georgia partnership for excellence in education 2014 media symposium bobby cagle, msw

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and LearningBright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learningwww.decal.ga.govwww.decal.ga.gov

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and LearningBright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learningwww.decal.ga.govwww.decal.ga.gov 2

Created by State Legislature in 2004

Merged Office of School Readiness with units from Department of Education, Department of Human Resources, and Georgia Child Care Council

One of only three agencies of its kind in the nation focused on children ages birth to five


Georgia’s Pre-K Program Licensing and regulation of child care programs Federal Child Care and Development Fund including Georgia's CAPS ProgramFederal Nutrition Programs Quality RatedHead Start State Collaboration Office Oversight of Georgia Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies

Bobby Cagle

This slide needs to be condensed. Too wordy...


HEALTH & SAFETY – Promote safe and healthy early care and learning programs

QUALITY – Improve quality of early care and learning programs

ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE – Foster organizational excellence through stakeholder engagement, enterprise solutions, and workforce development


New state law requires all employees of Georgia’s approximately 6,000 child care facilities to undergo national fingerprint-based background checks. Law requires all new employees hired on or after January 1, 2014, to have satisfactory national background checks based on fingerprints, not just a name search of Georgia records.Existing employees hired before January 1, 2014, will have until 2017 to meet the requirement, unless they move to a new child care facility.


Georgia is one of six states awarded funding through the Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC).

Georgia was awarded $51.7 million to be used over a four-year period, the highest amount awarded among the six grants.Impacts not just individual students and families but also the state’s future workforce and economy.


Georgia’s application focused on four specific strategies:

Access to high quality opportunitiesInvestment in early childhood educators and high quality programsIntegration across programs and servicesMeasurement and data capacity expanded


Examples of Projects:Increase Quality Rated Access and AvailabilityQuality Rated ValidationInvestments in Early Education Workforce

Intensive Training on new Early Learning and Development StandardsScholarships to improve educational qualification

Kindergarten Entry AssessmentStatewide Family Engagement and Community GrantsFurther development of Unified Data System


Georgia has three months to submit Scopes of Work with specific deliverables and milestones. Federal DOE and HHS have three months to approve the Scopes of Work.Georgia can begin expending funds (up to 10%) before the Scopes of Work are approved.DECAL will work with each participating agency to finalize agency scopes of work, interagency agreements, and budgets.


Governor’s OfficeGovernor’s Office of Children and FamiliesGovernor’s Office of Student AchievementGeorgia Department of Community AffairsGeorgia Department of Economic DevelopmentGeorgia Department of EducationGeorgia Department of Public HealthGeorgia Public Broadcasting


Georgia’s voluntary system to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early care and education programsCurrently, 293 rated programs with 1,290 programs participatingIn November, 2013, hosted 73 of state’s top child care programs at a conference at Lake Lanier Islands. The three-star programs included 35 child care centers, 36 family day care homes, and two group day care homes.

georgia partnership for excellence in education 2014 media symposium bobby cagle, msw

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