What’s New?

Helping Your Child Get On Track: Education Tips for 2022

Posted on January 6, 2022

By Nina Peckman, Staff Attorney

What kinds of questions should you ask at the school meeting to assess your child’s progress and to request help for your child?

  • What information does the Start Strong assessment result say about my child? How are these results guiding the instruction that my child is getting?
  • What are my child’s current reading and math levels? What were they in June 2021? In June 2020? 
  • What informal assessments did my child receive? What skills did the assessments test cover?
  • What is the average range of a typical child at the point in time of this meeting for math and reading? (ex. January of the 4th-grade year)
  • What are the skills that are typically learned by a child in my child’s grade?
  • What kind of specific services can you add to my child’s curriculum, during school, after or in the summer to make up for services that should have been provided but weren’t?
  • If my child becomes overwhelmed by too many extra services, can we agree to provide extra education services for my child over the next two years?
  • If tutoring is available, what are the qualifications of the tutor?
  • What kind of counseling services can my child receive? Can the counseling services have specific goals to address my child’s particular needs?
  • If my child needs an accommodation to his or her school schedule due to stress, depression or anxiety, how can my child receive that without being punished for being absent from class/school?
  • How can my child get missed classwork, tests or homework with extra time and extra support if necessary, to make up for time away from class due to emotional issues?
  • My child has a therapist who understands my child’s emotional and behavioral issues and is helping with that. What can I do to ensure the school counselor collaborates with the therapist?
  • How will school staff decide and document if the added strategies and services are working to help my child?
  • Can we schedule a short meeting in six weeks to go over my child’s progress and see how the additional services are working?

If your child’s education was affected by the pandemic, parents can take certain steps to help get them back on track. Your school may already be providing your children with additional education services and supports. If you feel that the supports and services are inadequate, or are not sure if your child is making adequate progress, follow these steps for 2022:

1. Request a school meeting to discuss progress and how to help your child.

Write to your child’s teacher and principal, if applicable, as well the school guidance counselor, social worker, Intervention and Referral Services (IR&S) team, Child Study Team, 504 team or other school support staff, to request a meeting to discuss:

  • your child’s current academic levels, 
  • what progress your child should have made since March 2020, 
  • what progress has been made, if the school-based services are helping your child progress; and
  • what assessments should be conducted, what other services should be implemented.

2. Prepare for a school meeting.

You should review your child’s relevant school records and write down questions or concerns you may have. Write to your school principal and ask for copies of student records from March 2020 until the present, including grades, progress reports, attendance records, child study team evaluation reports and education plans if applicable, intervention and referral services plans, health plans, behavior plans, a copy of the Start Strong assessment results (administered in the fall of 2021 for students in 4th grade or higher), and the results of objective informal assessments that teachers give students periodically to assess language arts and math.

You should also request a record of the education services your child received from March 2020  to the present.

Records must be provided within ten days of your written request in a mutually convenient way, such as you picking them up, or having them emailed or mailed.

3. Know what services you can ask for.

Your child is entitled to receive tutoring at mutually convenient times, summer school, supplementary classes, counseling, social-emotional supports and an I&RS plan if a more formal structured service plan is needed. If your child has learning or behavior/emotional issues that are seriously affecting school performance, child study team evaluations may be appropriate and if eligible, an Individualized Education Plan or a 504 plan.

4. After the meeting is over - Get confirmation.

Ask for written confirmation from the school staff attending about what will be provided. You can also email the school staff that participated and confirm what was agreed upon at the meeting, including any next steps.

If the school staff who were at the meeting do not implement an appropriate plan or address your concerns, you may contact ACNJ Staff Attorney Nina Peckman for information and advocacy assistance at npeckman@acnj.org or by calling (973) 643-3876, ext. 226.

