January 2005

1
Prop 10 Briefings

• January 2005

2
Association Meeting Highlights

• 2005 Executive Committee Elected
• President -- Mike Ruane (Orange)
• Vice President/Bay Area Regional Rep. -- Kris
  Perry (San Mateo)
• Secretary-Treasurer/Southern Regional Rep. --
  Evelyn Martinez (Los Angeles)
• Advocacy Committee Chair -- Mark Friedman
  (Alameda)
• Evaluation Committee Chair -- Ellen Vieira
  (Plumas)
• TA Committee Chair -- Pat Wheatley (Santa
  Barbara)
• Media Committee Chair -- Amy Reisch (Marin)
• Program Committee Chair -- Jennie Tasheff
  (Sonoma)
• Northwest Regional Rep. -- Wendy Rowan (Humboldt)
• Northeast Regional Rep. -- Jean Soliz-Conklin
  (Nevada)
• Central Valley Regional Rep. -- Judy Rutan
  (Kings)
• Greater Sacramento Regional Rep. -- Lin Batten
  (Sacramento)
• Southern Regional Rep. -- Laura Spiegel (San
  Diego)

3
Association Meeting Highlights

• Association Updates
• The 2005 State Conference and Pre-Conference
  Institute will be held at the Renaissance
  Hollywood Hotel from April 27th to 29th. The
  conference format will include mini-institutes on
  PFA, health access, working with the media, and
  obesity. The Pre-Conference Institute will
  include full-day tracks on fiscal management and
  school readiness and a half-day new commissioner
  orientation.
• The Packard Foundation is funding the Association
  to work with a PR firm to provide media TA to
  county commissions. The project will develop
  toolkits, provide media training, and build on
  the templates developed by Orange County and the
  Media Committee.

4
Association Meeting Highlights

• Association Updates (continued)
• The GFOA fiscal management TA project is well
  underway, led by EDs and fiscal officers from
  Marin, Riverside, Tulare, Nevada, Stanislaus, San
  Diego, Santa Clara, Colusa, Alameda, Kern,
  Humboldt and Santa Barbara, as well as state
  commission staff. The project is developing
  model administrative policies for the county
  commissions and a training curriculum for future
  technical assistance.
• Media Committee Chair Amy Reisch (Marin) reported
  that templates for user friendly materials to
  accompany the Annual Report are available on the
  Associations website.
• TA Committee Chair Pat Wheatley (Santa Barbara)
  announced that the committee is continuing its
  discussion of distance learning and partnership
  opportunities.

5
Association Meeting Highlights

• Pending Prop 10 Legislation
• Association members discussed AB 109 (Chan), SB
  35 (Florez), and SB 34 (Florez).
• AB 109 and SB 35 are very similar and call for a
  number of changes intended to provide greater
  accountability for local commissions, including a
  new tri-annual audit by the State Controller,
  policies defining administrative expenditures,
  and increased reporting on local activities.
• SB 34 changes the structure of county commissions
  by barring County Supervisors and county
  employees from serving as chair, prohibiting the
  majority of commissioners from being county
  employees, and requiring a new advisory body
  composed of all the mayors in the county.

6
Association Meeting Highlights

• 2-1-1 A California Reality
• Sara Mattos, a leader in the statewide effort to
  implement 2-1-1 service in California, provided
  an update on the service roll-out.
• 2-1-1 provides access to a wide range of
  information about health and social services.
  Referral operators are trained to talk with
  callers long enough to ascertain their needs and
  refer them to the appropriate agencies.
• Nationally 30 of 2-1-1 calls are from families
  with children 0 to 5.
• The Public Utility Commission has authorized I
  R providers in 8 counties to use the 2-1-1
  number Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles,
  Orange, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco and
  Ventura.
• Ventura County, with support of First 5 Ventura,
  will be the first to launch its 2-1-1 service at
  211 pm on 2/11/05.
• .

7
Association Meeting Highlights

• Evaluation Workgroup
• A workgroup of state commission staff and county
  representatives are developing an updated
  framework for the statewide evaluation to be
  completed by May.
• The process, facilitated by GFOA, is intended to
  be open to input from all commissions. Minutes
  and outcomes from the meetings are posted on the
  Association website for review by interested
  Association members, and input is invited.
• Association members discussed what they believe
  is critical for the success of the effort and the
  top five indicators they would choose for
  Commissions to track to show the effectiveness of
  Prop 10 investments.

