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Goal 1: Readiness to Start School

Goal Statement

"Communities and schools collaborate to prepare children and families for children's success in school."

Working Assumptions Summary

The assumptions made regarding Goal 1 have been summarized and divided into three categories outlined below.

Families

*A partnership must exist among families, HRS, community agencies, businesses, and schools to truly ensure every child's readiness for success in school.

*Programs need to be family-centered, community-based, and focused on building family and community strengths.

*All families and children must be afforded access to physical and mental health care systems, and self-sufficiency is most likely to be achieved through education and employment training.

Specialized Services

*Appropriate specialized services for children at risk of school failure and children with disabilities, and their families, should be provided.

*Early identification of the needs of children and families will be most successful when accomplished through a community-based program of screening, assessment, and referral.

Any Age

*This goal envisions readiness for success as a learner at whatever age the student enters public school in Florida.

Standard 1

"Before entrance to Florida public schools, children have received appropriate health and social services so that optimum learning can occur for each child."

Outcomes Summary

The outcomes for Standard 1 have been summarized below.

Cooperative Agreements

*Agreements among schools, HRS, community organizations and medical practitioners to provide health services to children and their families.

Health Services

*Provide children and their families with access to:

*Comprehensive health services, including physical and dental examinations.

*Developmental, occupational, speech, hearing, visual, and mental health screenings.

*Further evaluation for any potentially handicapping condition.

*Therapeutic services related to abnormalities and deficiencies identified in the screenings.

*Community services available in each school district to help children and families in need.


Standard 2

"At entrance to Florida public schools, children will be at a developmental level of physical, social, and intellectual readiness necessary to ensure success as a learner."

Outcomes Summary

The outcomes for Standard 2 have been summarized below.

Cooperative Agreements

*Agreements among schools, HRS, and community organizations and government agencies to provide family support services.

Family Support

*Provide families access to comprehensive family support programs such as:

*Information and referral networks.

*Parenting endeavors like First Start and Healthy Start.

*Services for children with special needs.

*Public information opportunities related to child development.


*Provide families access to early education and child care programs that:

*Provide training to ensure high quality early childhood personnel.

*Coordinate with schools to ensure an effective transition from preschool to school-age activities.

*Are available during appropriate hours to meet the needs of working parents.

*Are inclusive of children with disabilities.


*Provide students, including pregnant and parenting teens, access to programs that help develop:

*Appropriate family planning and parenting skills.

*Self-sufficiency.

*An understanding of the importance of completing educational goals.

*Knowledge of appropriate community resources.


Strategies for Accomplishing Goal 1

Community and Adult Education practitioners will find 10 strategies for helping schools and advisory councils accomplish Goal 1 in the section below. Each strategy is followed by suggested steps for implementing the strategy.

Strategy 1

Assist parents to realize they are their children's primary teachers, and the importance of learning experiences in a child's first five years.

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Step 1

Develop parenting education activities for expecting parent(s) with emphasis on the birth of healthy babies.

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Step 2

Work with health care providers and hospitals to refer expecting parents to the parenting education activities.

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Step 3

Develop and/or access quality materials (i.e., written, video, audio) that can be made available to parents to help them in their important role as their child's first teacher.

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Step 4

Develop a sequence of parenting education activities to assist parents throughout their children's first five years.

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Step 5

Deliver the parenting education activities at convenient sites and times.

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Step 6

Promote efforts using mixed media.

Strategy 2

Work with the school advisory council to plan and provide a community health fair for children and their families.

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Step 1

Host a meeting between the advisory council and representatives of the health department, mental health services, and organizations specializing in speech, hearing, visual and other disorders. The purpose of the meeting would be to explore the potential for working together to provide health screenings for children and their families.

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Step 2

Facilitate development of a Health Fair Committee to provide follow-up to the aforementioned meeting. The committee should have representatives from the advisory council and health organizations.

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Step 3

Assist the Health Fair Committee to secure a location for the health fair by examining various community-based sites. Help them look at the potential sites from the perspective of comfort and convenience to the family.

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Step 4

Assist the Committee in identifying additional agencies and organizations to involve in the health fair.

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Step 5

Assist the Committee to reinvolve the advisory council and the health-related agencies in the final planning of the health fair.

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Step 6

Assist the advisory council and health agencies in the promotion and awareness of the health fair.

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Step 7

Participate in the delivery of the health fair and follow-up evaluation by the advisory council and participating agencies. Include discussion related to future health fairs.

Strategy 3

Assist parents in modeling health-promoting lifestyles.

