommendations and policy options for what governors can do to promote ready states, ready schools, ready communities, ready families, and ready children.
  
  
• The State Early Childhood Policy Technical Assistance Network (SECPTAN) website offers a number of school readiness reports, briefs, and presentations that can be used to inform state decision makers as they design early childhood policies.
  
  

Strategic Planning / Community Organizing

• The Community Tool Box (CTB) supplies over 6,000 pages of practical information to support your work in promoting community health and development. This web site is created and maintained by the Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.
  
  
• The Logic Model Builder is a step-by-step tool for planning program evaluation activities for child abuse and neglect prevention, family support, and parenting programs. It is a component of the Evaluation Toolkit, developed by the FRIENDS National Resource Center.
  
  
• The Levels of Collaboration Scale is a tool that can be used to measure collaboration across agencies or partners in your community. The tool, which was developed by the School Program Evaluation and Research group at the University of Kansas, looks at measuring progress over the five stages of collaboration: networking, cooperation, coordination, coalition, and collaboration.
  
  
• The KECCS Converging Systems diagram has been used to identify initiatives that support a comprehensive early childhood system. A template of the “fishbone” is available for local communities to use in local early childhood system planning.
  
  
• The Kansas Coalition for School Readiness is a partnership of early learning advocates and practitioners, business leaders, parents, law enforcement, and other interested Kansans who have come together to support investment in early childhood education so that children are better prepared for success in school and beyond.

Early Childhood / Early Intervention

• Zero to Three offers a comprehensive interactive resource for parents and early childhood education professionals on healthy development of children.
  
  
• The Frameworks Institute promotes early childhood advocacy strategies.
  
  
• The Kansas Association for the Education of Young Children (KAEYC) is committed to improving early childhood education for young children from birth to eight years. KAEYC works for young children, their families, and early childhood professionals.
  
  
• The Kansas Early Learning document provides a general overview of the skills, knowledge, and abilities young children have and can learn with the help of caring and knowledgeable adults that lead them toward success in a Kindergarten setting.
  • Brochure, Kansas Early Learning Guidelines
    
    
• The Kansas Division for Early Childhood (KDEC) is a professional organization designed for professionals and families associated with infants and young children with special needs. Formed in 1982, KDEC is a state subdivision of the International Division of Early Childhood (DEC).
  
  
• Best Practices in Early Childhood Mental Health Programs are outlined in a study by the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
  
  
• The ChildTrauma Academy is a not-for-profit organization based in Houston, comprised of a unique collaborative of individuals and organizations working to improve the lives of high-risk children through direct service, research and education.
  
  
• The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University is working to secure a better future for children in the United States and globally by narrowing what we know and what we are doing in early childhood. The Center’s strategy is to advance scientific knowledge to allow more enlightened investment in children. Under the leadership of Jack Shonkoff, MD, the core goals of the Center are:
  
  
  • To build an integrated science of child health, learning, and behavior that includes a variety of academic and professional disciplines.
    
    
  • Allow more knowledge transfer from academia to help strengthen the information being used to make decisions on public policy for children.
    
    
  • Include people with a variety of academic experiences and professions to create a new generation of leaders who will promote healthy child development as being both a social and economic investment.
    
    
“A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy ” is the Center’s latest report.


• The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (NSCDC) is a multi-disciplinary collaboration comprising leading scholars in neuroscience, early childhood development, pediatrics, and economics. Created to seize the opportunity that arose from response to the landmark report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development, the Council works to build strong, informed, bipartisan leadership in both the public and private sectors to close the gap between what we know and what we do to promote successful learning, adaptive behavior, and sound physical and mental health for all young children.
  
  
• The Social-Emotional Screening Tool (SEST) is a great tool to use to know when to refer young children to a local mental health provider, Infant-Toddler Services (Tiny K - birth to 3 years) or local school district (3 to 5 years) for mental health services. Kansas now requires all children entering foster care to be screened using the Social-Emotional Screening Tool (SEST). The SEST is recommended for all at-risk children ages birth to five for screening referral, and is available in English and Spanish versions.

Strengthening Families

• Strengthening Families Through Early Care and Education by the Center for the Study of Social Policy provides a wealth of resources on strategies for preventing child abuse and neglect through building protective factors.
  
  
• Strengthening Families Leadership Summit, May 2007, San Diego, CA
  
  
  • Kansas Strengthening Families Plan, Counts
  • Handouts
    
    
• Kansas Strengthening Families Strategic Planning Meeting, June 2007, Lawrence, KS
  
  
  • Strengthening Families Strategic Planing Meeting Presentation

High Quality Child-centered Care

• During the spring of 2008, the Institute for Educational Research and Public Service at the University of Kansas conducted a survey of agencies and individuals that provide professional development activities to early care and education professionals in the State of Kansas. The survey was part of the Child Care and Development Fund and the Kansas Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Plan. The survey is not comprehensive in terms of respondents and question content but represents a snapshot of current professional development activities across the State. The Kansas Professional Development Survey Report is now available with a complete description of results and responses.

 

• Kansas Quality Rating System, Hecker
  • Handouts

Kansas is a ready state
with an infrastructure to support communities, families, and schools.
Children are prepared to succeed in school.