Bi-Monthly Newsletter - April 2022

Nebraska's Strategic Plan Goal 4: Alignment

This month's focus is on alignment in Nebraska's Preschool Development Renewal Grant Birth to Five Years. For the coming year, issues of the newsletter will not only focus on the particular goals of the Strategic Plan, but also the major themes that the Plan addresses. This month's issue spotlights PDG initiatives that focus particularly on alignment.

The initiatives focused on Goal 4 seek "to create more alignment and integration of vision and planning across state-level organizations; promote the importance of early childhood and the value of quality early care and education to the community, state, and economy; expand the state’s capacity to support coordination and alignment of early childhood programs and services through integrated data systems that track outcomes and support decision making at the state and community levels; and conduct ongoing needs assessment and strategic planning efforts to expand the knowledge gained and to continue to inform the efforts to transform the early childhood system."

Strategic Plan Update

SPEAQ Up! Nebraska meetings (or Strategic Planning for Equitable Access to Quality early care and education) are underway. Facilitators across the state are bringing together families and early childhood professionals to identify strategies that will build the well-being of families and their young children. 

Each SPEAQ Up! Nebraska session is being hosted by a member of the local community, who facilitates a community-specific conversation around the following questions.

• What keeps families in our community from accessing the early childhood services to build their wellbeing?
• What keeps families from finding quality early care and education in our community?
• What opportunities exist for collaboration at local and regional levels to improve our community's access to quality early childhood services?
• What changes are needed in statewide early childhood systems, policies, and programs to support improved access to quality care in our community?

To ensure that your community's voice is represented in the 2023 Nebraska Early Childhood Strategic Plan, become a SPEAQ Up! meeting facilitator. We will provide training for you as host and facilitator, all meeting materials, and a stipend for your efforts.

Contact Sara Vetter to get involved. Visit NEearlychildhoodplan.org to learn more.

For questions about the Strategic Plan, please contact Susan Sarver.

Needs Assessment Update

Through ongoing Needs Assessment work with providers and families, we are able to elevate their voices to system-level organizations by sharing their stories and highlighting their needs. In collaboration with several community and internal partners, the Needs Assessment team started the year by conducting a third COVID provider survey. Our intended goal for this study was to better understand how the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact the well-being of Nebraska’s early care and education providers--physically, emotionally, and financially.

The Needs Assessment team is also pleased to report that we conducted family focus groups with community facilitators working within their own rural and urban communities. The groups were conducted to develop a better understanding of the perspectives and experiences of families with children birth to age five. In addition, facilitators met with some families we have not had an opportunity to partner with. This includes Native American families, immigrant and refugee families, those living near the federal poverty level, and families without homes. The team will also be conducting focus groups with providers later this year.

To learn more, please get in touch with Traci Roberts.

PDG Systems Alignment

Performance Evaluation

The goals of the PDG B-5 Grant Performance Evaluation are to:

1. Assess the degree to which funded projects align with and advance the strategic plan goals.
2. Increase statewide capacity to evaluate early childhood efforts with a system lens. 

To address Goal 1, the Performance Evaluation team gathers monthly data from projects about their progress and alignment with the Strategic Plan. In providing this data for the Grant Project Management team and working closely with other projects like the Needs Assessment and Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS), our data systems related to grant projects are advancing such alignment efforts as: identifying facilitators and barriers across projects to foster discussions around how to achieve shared success; interviewing project and early childhood leaders; and developing an integrated logic model. 

To address Goal 2, the Performance Evaluation team and partners at the Munroe-Meyer Institute are collaborating with state program stakeholders, funders, and evaluation stakeholders to increase understanding and capacity related to systems evaluation. Technical assistance for capacity building is provided to projects to develop evaluation plans and logic models. The Evaluation Network Team (ENT) continues to meet, joined by a newly-formed advisory council. Primary findings and efforts of the ENT and the advisory group are focused on developing equitable evaluation recommendations and practices.

An Equity Action Agenda is being refined in Year 2 and aims to include families and diverse stakeholders in the planning of programs and their evaluation. An online resource repository is being developed to support ongoing learning and implementation of equitable evaluations, statewide stakeholders are being trained in methods to elevate family and community voice, and equitable evaluation methods are being piloted in partnership with Little Priest Tribal College in Winnebago, Nebraska.

In the Year 3 of the grant, the performance evaluation team plans to leverage the enhanced capacity to learn about systems to shift Goal 1 from a project-based approach and focus on evaluating system shifts facilitated by the Preschool Development Grant (PDG) work. 

To learn more about Performance Evaluation, please contact Kathleen Gallagher.

ECIDS To Provide Crucial Data to Communities

Considerable progress has been made towards a Nebraska ECIDS in the first years of the PDG. Three priority use cases were identified through a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process, including the ability to calculate a distinct, unduplicated count of children receiving services across programs in the mixed-delivery system. To address these use cases, a detailed project plan was created to guide the development of the technology to securely integrate the data. Initial meetings occurred between leaders at partnering entities to discuss and formalize the governance structure and develop the necessary data sharing agreements. The ECIDS team is also partnering with the Nebraska Head Start State Collaboration Office, the Nebraska Head Start Association, and six local Head Start Grantees on a pilot project to allow Head Start leaders to access and use data for decision making, continuous improvement, and demonstration of program success. These activities set the stage for the successful development and implementation of ECIDS in the coming year. We look forward to continuing to work closely with our partners to ensure ECIDS meets the needs of early childhood stakeholders and supports the goals of the Nebraska Strategic Plan.

