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Send us Fan Mail Beginning March 22, all licensed Georgia child care providers may apply for a third round of Short Term Assistance Benefit for Licensed Entities (STABLE) payments from DECAL.  Funding for these payments comes from the federal CARES Act and part of our ongoing efforts to support early child care providers still struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Joining us to talk about...

Send us Fan Mail Governor Brian Kemp and Commissioner Jacobs recently announced plans to provide a one-time, $1,000 bonus payment to every Georgia’s Pre-K Program teacher, assistant teacher, and birth-5 child care teacher in the state.  The bonuses will be funded through the federal Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Joining us to talk about POWER (Providing Our Workforce wi...

Send us Fan Mail It’s that time again!  DECAL is seeking applications for Georgia’s Pre-K Program Teachers of the Year for 2021-2022. DECAL will select a winner from a local public school system and a winner from a private child care center.  Joining us to talk about applying for Georgia’s Pre-K Teachers of the Year is Meghan McNail, Summer Transition and Outreach Manager for Georgia’s Pre-K Progr...

Send us Fan Mail Last summer, DECAL joined the Governor’s Office and the Georgia Department of Public Health in providing COVID-19 guidance for Georgia Child Care facilities.  Now, at almost a year into the pandemic and public health emergency, we have updated that guidance to support providers, teachers, and of course Georgia’s children and families.  Joining us to talk about Updates and Changes...

Send us Fan Mail Communities across Georgia who are interested in promoting high-quality early childhood care and education are applying for three separate Community Impact Grant opportunities from DECAL.  Funding for these grants was made possible by the $11.2 million Preschool Development Renewal Grant that Georgia received in January 2020 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services an...

Send us Fan Mail For the 11th year, DECAL is offering a six-week intensive academic program for rising Pre-K and rising Kindergarten students called the Summer Transition Program.  The program was created to support students who either did not attend Georgia’s Pre-K Program or Head Start or who need additional help before taking that next step.  Joining us to talk about the Summer Transition Progr...

Send us Fan Mail Many of Georgia’s kids became especially vulnerable last March when schools closed because of the pandemic.  Families were left struggling to feed their children.  And, with many parents out of work, it’s likely that more kids—as many as one in four—may face hunger in the months ahead, especially when school is out for the summer.  DECAL’s Summer Food Service Program is one soluti...

Send us Fan Mail Research tells us that, regardless of their abilities, children in high-quality child care programs are better prepared to enter school and more likely to develop healthy social and emotional skills.  When child care providers offer inclusive child care, they’re supporting not only children with disabilities but also their parents who can work, go back to school, or just take a br...

Send us Fan Mail In January, the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education (GPEE) presented its 17th edition of the Top Ten Issues to Watch Report.  The report identifies and analyzes key education issues Georgia will be or should be addressing in the coming year.  Joining us to talk about the Top Ten Issues to Watch is Dr. Dana Rickman, Incoming President of the Georgia Partnership for Exce...

Send us Fan Mail For the fifth consecutive year, DECAL has named two Georgia’s Pre-K Program Teachers of the Year recognizing the outstanding efforts of all Pre-K teachers and assistant teachers who implement this nationally recognized program every day.   Joining us today on the podcast is Alderine Healey from the YMCA Paulding Early Learning Center in Hiram, Heather Melillo from West End Element...

Send us Fan Mail Last year, the Georgia State Legislature created a new position here at DECAL designed to help support social and emotional health in a child’s critical early years of life.  Despite the budget challenges caused by COVID-19, the Legislature approved an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Director for Georgia.  Joining us to talk about Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health...

Send us Fan Mail Recently our Georgia Head Start Collaboration Office joined the American Academy of Pediatrics and child care advocates GEEARS and Voices for Georgia’s Children to study the impact of COVID-19 on Head Start programs across the state and the children and families they serve.  Joining us to talk about this collaborative effort and what they learned is Dr. Terri McFadden, professor i...

