Education- House Early Childhood Subcommittee
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- October 2, 2026
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
7:40
I am the chair thank you committee for being here late in the day. let's go ahead and get started first thing we need to do is consider the minutes from last meeting thank you very much
2cond thank you all in favor say aye opposed nay ayes have it so the next thing is Secretary Oliva
andrector Avney if y'all don't mind coming to the table thank you very much We really appreciate y'all being here to clarify some of the questions that we had in the last meeting and to talk a little bit more about everything that's going on in in early childhood right now I do have a a summary of survey responses that I got back from the Arkansas Early
Childhood association and and Arkansas advocates for children and familiesmilies that came to me last night so there's a copy of that for you guys here and ashlyn I think you have you got a copy of it yes ma'am I received it this morning it put it out there so everybody could take a look at it and if there's questions I'm sure y'all could answer them without seeing it beforehand but you have it as well good deal OK the purpose of this meeting I think is just to focus
on making sure that our early childhood investments are economically sustainable, data-driven and supportive of both mixed delivery and infant toddler access across Arkansas and so if you guys can just give us an update about where we are how the funding is changing or or has changed and is changing and some of the issues that you guys are facing I know that in some of the com mission meetings that the funding perspective is
can be dire and so I'd like for everybody to understand that and see what we need to be doing to make sure that our early childhood is sustainable for the long term so do y'all have y'all have a
Speaker 19
9:59
presentation to make or no ma'am just I guess for the record check I believe
Speaker 22
10:02
department of Education we we don't have formal presentation because we I think our understanding is it going to be kind of like a workshop where we're just gonna dialogue. I I think our hope today because we I think the last time we were in a committee meeting was such a big committee meeting that we
wanted to kind of get maybe a smaller group of folks together to help get some better direction and understanding of what's the state of the state as far as our investment in early education so we didn't bring a formal presentation today but we're prepared to I guess engage in some dialogue if that if that if that's ok with you great
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
10:37
that sounds great. do you want to start with just some basics yeah yeah because
Speaker 28
10:41
I always go back to I wanna say our last
Speaker 22
10:48
committee meeting was focused more on the AvC program and the state program and how much funding was in that program because we were looking at the methodology where all this the student's seats were paid for an entire year whether they are filled or not and we've been working with the AC providers which is a large number of them are school districts and if you can't fill these slots we we wanna look at reallocating them to places that don't that have
waiting lists and how do we better balance those seats because we've we've had previous conversations before the holidays around the CCDF program but the most recent ones and we're prepared to speak to both programs and and I think I don't think you can talk about one program without talking about the other if that makes sense because
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
11:38
at the end of the day an SRA because
Speaker 19
11:41
some families qualify for multiple some providers have all of the options so it it's it's a really complicated space which is why
we brought the expert who is much more knowledgeable at navigating this landscape and and I think about it as
Speaker 22
11:55
just some I'm a parent you know I'm a parent but I don't have kids of this age and it's like if it's frustrating for me to understand I couldn't imagine trying to be a parent, trying to figure out how do they qualify and and what programs and seats that that are available but I think part of the the biggest conversations that we had most specifically was about the AC programs and we were talking
about historically have we found how many seats were paid for are those the right the right number of seats do we need to pay more to providers do we need to look at the state appropriation has that been flat for a long time with the formula for determining reimbursement rateshould we look at poverty rate requirements and expanding it and open up eligibility that that was kind of our takeaway like as those kinds of questions I see some head nodding so I I feel like that that would be a good place to
start if that makes if that's fair I think that's great so and I guess ashton we we can kind of talk into this 11 of the questions that I want to say that we're asked is when was the last time we seen a funding increase or the number of slots so ashton and her team was able to roll up their sleeves and and go a little bit deeper in an archive so if it's a I'd like to turn to her to just kind of start having that initial dialogue
Speaker 32
13:22
I'd be glad to just for the record Ashlyn Abney I'm the education division director for the office of Early Childhood umm new into my role so I have some information here but if I cannot answer one of your questions, I'll be glad to take that back to the team when we were researching the funding for ABC it looks like to us in 2018 there was a small increase to the ABC funding prior to that for years it had been flat at $111 million and then in 2018 there looks like there was about
a3 million dollars bump so 14 million is the budget that we're operating off of and I believe that that was one of the questions and that is one of the concerns that we hear often from the provider base is the funding has been limited in
Speaker 35
14:09
that program as compared to the CCDf side or the childcare development fund which is our federal money that comes
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
14:18
down for us and that and the difference in those two as far as providers's concerns the CCdF
federal pays for what and what
Speaker 32
14:30
is what is maybe you all have heard it as SA or school readiness assistance or sometimes back in the day depending on how long you've been in this business it would be childcare vouchers and so with SRA there are eligibility requirements much like ABC but CCDF is our federal funded whereas on the ABC side of course you all know that that is our state funded regulations.
