Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness Foundation

Child care resource and referral: opsr's child care resource and referral program (ccrr) serves as a resource hub for families, child care professionals and communities. Opsr administers this program on behalf of the Oklahoma department of human services, and its primary goal is to increase access to high-quality, affordable child care by providing many different services depending where an individual lives. Through eight regional contracts, ccrr offers support to Oklahoma parents, providers and communities. Parents are able to search for child care and research the cost of child care in their area as well as receive consumer education to support the selection of care that meets families' unique needs. Ccrr also provides training, mentoring and professional development to licensed child care programs across Oklahoma and facilitated applications to Oklahoma's new quality rating improvement system (qris). In january 2023, opsr launched thrive, a home child care collective. This high-quality support for Oklahoma's family child care homes includes statewide advocacy, peer collaboration and professional development. Thrive has fostered collaboration and relationships for the often-isolated family chid care home owners in Oklahoma. In the first six months of launching thrive, opsr has engaged more than 200 programs. The ccrr network has continued to deliver its services to all the licensed family child care homes and centers in fy23 as well as connect families to care options through online and phone referrals. 2,763 families were served, 3,534 providers were provided training totaling 23,947 hours, and 833 programs were provided onsite consultation.

Systems and policy development: opsrf is supported to conduct activities that strengthen Oklahoma's early childhood system, recommend policies that create efficient and effective use of state funding, and ensure families of young children have access to affordable high-quality early childhood. Legislative reporting responsibilities are met by submitting an opsr annual report and an annual home visiting outcomes accountability report to the governor, state legislature and the Oklahoma commission on children and youth. These reports provide a perspective on the status of the early childhood system and provide policy recommendations. Multiple cross-sector early childhood systems and policy workgroups are convened by opsr. Equity in early childhood policy is built through a state level equity focused cross-sector state stakeholder group. Opsr stood up the Oklahoma clearinghouse for early childhood success, opening 3 rounds of submission windows in fy23, including healthy environments and relationships, child development, and outdoor learning environments and sought public and private funds to implement projects.

Community mobilization and support: opsrf supports community mobilization by engaging community leaders to develop stronger local early childhood systems. Opsrf partners with the Oklahoma department of human services to seek input into supporting the distinct developmental needs of young children in the child welfare system and created a plan to support grassroots advocacy efforts. Opsrf continued to provide recommendations, compiled through convening community stakeholders, for suggested use of covid19 pandemic relief funds. Many of the recommendations for funding were adopted by Oklahoma department of human services and have helped to stabilize Oklahoma's child care industry. In april, 2023, opsrf hosted its second annual ink day (invest n kids), bringing together 165 early childhoodprofessionals for advocacy training and legislative visits at the Oklahoma state capitol. Participants shared with legislators that focused support on early childhood care and education as tools to create jobs, support parental selfsufficiency and improve outcomes for Oklahoma's children.the Oklahoma clearinghouse for early childhood success: the clearinghouse promotes well-being for Oklahoma's children and their families by building an evolving definition of quality, fast-tracking innovation, implementing research-informed practices and practice-informed research to support and improve early childhood systems and maximize public-private partnerships. Submissions to the clearinghouse are reviewed and rated by clearinghouse committees. The submissions which are highly rated are posted to the clearinghouse website and are presented to the public-private Partnership committee for consideration of implementation supports. Opsr seeks submissions to the clearinghouse through community mobilization and at the community level.

Data systems: opsrf continues to advocate and seek funding to create an early childhood integrated data system. Funds have supported obtaining stakeholder feedback, working with state agency leadership and technology experts, participating in national technical assistance opportunities, and consulting with other states. Opsr collaborates with leaders from health and education to focus on integration of home visiting services with other early childhood program data. Early literacy: the Foundation supports a variety of early literacy initiatives, including reach out and read, a program that provides developmentally appropriate books and instructional literacy strategies to families participating in homebased parenting support programs. Funding for these programs has been made availablethrough contracts with the Oklahoma department of human services and grants from private foundations. Professional development: opsrf conducts professional development opportunities to strengthen Oklahoma's early childhood system. In 2023, opsrf hosted the thrive summit for family child care home providers and facilitated 8, regional reconnect events for licensed child care professionals through ccrr. We facilitated the review of multiple curricula, professional development tools and opportunities throughout the Oklahoma clearinghouse for early childhood success.