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Connecting Hope is a production of the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Join us as we explore the people, policies, and programs that bridge the gap from hopelessness to hope for Mississippians, young and old.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the Mississippi Department of Human Services. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. The "Mississippi Department of Human Services" name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.
Connecting Hope (Information Session 5) Transcript
00;00;00;01 - 00;00;37;01
Mark Jones
Hello and welcome to connecting Hope. I'm excited to bring Doctor Chad Allgood of the Division of Early Childhood Care and Development back for an information session regarding two new programs that we're bringing to the state of Mississippi to enhance child care in Mississippi. First is our Mississippi Lift, which stands for Learning Investment for tomorrow. It's an expansion of our resource referral sites from 16 to over 50 across the state of Mississippi to better support child care providers and provide resources to families in every community across the state.
00;00;37;03 - 00;01;14;12
Mark Jones
We will also be talking about the new Elevate Quality support system that will provide consumer education to parents and grandparents needing child care, as well as provide growth and enhancement of services to child care providers across the state of Mississippi. We're excited for how in DHS is serving the childcare industry and providing a strong childcare industry for today, enhancing the growth of children for tomorrow.
00;01;14;14 - 00;01;26;00
Mark Jones
Welcome back, Doctor Allgood, and thank you for taking time to share with us some of the great new programs and expansion of programs that are taking place in child care in Mississippi.
00;01;26;02 - 00;01;26;20
Dr. Chad Allgood
Thanks for having me.
00;01;27;13 - 00;01;59;23
Mark Jones
So let's start, as we've talked in previous sessions about the requirement of the Division of Early Childhood Care and Development to provide quality supports. That is a federally mandated level that you have to maintain budgets budget wise. But beyond that, it's it's the effort to support the child care industry as a whole and develop a cohesive relationship between our state agency and the child care, business.
00;01;59;23 - 00;02;10;23
Mark Jones
So let's talk a little bit about quality supports and remind people why we why we do them. And then we'll move into the kind of talking about the expansion of these two programs.
00;02;10;25 - 00;02;38;26
Dr. Chad Allgood
Sure. So it's it's no secret that our division. We do support families with childcare, tuition assistance. And we've talked about that at length before. But also a big part of what our division does is just what you said. It's all about boosting the quality of early childhood education. Mississippi does not have a dedicated Office of Childcare, a dedicated office of Early childhood that serves the birth to five realm.
00;02;38;29 - 00;02;59;15
Dr. Chad Allgood
But for all intents and purposes, MDS through the Division of Early Childhood Care and Development is, in fact, that, a lot of the work that we do around quality, it is driven by federal requirements, of the funding that we get from the feds. We're required to spend 12% on quality improvement. And we do that.
00;02;59;17 - 00;03;30;23
Dr. Chad Allgood
But the feds do give us some flexibilities about what that looks like. And one of the things that we've tried to be very intentional as as we're working to boost quality, we've tried to make sure that we are including our childcare, practitioners, our child care providers, and then also the families that utilize child care, giving them a voice, getting giving them a seat at the table, at the development of those initiatives that are aimed at, at us offering the best possible care and education for our children.
00;03;30;28 - 00;04;09;20
Mark Jones
So you alluded to relationships, I think, as we talk about in depth in a few moments about the new resource of referral, the expansion of those those programs, but also the new quality support, system. What I've been impressed with is what you referenced discussing and building these components and expanding them, not in a linear case of things coming down from a state agency, but it's been a deliberate purpose from you to involve and really take guidance so that it trickles up to you to design a program that benefits.
00;04;09;23 - 00;04;10;18
Mark Jones
Let's talk about that.
00;04;10;20 - 00;04;41;11
Dr. Chad Allgood
So a former mentor of mine, former boss and mentor of mine, she always talked about how important it is to drive work to communities. We can develop policy at the state level. We can do things at this level. But the magic is what goes on that day in at the community level. And again, it's very important that we not dictate to communities what their needs are and how to respond to those needs.
00;04;41;14 - 00;05;02;09
Dr. Chad Allgood
So it's very important that, you know, we say, okay, listen, this is what we're required to do at the federal level. This is where the flexibilities are. Let's have a conversation about what your community needs are. Let's talk about what child care looks like in your respective area. And then let's talk about how we can adapt, the programing to meet the specific needs.
00;05;02;09 - 00;05;22;04
Dr. Chad Allgood
Because even in Mississippi, which were a relatively small state, you know, we're very rural state, but even so, the characteristics of the different regions of Mississippi look different. And the needs of our child care providers, the needs of our families are different in those different regions. And if we apply just a one size fits all model, it's not going to work.