so just in comparison we have about 137 million that comes from CCDF on the SA side compared to like I said the 114 on the AC state side. there are some nuances and that are different between the programs that might be helpful for you all to consider when you're thinking through this with us ABC is the 10 month program and so sometimes it's difficult for parents because it runs along the school calendar
essentially and so parents are left trying to determine what to do during the summer months especially but also the hours in the day are a little bit different so sometimes those programs will end earlier in the day than say on the SA side which is your your typical private centerbas facilities that you all have probably heard about. so there's a difference there I'm trying to think of some overall numbers. let me give you this the I was just
about to say enrollment is important I think for you all to to just know for ABC we serve about 23,000 children in our AC programme predominantly those are preschool age. a lot of times when people are thinking about AC they'll think it's only four year olds but it's it's mainly four year olds but3 and4s and then some centers have started doingi infinite taller as the well. but just for the breakdown to kind of get your head around
that there's 20,000 students out of that 23,000 that are preschool age also just want to give you some fast facts that might help in the conversation there are about 1800losons providers in our state 1700 of those are centered bases and 193 are home base in comparison in the AC programs there are about 221 providers total that participate in the
ABC programs of those like Secretaryliva said predominantly are schools there are 151 of those compared to49 private and 21 home visiting. roughly we we serve about 14,871 children over on SA side. so that's important and that is the one the program that sometimes you will hear from your circle of influence about a
weightli and we have about 2800 children on the waitlist
Speaker 35
17:44
for SRA. I'll stop right there that's a lot of talking. I'm glad to answer any questions or
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
17:50
continue on. what about what about rural versus urban and tiered the financially tiered numbers do you have those do
Speaker 32
17:56
do not have those in front of me but I can absolutely get that for you and give you some
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
18:04
information about that helps you know I think a lot of the the providers
who would have liked to use ABC can't do it because it's just cost prohibitive because they if they're
not in a school system then they have to pay for their own rent they have to pay for all of those kinds of things that are are funded in other ways
in the in the public school system so yeah I
Speaker 22
18:30
think as the public schools to meet the mash can use
Speaker 44
18:36
indirect costs so that's a that puts a smaller private providers that
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
18:42
a little bit probably more of a disadvantage right so if we if we're increasing AC and focusing on school more schoolbased. I don't want to get to the point where
we're leaving out our our home base and centerbased programs especially for taking three and four year olds out and there's no funding for infant
and toddler so you know that and maybe you maybe that
would be helpful if you talk about funding the differences in funding K12 per person and the
differences in funding early childhood because you've got to have the reimbursement from those older kids to subsidize the infant and toddlers because you it's just a market fail you can't do it if if you don't have those other pieces of the of the puzzle yes ma'am that is
Speaker 45
19:31
something my team and I looked at that so for
Speaker 32
19:38
an ABC student the roughly the cost per student that is paid is5,105 dollars and my understanding of what it is in the K12 world would be up around the 8000 mark. so that's the difference between the two if
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
19:58
love to if you'll let staff know about rural and rural urban because I do that's the other issue I
think if we're if we're looking at schoolbas there are some
there are definitely some deserts out there yes ma'am in both directions so that would be helpful to know. Absolutely I'll do
Speaker 32
20:19
that it's actually something I've not thought about so I'll I'm interested now too since you brought it up OK.
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
20:40
Representative Mayberry thank you you know I always have a lot of questions, not as
many aspresentative Duke sometimes has though but she'd laugh at that anyway so first of all I'm sorry if you said it, I missed it. I know that you said that it was $111 million before and then in 2018 it was 114 million of of money that goes to the ABC programs there was a3 million
dollars increase. how long had it been at 111 million. I didn't if you said it, I missed it, I'm
Speaker 54
21:19
sorry that's ok. I did not say it in the 20092010 was when they
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
21:27
went to 111 million that that's a pretty long time ago and that wasn't that much of an increase in in 218 at at that time so and then and then you were commenting that
that you know, ABCBC school funding is at5105105 I think is what you said and you know what we pay for students now in K through 1el yet our teacher to student ra t io is far different especially if we look at infant care. is it is it 1 in5 for infant care and that is certainly not what it is for K through 12. I mean even kindergarten is is different than you know the high school ages so
there there's a big difference and if we if we really want to make sure that our kids are reading by3rd grade, which I agree. I mean I think that we we don't want children not being able to read because in everything else falls apart, right? What I love about the Lawnes Act was moving it over to ADE all this I think I've said this a few times. I can't say it enough because we're looking at children learning from birth all the way up. that's
I know I'm talking to the early childhood educator here and I know you agree you know birth to three is when the brain expands the most and we really need to focus on making sure that we're putting the foundation there. So so when we're looking at5,000 dollars versus $8000 for this same student how much how much can we move that needle? I I know there's a big picture of and and it requires legislators getting involved it's not just ADE but
this is probably more for for our commissioner here, do you see us being able to apply more money into this area of education in this next coming session either fiscal session or in the next legislative session I think that's a good question
Speaker 22
23:33
to speak to more money in the fiscal session because everybody adopts twoyear budgets but looking long term as we're looking at a state investment in education. I think that needs to be part of the conversation
there there are a little bit of differences in early learning in K12 we have compulsory attendance laws and a whole lot more requirement on K12 when we have an early learning so I don't think just throwing money at the problem's going to fix the fact that we still have deserts and islands we still have lack of access to good teachers we still have access you know challenges to some resources but I I think that's a big part of why in in the Learns actct was established in the local leads putting everything in one
agency under one agency is that we have boots on the ground to help us identify what are those gaps what are those needs what are their resources is there going to be a need for more of a state investment I would imagine right it's hard to have this conversation without allocating resources but as we really make that transition to quality and how do we define quality and align payment structures to quality not just environment it's how you're going to get those kids or those young children ready for kindergarten so that third grader reading
scores go up and this is if there's anything good about these conversations of where there's been a challenges we've got a lot of folks that are coming to the table from all over the state to help define quality and make sure that we align our reimbursement pay payment structures with you know if if we're looking at better beginnings rating system do we need to reimagine that and if we're gonna reimagine that this would be a good time to do it and then what are the right dollars that we want to to allocate for reimbursements for that
Speaker 64
25:23
I agree with everything you just said it is
Speaker 32
25:26
an ongoing conversation that my team and I have in the office about how do we make sure that we are fully aligned with the K12 world and that whatever we're doing down in the birth to fa and especially love that you said birth to three because you're absolutely right and it's rare out hear people talk about it so that's exciting. but we want to fully align ourselves with whatever's happening in K1el so as an example when we're talking about quality,
even a piece that we are talking about is an assessment that lives down in the early childhood world that will then connect into what they're doing on at the kindergarten level. so that's just one example of the ongoing conversations that we're having all around the line that
Speaker 28
26:08
you're speaking about and and'll tell you because we've been visiting
Speaker 22
26:11
a lot of schools lately and we we were in a visiting a program in pine bluff at at an elementary school there and I was blown away with what these students were doing in a four year old classroom with a good
licensed teacher that had the right resources I was like this is going to change the directory of these kids' lives it was impressive. I I would encourage the legislature to visit some of these programs because it'll show you why
Speaker 62
26:40
we need to have this conversation it's not a babysitting service So so
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
26:45
if you don't mind, OK so we had the Lens Act two sessions ago last session we had access for higher ed can we
work now towards maybe simplifying I mean you were just talking about how complicated it is the SRA the the ABc and and some way simplifying some of that so that we're not talking about this fund and this fund and this fund and and just make it easier for our childcare providers as well to simplify
Speaker 22
27:19
that would be fantastic and I think that's why we want to work with these work groups