Send us Fan Mail It’s almost time to ring in the New Year, as we count down the final hours of a most unusual 2020…unprecedented even…and prepare for brighter days ahead in 2021. It seemed like a good time for one of our sit-down chats with Commissioner Jacobs featuring questions from our DECAL team and social media. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail During the COVID-19 pandemic, our Georgia Foundation for Early Care and Learning has been busy providing free child care scholarships to essential workers with children birth to five.  They have also been helping Santa with gifts for Georgia’s Foster Children through DFCS and Clark’s Christmas Kids.  Joining us from the Georgia Foundation for Early Care and Learning is Executive D...

Send us Fan Mail In August, DECAL received over $17 million from the Governors Emergency Education Relief funding, set aside by the CARES Act, for our new SOLVE scholarships, which stands for Supporting Onsite Learning for Virtual Education.  This provides additional childcare options for students ages 5-12 whose school systems have opted primarily for virtual learning. In addition, it will allow...

Send us Fan Mail Our Pandemic Thanksgiving is behind us…now straight ahead is our COVID Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza just a few weeks away.  Seems like a good time for a special holiday episode of DECAL Download to celebrate those age-old traditions that keep our spirits merry and bright, no matter what the circumstances. And as is our tradition, we are featuring comments from several of our DE...

Send us Fan Mail Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Governor Brian Kemp has allowed licensed child care in Georgia to remain open to serve children and families. However, with more families staying at home, child care attendance significantly declined except for children of first responders and essential workers.  At one point, only thirty percent of the licensed programs in Georgia remained open.  J...

Send us Fan Mail Here at DECAL, we’re committed to ensuring that Georgia's youngest learners receive the best services possible to prepare them for school and life. To help meet this commitment, we’ve developed the Georgia Professional Development System (GaPDS) where early childhood educators can create and maintain a profile and search and register for the latest training. This year, the Pr...

Send us Fan Mail For 30 years, WSB Radio’s Clark Howard and the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services has had the mission of ensuring that every child in the Georgia foster care system has at least one gift on Christmas day. Traditionally, shoppers attended live events in Walmart locations in the metro Atlanta area to purchase gifts from a child’s wish list. But due to the COVID-19 pand...

Send us Fan Mail In May, all licensed child care providers in Georgia were invited to apply for STABLE: Short Term Assistance Benefit for Licensed Entities. This was the first round of payments from the $144 million Georgia received under the federal CARES Act and 3,789 providers received more than $38.8 million in financial support.   Now, it’s time for Round 2.  How do you apply and what can the...

Send us Fan Mail Quality Rated is Georgia’s system to determine, improve, and communicate the quality of programs that provide child care. Like rating systems for restaurants and hotels, Quality Rated assigns one, two or three stars to early education and school-age care programs that meet or exceed the minimum state requirements. This year, COVID-19 had an impact on the program, especially the de...

Send us Fan Mail DECAL is the state agency that licenses and regulates child care programs in Georgia using a system that focuses on certain “core rules” within 15 categories ranging from diapering and discipline to supervision, transportation, and criminal records checks.  Based on research, the core rules represent critical areas to consider when determining compliance and the impact on the heal...

Send us Fan Mail Over 3,500 infants die annually in the United States from sleep-related deaths, including sudden infant death syndrome.  The issue disproportionately impacts families of color, especially black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and low-income families.  With that in mind, October is Safe Sleep and SIDS Awareness Month and DECAL is joining Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to remind...

Send us Fan Mail The pandemic continues, Georgia’s Pre-K Program is up and running with a few different looks, and we’re supporting school age children doing virtual learning with child care scholarships.  Plenty of things going on…and it seemed like a good time for one of our sit-down chats with Commissioner Amy M. Jacobs. Join us as we discuss a variety of topics facing DECAL and early childhood...

Send us Fan Mail It’s Pre-K Week in Georgia! For the past 28 years, Georgia’s nationally recognized Pre-K Program has provided quality early education to the state’s youngest learners.  Launched in 1992 as a pilot program serving 750 four-year-olds, the lottery-funded Georgia’s Pre-K Program has laid a solid foundation for academic excellence and future success in the lives of approximately 1.6 mi...