Early Learning Connections

Head start - we returned fully to in person Learning for our classrooms. A new tracking system was created for professional development and data for quality assurance.a summer program of enrichment occurred for a third year. Thirty children attended the 6-week program in Butler County. Early Learning Connections has also maintained a strong partnership with local school districts to help children transition to kindergarten and ensure school readiness in both Butler and armstrong counties. Kindergarten checklists were updated according to the school district's requests and staff are ensuring that parents are registering with the correct district in plenty of time to allow for adequate placement for kindergarten. In 2023, we combined the Butler hs/ehs grant and the armstrong hs/ehs grant into one grant now. We only have one grant with the office of headstart but with two counties. Building safety: intruder locks installed on classroom doors at mount chestnut and bon aire paint parking lot arrows at mount chestnut and bon aire intruder and active shooter training for staff building updates: install heat pump in mount chestnut kitchen install two hot water tanks at bon aire renovated 3 offices for managers at bon aire

Child care - due to continue hiring staffing, we had continue with reduced enrollment criteria to include children up to 3rd grade only.

Elrc - in their annual ocdel performance monitoring report for 22-23 fiscal year, elrc 3 received excellent results in meeting all performance requirements with no findings.the elrc administers the subsidized child care program and had a total payout to our region's providers of over $17 million dollars. They also managed workforce grant and award opportunities for the child care providers in their region totaling over $6.5 million additional dollars. Elrc had a successful year on the quality programming side, elrc continue working with child care agencies to move up in their stars quality rating level. In partnership with the professional development organization, we also were effective in providing direct technical assistance to numerous child care staff to help students enroll and attain higher Early education credentialing.