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Send us Fan Mail For the first time ever, tens of thousands of young children across Georgia are preparing to enter Georgia’s Pre-K Program. We’re expecting 70,000 and more this school year. Several areas of the state started school in late July, but the majority are starting now. Joining us to talk about starting school are Megan McGraw and Jessi Slater from our Inclusion and Behavior Support Div...

Send us Fan Mail Commissioner Amy M. Jacobs is interviewed by John Clark from the Georgia News Network for their weekly public affairs program Georgia Focus.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail CAPS is Georgia’s Childcare and Parent Services…a federal program administered by DECAL that helps pay for the cost of child care so parents can work or attend school.  CAPS also helps families find high quality early learning environments and stability in their child care arrangements and connects families with resources to help them become self-sufficient and engage in two-gener...

Send us Fan Mail The data says Americans today are working longer and retiring later. Thirty years ago, the average retirement age in the US among men was 62, 59 among women.  By 2021, those numbers had gone up by three years…some blame a lack of savings, some blame reduced social security benefits, and some blame COVID. Whatever the case, retirements here at DECAL always come with mixed emotions....

Send us Fan Mail DECAL’s Nutrition Services Division administers the Child and Adult Care Food Program and Happy Helpings, Georgia’s Summer Food Service Program. These federal nutrition programs, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), ensure eligible children and adults have access to nutritious meals and snacks. Joining us this week to talk about Happy Helpings and CACFP is...

Send us Fan Mail These days finding traditional child care in Georgia Monday through Friday, from 6:00 AM to 6:30 PM, can be challenge enough.  But what about when you need non-traditional child care in the evenings, overnights, or on weekends?  Through extensive engagement with families, child care providers, and other stakeholders, DECAL has learned that many families have child care needs durin...

Send us Fan Mail As most people know, the program in Georgia that provides financial assistance with child care is called CAPS, or Childcare and Parent Services, and its administered here at DECAL. We are excited to announce that DECAL will soon begin administering the provider management function of the CAPS Program, work that is currently, and has historically been performed by our contractor, M...

Send us Fan Mail A graduation ceremony was held recently at the Loudermilk Center in downtown Atlanta for a group of students from state agencies who have spent the last ten months looking at ways Georgia can serve children and families through a two-generation approach.  The 2Gen Leadership Academy is sponsored by the Georgia Children’s Cabinet.  Joining us from DECAL to talk about their experien...

Send us Fan Mail School’s out for summer but still so many things happening here at the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning….we thought it was a good time for a Chat with Commissioner Jacobs, taking a wide variety of questions from our DECAL team as well as the early childhood care and education workforce and the general public on social media. Let's get started!  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail There’s a new resource in Georgia to assist families in locating the services they need…from financial assistance and food pantries to medical services and child care. Find Help Georgia is a collaboration by DECAL, Technical College System of Georgia, and Prevent Child Abuse Georgia. Here to talk about Find Help Georgia is Amanda Tarpley, CAPS Family Support Director for Operation...

Send us Fan Mail For the 12th year, DECAL is offering an 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 Program is Meg...

Send us Fan Mail Summer officially arrives on June 21….many consider it Memorial Day, May 29….either way, temperatures are rising and the danger of a child dying alone in a hot car becomes even more of a threat. For the tenth consecutive year, DECAL is calling for families and caregivers of children to Look Again…and increase awareness of the dangers of leaving children unattended in vehicles. Joi...

Send us Fan Mail This year we’re celebrating the 30th year of Georgia’s Pre-K Program and the 10th year of Quality Rated.  Next year marks the 20th year for the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning and when the agency was created in 2004, the same legislation mandated that the new department have an advisory board to support our work. The board meets quarterly and is composed of 14 member...

Send us Fan Mail From Athens to Valdosta and many places in-between, DECAL has awarded 18 Community Transformation Grants…ranging from $50,000 to $125,000…to community collaboratives serving children birth to eight and their families. We’ve also extended funding to eight grantees who received these grants in 2021. Joining us this week to discuss Community Transformation Grants is Jill OMeara, Mana...

Send us Fan Mail For the third year in a row, DECAL will celebrate Children’s Mental Health Week in Georgia May 1-5, 2023 .  Similar to Georgia’s Pre-K Week and Inclusive Early Learning Week, this special week in May reminds us that the early years in a child’s life provide a key opportunity to establish safe and secure relationships and support healthy social and emotional development. Joining us...

Send us Fan Mail Starting March 20, our Child Care Services Division began offering Health and Safety Grants to open and operating, licensed child care centers and family child care learning homes in Georgia to purchase equipment and materials that will help support compliance  with health and safety regulations. There’s a total of $80 million from the American Rescue Act, with programs receiving...

Send us Fan Mail Important news this week for any Georgia child care program that serves school-age children or has served school-age children in the past year. You may remember receiving an e-mail about DECAL’s School-Age Grants, financial support based on your program’s licensed capacity. Joining us to talk about School-Age Grants is Michelle Garris, School Age and Youth Programs Specialist; Bri...

Send us Fan Mail Last month, the Georgia Chamber hosted its third annual Georgia Summit, this year focused entirely on talent development.  The event was held at the Georgia Tech Research Institute and included discussions around talent and workforce development at every stage of the pipeline. Commissioner Jacobs was invited to serve on a panel discussing early childhood education, joined by Mindy...

Send us Fan Mail Sheryl Young-Wilhite has served as a Senior Human Resources Director here at DECAL responsible for recruitment, employee relations, and training. You might remember recently hearing from Robin Stevens here on the podcast as she planned for retirement, beginning March 1, after being our first Human Resources Director and serving 11 years. Also March 1, Sheryl became our new Human R...

Send us Fan Mail Meeting the child care and early education needs of Georgia’s children and their families is a big responsibility for one state agency…that’s why we appreciate so much the early childhood advocates we work with on a daily basis.  One of those advocates is Quality Care for Children. They have been operating since 1979 with offices in Atlanta, Athens, and Cartersville…a team of over...

Send us Fan Mail Meeting the child care and early education needs of Georgia’s children and their families is a big responsibility for one state agency…that’s why we appreciate so much the early childhood advocates we work with on a daily basis.  One of those advocates that helps us enhance early care and education for children and their families is Voices for Georgia’s Children, a nonprofit child...

Send us Fan Mail It all started with 750 four year olds in 1992 under then Governor Zell Miller.  Now, 30 years later, it serves over 70,000 students across the state under Governor Brian Kemp.  It’s Georgia’s Pre-K Program, celebrating a milestone birthday this year and laying a solid foundation for academic excellence and future success in the lives of nearly 2-million children. Joining us to ta...

Send us Fan Mail Since 2021, DECAL has paid out three installments of POWER payments (Providing Our Workforce Essential Recognition) to the tune of close to $115-million from the American Rescue Plan Act. That’s 115,000 individual payments of $1,000 to early learning professionals here in Georgia.  Now we are repurposing POWER payments and making some changes to DECAL Scholars to increase access t...

Send us Fan Mail If things had gone according to plan, our Human Resources Director Robin Stevens would have graduated from law school at the University of Georgia in the late seventies. But plans often change, as they did for Robin, when instead she chose the relatively new field of Human Resources. Robin became DECAL’s first HR director in February, 2012, and now she’s retiring this spring.  Sup...

Send us Fan Mail There are many ways to reach us here at DECAL.  You can go to our website at decal.ga.gov, you can e-mail us, or more than likely you still pick up the phone and call us on the telephone using 404-656-5957 or 1-888-442-7735. The voice you hear on the other side of the phone is very important to you…and to us. Joining us to talk about customer service here at DECAL is Antonia Mack,...