Give Cleveland’s children
a strong start.
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PRE4CLE is involved in ongoing advocacy with local, state, and national policymakers and organizations. Please complete the form below if you are interested in supporting these efforts.
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PRE4CLE is funded by a mix of existing and new public and private funds. For those who want to make a lasting impact on Cleveland’s future, PRE4CLE is a wise and meaningful investment. Indisputable research shows a significant return on investment in high-quality early education in the form of reduced remedial education costs, increased school readiness, and reduced dependence on social supports during adulthood. Children who participate in high-quality preschool programs are far more likely to experience greater educational achievements and strive toward higher career goals, contributing to their community as they grow.
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ADVOCACY
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Our Statement on HB 45
OHIO SENATE UNDERMINES PRESCHOOL QUALITY SYSTEM
Last-minute amendment to HB 45 to remove Step Up To Quality requirements, defies year-long bipartisan committee’s work
CLEVELAND, OHIO – In the late hours of Tuesday, December 13, 2022, the Ohio Senate added a last-minute amendment to the appropriations bill (HB 45) that removes the requirement that some publicly funded preschool programs must adhere to Step Up To Quality guidelines that assure a high-quality environment to Ohio’s youngest learners.
Along with the Step Up To Quality changes, the Senate released the $499 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds dedicated to Ohio’s child care system by the federal government. While the system desperately needs these funds to recover from the impacts of the pandemic, the amendment from Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) undermines Ohio’s child care system when working families need it most to get back to work and get the economy back on track. It also ignores the recommendations of a bipartisan committee that has been studying the issue of quality requirements for more than a year and released their final report hours after the HB 45 amendment was passed.
The amendment to the bill – now passed by both House and Senate and set to go to the governor for signature – does the following:
- Step Up To Quality:
- Exempts some child care programs that provide publicly funded child care to less than twenty-five per cent of the program’s licensed capacity from participating in the program
- Exempts home-based child care providers from participating in the program
- Reimbursement Rates:
- Removes the requirement that programs need to maintain their quality rating to maintain their state reimbursement rate
Katie Kelly, PRE4CLE’s Executive Director, said children and families will be most vulnerable to these changes. “The changes made to Step Up To Quality in this amendment do not increase access to quality care; disincentivize child care programs to improve their quality; proactively remove assurances to families that their children will receive a safe, stimulating and educational learning experience; and limit the impact and accountability of Ohio’s child care funding,” Kelly said.
“It also ignores the democratic, bipartisan committee that has worked for more than a year to come up with recommendations on how to improve Ohio’s Step Up To Quality Rating System. We look forward to working with the Governor and legislature during the state budget process to review these changes and their impact on children, families, and Ohio’s workforce,” Kelly continued.
About Ohio’s Step Up To Quality Rating System:
- Ohio’s Step Up To Quality rating system is the seal of approval for early learning programs and makes it easier for parents to identify high-quality preschool
- High-quality preschool programs have well-trained, professional staff and teachers, a research-based curriculum and age-appropriate lesson plans, and educational activities that include creative and imaginative play.
- Children who participate in high-quality preschool programs are four times more likely to graduate from a four-year college and 50 percent more likely to have consistent employment in their late twenties.
The study committee was established by the final version of House Bill 110 – the 2021-22 state budget bill – to evaluate Step Up To Quality (Ohio’s quality rating system) and Ohio’s publicly funded child care program.
About PRE4CLE: PRE4CLE is a collective impact initiative working to expand access to all 3- and 4-year-olds in the city of Cleveland so that every child enters kindergarten ready to succeed. PRE4CLE connects families to high-quality public and private preschool programs; connects preschool providers to tools, resources, and key partners to increase their quality and serve more children; and provides strategic leadership and advocacy to accelerate the availability of high-quality preschool in Cleveland.
PRE4CLE was developed in 2014 to fulfill a core goal of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools and is guided by The Cleveland Early Childhood Compact, a public-private leadership body.