To learn more about ECIDS, please contact Ben Baumfalk.

Shared Leadership and Finance Task Force Draft Concept

Nebraska is committed to studying the management of its mixed delivery system to ensure that its governance structure is effective and that the needs of its stakeholders are met. Accordingly, in 2020 the state launched a task force to study the redesign of Nebraska’s early childhood governance structure and relevant financing mechanisms to maximize efficiencies and eliminate barriers to optimal service delivery. The primary goal of the task force is to eliminate categorical barriers to offering full-day, year-round, high-quality affordable early childhood care and education for children 0-5 and their families, regardless of the setting/experiences that parents choose. Private funds have been leveraged to support the Task Force in Years 1 and 2. PDG funding will support proposed work in Year 3.  

In Year 2, two work groups, Shared Leadership and Fiscal Strategies, continued the efforts of the Governance and Financing Task Force. The work groups put forward a recommendation to establish a new collaborative structure to lead the system for early childhood care and education. In this new shared leadership structure, state agencies would retain their legal and fiscal obligations and authority for their respective programs but approach the entire system (not just the programs within their jurisdiction) in a shared manner.

A draft concept for this shared leadership approach was begun and a catalogue of ten funding streams for the early care and education system was compiled. A plan to engage stakeholders and collect feedback on the draft concept was developed and will begin implementation prior to the completion of Year 2 (pending funding). A synthesis document, capturing the work and decision points of the Task Force and both work groups has been drafted and, once vetted, will be submitted. An overview of the governance and financing work was presented to the Early Childhood Interagency Coordinating Council, the advisory group for this PDG effort.  

To learn more about Shared Leadership and Finance Task Force, please contact Amy Bornemeier.

PDG Provider Alignment

Step Up to Quality Provides Updates Page

Reviewing and revising Nebraska’s quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) is a goal identified within our PDG Grant. The timing to revisit our process made sense as we had launched Step Up to Quality in July of 2014. We had a stakeholder group of over 40 individuals who met monthly (in person) for 8 months during the PDG planning year and year one. These individuals represented, child care operators, owners/directors, family child care providers, Head Start representatives, Public School Preschool program specialists, and higher education, early childhood partners that contract with NDE (including the Buffett Institute, Nebraska Children and Families Foundation, Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative).

An Updates page was created on the Step Up to Quality website to share the collective work. Webinars were held  for anyone interested in learning more about the proposed changes.  Nearly 300 folks attended the webinars. Both participating and non-participating folks attended. We followed up with a survey. The results of the survey can be found on the updates page as well. Once we reviewed this additional feedback more detailed planning has been in the works. The proposed changes have also been reviewed and approved by the collective Step Up to Quality steering committee who represent both NDE and NDHHS. Our internal NDE Equity Officer has also reviewed our materials. The information has also been shared with BUILD (the national QRIS organization) to look at the items with equity and anti-bias in mind. Be looking forward to Step Up to Quality 2.0!

To learn more about Step Up to Quality, please contact Lauri Cimino.

PDG Family Alignment

The Nebraska Child Care Referral Network (CCRN) is a website that provides parents the opportunity to find childcare in their area that meets their unique needs. On the front end, a seamless interface allows parents to see locations mapped and descriptions of the licensed childcare providers in their community.

On the back end, however, systems are more complex. The CCRN relies on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, Nebraska Department of Education, and childcare providers to create the interface that parents see when they access the site. Collaborations across systems have been vital to the success and ongoing development of the CCRN. It took numerous partners countless hours to get the initial system off the ground, and now a work group of nearly 40 people representing both statewide and community level systems advises on the development and ongoing support of the system.

Data integration with DHHS has been key to giving parents the most up-to-date and accurate information possible about their childcare options at a base level. Providers are encouraged to create an account on the CCRN, which allows them to provide even more information that is relevant to parents looking for care. Additional opportunities to integrate relevant data that will grow the usefulness of the CCRN continue to be developed.

To learn more about the Nebraska Child Care Referral Network, please contact Nikki Roseberry.

Spotlight on PDG

“No More Band-aids”: Community Partnerships Build Better Early Childhood Systems

Family Engagement 

Family Engagement Conference

The Family Engagement group continues to work on the "Conference for Family and Parents of Young Children: Collaboration, Learning, Support and Leadership." The conference will be virtual on Saturday, October 22nd, 2022. The conference will be offered in English and Spanish.

Please feel free to share the information with your network.  To find updates on the conference or other related topics, please visit the Family Engagement webpage.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Mariana Schell.

Do You Have Questions?

If you have questions about newsletter content, PDG-related activities, or partner organizations, fill out the form at the bottom of our "PDG Progress" page, and we'll find you answers.

PDG Partners

Nebraska’s PDG work is led by Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NDHHS) under the authority of Governor Pete Ricketts, in partnership with the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE), Nebraska Children and Families Foundation, the University of Nebraska system, and many other partners.

This project is made possible by funding received through Grant Number 90TP0079-02 , of the USDHHS-Administration for Children and Families, Office of Early Childhood; Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services; Nebraska Department of Education; and Nebraska Children and Families Foundation, following grant requirements of 70% federal funding with 30% match from state and private resources. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Office of Child Care, the Administration for Children and Families, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

For questions or comments regarding the Preschool Development Grant, please contact:

Shannon Mitchell-Boekstal, Assistant Vice President Preschool Development

For more information or to subscribe to the enewsletter, visit Preschool Development Grant.