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Since 2002, Pennsylvania has made enormous strides in developing an early childhood system that supports quality in early childhood programs, and acknowledges the central role of well-trained and adequately compensated staff. QUEST supports the Keystone STARS quality improvement program, Pre-K Counts, and other initiatives of the PA Office of Child Development and Early Learning, while continuing to hold out the goal of full access to high quality early education for every child in our Commonwealth.

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LET’S GET OUR STATE REPS

TO CHAMPION QUALITY ECE!

We are always looking for more ways to pull our state legislators more closely into the world of ECE and help them understand the importance of quality. We hope you will consider approaching your state representative to join this new campaign!

As a champion of quality, the legislator agrees to:

Write to every program in his/her district, saying he/she supports quality ECE, but is concerned by the low level of quality in some of the programs in the district;

Visit any program that attains a STAR 3 or STAR 4 level;

Communicate with parents about the importance of choosing quality ECE;

Recognizing programs that move up in quality, through print acknowledgment and an awards ceremony.

Everybody wins!

The ECE practitioner who initiates this proposal develops professionally in the process of building a stronger relationship with his/her legislator.

The legislator gains good public relations opportunities.

The field gets a legislator who knows the ECE terrain in his/her district, and who has a deeper understanding about quality.

Quality programs get recognition, and others get a nudge to improve.

Parents get encouragement to choose quality.

This is a positive, non-partisan, virtually no-cost way to strengthen the foundation of support in Harrisburg for quality ECE. DVAEYC can help with:

A draft letter for the legislator to send, including data customized for his/her district

A list of all the programs in the district, including addresses and STAR levels

On-going technical support, problem-solving and general encouragement.

QUEST is the public policy voice of PennAEYC, a network of early childhood practicioners across the state with membership in the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Our goal is to ensure that every child in Pennsylvania has access to high quality early childhood education programs, and that dedicated practicioners can afford to stay in the field.

QUEST supports:
•   Early childhood professionals—who lay the foundation that will set our youngest children on a course of lifelong learning—and need to be recognized and compensated for the professionals that they are
•   Parents of young children—who need and want strong partnerships with early childhood professionals
•   Young children—who lose their teachers to high turnover, who wait and wait to get into subsidized child care, whose parents may not understand the importance of the earliest years or can’t find a quality program.
For more information:
www.pennaeyc.org
www.dvaeyc.org
www.pghaeyc.org