00;05;22;07 - 00;05;53;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
And, you know, you talk about the resource and referral network, which I'm very happy to say that in the last three years we have expanded the the footprint of those sites from 16, and we're now at 46 sites, and we're going to open a few more before this year's over. And what's so wonderful about those resource and referral sites is a they are, they are overseen by people that actually live and work in the communities that they are located.
00;05;53;07 - 00;06;13;09
Dr. Chad Allgood
The people that work at the resource, referrals often are people that have grown up in that community. They know the people. They know the resources. You know, they know the families. And it is about, you know, when a family comes in, and that's the family that, that, that, that the, the staff there, that resource referral have established a relationship with.
00;06;13;12 - 00;06;31;13
Dr. Chad Allgood
So again, it gets back to building and growing community, because at the end of the day, when we talk about child development and we talk about nurturing and growing children, it does, in fact take a village, as the saying goes. And in this case, it's rallying the village around what the needs are of the children in, in those in those different areas.
00;06;31;13 - 00;06;59;05
Mark Jones
So it's not just about supporting in, in a resource referral center. And we'll go specifically into resource referral because that's what we're going to talk about. The expansion Mississippi lift first. It's listening to the people that are organically entrenched within these communities to know what are the specific needs of their individual customer that may come in. It's a strong customer service module that y'all have created specifically.
00;06;59;06 - 00;07;26;17
Mark Jones
I was impressed when we went to record some information in Tupelo. As the staff were coming in or as, childcare providers were coming in, they were communicating specifically on what their needs were. But then there were families coming in, homeschool families. There were, families of special needs children coming in, and there were adaptable services for each one of those publics as they come in.
00;07;26;17 - 00;07;38;21
Mark Jones
So let's talk about how these answers have been designed and to some extent, where they've been strategically placed, even utilizing some statewide partners that are already there in the community to be stronger as well.
00;07;38;23 - 00;08;12;08
Dr. Chad Allgood
So the resource for referral, you know, you basically described it, they the vision there is that they are going to be hubs for activity around children and it's, you know, it's our hope that not just child care, although we definitely want our child care folks to utilize those, those sites, the resources that are there. But families, parents can come in with their children, homeschool parents can come in with their children, but, teachers that are working in the public school system, they are more than welcome to come in and utilize the resources as well.
00;08;12;08 - 00;08;38;29
Dr. Chad Allgood
It's really it's a it's a it's a community center and we call it resource. And referral because there are resources. But then we also want different organizations that are in the community to get involved. So anyone that comes into a resource and referral site that's connected to a child and has a need, we can basically just gift wrap, for lack of a better way of saying it, help for them, whatever it might look like.
00;08;39;04 - 00;08;57;19
Dr. Chad Allgood
And it could be as as simple as, you know, hey, their kid wants to check out a new toy to try out all the way to you know, let's help them find, you know, if the parent is is looking for employment, let's connect you, you know, with the resource that can help you there or whatever. You know, the families might need.
00;08;57;21 - 00;09;20;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
The expansion piece of that was very important also because when we talk about early childhood education, when we talk about what children need, often when I have conversation, conversations with people, you try to describe it. But until people actually see the types of activities that we're talking about, sometimes it's hard to kind of make those connections.
00;09;20;07 - 00;09;39;04
Dr. Chad Allgood
But when folks walk into a resource and referral boom, the lights come on, they're like, oh, I get it now. You know, it, it makes sense. And the Mississippi Lift Project and, Mississippi Lift, it stands for Learning Investment for tomorrow. It's exactly what we're trying to do. We're investing in children because children are the tomorrow.
00;09;39;06 - 00;09;40;05
Mark Jones
Yes.
00;09;40;07 - 00;10;07;03
Dr. Chad Allgood
And without without us investing in our children. Mississippi's future is not going to look too bright. And so that's the whole. The whole premise behind the Mississippi Lift project was to strengthen Mississippi's early childhood system as a whole. But we knew that one of the first steps of that was to create a physical presence in communities, which is why the expansion of the resource and referral was the first piece of that.
00;10;07;05 - 00;10;27;12
Dr. Chad Allgood
And we could have all we could have done that internally. We could have done that. You know, we could have gone out there and done it ourselves. But we would not have seen the, the, the buy in. And I like to call it the magic because you just feel it. You know, when you go into one of the sites.
00;10;27;14 - 00;10;53;23
Dr. Chad Allgood
And so we partnered with, community organizations in the Delta area. We partnered with the Delta Health Alliance. They've done a tremendous job of setting up sites in the Delta area. And then we also partnered with Mississippi State Extension Service. Extension service has, has a very robust history in community involvement. Early childhood education is one of the pillars of extension's programing.
