Date: 07/20/2015

Final
Presentation on Early Childhood School Discipline

EARLY CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL READINESS

Votes: View--> Action Taken:
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03:07 PM -- Presentation on Early Childhood School Discipline

Senator Martinez Humenik asked the next panelists, who were presenting by telephone, to begin their presentation. A handout was distributed to the commission members (Attachment A). The first panelist, Libby Doggett, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Early Learning, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education, told the commission members that reports show that the earliest experiences of children foster their entire development. She said that nationally, expulsions happen disproportionately to young African American boys, and that children need supports to stay in the classroom and teachers need assistance. She talked about a study released in 2005 by Dr. Walter Gilliam showing that 10 percent of all teachers reported permanently expelling at least one child in the last year due to challenging behaviors. She explained that Washington, DC, has banned expulsions from preschool and the U.S. Department of Education has worked with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to come up with shared common policy goals.

15EarlyChildhood0720AttachA.pdf15EarlyChildhood0720AttachA.pdf

The next panelist, Seth Galanter, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, began his presentation. He said that since the 1960s, the Civil Rights Data Collection project has collected nationally representative data from all public schools in the United States to look at school discipline. He said that starting in 2011, the project began collecting data on preschool expulsions and found that over 8,000 preschool students had been expelled in the last year. He said that the research found that African American boys were one-fifth of all preschool students yet represented half of all preschool expulsions, and that boys received three out of four preschool expulsions. He explained that the project only surveyed public preschool programs nationally.


03:14 PM

Mr. Galanter said they are currently collecting data for the 2013-2014 school year and are hoping that the data quality will improve, although he believes the trends found in 2011 will basically remain the same. He said that early childhood programs should avoid expulsions, and that a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate wants to focus more on professional development for teachers and promote policies that reduce preschool expulsions.

Senator Martinez Humenik asked whether any data was collected on transgender youth. Mr. Galanter stated that in the 2011 and 2013 data collection efforts, the study allowed the individual reporter from the school to determine whether a student is male or female.

Linda Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, began her presentation by telling the commission that Colorado is a state that is addressing preschool expulsion in one of the more progressive ways. She said that early childhood education is developed in a wide variety of settings and it is difficult to address policy issues in only one way.


03:26 PM

Ms. Smith spoke about child care center regulations, and explained that since the issue of expulsion is very complicated and it is hard to determine guidelines that fit all settings and situations. Ms. Doggett spoke about the need to have highly qualified staff and appropriate staff supports in place. Mr. Galanter added that Dr. Gilliam's 2010 research study found correlations between high rates of expulsions, class size, and the reliance on worksheets.

Ms. Smith said that one of the things contributing to problems in child care is the lack of understanding of child development and this can be addressed with better staff training. Senator Martinez Humenik stated that funding is a big barrier in Colorado and across the country. The commission members discussed issues created by a lack of funding.


03:36 PM

Representative Wilson expressed concern about the effect of the inappropriate behavior of kids that are expelled on the rest of the children in the classroom. Ms. Doggett added that children act differently in different settings and may have some behavioral problems in one setting but not in others. Mr. Galanter stated that he is not aware of studies at the preschool level looking at student achievement in schools with disciplinary action versus schools without disciplinary action.

Ms. Smith said that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is looking into the need for more early childhood mental health consultation and its impact on social and emotional development of preschool age children.

Senator Marble asked Ms. Doggett about appropriate preschool curricula. Ms. Doggett explained that the U.S. Department of Education does not endorse any particular curriculum but they do recommend developmentally appropriate curriculum. She said that young children learn through hands on activities with a lot of choice, and that teacher competency is very important and teachers need to create environments where students are free to explore. Ms. Smith spoke about the evidence-based Head Start curriculum.


03:47 PM

Ms. Smith stated that successful preschool curriculums take into account child development, and that teachers need professional support and schools need to select curriculums that can be individualized to the particular needs of students.

Senator Todd asked if the Strong Start bill includes social and economic support for families. Ms. Doggett replied that it is a component, but the bill is very open ended so that states and local communities can tailor it to work with their existing programs and best practices.


03:53 PM

Sarah Davidon, JFK Partners, University of Colorado School of Medicine, began her presentation on expulsions, suspensions, and early childhood discipline in Colorado. She said that expulsion is defined as the complete and permanent removal of a child from a program, and suspension is the temporary prohibition or exclusion from attending an early learning program. She explained that there is no good data to support expulsion or suspension from early child care programs, but there is good data showing that other types of discipline and guidance work well. Ms. Davidon explained that a recent study found that children with challenging behaviors who learn how to self reflect, identify, and address that behavior on their own do better than having a teacher discipline a child to stop the behavior. She said that social and emotional skills learned by the time a child is in kindergarten correlate with key indicators of success in adulthood, such as educational attainment and job security.

Ms. Davidon told the commission that a 2006 study showed that eleven out every 1,000 children in child care settings were expelled, and that a 2011 study showed that number dropped to four out of every 1,000. She said that this means that every year, more than 100 children in Colorado are expelled from child care because of behavioral challenges. She explained that the 2006 study was the first to look at expulsions in Colorado, and there is very limited data on this topic. She said that two data points from 2006 and 2011 are not sufficient to draw any conclusions about the rate of expulsions in Colorado.

Ms. Davidon told the commission that preventative strategies work, intervention strategies that teach but do not punish work, and early childhood mental health consultations work, but that our society has a very different approach to academic education and behavioral education.


04:03 PM

Ms. Davidon talked about family child care rules additions that were added in the last few years and said that there is a strong philanthropic interest in helping to fund some of this work. She said there are examples in Connecticut, Minneapolis, MN, and Washington, DC, on how states and localities are addressing preschool discipline. She told the commission about several important findings in the topic area, including:

She said there are disproportionate rates of expulsion and suspension rates in this country that also need to be addressed. Senator Kefalas asked what happens to children that are expelled. Ms. Davidon replied better data is needed in this area, but that many times the children do not have anywhere else to go and a parent needs to stay home to take care of them.

04:10 PM -- Cindy Schultz of the Cydney and Tom Marsico Foundation returned to the table. She spoke about the Early Childhood Colorado (ECC) Framework, and explained that it covers a lot of different domains and is meant to be used as a guiding document for a transition from preschool into kindergarten or first grade. She suggested that every licensed child care provider received a copy of the ECC Framework.


04:13 PM

Senator Martinez Humenik asked the commission members to send staff their top five priorities for topics to be discussed at future meetings. The meeting adjourned.