Stay up-to-date on the latest news about early childhood from GEEARS, our early childhood partners across the nation, and from media outlets.
By: WSB-TV Many small businesses are struggling to stay afloat because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but one industry you may not realize is being hit hard is child care centers. The National Association for the Education of Young Children has released a new survey showing that about two out of five child care programs will permanently […]
By: Huffpost Disney World opened its doors to the public last week. Good news, maybe, for moneyed parents looking to entertain their children for a little while. But for parents who need actual, consistent and secure places to bring their children, the news is far more grim. The child care centers that provide crucial support to […]
By: GEEARS for Saporta Report Uncertain. Unprecedented. Unsettled. No matter how one might describe the times in which we live, one thing is for sure: our youngest Georgians are living through a summer unlike any we’ve seen in recent history. With schools closed since March, and many caregivers having to take on teaching duties on top of their full-time jobs, finding new and […]
By: Rome News Tribune A position funded in the state budget marks a giant step forward for plans to address trauma in the youngest Georgians. Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, said that — despite major cuts due to the coronavirus-driven economic downturn — there’s a new specialized slot in the Department of Early Care and Learning. […]
By: The New York Times Last week, I received an email from my children’s principal, sharing some of the first details about plans to reopen New York City schools this fall. The message explained that the city’s Department of Education, following federal guidelines, will require each student to have 65 square feet of classroom space. […]
As many of you know, the budget outlook for Georgia is grim. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic crisis have led to a drastic loss in revenue, and in response, legislators recently passed a FY2021 budget that included $2.2 billion in cuts. This includes $950 million in cuts to public education. But as the state braves the health and economic storms, we can […]
By: The Hill Our nation’s economic recovery depends on strengthening an essential workforce tragically overlooked and under-appreciated for decades: the early learning and childcare educators who enable parents to work and raise healthy, successful children. As people go back to work, our future depends upon caring for the early educators who care for our children […]
By: NPR When Arizona schools shut down in mid-March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Tatiana Laimit, a nurse in Phoenix, knew she needed a backup plan. Laimit is a single mother of a 6-year-old girl and had recently relocated to the area. She didn’t have any friends or family nearby to ask for […]
By: WABE Gov. Brian Kemp has asked all state agencies to trim their budgets. That includes the Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), the agency that oversees Georgia’s universal pre-kindergarten program. Although DECAL is state-funded, the pre-K program is not. It’s financed through the Georgia lottery. Still, DECAL submitted several budget scenarios to state […]
By: GEEARS for Saporta Report Imagine a scenario in which the state of Georgia decided that in order to balance the budget, several thousand students could no longer attend third grade. And what if this happened even though the state had a pool of funds ready to be tapped into to avoid these cuts in the first place? Sounds far-fetched, right? But that’s […]