00;10;53;25 - 00;11;13;23
Dr. Chad Allgood
They've made that very clear. They've been a longstanding partner of, you know, aimed at serving children in the past. We also work with the University of Mississippi. We work with, the University of Southern Mississippi. And I think we might talk about specifically that, those two resource, referrals. You in a little bit.
00;11;13;23 - 00;11;41;02
Dr. Chad Allgood
Yes. But those are geared at serving children that have special needs. And then, we're very excited that we're about to partner with Jackson State University to open a new resource, referral on campus there as well. All of these partners, they all have perspectives, expertise, backgrounds that do nothing but strengthen the services that we can provide at the resources and referrals.
00;11;41;04 - 00;12;09;02
Dr. Chad Allgood
And, you know, we meet with them regularly to say, hey, how's it going? You know, what are your thoughts about how can we make things better and, Mark, I mean, time and time again, those partners are stepping up to the table to serve these families, to serve these children in ways that I never. And I'm getting chills thinking about it, because when I go into a resource room referral and I see just the just the, the excitement that's there, I mean, it really, it's inspiring.
00;12;09;07 - 00;12;17;21
Dr. Chad Allgood
It's very inspiring. And I feel like through these partnerships, we are truly starting to make a difference in within those within those communities.
00;12;17;23 - 00;12;48;01
Mark Jones
So within those communities, number one in Mississippi, we don't have the most robust public transportation systems available. We, transportation and mobility for many people, no matter what community they're in to get. At the point we had only 16, that meant that people had to travel across multiple county lines to get to the old model of 16 answers, and it was a great effort to be there.
00;12;48;04 - 00;13;14;22
Mark Jones
But knowing that each community's trajectory is in the success of the answer is determined by that community. As you as you've laid out having and or and or a little closer in proximity to someone's home, especially working with Delta Health Alliance and Mississippi State to hit some underserved, childcare deserts, to maybe be a little more present in the some rural areas.
00;13;14;24 - 00;13;19;13
Mark Jones
That's really been one of y'all's deliberate purposes as well in this expansion.
00;13;19;15 - 00;13;44;08
Dr. Chad Allgood
Yes. And, you know, I would love to see a resource in from in every county. Yeah. You know, at some point that's kind of really it's a long term goal of that program. In the meantime we have those stationary sites. And then in addition to the 46 stationary sites where, we also have for mobile resource, referral units, and they are geared up and they just like, you know, they have the same types of resources.
00;13;44;11 - 00;14;06;04
Dr. Chad Allgood
Children can come on board. There's learning to ways that they can check out. There's materials that teachers can make, things, you know, for their classroom. And again, it's not just child care teachers. Yeah. That's teachers that work in, you know, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade on up. I mean, sky's the limit. And those, those mobile units can go out to those more remote areas where we don't have a stationary site.
00;14;06;06 - 00;14;32;06
Mark Jones
So to that point, you know, childcare affects every community. I cannot wait to see Mississippi Live taken to the four corners of Mississippi. Great work there. But talk about when they show up to that van and it in, in their community or they have that answer open in their community when they open those doors, what's what can they get?
00;14;32;09 - 00;14;45;01
Mark Jones
What does it cost? I think people are going to be shocked, I believe at that answer. And again, who the audience is. We've already mentioned that. But who are our audiences that are they're allowed to come in there, right.
00;14;45;03 - 00;15;15;26
Dr. Chad Allgood
So when they go in, first thing that they that should happen is they will be greeted by the staff that are there. We want everyone to feel welcome. Yes. And because that that is I mean, that these these sites are for the people that visit. Plain and simple. So they'll be greeted by someone, that that works there at the resource, referral, that is there to answer questions to help guide them because the resource referral is multifaceted in the services that they can offer.
00;15;15;29 - 00;15;34;17
Dr. Chad Allgood
When they walk in, some things that they're going to see, they're going to see a very bright, colorful environment. They're going to see shelves of learning toys, books, other learning resources, all of which, by the way, they can check out absolutely free.
00;15;34;20 - 00;15;35;10
Mark Jones
Right?
00;15;35;12 - 00;15;37;11
Dr. Chad Allgood
Yeah, absolutely free at no charge.
00;15;37;12 - 00;15;41;20
Mark Jones
We need to put a big flashing sign on there. Free, right?
00;15;41;22 - 00;16;08;16
Dr. Chad Allgood
Yeah. Absolutely free. So, and these are high quality materials. These this is not, I mean, these are these are very high quality learning materials, and we make sure that we keep all of them outfitted, for that purpose. And these are not just materials for little kids. Young children. There are there are plenty of resources for infants, toddlers, three year olds, four year olds.