that we have vested because there's things that we can do at the local level right to help in and invite that conversation to improve quality things that we can do at the state level that's under our purview right here which is why we've we've been talking a lot about the AC program versus the federal programs because we get to make our own rules it's our sandbox right but then there's things that I think collect ive ly as a state we can work on at the federal level and we're
we're in a prime position to have the administration that we have that understands that the federal bureaucrats don't know what's right for students in Arkansas and are encouraging us to untackle those laws, see if we can apply for waivers and income collectively with a
Speaker 72
28:13
plan that's built from the local state and the federal level to take the handcuffs that they put on us each and every single day not only in this early learning space but in K12 and higher edd those bureaucrats handcuff innovation
and these programs are handcuffed too and if we can collectively come up with a waiver to be set free and do what we know is right for our students and families. there is no better opportunity to align that vision and I think if we were able to go to the feds that says we have a local and state policy that supports what we're asking for from a federal waiver requirement it really increases our likelihood of getting those waivers. I still have more questions but I'll let others ask. thank you
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
29:00
thank you as as a follow up a quick follow
up to Representative Mayberry. can you talk a little bit about the other side obviouslyously when we moved early childhood to education the collaboration with K12 is immensely important. What about what about those prenatal to three programs are you working with I'm assumed some of those are still in indhS or department of healthal mostly department of healthal maybe hippie some of the hippie you tell me
so are are you working with the early childhood to collaborate with them so that that transition is is seamless
as as the K12. yes ma'am
Speaker 15
29:42
and thank you for mentioning that. Listen, I will talk to anybody and everybody that will talk
Speaker 32
29:47
with me about early ed particularly birth to three and so it is important to my team and and to me that we continue those conversations because a lot of great work has happened over the
course of years in early ed in that age bracket. so my hope is to keep tying it all together and there's even discussions I've been in recently about prenatal which piques my interest but my responsibility is absolutely birth through ob. so my I do work on both ends of that from when they had
Speaker 15
30:21
little feet hit the earth all the way up to when I pass them on tokender so yes ma'am
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
30:27
we are are they still so still has
Speaker 32
30:33
there are some that are scattered around that honestly I'm still learning about myself the likear B, part C and our special needs are under with us as well so home visiting of course is outside of our our program at the ADE but we visit and coordinate back and forth with those just through the grants that we do with local partners whether that's the university or other entities we do
that as well so the conversation is continuing all the way across the continuum. yes ma'am. Great thank you oh yes and headadar so recent right recently we will be taken back the headadart State collabb office we'll join us at the Arkansas department ofedd that will be a newly hired position that we have not yet done. we're waiting on our extension. we haven't been noticed up on that yet but once that happens then the state collabb
Speaker 50
31:35
office will also come and join us thank you
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
31:42
very much ma'ampresentative painter thank you madam chair and this is just a request you had some great facts that you were throwing out really really really quick and so if you could send us that to our staff, I think that will help us have that conversation when it comes to looking at funding and so
Speaker 33
31:58
forth like that can you just clarify like like when we're talking about the enrollment the dollars the history the amount
absolutely we and that that we have
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
32:09
that on one pager because that will help me understand where we're lacking and you know fas speak you know so I
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
32:16
appreciate that thank you madam chair you
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
32:22
p re s ent ative Barnett thank you madam chairir. I have a question. I know many of the concerns that we had before we're dealing with the childcare development block grant changes and I know that since that time the state of
Arkansas has received a $14.7 million federal grant and I wanted to know how those grant dollars are going to be implemented are they going to be implemented in any way to supplement some of those changes with CCdBG or will it be used in any way to reduce the number of students that think it was approximately 1100 that were on a waitlist I'm interested in knowing how those federal dollars are going to be implemented
Speaker 22
33:04
and thank you for asking that and and this is I
think as as definitely as I'm learning his face which is why I need these experts. I I wished that could give you an easy answer. it gets a little bit complicated but I do wanna point out that when when we were in front of the committee meeting s I want to say it was probably around in November and we were looking at rate changes and answering a lot of questions because we got a reduction in funding at the at the federal level and we knew that was gonna impact our Pdg grant and our CCDF grant and we're trying to
unpack why we got a third quarter or 1/4 quarter reduction in the previous year cycle and why that's impacted over current years. one of the things that we made a commitment to as an agency into the delegation was that if there are any competitive grants that become available we're going to be the first state to have the application in the hopper and I mean I remember specifically making that commitment and the grant you're referring to was a competitive grant and we had an incredible
application and our team worked with stakeholders and came together and met the deadlines of that grant and was able to receive that grant for some funding to make to to do exactly what you're saying about how do we kind of look at filling in our our shortfalls and our gaps because it's a one year grant and I'll let Ashton talk about how that works because it it's gonna help some because we can take some of the burden of costs that may
Speaker 44
34:34
have been in other programs and used competitive grants but it's not gonna make us whole.
Speaker 32
34:42
that's right so you're referring to what's called a PdgB5 grant preschool development block grant
Speaker 15
34:50
and it's we did receive $14.741 million and we were super excited. The thing to remember about that grant it is it
Speaker 32
34:59
is a systems building grant. So whereas before you might have seen some of the funding go out specifically towards services to children this particular grant is not a
Speaker 15
35:14
direct services grant but like Secretary Oliva was saying it will help us to use some of the money that we would have historically used under CCDF to meet the needs under and be able to fund it a different way through the PdG grant. it's also really important to note with that Pdg grant is the oneear grant so it is a very quick aggressive fast pace grant that has to be out of the door by December31st of
this year. So some of the things that we're doing is it's going to help with the local leads that you've heard mentioned before it's also going to help us with the third party class observations so classes the observation tool that will be using in our facilities and at our sites to determine help us determine a quality level. it's also going to be geared towards workforce and also towards data system s So we're excited to see where
that goes. We have not we do not have all of those fully sketched out and organized. I know the direction that we're going to go in but here quickly we should be able to give more information about exactly what we're doing with that thank you. I just want to remind you guys that there is
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
36:32
a an acronym sheet from the first committee that's in the
document section of the first committee that will have all of these acronyms for all of the grants and tell you what they do and what they don't do umpresentativeottt
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
36:50
thank you madam chair and thank you for getting us that list. I just want to go back and touch just a couple of things because like representative painter it was very fast for me to try to keep up and catch on so you probably already answered this question. what's our current percentage of ABC slots allowed to communitybased slots. so the community base first the school. does that make sense why I'm asking? yes
Speaker 15
37:17
ma'am I I believe so and apologize to you
all. I'll try to slow down a little
Speaker 32
37:29
for us and we've been in meetings upon meetings at this point so understand and apologize. OK of the221 providers that we have right now 138 of those are school districts 10 of them are educational service co ops re are public universities
46 are communitybased programs re are family
Speaker 15
37:57
childcare homes in 21 fall under the home visiting category. thank you yes ma'am. so the last time
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
38:07
I asked about slots, I'm not sure that my question really got answered in the email maybe So I want to know
like, do we have people who are turning away
slots whether they're in the community base or whether they're in the school base, whichever way do we have those returning to y'all and
if we do then do you allocate those slots
Speaker 15
38:36
somewhere else so yes ma'am to answer your question we do have some that will turn back their
Speaker 32
38:42
slots that's in my short time here unusual but it has happened since I've been here we actually go to the state board
whenever we need to look at slot reallocation or moving slots so we
Speaker 15
38:58
actually do have a plan to go for March to talk about the number of slots OK. that that's my questions for now.