8
Association Meeting Highlights

• Priorities for State Commission
• Association members reviewed proposals before the
  State Commission and long-term concerns and
  prepared a presentation for the following days
  meeting.
• Appreciation for Transitioning Leadership
• Mike Ruane acknowledged outgoing President Mark
  Friedman for his service to the organization over
  the last two years. Mark received a standing
  ovation from the membership.
• Sherry presented State Commission Executive
  Director Jane Henderson with a retirement gift on
  behalf of the Association. Jane extended her
  thanks to Association members for all the good
  work that they have done.

9
State Commission Meeting Day One

• STATE COMMISSION ANNUAL PLANNING RETREAT Day One
• FIRST 5 Review
• The Commission viewed a video presentation on the
  major Proposition 10 programs of the last 5
  years. Executive Director Jane Henderson thanked
  the county commissions for their role in the
  successes depicted in the video.
• Roy Behr of GMMB presented a compilation of TV
  ads produced during the past five years focused
  on smoking cessation and the prevention of
  prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke parent and
  caregiver education on the importance of time
  spent with young children and the importance of
  preschool for children and society.

10
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Approval of Annual Report
• The State Commission unanimously approved the
  2003-04 Annual Report.
• Highlights from the report
• 61 of county investments were spent on providing
  family support, early care and education, and
  child health programs directly to children and
  families.
• 15 was spent on provider capacity building and
  support
• 12 was spent on systems change activities
• First 5 programs reached more than 15 million
  people through community outreach activities and
  3.4 million with direct services.

11
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Approval of Annual Report (continued)
• First 5 programs are reaching the children most
  at risk. Of those children who received
  intensive services
• 77 were Latino
• 15 had a disability or special need
• 75 live in poverty
• 70 had not participated in early education
  programs
• Half the children spoke a primary language other
  than English
• Within the school readiness program, close to
  831,000 children and their family members
  received direct services and approximately
  926,700 were reached through community outreach
  activities.

12
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Financial Forecast
• Joe Munso presented the Commissions financial
  forecast through fiscal year 2009/2010. Based on
  funding decisions made by the Commission to date,
  expenditures will be 818.4 million out of 905.8
  million in available funds. Of State Commission
  funds
• 57 support early childhood learning and
  education
• 8 support early childhood health
• 18 support parent and community education
• 7 support tobacco cessation
• 7 support organization effectiveness (evaluation
  and related activities)
• Revenues are expected to decline at a steady rate
  over the next five years, with the 87.4 million
  reserve projected to be depleted by FY 2010/11 if
  funding commitments remain at their current
  level.

13
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• FIRST 5 Association Priorities
• Sherry Novick presented the Associations
  priorities for the Commissions spending plan and
  called for
• Continued collaboration between the Association
  and the State Commission on
• Prop 10-related bills before the Legislature.
• Efforts underway to improve the statewide
  evaluation program.
• Efforts underway to identify best practices in
  fiscal management.
• Collaboration in developing the statewide
  partnership program which will replace the CBO
  program.
• Continued support for small population counties.
• Attention to the effect of the statewide ad
  campaign on local commissions. The Association
  specifically requested consideration of ads that
  address health care access and preventive care,
  areas in which nearly every commission is
  involved.

14
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Continued Funding for CARES
• The Commission unanimously approved up to 30
  million through January, 2009, to provide
  matching funds for local child care
  compensation/retention programs, training,
  database support, and program evaluation. The
  proposal modifies the current CRI program by
• Expanding the program to serve providers at
  higher education levels. This is intended to
  support the development of a culturally and
  linguistically diverse preschool workforce and
  expand the career ladder for all providers.
• Implementing training standards so that training
  and unit-based courses meet quality standards and
  emphasize First 5 priorities.

15
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Executive Director Transition
• Jane Henderson announced her retirement on March
  1, and the Commission appointed Joe Munso to
  serve as Interim Executive Director until a new
  ED is appointed.
• Chair Reiner announced plans to post the opening
  on the Commission website with the hope of hiring
  a permanent replacement for Jane by mid-March.
• Commissioner Gutierrez and Chair Reiner will
  serve as the advisory selection committee to cull
  applications and interview the finalists. A
  representative of the AGs office will sit in on
  all the interviews.
• A Commission meeting will be scheduled March 17
  to take a final vote on the recommended
  candidate.