00;16;08;19 - 00;16;29;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
But we also have afterschool things. So, summer camps that are looking for things that they can use, they can go in, we have indoor and outdoor things, materials, toys that are, that are present. And it's all organized by age group in my category. So it's relatively easy, you know, to find what you need.
00;16;29;07 - 00;16;49;09
Dr. Chad Allgood
And if you, if you're not sure if you, if you what you're looking for, you can ask the person that's there and they will help you. In addition to the materials, we also have, areas where teachers can make things, for their classrooms. So we have, we have activity guides that have curriculum resources.
00;16;49;12 - 00;17;15;24
Dr. Chad Allgood
Teachers can make copies of things, within reason, of course. But, the, the activity guides have examples of activities that teachers can do. Then we have, craft paper, construction paper, butcher paper, laminator, copying machines, arts and crafts supplies. We have, glue, scissors, all, you name it. We have all of that that teachers can use, we call it and make and take care.
00;17;15;24 - 00;17;34;21
Dr. Chad Allgood
Yeah. So they make it, and then they take it. They make it, they make what they need, and then they take it to where they need where they need it. So back to their classrooms. But again, you know, families can make things. Actually, there was a there was a mother. I heard that she went in and she made her family's, chore chart, you know, for for their family.
00;17;34;25 - 00;18;04;25
Dr. Chad Allgood
So, I mean, you know, that's that's, that's great as well. And again, all of that's no charge. So, and then the other thing, the, the, the resource, referrals offer is the referrals to other services. So when, when a family or child care provider or whomever walks in, whoever is working at the resource, referral, they are prepared to to offer information on other services that that the families or whoever, whoever visits might benefit from.
00;18;04;28 - 00;18;30;04
Mark Jones
So specifically two referrals. You mentioned we may touch on the special needs pieces from Ole Miss and USM. Let's go straight to there. Before we we came on, we were talking specifically about early intervention and maybe some wording or behavioral issues. You and I've had many conversations and you've enlightened me as a father and his grandfather just how important early intervention is.
00;18;30;04 - 00;18;53;03
Mark Jones
And these resource referral centers, as we talk about them, make sure that we we highlight while this partner, some of the partnerships may be with you with Ole Miss in North Mississippi and us in in South Mississippi, these resource referral centers are trained to make sure they're reconnecting. No matter what part of the state. You are correct. So let's talk about maybe, referral specifically for special needs, a Usman Ole Miss.
00;18;53;03 - 00;19;42;04
Dr. Chad Allgood
Yes. So one of the things that we do, we we work with the University of Southern Mississippi, and we find the Mississippi Early Childhood Inclusion Center. I'm calling in ECAC for short. So doctor Alicia Westbrook and her team with Maxey, they are they are rockstars at Early Intervention. The purpose of that program is to really work, work with child care providers, child care teachers, but also parents that have children with special needs, giving them, helping them understand what early intervention is because it can be very scary, especially for a parent that may be experiencing or seeing their child experiencing something that may be a developmental delay or
00;19;42;06 - 00;20;07;01
Dr. Chad Allgood
a physical, you know, a physical thing that needs to be addressed, it can be very scary. It makes these folks they help take the fear out of that. They, they can help educate on early intervention, but they also offer free developmental screenings. And we do that across the state at the resource, referral sites. Where families can bring children in and they will be screened free of charge.
00;20;07;01 - 00;20;36;11
Dr. Chad Allgood
It's the confidentiality is maintained throughout. And if, if it, if it, does look like the child does need assistance based on the results of that screening, it makes it they will help route that family to services that they may use. Some of those services can be provided there directly at the resource from referral. Sometimes it's just simply, a certain type of learning, adaptation that needs to take place.
00;20;36;14 - 00;20;46;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
But then also, you know, they can route the family to if there's, if they do need more intensive early intervention services, you know, they, they will provide that as well.
00;20;46;05 - 00;21;00;11
Mark Jones
So to circle back to that, if even though in the is based in Hattiesburg, they're traveling across the state. So someone in Clarksdale, someone in Corinth or Tupelo doesn't have to drive five hours down to the.
00;21;00;11 - 00;21;25;24
Dr. Chad Allgood
So MSFC itself is located in Hattiesburg. But Doctor Westbrook has specialists all across the state. And these are not people that live in Hattiesburg and travel. These are people that live in their respective areas. So again, they know their communities. They know their services. They get to know the families that live there because they themselves are residents in those in those communities.