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
39:05
I have more but I can get back in. thank you ma'am.
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
39:09
and just to add to that how many communitybased providers have turned in slots have turned in backs turned back slides do you know do not know the answer
Speaker 39
39:17
to that but I will get it. Either declined
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
39:22
or returned ma'am that'd be great thank you
Representative gonzalezorthen thank you madam chair I have a couple of questions one on the I think you mentioned 1100 are on the waitlist 28 yes ma'am then out of those 2800 do we know how many the division point of like0 to3 and foreign four year olds
Speaker 39
39:58
it's sitting on my desk so I will get that I
Speaker 32
40:02
will absolutely get that for you. I know that the the families that are waiting our 2080 and there's about 2800 on there but I can give you
Speaker 15
40:12
that breakdown. I actually have it and Id I failed to bring it with me, I'm sorry
Speaker 21
40:18
I have a follow up question madam chairir. my question is, I know that the
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
40:32
there is I think in one of our committee meetings Secretary you mentioned that we are going to be really working on a kindergarten read readiness plan and so I wondered what that might look like. is that going to be part of this the one year grant in terms of systems improvement related to I too am very concerned about the third grade reading level and so when I'm thinking about what a wonderful way to ensure that our kids are ready for kindergarten
if we have enough slots to fill for the families to get that pre-k or infant toddler, and then they're moving through the system they they should be are pretty much should be kindergarten ready we're we're
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
41:18
not our third grade reading level should be increasing
Speaker 22
41:25
yeah I think I I think that's the whole spirit of why we're here today ultimately with that same goal and I I think we know can't even
even with the research says around that investment in early learning and making sure we're really driving those conversations of quality because if if children have access to quality early learning environments then we know there's a direct correlation to improve kindergarten readiness and as we've been kind of navigating looking at improving say better beginnings that's built on our environmental rating scale to a class
observation tool we know that that kind of theory of action is that we can help improve quality while we establish those local leads to help provide direct support with those educators in the classroom and kind of standardizing our observations kind of like some innerator reliability components on that so when when you talk about the seeds, I think it's almost like a two pronged approach because one is is when you look at access you
have parents and families that want to participate in high quality early learning programs but if you're in kind of what I refer to as like a desert island like there's not a quality program within say50 miles of your house it's you really don't have an opportunity right so one is how do we identify those deserts and islets which is where we've been working on to see if we can find somebody that might want to open a program whether it's a mom and pop provider work with a school district a faithbased
partner those conversations are happening and then two if there's there are parts of the states that just have long waiting lists because they're the they centers that are open are full and they're at capacity so you know it it's kind of a two pro two pronged approach but I think the short answer to your question is is we want to improve quality but while we're doing that we got to improve access. you know we're as we're talking
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
43:42
about third grade reading levels one of the one
of the best indicators for third grade reading is vocabulary at three years old so if we don't have0 to3 development then you know we're we're lost before we ever get there so if we wait for4 and5 we're waiting too
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
44:06
long Representative in thank you madam chair. I have a question over here right here
when was the last Arkansas specific cost of quality study conducted for AC and SrA. and if you already addressed it up forgive me no ma'am I
Speaker 39
44:24
have it it was about three years ago because we're coming up on needing to do another market rate
Speaker 15
44:31
survey right now actually so my team is looking at a request for proposals on that and we should be doing it shortly we are also very interested in the actual cost of care so it's been
Speaker 30
44:44
a it's been a minute thank you yes ma'am and just to
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
44:55
add on to that our our current current reimbursement rates are directly related to that particular cost modeling is that so we use that for our reb reimbursement rates now and that was three years ago yes ma'am it was roughly3 years ago.
and what is the what is the breakeven point so
so how many at the current reimbursement how many students can be enrolled in a standard ABC classroom
to cover the fixed and staffing costs cost do you know offhand I do
Speaker 39
45:31
not know offhand. I would imagine it would be veritable depending on the school district because
Speaker 32
45:37
what I do know or even even the private AC because there has to be a certified teacher
per the ABC rule and but there's some leeway in that on how many they have compared to how many students they have. So I'll write down that question and see
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
45:59
if I can get you an average breakga in cost just wondered would that work and what the difference is between schoolbased and centerbased and homebased just trying to figure out the the barriers as much as anything yes ma'am
Speaker 32
46:12
I didn't think about looking at that and I should have. I one of the things that
my team did look at though is just the whole like how much would it cost in today's dollars compared to the way it is funded and I know that that amount was around $175 million would be what the ABC program when would need so that's a little bit different and those are rough estimates that's just us trying to work and and yeah OK Representativewooldridge
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
46:48
thank you madam chairir. thank you for being here. I have a question about federally funded slots that may be something that you've covered and it was under an acronym that I didn't recognize but I know when I visited with the school in the district I served they were talking about having an allotment of federally funded spots and that they had received notification that the funding was potentially going away is that funding that's being I think what I was told by someone at the department was that funding was being put into a different bucket and I guess it's all going to be funded out of SRA funds is that right?
