The Kansas Early Childhood Recommendations panel heard updates on the All In for Kansas Kids strategic plan and related PDG (Preschool Development Grant) activities, including regional roundtables, the first four child-care zone grantees and a monitoring framework designed to connect existing program data to strategic-plan goals.

Panel Chair Cornelia Stevens opened the presentation and introduced Megan Kluth, who provided PDG updates and described regional roundtables hosted by KDHE’s child-care systems improvement and licensing teams. Kluth said the teams are hosting a final roundtable in Hays and that roundtables have surfaced ideas about what is working in communities and where additional local support is needed. "These have been well attended and I think we've heard a lot, both about what's working really well with child care and where there are some opportunities to help support communities," Kluth said.

Kluth described the child-care zones grants administered by KDHE through child-care licensing. The grants are intended to bring at least two counties together to develop locally driven child-care solutions. She said the first round produced four grantees distributed across the state, and a second round of applications will open with proposals due in late August. The grants are expected to be multiyear, and Kluth said they aim to enable regional ‘‘child-care culture change’’ over a three-year period.

Kluth also noted a partner organization, Mindful Minis (and its sister group Mindful Collective), is preparing a free, statewide online training in mental-health-informed practices for early-childhood professionals; she said the training is seeking KDHE approval and will begin July 8. "One of the things they're getting ready to launch is a free online training for early childhood professionals," Kluth said.

Shavis Lipbar Armstrong, associate researcher with the Center for Public Partnerships and Research, described a monitoring framework being developed to strengthen accountability for the strategic plan. The framework proposes measurable objectives tied to the plan’s goals and will seek to maximize use of existing program data. Armstrong said the short-term goal is to use already-collected data to report on progress and the long-term goal is to build synergy between program-level data and strategic-plan goals via a MySidewalk dashboard for data visualization and storytelling.

Armstrong invited panel members and their organizations to identify and share data that align with strategic-plan actions, and to participate in ongoing development of the monitoring framework. "Our short term goal really is to maximize data that's already being collected and use that to say how we're progressing towards the vision," Armstrong said.

Panel members did not take formal action on the strategic-plan materials during the meeting; presenters asked panelists to share data and follow-up with the research team. The panel will receive future updates as the framework and dashboard are developed.

The presentation included logistical details about next steps: a second round of child-care zone grant applications due in late August; Mindful Minis training starting July 8 (pending KDHE approval); and continued outreach by the Center for Public Partnerships and Research to align program data with strategic-plan indicators.