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Step 1

Develop written and audiovisual materials that describe the importance of parents modeling health-promoting lifestyles.

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Step 2

Promote the materials with schools, advisory councils, and parent-teacher organizations.

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Step 3

Work with schools, advisory councils, and parent-teacher organizations that are interested in promoting activities related to helping parents model healthy lifestyles.

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Step 4

Develop and provide classes for parents interested in living healthier lifestyles.

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Step 5

Develop modules for parenting education classes that encourage parents to model health-promoting lifestyles.

Strategy 4

Promote the development of a family services center that provides all family members assessment and agency services from many community organizations all at one location.

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Step 1

Convene a meeting with representatives of key community service agencies to explore the potential for developing a family services center.

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Step 2

Secure information from existing family services centers, and duplicate the materials for distribution to the agency representatives.

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Step 3

Assist the agency representatives to identify and invite additional community organizations to join them in the exploration and discussions.

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Step 4

Offer assistance for a visitation to one or more of the family services centers.

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Step 5

Offer assistance to the group for future meetings and visitations.

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Step 6

Facilitate continued meeting to work toward development of a family resources center.

Strategy 5

Develop and provide an after-school enrichment program for middle school youth that is designed to help them become more self-sufficient, value diversity, set goals, and strengthen family relationships.

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Step 1

Develop a funding base for the enrichment program that enables all students to participate at a minimal cost to them and their families.

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Step 2

Develop a youth advisory council that is representative of the students in the middle school.

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Step 3

Work with the regular school advisory council to determine specific goals and desired outcomes of an after-school enrichment program.

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Step 4

Work with the youth advisory council to identify specific program areas of interest to the students.

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Step 5

Develop a small prototype program that allows for assessment and improvement.

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Step 6

Involve the youth advisory council in the promotion and evaluation of the program.

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Step 7

Add specific components to the program on a systematic basis. Continue to involve both councils in program development and assessment.

Strategy 6

Offer to assist schools and/or advisory councils in the development of interagency agreements.

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Step 1

Examine the sample cooperative agreements provided in Appendix B.

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Step 2

Secure additional cooperative agreements.

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Step 3

Identify the essential elements that should be included in a cooperative agreement.

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Step 4

Inform school and advisory council leaders that you are willing to assist them in the development of any cooperative agreements.

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Step 5

Provide assistance with the development of cooperative agreements to schools and councils as requested.

Strategy 7

Develop a monthly one-page newsletter for parents announcing free activities in the community that can enhance their children's education.

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Step 1

Secure a small committee of volunteers willing to examine upcoming scheduled events.

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Step 2

Work with the committee to identify possible sources for information related to upcoming community activities.

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Step 3

Provide training for the committee related to abstracting the information and rewriting it in easy-to-read and understandable terms.

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Step 4

Arrange a schedule for submitting the announcements.

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Step 5

Print and duplicate the one-page, two-sided newsletter.

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Step 6

Distribute the newsletters using methods developed by the editorial committee.

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Step 7

Focus the distribution of the newsletter to parents of preschool-age children, parents in parenting classes, and parents of elementary children.

Strategy 8

Cooperate with the school advisory council to prepare and publish a directory of local community services for parents of children with abnormalities or deficiencies.

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Step 1

Work with school advisory councils to identify local community agencies that provide services for children with abnormalities or deficiencies.

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Step 2

Develop a committee consisting of advisory council members to coordinate the gathering of information.

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Step 3

Confirm the information gathered with each of the providing agencies and seek their permission in use of the information.

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Step 4

Assist the committee in the layout and presentation of the information.

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Step 5

Involve the committee in the critique of the final draft of the directory, and identify methods for distribution.

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Step 6

Print and distribute copies of the directories.

Strategy 9

Develop and implement workplace literacy programs that utilize parenting skills in the core curriculum.

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Step 1

Identify basic parenting skills that could be incorporated into the literacy curriculum.

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Step 2

Match up the basic parenting skills with specific parts of the curriculum.

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Step 3

Develop core curriculum experiences with basic parenting skills built in or used as examples.

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Step 4

Integrate the core curriculum experiences into curricula of workplace literacy activities.

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Step 5

Evaluate the value of integrating parenting skills into the core curriculum.

Strategy 10

Develop and deliver inservice training for child care providing agencies.

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Step 1

Identify child care agencies and organizations within the community.

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Step 2

Convene a meeting with representatives of the identified agencies.

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Step 3

Work with the agency representatives to identify their training needs.

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Step 4

Develop inservice training experiences designed to address the needs identified by the child care providers.

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Step 5

Work with the child care providers to deliver the inservice training workshops.


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