Speaker 15
47:24
what is called the federal pre-K programme that's correct yes OKed preK has always been CCDF money it was just another program that
Speaker 32
47:33
was set up to help support ABC that is going to come to an end at the end of June of this fiscal year those children that are in those programs will be rolled into ABC slots
Speaker 15
47:54
if they're if if that particular program is an AC participant, many of them are or those children will go back through and be
Speaker 32
48:00
eligible and run through the eligibility eligibility criteria for the SRA sub. OK can I have a follow up madam chair thank you. So
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
48:10
will those will those slots or those children that are in those slots will they automatically automatically qualifies since there's a waiting list or will they get put at the back of a list even though they' re in a funded spot currently
Speaker 32
48:24
OK, so what will happen is they will have to qualify depending on which way they're going. so some children will go into ABC chances are they're already going to qualify for the ABc criteria or if they're moving over to the
Speaker 15
48:39
CCDF side they'll need to qualify there you had another question oh grandfathering in they will not they will still have to meet the criteria of whichever program that they're in but they will get to bypass the waitlist since they were already in a
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
48:56
program that's what I wanted to know you Representative Mayberrry thank you so in the fall we had all this discussion over the SRAs and and basically put a band-aid on on the system as a whole and I know we had lots of providers who were here. I know you remember and many of them were saying that they're going to have to go out of business that they're not gonna to be this is not sustainable we can't do it. Many of them said that that
the plan that we went forward with, you know, will help, help get them through a little bit. So I I first want to ask how many are you aware of have dropped since you know let's say I don't know, october how how many child cars around the state no longer
Speaker 28
49:50
exist to my knowledge since we've been begann began those discussions that have notified us that they're
Speaker 22
49:56
closing because of a change in funding statewide
was I want to say6 providers but since then with our new rates we've added 26 new providers into the state as well so some of them have changed locations some people are changing names some change our providers so we actually have more providers now with the new race and we did under the old rates and I think it's important to remind everybody the reason we started having this discussion is because we got a federal allocation reduction right that we weren't planning on and that dollar amounts continuing and it was about6
million dollars a year so we've been working with our friends at the federal level to try to unpack this formula to determine why we got such a big reduction because we don't feel like our poverty rate went down in the state and what we're leaning towards is we're still unpacking this we don't have all the answers yet is a lot of these programs are built around meal reimbursements that are happening in school and because we have not made going to school five days a week a priority in holding school
districts to 178 days of school year they're having less school and serving less meals that is impact our reimbursements rates in this grant and will also reimpact
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
51:13
reimbursement rates and a lot of other grants just just looking at the notes that were given uhpresentative garner gave us this piece of paper you said you you got it earlier today the summary of the survey responses for school readiness assistant providers and I I'm just reading you know just some of that information
here because I feel like this is the the people who might not be able to be in this room just sharing their thoughts and and many of them saying we lost almost 20% of our families because of the sudden steep increase in what they would have to pay we lost families in the afterschool program immediately and they became latchkey kids which creates a whole other slew of problems I heard today about a child who was6 years old and left at home that's a scary thing.
copays have had a significante impact on the families we serve we lost enrolled families due to the financial burden, causing many to reduce their hours at work so so I mentioned earlier this is an education thing really important we we want children to learn but it is also a workforce issue. it is the foundation to our workforce when parents have to reduce their hours at work, the business kind of struggles
what what are what are you you seeing regarding the the copays are you hearing the same thing that a lot of families are not able to match
Speaker 22
52:46
these copays think we hear from all of the above and sometimes when we look at the intent of that federal grant the intent of that federal grant was to always have copays we just didn't implement them so yeah it's it's it's a something that's a new requirement? Is it painful 100% do we want to do
it? no but we knew we had to look at the long term sustainability of this program and make immediate changes because we were getting reductions that we hadn't planned on and which is why since augustoctober november December as we've been having these conversations I feel like the conversation around access to childcare workforce needs respite care, kindergarten readiness should revolve more around state programs instead of relying on a federal grant that changes in
every session and we don't know the long term facts on that you know the the budget look at how long it's been taking to get some of the federal dollars into a budget and meanwhile we got to make payments to providers at some point if we we're not able to draw down funds I I don't want to have to tell providers it it's gone like our when when we look at projected fund balance and reserves we're we're payment to payment and we we had to make those changes they weren't popular but
we had to make them otherwise we wouldn't have programs at all right now and hopefully if we can get more competitive grants as we start getting more strategic and state programs if we can offset in state programs some of the burden that's in the federal grant, I think that could open up more dollars to providers to reducing seats and helping cover those administrative costs like trying to find that balance and
and that's where you know when we talk about what you know what's the future I think somebody asked like what's the future I think that's the conversation cause if we can alleviate burden in the federal grant and I'll give you an example. we used to pay for the data reporting system that was on a contract on how we collect all this data that had been on a mainframe since 2007 and the cost of that software to be held and updated with a contract provider came out of
that grant right the cost of the grant. So as it moved to our agency they rebuilt a whole new system called kiddare and its you know is it a smooth and easy transition? No, there's hiccups but we built that inhouse with the existing staff to come off that contract, would that coming inhouse it frees up dollars in that contract like in the CCDF grant so we have to look at as we move forward how do we protect the dollars and and
administrative costs or overhead costs or or grants to to programs that's not directly supporting families in the second we said like you know there's professional development requirements there's other components in here but if we want to prioritize providers and families and we started notifying some of these universities that were reducing their funds they started complaining too right so at at some point there's a ceiling there there's
Speaker 72
56:09
a pie and and I always like to say when you' building budgets if the pie
doesn't get any bigger all we have the p is the pie and if you want different pieces of that pie to go to somebody else which neighbors getting a larger piece in which neighbor's getting a smaller piece because right now our pie shrunk and that's what's the painful part and it's hard for people to understand. We didn't get the same pie from last year to this year and we're not getting the same pie next year every year the pie's gotten smaller and everybody wants a bigger piece of a smaller pie so this isn't fun this isn ' t easy but I think there's
opportunity because with looking at the state investment if we can protect that pie and I feel like I hear from the legislature when we protect that pie we want to protect families and the providers
Speaker 22
57:01
that are supporting those families of their over other institutions and sometimes those aren't popular decisions but they have to be made are there any
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
57:12
changes to the home visiting programs the hippie programme maybe even
specifically do you see any changes taking place there?