00;21;25;27 - 00;21;33;12
Dr. Chad Allgood
So yeah, even though Max is its headquartered, you know, in Hattiesburg, the program reaches statewide, as do all.
00;21;33;12 - 00;21;52;19
Mark Jones
Of our partners. And that's an important piece that we want. Again, it goes back to the expansion of the number or number of answers, but embedding them with people that are experts in certain certain specializations, not just finding someone who knows and is an expert in the child care industry, but also in a piece of helping a child develop.
00;21;52;21 - 00;22;01;16
Mark Jones
And to that point, how important and just take this moment shortly, how important is that early intervention piece?
00;22;01;18 - 00;22;31;15
Dr. Chad Allgood
It's critical early intervention. Again, it can be scary, but it cannot be ignored. The sooner you know, the sooner we can identify if a child has a developmental delay, a physical delay, the sooner we can address it. It is incredible how quickly we can help that child overcome whatever that issue might be. It's one of the things, you know, again, children, even if children are a child, is not necessarily exhibiting something.
00;22;31;19 - 00;22;49;27
Dr. Chad Allgood
Getting those developmental screenings is very important because it may be something that may be overlooked. And, you know, if we can go ahead the earlier that we can identify what assistance that child needs and give that child that assistance, the much better, the much easier it's going to be on that child to adapt to whatever that is.
00;22;50;00 - 00;23;00;06
Dr. Chad Allgood
And we can set them on a trajectory for success. So, yeah, can't ignore it. It's, it's critical to get that early intervention as soon as possible.
00;23;00;06 - 00;23;26;22
Mark Jones
So if you're, if, if you're wondering about, whether it's the early intervention component or just the locations of the answer or exactly what again, Mississippi Lift is a beautiful website. Is being rolled out, for Mississippi Lift. Anything else you want to talk about? About Mississippi Lift and especially that growth of of R&R, of the answer centers or any encouragement to those that are listening to utilize these services.
00;23;26;24 - 00;23;51;01
Dr. Chad Allgood
I just think that, you know, the other thing to mention is, even though, you know, Mississippi Live, we've designed these these things, and again, done so, with the with the voice of our community partners, the work is not done. Yeah. Another thing that that we know about early childhood is we have to constantly be looking at ways we can adapt the way that we're meeting children where they are.
00;23;51;03 - 00;24;19;04
Dr. Chad Allgood
And so, just as you know, we have these programs in place, but, they're not they're not static. It's a very dynamic process. And that, you know, as we continue to offer these services, as we continue to expand, we're also going to continue to find ways to improve and do better. And, if a, you know, if a if anyone has the opportunity to go in and visit an aunt or if they see something that's not meeting their needs or if they have a suggestion, speak up.
00;24;19;07 - 00;24;44;22
Dr. Chad Allgood
Yeah. You know, tell the people there, hey, everything here is great, but I would love to see this. And we will make sure you know, that that goes up the chain because that that feedback loop is going to be very important because like I said, as as Mississippi lift takes off, and as we continue to, you know, to, to move forward, we want to continue to make sure that we're getting all, all of that.
00;24;44;22 - 00;24;50;27
Dr. Chad Allgood
Right. You know, that we're and that we're being responsive to all the, all the, as many of the needs as we possibly can.
00;24;50;27 - 00;25;32;25
Mark Jones
I mean, I love the commitment that not only did you build a program that was informed, but you're keeping a program that is committed to staying informed and adapting. In many cases, what we see coming out of many government entities is a very rigid process. But, number one, you're being flexible. It's fluid. But it's also mainly been relational and, I think seeing that that approach, just hearing already comments from the childcare industry at different hearings, their extremely appreciative and, and building lift in this way also has helped you build what we're going to talk about next.
00;25;32;28 - 00;25;54;03
Mark Jones
In one thing I want to highlight as we come out of the the lift, we are also going to have some social media links to the lift on our, sites, because we're going to be publishing each one of those sites host events each month. Some of them may be, relevant to a reading time. 1st May just be an arts and craft time.
00;25;54;03 - 00;26;20;27
Mark Jones
But those events are geared to build a stronger child care community and collaboration amongst even parents within those communities. So follow those social media accounts, get connected to those because it's the primarily primary way across the state that we're going to be announcing the local events that impact those local communities. So, along those lines, you talked about that conversation to build a stronger lift program, but there's a new program.
00;26;20;27 - 00;26;55;06
Mark Jones
And to be honest, I'm extremely excited about this. Quality support kind of takes on, I think sometime you can see it as a, as a, a misnomer that it's Big brother overlooking someone's shoulder. So we'll, we'll what we're going to do is, is talk about how, again, you and your team listened and took and, and really allow the childcare industry to take, ship of, of guiding you to something that becomes very strong consumer support.
