A number of highly dedicated early childhood professionals are hard at work designing Ohio’s new Center for Early Childhood Development. This far-reaching endeavor is designed to create a single administrative structure with the authority and responsibility to implement and coordinate state funded or administered early childhood programs and services for children prenatally until entry into kindergarten. See the Build Ohio website for more information. www.build-ohio.org
This planning is based on Governor Ted Strickland vision stated in his 2009 State of the State Address: “To better serve our youngest learners and help them thrive in school and in life, we will unite all of our early childhood development programs and resources into the Department of Education. This comprehensive early childhood system will focus on the whole child and provide quality early learning and care while improving our efficiency and effectiveness.”
It sounds ideal – and even more important now that the state is struggling with drastic reductions in funding to important efforts like early childhood. But the devil is in the details. Early Childhood leaders enter this effort with distrust all around. This distrust is borne out of years of the different departments (Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and the Ohio Department of Education, in particular) establishing programs and services which they truly believe are in the very best interest of children. To this end Ohio has two sets of licensing procedures and standards, two entirely different professional development standards and infrastructures, two different approaches to higher education.
The two departments start from entirely different places. ODE is focused on education regardless of a family’s work status or income. And the underlying purpose of ODJFS to ensure quality settings for children whose parents work in low-wage jobs. On the personal level (for don’t most things come down to the personal level), there is a long history of personnel from one department showing disrespect and misunderstanding toward the others’ systems and goals.
The plan is to join staff from education, health, mental health, family support, special needs and early intervention under one roof, and one leadership – and to create a great team on a playing field which, prior to this consolidation, was (is) littered with silos. I’m rooting for a winner, where children and families can be better served with fewer resources, and I hope that Ohio can create a model for other states. However, there is a long way to go, and it is going to take respect and compromise that has yet to surface.
I think, however, that it can be done. I’m rooting for the team – and for the children.
