Executive Office on Early Learning (EOEL)

–          Survey results of 10/10/24 board retreat. See board packet.

–          Folder created in ELB shared drive for documents from retreat.

–          Procedure to include a member of the public in board discussions. A voting board member can make a motion to “suspend the rules” to allow the community member to speak.

Action: Approve 10/10/24 Meeting Minutes

Roadmap to Achieve the Objectives of Act 46 and Act 210 (SLH 2021) related to early learning and early childhood care opportunities in the State of Hawaii by 2032 – Public Pre-Kindergarten Expansion & Early Learning Board (ELB):

●     Workforce Development and Support

●     Facilities for Early Childhood Education Programs

●     Funding for the Early Care and Education Mixed Delivery System

●     Program Quality Improvement and Maintenance

●     Systems Updates

○     Personnel Update: New Government Affairs Specialist

○     New EOEL Website

○     Ready Keiki Backpack Distribution Update

○     Special Needs and Early Intervention

■     Early Intervention Annual Partner Meeting

○     Family Support

■     Head Start: Migrant Farm Worker Outreach

■     Report on the Family Engagement and Cultural Effectiveness Conference

Outcome: Information, questions Public comment

PATCH (People Attentive to Children) manages the statewide Dept. of Human Services Early Childhood Registry. PATCH Registry has recently developed and introduced a statewide online Early Childhood Workforce Registry platform.

HELP Resource Kit—Nicole Higa, Resource & Referral Manager

A resource rich platform full of editable procedures, handbooks, templates and more to support high quality ECE business operation.

PATCH also creates and provides aggregated data on rates and capacity monthly.

Outcome: Information, questions, discussion Public comment

Head Start collaboration office (HSCO) position from discussions re: EOEL Executive Director. Later in the meeting, it was pointed out that the proposed

Clarification and follow-up:

The proposed bill (board materials packet) adds two non-voting members to the Early Learning Board to comply with the Federal Head Start Act (relevant section in the board materials packet), and only the HSCO Director was explicitly addressed in the motion passed at the October meeting. The proposed bill addresses the requirement to include:

(vi)  a representative from Head Start agencies located in the State, including migrant and seasonal Head Start programs and Indian Head Start programs; and

(vii)  the State Director of Head Start Collaboration.

The members identified in the Federal Head Start Act in subparagraph (C)(i, ii, iii, iv, viii, ix, and x) are already covered by the non-voting members of the board. One of the current at-large voting members of the board may also satisfy the requirement to include “(v) a representative of local providers of early childhood education and development services” but this requirement is not directly addressed in the current ELB statute.

Recommendation:

a.       The edited bill (board materials packet) that adds the Head Start agency representative and Head Start Collaboration Director be approved and submitted for possible inclusion in the Governor’s Admin package, and the (to be approved today) ELB by-laws will address cover the conflict of interest issue for the Head Start Collaboration Director instead of the proposed bill.

b.       To meet the timeline for 2025 administration package legislative proposals, address any additional revisions not already included in the proposed bill by requesting edits as the bill moves through committee(s) in the Legislature. This will allow for further discussion of the questions related to a representative of local providers of early childhood education and development services without endangering EOEL’s ability to meet the Admin Package deadlines.

Questions to consider:

a.       Should the requirement to include a representative of local providers of early childhood education and development services be clarified in the ELB statute?

b.       If so, would this be a non-voting member or voting member? If a voting member, does the board wish to specify that one of the county or at-large seats must also fulfill this federal requirement, or does the board want to add another voting member to the make-up of the ELB?

Action: Information/discussion/vote Public comment

Finance committee, Steve Schatz

Postponed at 9/12/24, 10/10/24 meetings. Updated information and memo. Board packet

Action: Information/discussion/vote Public comment

Update on proposed salary schedule for EOEL Executive Director. Finance is referring the issue to Governance.

Outcome: Information/Questions/Discussion Public comment

Nomination and election process was approved at the 7/11/24 meeting. Nominations closed on 10/25/24.

Today: announcement of candidates, vote

Outcome: Voting for vice-chair Public comment

Outcome: Update, discussion. Public comment

Outcome: Discussion, vote Public comment

Presented today for discussion, to be voted on in the December meeting.

Outcome: Information, discussion

At the Oct. meeting, the board voted to have this on the agenda for at least two more meetings.

Update from board member Phil Bossert (unable to attend todayʻs meeting):

“The implementation of the Harm to Students Registry program is moving along – slowly but surely. We are in the process of getting all of the 112 private school heads of school signed up as “primary users” for their institutions. Each school head receives an email from the Registry asking them to complete an “attestation” form by which they say they understand what the Registry is for and that they will use it responsibly. When they return that form to HDOE-IT, their account is established. The primary user is able to search the Registry to see if someone’s name is on the Registry and the primary user can also post the name of an offender to the Registry after a proper investigation has been conducted. Then each school can appoint one or two “search-only” users who can check the Registry to see if a potential employee’s, volunteer’s, or contractor’s name in on the Registry.

HAIS has conducted two trainings for private schools thus far – one on what the Registry is and how to use it and a second one on how to conduct a fair and effective investigation of an incident of harm to students.

The software for the Registry is still in the process of being developed – only Phase One has been released thus far and it allows a person to search the Registry one name at a time. Phase Two will allow a school to submit a list of names to the Registry to see if there are any “hits” that need further research.

To our knowledge at this time, there is only one name that has been posted to the Registry.”

Outcome: Information, discussion Public comment

Today: vote on memo

Outcome: Discussion, vote Public comment

We have been advised that Hawai‘i Revised Statutes does not give ELB or EOEL the power to create an attached entity such as a Family Council. EOEL Executive Director was working on implementing one of the previously approved evaluation criteria.

Chair and EOEL Executive Director discussed this, and agree that there may be times in the future when ELB will need feedback from a variety of families.

EOEL will compile a list of the groups that exist that could be tapped for feedback in the future.

Another option is to have a subcommittee of the board rather than a council.

Outcome: Information, discussion Public comment

–          Resource to read before meeting: (board packet) Building Block 5 of the Hawai’i Early Childhood State Plan 2019-2024 (pp. 20-22): OUR keiki OUR FUTURE

–          Purpose is to establish what information needs to be shared, what the communication channels are, and how the information is available in order to establish and maintain an effective early learning system.

–          Members would include key system stakeholders.

Outcome: Discussion/questions. Possible action: Refer to Governance for further definition and development.

Public comment

ELB has supported a mixed delivery system, which supports family choice. However, it has not been an articulated policy.

Apparently there is a perception in the community, especially with the Ready Keiki expansion, that the state is going to “take over” and there will be fewer

Chair has been working on a draft policy. Two documents in the board packet give information on mixed delivery systems, as well as the EOEL diagram (link below) which shows the variety of funding that support family choice. The packet also has a link to a short video explaining mixed delivery system. https://earlylearning.hawaii.gov/early-learning-opportunities-in-hawaii/

Outcome: Information, discussion. Public comment