00;26;55;09 - 00;27;23;11
Mark Jones
It supports the enhancement of the development of teachers and childcare providers themselves, but also provides parents information to make informed decision. What are the services that this entity, what are their ratings? In terms of four star now the quality support system, is it rating what I love is it tells you these are the items that a that a child care center is specializing and they've taken some extra steps.
00;27;23;11 - 00;27;29;07
Mark Jones
So let's talk about child quality support and what it isn't. And but most importantly what it is.
00;27;29;14 - 00;28;07;29
Dr. Chad Allgood
When you talk about quality in early childhood education, being able to really know what that is, it's difficult because quality is a very subjective term. What what is quality to one person may not be quality to another person. And so how do you really create a system, a that helps childcare providers make their programs better without taking away the special things that they can offer those those adaptive pieces that are so critical, but then also helps families find a program that will meet their needs.
00;28;08;05 - 00;28;33;12
Dr. Chad Allgood
Because no two families have the same needs, no two children have the same, same needs. As a nation, we have tried to tackle this issue of child care quality in a lot of different ways. Historically, states have used what we call quality rating improvement systems, and it just stands for that. A program is rated based on some some scale, some measurement.
00;28;33;15 - 00;29;03;25
Dr. Chad Allgood
They would receive a score. Yeah. And then the idea is the higher the score the better quality program that, that, that that child care center represents the issue is when you merge all of these different pieces into a single score, into a single, rating. Yeah. You lose the nuances that are very important to families. The the information that families really need to know to find a program that's going to be well suited for their child.
00;29;03;27 - 00;29;39;17
Dr. Chad Allgood
So what we did was we we took a nod from the policy equity group, their national center, and they talked about breaking down the components of a quality rating improvement system into developing something that is more suited to informing families of what quality early childhood education should look like, but then in turn, also helps our early childhood programs themselves identify their pieces and help them identify what needs to be strengthened and gets away from that one size fits all model.
00;29;39;19 - 00;30;06;18
Dr. Chad Allgood
So what we've done is in place of a rating system where we're not going to issue a star rating or a, you know, red ribbon, blue ribbon, whatever. We are using a badging system and it's a multi-tiered badging system. And we, we are going to issue the badges based on what is most important in early childhood, building on a good foundation, and then taking it from there.
00;30;06;20 - 00;30;30;24
Dr. Chad Allgood
So we're in we're currently in year one of the rollout of Q of our of our new system, and we don't even call it a quality rating improvement system. We're calling it a quality support system. And, you know, we say that with the quality support system, we're giving our child care community the support they need, but also helping them get the recognition that they deserve.
00;30;30;27 - 00;30;51;02
Dr. Chad Allgood
And so with the quality support system, because we are going to support them every step of the way. So we're in year one. Right now, child care providers are registering, to earn their first badge. The first badge focuses on interaction between the teachers and the children, because that is the that is the keystone early childhood education.
00;30;51;09 - 00;31;17;13
Dr. Chad Allgood
It all gets down to interaction. Teacher child interaction is the most critical component. So the first badge focuses on that. We are using a nationally, a nationally recognized scale. It's called the classroom assessment scoring system. And even though it is an assessment, again, providers are not going to be scored against each other. They will either they'll meet the criteria for the badge or they won't.
00;31;17;16 - 00;31;35;16
Dr. Chad Allgood
And then when we get into year two, we're going to roll out what we call fundamental badges. And the fundamental badges are based on the specific needs of children across the age spectrum. So there will be an infant badge, a toddler badge, a preschool badge, a school age badge, and then an early inclusion badge at that level.
00;31;35;19 - 00;31;55;09
Dr. Chad Allgood
And what we're doing is we're taking that interaction to the next level. Okay. We understand that teacher child interaction is important, but then how do we specialize those interactions in the classroom based on what the, the developmental needs are of the children? Starting in infancy and as they get older,
00;31;55;11 - 00;32;22;05
Mark Jones
You mentioned that it's going to start even within that system. It helps them identify something that they, you know, this may be missing. I can correct this and then I can still attain. So it's not you didn't get this. Oh it's over. They can come back and and work to attain again. It's it's providing a stronger child care entity to a local community.
00;32;22;07 - 00;32;29;05
Mark Jones
Right. And they also and it gives them something that they can brag about and, and use to build a stronger business.
00;32;29;12 - 00;32;51;16
Dr. Chad Allgood
We want our we want our child care providers to take ownership of of of the process. And that's why we've involved them heavily in the development of it. And we'll continue to develop, you know, involve them as we again, continue to focus on the development of the of the of the system as we move on into year two and then year three and then, you know, so forth and so on.