Speaker 22
57:19
I think that's a great question and I think as we're unpacking some of these programs I think there are students and families that are double dipping and then when I come back to you and say we're not gonna let families double
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
57:34
dip you're gonna hear from them too. right so so explain to me how they're double dipping what what what's taking place you you've discovered some
Speaker 39
57:42
double dipping there OK? 2 million a year so in the home visiting
Speaker 32
57:48
section of ABC there's roughly3,000 children that I mentioned to you all about and of that 1200 are what we call duly enrolled meaning that they have a service that's provided to them in their home where the the home visiting folks will teach the parent the curriculum
Speaker 15
58:09
and the parents then in turn teach their children the curriculum which is a wonderful thing
at the same time those 1200 children are also being served dually in
Speaker 32
58:23
an AC program meeting they're going to an AC program. So it is one of the things that is a potential consideration that if we just limit it to one like choose one or the other that would save us about 2.4 million and for me that translates out to about470 children so it's just something that we can consider as we're all
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
58:50
talking about it you know, together OK that that that's good information to know. You had mentioned kind of what started all this was that you were going notifying the school districts about the ABC slots that they have if they're not using them, you know you're going to basically you're not going to get paid for them because that's the way it is with the other SRA program, right? if they're if you don't have someone enrolled you you you don't get that payment but the way it's been with AC if I'm understanding it correctly
is that they were being paid regardless because they had a slot. kind of update us with what those figures are. have you communicating with the school districts and sharing that information and kind of worked through all that. I
Speaker 32
59:37
wouldn't say we've worked through all of it but we definitely are yes it is an ongoing thing that we are looking at but just to give you a little bit of perspective so by paying for enrollment only
instead of slots allocated in January we saved576,000 dollars so in in my world that's big and so it's just another thing that we can consider looking at in terms of how do we get as many children served at the end of the day that we possibly can with a very limited budget speaking of ABc
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:00:16
I know of a school district that would like
to add preschool to to their offerings there and they have space but they it's going to require quite a bit to prepare a classroom for preschool and and especially a playground. A playground is pretty expensive to to add because you it can't be the same as the other school playground developmentally, you know, appropriate for the the preschool age I I had a bill not last session but the session before that would have allowed school
districts to apply foundation funding to be used for for pre-k because currently they can't. is that something that can be discussed maybe put on the table as an opportunity to allow some school districts to make make use of funding that already exists and I realized that pie is getting smaller too and building costs go up and all that or
is there some other avenue to help the school districts with building to me
Speaker 22
1:01:26
one I think it's a fair question to have that discussion because I do think it would require some legislative changes or rule changes or or some more direction but at some point I just feel like when do we just start doing things that are common sense right like if a bus is going to a house to pick up a six year old but we can't pick up the three year old like at what point does that just not make sense right if we're going to a playground that could serve five year olds and four year olds why couldn't we do what's right so I I think I I would need to
unpack that a little bit more but if it's a school that's serving students and families like the the most of our communities and and and and always always love going to like economic development meetings but we're talking about industry and bringing everybody in and always like to remind them that the school districts are the number one employers in most of our communities right? so when the school districts are thriving communities are thrivingbody in the community has some sort of connection to the school districts school districts don't only hire teachers they hire electricians they are plumbers they hire bus drivers diesel
mechanics they hire everything and cover the entire spectrum. So if this is gonna be a service to a community how do we invest in that service and I I don't know all the answers but I think collectively we can come up
Speaker 92
1:02:37
with a pretty good good plan. OK well that that
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:02:42
definitely would would help this particular school district if they could you know, make use of their current playground and maybe even just add another smaller piece of equipment because the size of what a three year old can get on is a little different than the size of what the you know 8,9,10,11 year old you know,
wants to play on in the hype, you know the fall and and all that but that would would definitely help them but also just funding they they said that the classroom would cost, now they have a building so they're not starting from scratch but they said that each classroom it was going to cost them about $15,000 to prepare that classroom to meet the requirements
Speaker 28
1:03:21
that are that are there currently mean like
Speaker 44
1:03:23
those costumes look different have different furniture and it it it's an
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:03:28
investment it's a capital investment OK so just throwing that out there that that that there are school districts that are probably interested and want this but they they need a little bit of support to be able to do that because it's great
Speaker 22
1:03:43
that school districts want to get in this space and to me that's encouraging because they're seeing the value in that as well
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:03:50
I'll get out of the queue Representative gonzalezworthen yes thank you thank you madam
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:04:00
chair thank you for being here and my question had to do with the hippie program as well. So I so if a if a family is in the hippie program then technically they're not supposed to be in the ABC programme. is that is that kind of what I'm hearing or when it was mentioned that they're duly enrolled have a
Speaker 39
1:04:20
I'm just asking they can currently be enrolled in both. OK and so they can have they can be home visiting and they can be ABC
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:04:32
in in the ABC program so there's not a there's we're not saying you only can be in one
Speaker 16
1:04:38
and not the other ma'am was saying that could
Speaker 22
1:04:40
be a consideration if we wanted these families are double dipping and we have families on a waiting list we need to use our resources wisely and efficiently we've got that this pie's not growing and we've got to expand this pie to as much rich as we can I I don't know what it would take to make that in action but that's something that I would recommend. Yeah I
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:05:02
was just curious because I could see parents in our community where they're trying to do everything they can to ensure that their kids are kindergarten ready, they're ready for school. Additionally, they're also learning English and so they're trying to get their hands on as much learning as they can. That that was that was part of my question related to that and so if do you see the do you see the hippie program or
programs like the home visiting type of programs expanding upon that so that we can ensure that kids are kindergarten ready. last last week when we were talking about we we're talking about chronic absenteeism and oftentimes that kindergarten age that's one of the red flag grade levels so to speak, where parents are afraid to, I mean you know it's ok you can miss school it's just
kindergarten. OK they're they're they're not they don't see the they they they're not quite they don't see the the the impact that it can have on that child because that's where all of those preliteracy foundational skills are taught is at that kindergarten level. However, if we're able to increase more of the home visiting type of programs at least they're in something, whether it's the home visiting or whether it's
the preschool program just to help with that piece because I think that that we could reduce that and so that's that was my question with the
Speaker 28
1:06:46
hippie programme thank you wanna echo your sentiment towards chronic absenteeism. and when you look at
Speaker 22
1:06:54
what the data says there there's a there's a myriad of reasons why students are chronically absent but typically if if a student misses 10% or more of the school year they're considered chronically
absent which could be 17 days depending on your school calendar which is like two days a month in a school year. and you know when it comes to kindergarten there there's sometimes a sense of apathy around the importance of it because it's not compulsory you know when you start looking at compulsory attendance laws that come in typically I want to say it's age6 to 17 in Arkansas state's a little bit different we we need to model
Speaker 72
1:07:34
that it's important which is why I'm an advocate for every single school
district to adopt 178 dayy school calendar. So when you think about the school districts that adopt 136 calendar day calendar in chronic absenteeism is a problem and then we close for ice storms Are we modeling that school's important as an adult to students so I agree with you we need to set the expectation as adults that going to school is important and when kids do come to school we need to guarantee they get a a day of highqual learning.