Read the Ideastream coverage here: https://www.ideastream.org/education/2022-12-15/lame-duck-changes-to-preschool-regulations-will-undermine-system-pre4cle-says
- Step Up To Quality:
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2020 Annual Report
This year’s Annual Report, “Preschool Reimagined” details the ways in which early education, like most industries, has been hit hard by COVID-19. Widespread closures, safety concerns, staffing shortages, and changes in parental employment have caused unprecedented disruption within early education, and are threatening the viability of a system that is critical to our community’s ability to recover.
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2019 Annual Report
We are pleased to share the PRE4CLE Annual Report with you. Five years ago, we started with the goal of making high-quality preschool available to every child in Cleveland, a detailed plan on how to get there, and a community committed to that plan’s success. Today, we’re excited that we have increased enrollment in high-quality preschool by 72 percent since 2014! Overall, more than 19,000 children have received a high-quality preschool education since PRE4CLE began.
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Ohio Early Childhood Rankings
This document was created to share with Ohio’s 2018 gubernatorial candidates and shows how Ohio ranks in comparison to the rest of the country on a number of early childhood measures. Download Ohio Early Childhood Rankings.
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2018 Annual Report
PRE4CLE continues to meet and exceed its goals to expand high-quality preschool to all Cleveland children, according to PRE4CLE’s 2018 Annual Report. Thanks to the community investment in the PRE4CLE approach, more Cleveland children than ever before attend high-quality preschools, more neighborhoods have quality options for families, and children enrolled in high-quality preschools are making significant strides in being ready for kindergarten. Download 2018 PRE4CLE Annual Report.
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2018 Gubernatorial Meetings
Over the next few months, PRE4CLE will be meeting with the candidates. You can learn more about these meetings on Facebook and Twitter. The document below outlines our research that shows why high-quality preschool is a smart investment for Ohio’s children and is being provided to all candidates at their meetings. Download 2017 Governor Research.
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First Five Years Fund 2017 National Poll
Political division and polarization have become more extreme, yet one issue unites American voters across party lines: early childhood education.
According to a national poll from the First Five Years Fund, every single early learning proposal tested—including expanding the federal partnership with states and communities through grants to improve access to preschool, tripling the current child care tax credit, and even providing greater funding for programs like Head Start—received overwhelming voter support regardless of partisan affiliation.
In fact, 79% of voters—including 80% of Trump voters and 79% of Clinton voters—want Congress and the administration to work together to improve the quality of child care and preschool, and make it more affordable for parents.
See the results. Visit www.ffyf.org/2017-poll and get all of the results, along with tools that you can use to share them.
Share. Click here for sample Facebook and Twitter content.
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Child Care NOW!
Child Care NOW is a campaign of child care advocates and allies developed by the National Women’s Law Center focused on raising awareness among policymakers and the public about the child care challenges facing America today, including affordability, quality, and provider compensation. Child Care NOW provides tools and resources to a diverse group of stakeholders to take action to elevate child care as a national priority. Together with a community of leaders and allies, Child Care NOW aims to convince policymakers to make a significant financial investment to expand access to high-quality child care, enabling parents to work and giving children access to the high-quality care they need to succeed.
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2016 Annual Report
PRE4CLE made significant strides in the past two years to increase the availability of high-quality preschool in Cleveland neighborhoods and the number of children enrolled in those preschool seats. This second annual report outlines these accomplishments.
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Groundwork Ohio Case for Support 2017
Our partners at Groundwork Ohio have put together a 1-pager to illustrate the importance of investing in high-quality early education. Download Case for Support.
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2018-2019 Budget Priorities
PRE4CLE is currently advocating for our priorities to be included in the state’s budget. Download 2018-2019 Budget Priorities.
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PRE4CLE for Policymakers
This resource helps policymakers understand the importance of preschool and what PRE4CLE is doing to support preschool in Cleveland. Download PRE4CLE for Policymakers.
VOLUNTEER
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PRE4CLE Brochure
This brochure serves as a general overview of PRE4CLE. If you are interested in having someone from PRE4CLE present to a group, please fill out the volunteer form or email info@pre4cle.org. Download P4C Brochure.