00;32;51;18 - 00;33;16;04
Dr. Chad Allgood
It's very important that the people that are in the classroom, the teachers, the, the childcare directors that are overseeing the program, it's very important that they also adopt a vision for where they want to go, you know, within their programs and with with our new access, by the way, we're calling it elevate. Yes. Because just like with lifts, elevate is all about preparing our children to soar.
00;33;16;07 - 00;33;42;24
Dr. Chad Allgood
Yeah. And, so elevate is designed, to be very flexible. It's designed to meet childcare programs where they are, help them identify their strengths. Yes, but also help them identify areas that potentially, there's some improvement that may be needed. But then allowing them to also pivot, it doesn't it doesn't concrete them in into one specific pathway.
00;33;42;24 - 00;34;08;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
And as their as they're going to navigate through the badging system, they can earn as many of those badges as they want to be on the first one. The first one is required of all, but these others, and it allows them to essentially build a profile that highlights the specialized care and education that they can provide. And then when parents go on the website and they see the badges, you know, they will get to see, what are the what are the specializations that a program offers.
00;34;08;10 - 00;34;15;15
Dr. Chad Allgood
And with each of the badges, there are things that programs will have to do to show proficiency, you know, in those in those different areas.
00;34;15;18 - 00;34;39;26
Mark Jones
So essentially in in one community you have may have a child care center, ABC, you have childcare center, 123 childcare center. ABC may realize that they could they've got a part of the market, a niche of the market that a lot of the young babies are coming to them. And so they may want to focus more on that specialization towards infancy.
00;34;39;28 - 00;34;52;09
Mark Jones
And this over here, it helps provide a more robust services across community. So you don't have maybe some direct competition. And maybe they support each other in those programs as well.
00;34;52;09 - 00;35;17;05
Dr. Chad Allgood
Right. We're not pitting child care providers against each other. Because, you know, and that's another thing that's really needed in, in our, amongst our child care community is cohesion. And, you know, a sense of collegiality because all of these different programs, you know, if they start looking at it in the way that you just described, they will realize that they can support each other and build each other up rather than try to tear each other down.
00;35;17;08 - 00;35;48;13
Dr. Chad Allgood
And again, that's not why that's that's why, you know, using the badging system. We're not saying this child care center is in is better than one or vice versa. What we are able to because, I mean, in actuality, that is, that's a very biased perspective, very subjective. Again, because what what is quality to you may not be quality to me specifically, but what we are doing is we're breaking down that rating into those respective pieces and saying, okay, this is what this program excels in.
00;35;48;13 - 00;36;08;21
Dr. Chad Allgood
Yeah. And this program may be more geared to work with younger children, and then this program may be better geared to work with after school children. And then when we go to year three, which will be specialization badges, we're going to get even into even more nuance pieces that parents might be interested in. And we can talk about that at a later.
00;36;08;21 - 00;36;37;21
Mark Jones
Date, I think, when we're ready to launch year three. This is such a long process. What I do love is the idea that not only we're we're preparing the sub children to soar, but we are literally improving the trajectory of moving child care to a higher level of awareness and support for building a stronger educational environment. A stronger social, emotional, support from parents and the community.
00;36;37;24 - 00;36;43;24
Mark Jones
It's all geared to truly elevate and lift up Mississippi's children and families.
00;36;44;02 - 00;37;08;20
Dr. Chad Allgood
I'm going to hit you with a statistic. Yeah. We have 14,000 individuals that work in childcare programs. That's our teachers, that's our directors, that's cooks. You know, whatever. I've worked in this industry for a long time, and I've had the privilege of working alongside people that are in these childcare programs. They don't get the credit they deserve.
00;37;08;20 - 00;37;30;22
Dr. Chad Allgood
Yeah. Childcare does not get the credit that it is ours. It is. It is an industry that is I mean, it's relatively new. When you think about a service industry, the idea of child care itself is, is relatively new. You know, it really took off in the 70s, and then in the 80s it really took off.
00;37;30;24 - 00;37;55;08
Dr. Chad Allgood
But then it was in it was in the late 90s, in 2000, when this whole idea of adding the education piece to the care piece came along. You cannot refute what what research tells us. And I'm not just talking about what we call soft science. I'm talking about hard neuroscience. We have literally mapped the brain, you know, from infancy in in those first few years of life.
00;37;55;10 - 00;38;24;12
Dr. Chad Allgood
And that's when the most learning takes place. That's when the brain starts to get hard wired for how it's going to work in the future. And if we don't nurture those brains in those first few years of life, they're still are going to have a much more difficult time being successful in the future. We cannot overemphasize the importance of investing in child care, which, again, is why we took on the acronym Lift learning Investment for tomorrow.