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:08:13
Sure I agree that school is extremely important and parents oftentimes just my experience with families sometimes they don't do not know that not sending their child to school in kindergarten, the detrimental effect and impact it can have on the child and it doesn't take very long but when you say ok your kids are not in school you
have a less like you're they're less likely to be reading on grade level by third grade theyre less likely to graduate high school there more likely to drop out of school and last week we heard our kids who are incarcerated 80% of them are not reading on third grade reading level and so I think that oftentimes parents really do not know that information. that's been our experience parents just didn't know that and once they
know that, I mean what parent wants their child to have those detrimental impacts. My question related to the pre what we're doing before kindergarten, they're going to be learning that because I'm sure that the hippie program and the preschool programs are also saying it's important to senior child to school at every grade level and that's and so that's that's kind of a that's the message but it's ongoing and so that that was the reason for my question. so thank you
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:09:44
Thank you Representative Painter thank you madam chair and sorry I I missed this so if we were to not allow double dipping here it would save us about 2.4 million. How many kids did you just say we could take off the wish the wait list
Speaker 155
1:10:03
roughly470.470 I I hope we take a look at that soon.
Speaker 39
1:10:08
yes sir I have some information to share back Representative garner if it's ok to one of the questions and it was the waitlist by age
Speaker 15
1:10:16
group is this an appropriate time to share?
Speaker 32
1:10:22
OK. so as of today so this is an increased number. there are 2,971 children on our waitlist of those infants so for us that is birth to 18 months there are638 toddlers which is 19 months to36 months
769 preschool which is37 months to72 months,995. in school age which would be over the se2 months is569. that's helpful thank you You're welcome Representative Mayberry
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:11:20
thank you back to that dual enrollment thing and I'm just thinking and and just wanted to ask the question can you look closely at who is doubly enrolled is it and maybe you've already done this I don't know but is it possible that some of those children are ones that have been identified as having a developmental delay and perhaps need that reinforcement of the parent kind of learning what they need to be doing at home but also are working and everything I just want to make
sure that we're not having some unintended consequences by just saying there's no way Jose you can ever double dip and make sure that those you know that that ' s looked at that it's not highris situations because a lot of times the children who were in the home visiting programs are identified as being highris. you're absolutely right and that's
Speaker 32
1:12:13
a fair question and yes ma'am we can do that. I want to make sure that I save from my
vintage point and my boss will correct me if I'm wrong but a home visiting is a great program. it is a great program. I wonder and my team has collectively been talking about looking at it differently so for an example and this is just an example but looking at it through more of a
Speaker 15
1:12:41
contracted way to pay for that particular seat instead of it coming out of the ABC so that we could look more specifically about what is that
child currently challenged with if there are any challenges. So I think that that might open up more leeway for that particular child to get in the appropriate
Speaker 56
1:13:00
spot that they need to be in and some of
Speaker 28
1:13:04
those I'm I'm sorry go go ahead when I was gonna say it I I think to
Speaker 22
1:13:10
that point which is the importance of why we need Childin and some of those other programs because if we can catch students early that need intervention and support we know the impact on that grows exponentially
and a lot of the students that do go through those programs would qualify for a different pot
Speaker 19
1:13:30
of money so that that's why I keep going back to we've got this is a small space for little small people is so complicated and nuance that if we can uncomplicate this system, I think we could build better programs which is why I think we could look at some
Speaker 22
1:13:45
state policies but we really need to lean on this friendly administration at the federal level to see if we
can look at how they allocate funds and if we can braid and blend dollars to support students and not try to fund a bunch of siloed programs it can make this a lot easier, so I I think your question is fair because there may be students that are in these programs that need additional layers of support but if those students are properly identified as needing additional air support. that's a different pot of money that can provide that support. so perhaps the child qualifies for speech
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:14:27
therapy or physical therapy or something at the facility, you know the preschool they're getting it at the school are you saying then that maybe there's another pot of maybe there's medicaid money that then could help comp ens ate for that care
Speaker 19
1:14:43
depends it depends on their age and it depends on which programs they qualify but perhaps like I feel like I'm just giving general dollars because it's not that cut and drive but yes and and and if if
Speaker 22
1:14:58
there's ways to qualify a students for additional resources that can predict limited resources we need to make sure we're leveraging those to the best of our ability. I I guess just what went through my mind. I
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:15:08
mean initially when you say that well no we don't want some a double dipping but then thinking about it more back to when my kids were young and I've had some that have've had developmental delays that I will say I was very fortunate I was able to stay home with my children and I highly suggest that so I see I see all sides of
this but I worry about families who they they can't stay home with their child but they have a child who has developmental delay s the child may have do autism or has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy or whatever it might be and they need that childcare so that they can work but they also need some training on their own of what do I need to do and they're not going to get that just by dropping their child off at childcare and that's why the hippie program
you know probably has helped them and I just want to make sure that we've just not put everybody into the same bucket and that we've thought through some of that because there could be some unintended consequences and and then that child's not getting all that they need to succeed and and all that one other thing and I just I just have to question if and I'm sorry I had asked about how many facilities went out of business and you know, other people are watching while we're
talking and someone has told me that no childcare centers there's actually been56. Can can you clarify the information that that you shared with us saying that there were only6 but we added 26 cause I'm being told
Speaker 22
1:16:46
that there's actually56 was their reason for closing. There are centers that have closed cause they moved. There are centers that have changed their program. their centers that didn't cite funding as an
issue familiesmilies don't want their service every center that has cited a reason for closuring or restructuring. yeah there there's more than just6 in the state but we've had is it maybe 86 or 8 is it 8 I said they're on there's 8 that side it specifically because of the change of funding. OK just always better clarification as to what
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:17:21
you are defining and what you meant. I'm sorry. I was just going to say we are closely watching that
Speaker 15
1:17:31
that's very near and dear to my heart too just look and see what's happening and and I had heard those numbers as well and so when we pulled down the report to the providers that will tell us so there's that caveat but it typically they do tell us why there are they are clo s ing so we have 8 on our list that close because of a funding and I counted in that 8 any type of funding whether it was on our part or their part or you know
Speaker 56
1:17:57
it didn't matter to me just if they had noted funding then
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:18:04
