The Florida's Child magazine is a quarterly magazine written and designed by the Children's Forum. Each issue features information about early childhood including current best practices, technical assistance articles, national and statewide updates, research and policy briefs, and book reviews. Topics for articles are consistent with current trends in child care and research.

Florida's Child is distributed to more than 15,000 readers including early childhood educators, elected officials, child care advocates, business leaders, early learning coalitions and resource and referral agencies.

Cover Story: The Unexpected Journey

Florida’s Central Directory Provides Answers for Parents of Children with Disabilities.

After 11 days in a Miami hospital, the twins were able to go home. Except for not eating as much as their parents and doctors would have liked, everything seemed OK. At 6 months, however, Morelli said she began to notice signs that something was not right. “Erika would not reach and couldn’t move her arms, and Nicholas’ legs were flaccid,” she said. She took them to the Early Steps Program for a screening/evaluation. (Early Steps is administered by the Florida Department of Health/ Children’s Medical Services. It serves Florida’s infants and toddlers ages birth to 36 months with a developmental delay or a condition that places them at risk for a developmental delay.)

It was determined that the twins were 25 percent delayed in physical development — not unusual for premature twins. Their delays made them eligible for occupational and physical therapies.

“We were referred to the local ARC (Association for Retarded Citizens) office for therapy services. The twins also received play therapy in our home,” Morelli said Today, the twins are 2 and are still working through some of their challenges. “Nicholas is now walking and is putting two words together,” Morelli said. “Erika’s speech is even more delayed.

Her physical therapist is working on sensory integration, because she doesn’t like to be touched, has trouble using her arms and won’t eat anything that is too warm or cold.” ...

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Florida’s Child is published quarterly by the Children’s Forum.

The Children's Forum is a private, not-for-profit organization committed to enhancing and improving the quality, affordability, and availability of child care and early education through a broad array of programs, services, and publications. Whether you are a parent, policy maker, early childhood teacher, director, or academician, we invite you to browse our website to learn how we might be able to meet your needs or to learn more about us.

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A FEW MONTHS HAS MADE. IN DECEMBER, THE FLORIDA LEGISLATURE CONVENED IN SPECIAL SESSION TO PASS legislation implementing the constitutionally driven voluntary prekindergarten (VPK) program for Florida’s 4-year-olds. The bill passed by legislators and presented to Governor Bush during the regular 2004 legislative session was vetoed — the governor citing inadequacies in meeting the standards he envisioned for a high-quality program. While admittedly not a perfect bill, legislators tout the passage as a good first step in fulfilling its obligation to meet the mandate of the voters and implement the prekindergarten program by the 2005 school year.

Florida is embarking on an educational experiment. While the evidence affirms the value of high-quality prekindergarten programs on the education of children, we are unique in the planned design and implementation.

Many believe the program should be housed in the Department of Education (DOE), recognizing its importance as a program of value in the educational continuum, rather than managed by the Agency for Workforce Innovation (AWI). That seems logical when thinking of prekindergarten programs provided in traditional public-school settings. However, Florida’s model is structured to provide the widest range of choice by parents in public, private and faith-based settings operating in schools, centers and family child care homes. DOE simply does not possess the infrastructure or capability to start up a voucher program serving as many as 100,000 children in a few short months — nor should a costly duplicative parallel structure have been created.

Only Florida’s child care and school readiness system and its existing infrastructure could accommodate the major systemic demands of VPK in so little time — with some obvious tweaking. Local agencies and coalitions already purchase school readiness services from many of the providers who will most likely offer the VPK program. AWI was the logical choice to provide oversight for daily operations, and DOE assumes an appropriate role in being responsible for the educational components of the program (standards, assessments and curricula). Furthermore, advocates and policy-makers agree that child care and school readiness programs should be co-located with VPK to provide continuity of services as well as build on existing structures and strengths. This collaborative arrangement acknowledges the expertise that resides in DOE and AWI.

The major challenge facing AWI and DOE is becoming operational in less than five months. They have wasted no time from the moment the governor signed the bill into law. While AWI is tasked with framing the administrative structure from the state level, early learning coalitions (formerly school readiness coalitions) are busily engaged in their local communities clarifying and implementing policy requirements, communicating with the public, recruiting eligible early learning VPK providers, providing information for parents and determining whether or not the capacity will exist to meet the demand.

In an environment stressed with deadlines and competing priorities (not to mention the legislative session that will determine the available funding to implement the program), the successful launching of VPK will be nothing short of miraculous. But the field of early learning has miracle workers charged with bringing it to fruition. Under the capable leadership of Susan Pareigis, executive director of AWI; Gladys Wilson, deputy director in the Office of Early Learning; Shan Goff in the Department of Education; and Debbie Russo, director of Child Care Services in the Department of Children and Families (DCF), working in partnership with the early learning coalitions, schools, agencies and providers, Florida’s VPK program will become a reality.

This is a momentous occasion for young children in our state. The field is ripe with opportunity for study and research – a time to earnestly evaluate the most effective delivery models and best practices for achieving the positive outcomes we desire for children.

It is a time of innovation and creativity. We must get it right or stand accused of squandering an incredible opportunity for education reform in our state. Our children deserve better. Actually, they deserve nothing less than our best. Let’s work together to ensure that our best is exactly what they get.

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