00;38;24;15 - 00;38;50;16
Dr. Chad Allgood
You cannot overstate how much we've overlooked child care up until now. And, you know, I think finally it is, you know, there is a lot of attention on this industry, but I would challenge people that are relatively new to child care, whether it's a policymaker, if it's a parent, a new parent, whomever. Listen, listen to what experts in the industry.
00;38;50;16 - 00;39;28;25
Dr. Chad Allgood
And I'm not talking about myself. Listen to what a child care to a child care director is saying. Listen to what your child's teacher is saying. Pay attention, you know, to to what? What child care and education really is. And think about how much better it could be if we started to really, really invest, if we started to really think about how vital child care is, and we gave it the place at the table that it needs to be, not sitting on the floor.
00;39;29;00 - 00;39;31;04
Dr. Chad Allgood
Yeah. At the table.
00;39;31;06 - 00;40;01;00
Mark Jones
Listening to those who are embedded in it every day. And a conversation starts with two ears. It doesn't start with the mouth. That's right. And listening even to our children, to see, even as they get older, talk about their memories. I've heard about children so many times, they they were privileged to go to a university lab school, where we, as parents, were challenged to be involved in our own children's lives.
00;40;01;03 - 00;40;21;21
Mark Jones
That's what you're talking about. And that's why the availability of our in our center and encouraging families to be engaged, no matter what the age of their children are in those answers, but also to have these consumer support sides where we will be dropping these badges on websites, we're going to make them, I believe we're going to make them available to each of the centers.
00;40;21;21 - 00;40;39;14
Mark Jones
Once they attain them, we're going to give them some digital tokens to put on their own website and, and have at their doors. But when you mouse over on a website, it will explain what these badges actually mean and what somebody went through to to get there. So, Chad, number one, I'm thankful for the work you do.
00;40;39;15 - 00;41;06;27
Mark Jones
You said sometimes not just listening to, or listening to the experts. We know that you are our expert in Mississippi, and we're appreciative of the passion you bring to this, to this entity, to to child care, the passion you have for children, the passion you have for parents. But mainly, I love seeing the relationship and passion you have for helping providers, support their local communities because everything that we do affects a local community.
00;41;06;29 - 00;41;16;15
Mark Jones
So again, any closing thoughts on elevate and really how that's going to be presented. And then we'll make sure that we put those links into our thread.
00;41;16;18 - 00;41;36;06
Dr. Chad Allgood
So you know, with elevate, like I said, we're in year one. We, we, we have our pathway that's set before us, but we are continuing to work on developing elevate. Stay tuned to what, year two, we're going to be doing another round of town hall meetings in just a couple of months where we're going to talk about year two, give feedback.
00;41;36;09 - 00;42;03;03
Dr. Chad Allgood
We we need people's people's responses on what they think the model is going to accomplish, what we may have missed. What, what else we need to do to make that make that system successful? I do want to say one other thing. Just talking about how important, you know, early childhood education is. I remember back when I was when I was four years old, I was in Miss Sylvia's pre-K classroom, and she.
00;42;03;03 - 00;42;21;21
Dr. Chad Allgood
Whenever we'd go to the art easel, she put a blank piece of paper in front of us. And every time she would say to me, Chad, the hardest thing to conquer is a blank piece of paper. Four years old. I had no idea what she was talking about. But then as I got older, those words continued with me.
00;42;21;24 - 00;42;42;23
Dr. Chad Allgood
When I was in school, you know, when I, I'd start to write a paper or whatever. As a matter of fact, when I sat down to start thinking about the concept of what is now elevate, looking at that blank computer screen, Miss Sylvia's words still resonated with me. The hardest thing to conquer is a piece of paper, a blank piece of paper.
00;42;42;26 - 00;43;10;01
Dr. Chad Allgood
And I think what she meant with that is you can't be afraid to get started. And so again, just a challenge to those out there that might be listening who want to get involved and they're not sure. Just find a way to get started. You know that that's the key. And as we've gotten started with elevate and as we continue, you know, we're going to keep listening to our child care folks, we're going to keep listening to our families.
00;43;10;01 - 00;43;18;07
Dr. Chad Allgood
We're going to keep listening to anybody that that, has ideas to, to make early childhood in Mississippi the best that it can be.
00;43;18;10 - 00;43;29;06
Mark Jones
Amazing work. And thank you for your commitment not only to the children of Mississippi, but, to Mississippi overall and making this an amazing place to live. Thank you Dr. Allgood.