that's what we counted yes ma'am thank you so much and thank you for this dialogue. it is so very important. I know that everybody can say different committees have important things but this is our foundation of so many of our education systems so thank you thank youpresentativeottt
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
1:18:21
thank you. I want to go back to slits because I forgot to ask a question and I just read my notes and realized I had forgotten this. So when we're allocating new slots and I think you said y'all are about to go to the state board about this
issue, am I correct? And remembering that there's been a lot come through what defines need? what defines for each area that they need a new slot or can you can you tell me how y'all define that? yes ma'am. so we look
Speaker 15
1:18:50
at a couple of things first of all we look at enrollment so when we have a site that is requesting more seats we look to see that they were 100% enrolled and that they were maintaining that enrollment so that's the first thing that we look at
then we also look at their county service at at the poverty level to see what percentage of the children
Speaker 32
1:19:14
are being served already within the county and so if the percentage of that is40% or less we try to look to
Speaker 15
1:19:24
see if slots can be moved to that particular area. sometimes that works and sometimes not because sometimes there's not the capacity of that particular area to take on more slides but those
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:19:39
are the things that we look at first. you yes ma'am are there any more questions representative painter not really a question maybe a step I just want to clarify when when I'm talking about making sure that we take care of maybe the double dipping is just I just want to make sure we're being efficient you know and a and and if we're able to take care of their needs but also help other kids and and take down the waitlist. I think we should all be comfortable in
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:20:09
doing that. I think we're on the same page thank you thank you and and I'll just end by
by saying that you have so many people in this room and the rest of the state that are interested in this issue what can we do to help to make sure that we have family and stakeholders and and providers all everybody input having input into some of these issues some of I think some of the things that that we've talked about when other
when the providers or families have been in the room have been fairly simple changes that could could be made obviously I hate the fact that we're looking for grants all over the place to try to fix this that's not stability we've got to figure out a way to make sure that that childcare that early childhood development and the childcare that families need for boosting our economy that that is a stable
environment and so I just I hope that we can that we can still get together frequently to try to see what's going on to figure out where we are. I hope there's a lot of transparency and and accountability and all of these programs so we know what's happening and I hope that you'll lean on us to to try to help figure out I know the commission's involved the commission has a task force that's looking into some of these kinds of things but you've got a room full of people that are are interested enough that
if we could figure out where we could put some more money I have a hope we could find it so what can we do to make sure that we are making this program the best it can be for the most amount of people with the ss with the stability to make sure that everyone knows what's happening that I think that's the frustration in in the providers and the families they just don't know from one day to the next or one month to the next and and I know you guys don't know about funding from one month to the next so what
can we do to fix that and and I think that's the question that that I want answered and certainly willing to do whatever I can do to help make that happen and I know the folks
Speaker 28
1:22:22
in this room are so I'll I'll go first and I think it's a great question and and I think kind of our hope too
Speaker 22
1:22:29
as an agency to even kind of fulfill your inquiries that we do keep this dialogue going because that you know we we get blamed as as the bad people all the time but like we're we're actually trying to do everything we can to support
students and families and be clear and transparent and as much as we feel like we communicate you can never communicate enough right so I I think that's a fair criticism and I think it would be wise of this committee I think this is an early learning committee right like if it's I I think we should have a battle rhythm where as we're meeting we do provide updates even even if the update is no changes from last meeting that it it's just letting everybody know that this is important this is a priority
this is at the forefront. I know like Ashlyn and her team are working with those task force and they're in and they're they wanna help come up with a st t rate g y right at some point that strategy may look like policy and we we may need help down the road if it requires a law change, I do think there's op opportunity to look at federal waivers that may help protect some of these programs and serve more families
and then as we work with our local leads we're we're getting a lot of good information and and and I just always want to make sure people know that we and especially ashton and I am a big believer in this space. I think somebody once told me that and and I don't know if this is true research or not but it was like 90% of brain development starts before kindergarten, but that's less than like 1% of a state budget right like I get it right? I don't I'm not here to to try to close
providers or say they're not doing a good job. we've got folks that are working hard each and every single day to give the best quality learning opportunities and care for children than I've ever seen. I am I have been visiting programs all over the state. We are doing amazing things we're going I promise you we're going to see an increase in kindergarten readiness we're going to continue to see an increase in third grade literacy scores We didn't get here overnight we're not going to get out of here overnight but we've got to
keep this at the forefront because these providers need help the school districts need help the families need access to services and this isn't a one and done conversation so I think as we work with the workforce look at recommendations we should have agency updates like just kind of as our maybe our normal way of work at least through fiscal session and and moving on we're not opposed to that and we may not always have an update or great news but
it keeps his conversation going. we can't let this like fall to the wayside it's too important to get right and I think that's what you're worried
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:25:25
about as well. Exactly exactly thank you so much and I appreciate everything you've done with the commission and with the with the committee I will mention that we have in the past had an early childhood caucus as well and so anybody who's interested let me know and we'll we'll take a look at that as well I think education is just as important as as what we're talking about
with policy and with with everything that's going on so anyway thank you very much for everything you guys have done is there any more business to come before this committee? with that I'll take a motion to adjourn thank you. Second we are adjourned thank you guys
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration of a Motion to Approve the September 30, 2025, Meeting Minutes [Exhibit B]
C. Update on Early Childhood Education
D. Other Business
E. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — EDUCATION - HOUSE EARLY CHILDHOOD SUBCOMMITTEE, Feb 17, 2026 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| EXHIBIT B - Meeting Minutes 9-30-25 | Exhibit | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| HANDOUT C1 - Summary of Survey Responses from SRA Providers | Exhibit | 3 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
Speaker 19
Speaker 22
Speaker 28
Speaker 32
Speaker 35
Speaker 39
Speaker 44
Speaker 45
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 54
Speaker 64
Speaker 62
Speaker 72
Speaker 15
Speaker 50
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
Speaker 33
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Speaker 99
Speaker 21
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
Speaker 30
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
Speaker 92
Speaker 16
Speaker 155
Speaker 56