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Aging down strategy and reallocation of early childhood education seats
1:20:52
ยท
174 sec
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about the 'aging down' strategy and reallocation of seats in early childhood education programs. DOE officials explain that they are shifting focus from pre-K seats to more infant and toddler seats based on community needs.
- The DOE is proposing to increase Early Head Start seats from 36 to 4,000 in their new application.
- This shift aims to better meet the demand for care for younger children (0-2 years old).
- The goal is to improve fill rates, which are currently around 60%, by reallocating seats to age groups with higher demand.
Rita Joseph
1:20:52
Age down for folks who may not understand, what do you mean by age down?
Monique Scales
1:20:56
So as opposed to we had a lot more of pre k seats, head start fours, and it based on the data, it looks like we meet need more infant and toddler seats.
Rita Joseph
1:21:08
In in your early learn, so that'd be your infant to two year olds, for example, because there's a whole campaign for two Correct.
1:21:13
Exactly.
1:21:13
Okay.
1:21:14
Got it.
1:21:15
So how much of these changes compare with the current allocation of seats zero, two, three, and four year olds?
Monique Scales
1:21:22
I'm sorry.
1:21:23
Can you repeat that?
Rita Joseph
1:21:24
How would these changes compare with the current allocation of seats for your zero?
1:21:29
Remember we talked about infant, two year old, three year olds, and four year olds.
Monique Scales
1:21:34
For the recompete?
Rita Joseph
1:21:36
Yep.
Monique Scales
1:21:37
So we sorry.
1:21:38
Let me just pull that number specifically.
1:21:42
Originally, we had a 36 early head start seats, and for our application, we put in 4,000 early head start seats.
1:21:53
And I just have to find the number for the threes and fours.
1:21:59
Give me one second.
1:22:06
Okay.
1:22:07
Okay.
1:22:08
Can I get back to you on the threes and fours, the number specifically?
Rita Joseph
1:22:12
And the cost of the hearing, right?
1:22:14
Yes, absolutely.
1:22:15
Okay.
1:22:16
What will it mean there will be a reduction in funding for three k and four k, an increase in zero to two?
1:22:29
I'm following up on your question when you spoke about the reductions.
1:22:32
So what does it mean?
1:22:34
There be a reduction in funding for three k and four k in the Head Start?
Daniel Weisberg
1:22:38
In Head Start.
1:22:40
It it means that the hopefully what it means is that we won't have as many vacant seats in threes and fours, and we'll have more, you know, our I think, Monique, our fill rate right now is in the 60 plus percent.
1:22:56
And you'll see that number go up with the same overall or similar overall number of seats.
1:23:03
That's what we would hope.
1:23:05
So you would see a program that right now is serving threes and fours, let's say have two or three classrooms for each, and one of those classrooms is not filled, you would see them have infant and toddler, two sections of infant and toddler and all of which is filled.
1:23:23
That's the vision.
Rita Joseph
1:23:25
So the vision is to age down zero to two in your early learn from infant to toddler versus having three k to four k.
1:23:33
And that's where you're seeing the need currently with the data that you're analyzing?
Daniel Weisberg
1:23:37
Exactly.
Rita Joseph
1:23:38
Okay.
1:23:39
Alright.
1:23:39
But how did you come down how did you arrive how did you decide this what is the breakdown and how did you arrive to that breakdown?