16
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Childhood Obesity Initiative
• The Commission unanimously approved 4 million
  of existing media funds for an ad campaign to
  support the Governors childhood obesity
  initiative. It will be matched 21 by federal
  funds. Staff was directed to begin planning with
  the Governors office and the Commissions media
  contractor.
• Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshé
  presented the proposal and explained that the
  Department of Health Services will undertake a
  campaign primarily targeting an adult audience
  First 5 ads will be directed to parents of young
  children.
• Chair Reiner announced that, independent of this
  proposal, Parents Action for Children (formerly I
  Am Your Child) decided to produce a video on
  childhood nutrition and physical activity which
  may be be narrated by Maria Shriver.

17
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Statewide Immunization Registry
• The Commission considered a proposal for 5.3
  million over three years to integrate
  Californias nine regional immunization
  registries and the Kaiser registry. According to
  commission staff
• Lack of insurance coverage and high levels of
  mobility, especially among migrant farm worker
  families and children in foster care, make it
  difficult to track childrens immunization
  records. As a result, 20 of two-year olds are
  under-immunized and 20 are over-immunized,
  representing a health risk on one hand and a
  waste of limited health resources on the other.
• Registries create a cost-efficient means of
  tracking childrens immunization needs, which
  saves health providers time and money, prevents
  barriers to enrollment in day care or preschool,
  and helps parents manage their childrens
  increasingly complex immunization schedules.
• The Commission requested that staff return to the
  March meeting with further information, including
  how a statewide registry would provide a way to
  reach out to children who have not received
  immunizations.

18
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Paid Family Leave Outreach
• The Commission approved 450,000 over three
  years to support the Paid Family Leave Outreach
  Collaborative to train representatives of
  populations most likely to benefit from the new
  paid family leave law.
• The State Commission was a sponsor of SB 1661,
  which provides working Californians up to six
  weeks of partial pay when taking leave to care
  for a new or adopted child or an ill family
  member. Of the 45,000 claims for this benefit
  filed in the last quarter, 91 of them were for
  parents bonding with their newborns.
• A key component of the project is training
  community-based leaders to reach out to young and
  non-English-speaking families who are largely
  unaware of the law.
• The Commission asked the Collaborative to come
  back in March with suggestions of other ways the
  State Commission can help in this effort.

19
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• California Health Interview Survey
• The Commission approved up to 1 million from
  existing research funds to support the 2005 CHIS.
  This is consistent with an Association
  recommendation presented to the Commission last
  year.
• CHIS will over-sample families with 0 5 year
  olds and ask additional questions of use to the
  Commission. The Commissioners noted the need for
  a favorable rate for rural counties that wish to
  pay for over-sampling to make the survey useful
  to them. (Though noted, this was not included in
  the proposal that was adopted.)
• Association Evaluation Committee Chair Ellen
  Vieira (Plumas) requested that any additional
  questions address data needs related to statewide
  evaluation. The Association was asked to work
  with state staff on the questions.

20
State Commission Meeting Day Two

• Chairs Report
• Chair Reiner highlighted media activities over
  the past months
• The latest round of TV, radio, and print ads,
  which began in mid-November, covered the
  individual and societal benefits of preschool,
  the importance of parental involvement, and the
  consequences of tobacco use.
• First 5 California joined with the California
  Smokers Helpline, WIC, and the March of Dimes to
  publicize a statewide program to raise awareness
  about the risks of prematurity associated with
  smoking during pregnancy.
• Rob Reiner and Jane Henderson participated in a
  satellite media tour to discuss the findings of
  the High/Scope Perry Preschool study that showed
  the benefits of quality preschool through a
  40-year longitudinal study.
• TV segments produced for Univision featured
  Commissioner Eliseo Medina and Elisa Bupara,
  First 5 California Deputy Director of
  Communications, on prenatal care, gestational
  diabetes, and the importance of reading with
  young children.

21
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Executive Directors Report
• Jane Henderson presented an update on
  current initiatives.
• County commissions selected to participate in the
  Special Needs Project include El Dorado,
  Mendocino, Merced, Monterey, Riverside, San
  Diego, San Francisco, Sonoma, Orange, and Los
  Angeles.
• In December, the First 5 Oral Health Education
  and Training Project launched training programs
  targeted to medical and dental providers.
  Trainings will be offered in conjunction with
  local dental societies, community health clinics,
  WIC agencies, county commissions, and others.
  Jane thanked the County Commission
  representatives on the Oversight Committee
  Laura Roberts (Lassen), Brooke Frost (Tulare),
  Jennie Tasheff (Sonoma), Tom Perdue (Glenn), Deb
  Coulter (Sutter), and Kim Frank (San Diego).

