The state’s Child Fatality Review Panel on Monday issued a “Public Health Alert” to spread the word that dangerous sleep conditions are the leading cause of infants dying in Connecticut.
Early Childhood Education
Posted inEducation
CT: Evaluating teachers, politics, a changing health landscape
We say to teachers: Take our children and make them model citizens, able to thrive and navigate the future. Often cutting resources, we also create standards for teachers to meet. And then – shockingly – there’s pushback!
Posted inEducation
CT schools lag in diagnosing, helping dyslexic students
Getting identified and getting the necessary services to cope with dyslexia has seemingly been a decades-long challenge in Connecticut.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Beth Bye brings passion, toughness to budget chairmanship
Sen. Beth Bye: “Those of us who have been through some of the challenges of discrimination, when you go through something this hard, you come out strong. I think it’s a critical part of who I am.”
Posted inEducation, Health
Child hospitalization dips following flu shot requirement
Three years after Connecticut began requiring the 55,000 children in licensed day cares to get the flu shot, influenza-associated hospitalization has decreased by 12 percent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
Posted inEducation, Health
Why some child care programs in CT close
Hundreds of day care and child care centers closed throughout 2013, mainly because the business was not profitable. Childcare 2-1-1 reports that of those who closed, 14 percent of those surveyed say they closed because they faced the possibility of the state Department of Public Health taking away their license.
Posted inEducation
Obama taps Yale psychologist for national education panel
New Haven — Modern-day school reformers focus too much on standardized tests and too little on kids’ hearts and minds, a legendary Yale child psychologist said as he prepares to advise the president.
Dr. James P. Comer made the remarks in an interview this week in his office at the Yale Child Study Center. President Obama in January named Comer one of 15 appointees to a new President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.
Posted inEducation
Day care providers OK pact, get raises of up to 8 percent
Home-based day care providers have approved a contract negotiated between their union and the Malloy administration that will get them raises of between 3 and 8.25 percent beginning July 1.
Posted inEducation, Money
Malloy proposes universal preschool access
The governor is proposing that every child in Connecticut have access to preschool by 2018.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Governor gets 1,240 pages of requested changes from CT residents
Thousands of people from across the state wrote Gov. Dannel P. Malloy after he asked residents to let him know about obsolete, burdensome, or otherwise ineffective state regulations. Here are a few highlights.
Posted inEducation
Report: Fewer families get help from state for day care
The number of families the state helped to cover the cost of preschool or day care decreased by nearly 600 infants and toddlers between fiscal 2012 and 2013, a state child-advocacy group reported Friday. The decrease follows the highly touted initiative approved by state legislators and the governor that funded spots for 1,000 more children […]
Posted inEducation
State: Bridgeport “systemically violated” special education laws
State investigators have concluded that the state’s largest public school system “systemically violated” state laws created to ensure students with special education needs are promptly identified and provided services.
Posted inEducation
Plans for quality and safety ratings for Connecticut day cares ‘on hold’
Several attempts have been made through the years to launch a statewide rating system for day care centers and preschools so parents will know if they are safe and what the quality of the programs are. This was a goal of the Malloy administration, but with the state’s second failed bid to land federal Race to the Top funding to pay for the initiative, a rating system is “on hold,” according to a report in the website of the Connecticut Health Investigative Team (c-hit.org).
Posted inEducation
Connecticut’s early education plan gets a C, no federal funds
Gov. Malloy visits a preschool in Meriden with his director of early education and education commissioner The U.S. Department of Education has rejected Connecticut’s request for $37.5 million in Race to the Top funds aimed at overhauling day care centers and preschools by attempting to ensure they are safe and providing educational value. “The State […]
Posted inEducation
CT one of four states meeting Head Start quality benchmarks
Only four states require their Head Start preschool programs to meet certain benchmarks recommended by child experts: keeping class sizes under 20 students, and below eight students for infant classrooms; and keeping certain adult-to-child ratios.