22
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Executive Directors Report (continued)
• The state diversity contract was awarded to a
  collaborative including California Tomorrow, the
  Interaction Institute for Social Change, and
  Consulting by Design. The collaborative will
  assist with implementation of the Equity
  Principles and will work closely with the
  Association and county commissions. They will
  also play a role at the April statewide
  conference
• The Ad Hoc Prop 10 Working Group, convened to
  review changes in statute related to Prop 10, met
  once and will meet again to review the provisions
  of AB 109 (Chan). They will also be brought into
  the evaluation discussion since Assemblywoman
  Chan is interested in including language in her
  bill to strengthen data reporting requirements.

23
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Preschool For All Demonstration Projects
• The Commission approved criteria for the
  PFA Demonstration projects. Interested counties
  will be asked to submit applications by July
  2005, based on the PFA plans they have developed
  locally, and will be required to meet criteria
  addressing
• Program
• Universal, voluntary, and free
• Accessible and high quality facilities
• Initial service to underserved and high priority
  areas
• Service to diverse populations
• Health and development screenings
• Meeting specified standards regarding curriculum,
  teacherchild ratios, group size, and
  kindergarten transition supports

24
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Preschool For All Demonstration Projects
  (continued)
• Teacher Qualifications
• Commitment to reach required staff education
  levels in a 5 10 year timeframe.
• Implementation of strategies with local colleges
  and universities to recruit, support, and train a
  diverse workforce.
• Policies
• Participation in the First 5 process and outcome
  evaluations
• A diverse provider system
• Evidence of local policy and fiscal commitments
• Family Partnerships
• Strong family outreach and involvement strategies
• Connection with wrap-around care and other needed
  family supports

25
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• PFA Technical Assistance
• The Commission approved an expansion of its PFA
  technical assistance contract, up to 350,000 for
  the period March 2005 to March 2006, to provide
  technical assistance to approximately 25 county
  commissions beyond those that received planning
  grants. The funding will come from the quality
  component of the PFA funding previously approved
  by the Commission.
• The American Institutes of Research (AIR) and
  First 5 San Mateo will coordinate the training,
  based on needs counties identified in a recent
  state survey. The first training will occur at a
  mini-institute during April State Conference.
• PFA Workforce Development
• The Commission approved up to 400,000 over a 12
  18 month period to fund a Blue Ribbon Committee
  to create a plan to educate and support a
  culturally and linguistically diverse preschool
  workforce for California.

26
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Legislation
• Commission appointed Commissioner Vismara to
  replace former Commissioner Taylor on its
  legislative subcommittee, which also includes
  Chairman Reiner. It also expanded its bill
  screening criteria to include the active support
  of bills that impact early brain development.
• The Commission reviewed the provisions of AB 109
  (Chan) and agreed to serve as sponsor of the
  bill. Mike Ruane (Orange) noted that the
  Association has been discussing the local impact
  of the bill and ways to make it as workable and
  cost efficient as possible. Joe Munso reinforced
  the need to work with the counties to avoid
  unintended effects of the bill and said he hopes
  the bill will be in its final form by the March
  Commission meeting.
• The Commission took no position on SB 34 and SB
  35, both by Senator Florez.

27
State Commission Meeting Highlights

• Changes to the Kit for New Parents
• The Commission approved changes to the English,
  Spanish, and Asian kits to include
• A smaller box
• Development of DVDs instead of video tapes, using
  the current topics with additional menus (The
  Asian videos will be produced in an ages and
  stages format since they have to be entirely
  re-shot.)
• Re-working the 8 separate information pamphlets
  into a single booklet
• Creation of a bilingual Parents Guide organized
  by ages and stages

28
February Events

• 2/3-4 CRI Statewide Conference, Sacramento, CA
• 2/4 Sustainability of Family Support (Sacramento
  Region)
• 2/15 Every Child is My Concern Conference, Costa
  Mesa, CA
• 2/16 Strategies for Sustaining Programs and
  Services for Young Children
• (Bay Area Region)
• 2/16 Insured the Uninsured Projects Conference,
  Sacramento, CA
• 2/16 Child Abuse Prevention and School Readiness
  Conference, Anaheim, CA
• 2/17 Family Support From Principles to Action
  (Northwest Region)
• 2/25 Reporting Results and Telling the Story
  (Central Region)
• For more information about the events listed
  above and other upcoming events, visit our
  calendar at http//www.f5ac.org