Read more about student education rights

Beginning a New Year: State Child Care Payment Practices Update

Posted on January 5, 2022

Thanks to the New Jersey Legislature and Governor Murphy, a bill was passed and signed into law in late December requiring child care subsidy payments based on a program’s enrollment, rather than on attendance, to continue. Child care providers throughout the state are beginning the new year with a sigh of relief as a steady stream of much-needed guaranteed and predictable funding is promised through the policy.

This relief however, is short-lived. The law is set to expire June 2022. At that time, the practice may revert back to the previous policy, when payments were based on attendance. This resulted in unstable funding for providers, particularly for those in low-income communities, where programs rely heavily on the subsidy system.

What has become clear in the last two years is that we cannot go back to the pre-pandemic child care system that was inadequate for working families, the committed staff who care for and educate our children and most importantly, for the children themselves. Although this recent announcement is good news, it is only temporary. And for an industry that was deemed “essential” during the height of the pandemic, child care providers continue to struggle to keep their doors open. In this new year, ACNJ remains committed to work collaboratively with the state and other early childhood stakeholders to finally address these issues by developing and implementing a bold, comprehensive system of early education and care. We urge Governor Murphy, our Legislature and all of our early childhood partners to reimagine child care and make a promise to help all of New Jersey’s children thrive.

More Than Just Funding:
New Jersey’s Child Care System Still Needs Help

The problems plaguing the child care system extend far beyond the way in which the state provides subsidy payments and existed long before the pandemic began nearly two years ago. These problems include:

  • A staffing crisis continues to exist. Employees are unwilling to work for chronically low wages, particularly when higher salaried positions, which often include attractive benefits packages, are available;
  • The number of registered family child care homes continue to dwindle, further reducing care options available to working parents, particularly those with very young children; and
  • Families struggle to find child care options for their infants and toddlers, living in infant/toddler child care deserts.
Explore More News and Resources on Child Care in New Jersey

Thanks For Celebrating With Us!

Posted on December 17, 2021

As 2021 comes to a close, we look back on yet another successful year of educating our policymakers and advocating for the wellbeing of New Jersey’s children. Last year, we worked with the state to combat our Black maternal mortality crisis, advocated for universal home visiting and preschool for all, put the state's kids and their families at the center of a roundtable discussion with federal leaders, rallied for the release of critical American Rescue Plan dollars for child care, and helped hundreds of parents resolve school issues.

Your donations help us in our mission to give every child a chance to grow up safe, healthy and educated, using data to drive effective policy solutions to support children and their caregivers. Before the year ends, consider a tax-deductible donation to ACNJ, and help us continue our successes into 2022 and beyond.

View Our 6th Annual Breakfast Celebration

ACNJ Thanks Our Generous Breakfast Sponsors

New Report Details Investment Gap in New Jersey’s Youngest Learners

Posted on December 13, 2021

Pennies to the Dollar: The Investment Gap for New Jersey's Earliest Learners details the investment gaps to support the education of infants and toddlers and provides three policy/investment recommendations.

This brief is based on an analysis conducted by Ajay Chaudry and Taryn Morrissey, authors of Cradle to Kindergarten: A New Plan to Combat Inequality.

Download Brief

Pandemic Stress: Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce

Posted on December 13, 2021

By Hannah Korn-Heilner and Nya Earrusso

During the week of October 18, 2021, ACNJ, along with partners from the Think Babies and Pritzker infant mental health workgroup, held Celebrate Babies Week, an initiative of the Association for Infant Mental Health to bring awareness to the needs of our youngest children. This year’s theme was “Sustaining the Essential Role of the Caregiver.” During the pandemic, our caregivers have been essential workers, supporting the social and emotional growth of our babies every day during a stressful time. This week was used as an opportunity to celebrate the power of early relationships, which help set the blueprints for how children feel about themselves and the way they assess future relationships. 

Throughout the week, ACNJ and its partners engaged in social media posts to highlight the needs of young children and co-hosted a webinar featuring a special presentation from Dr. Walter Gilliam from Yale University Child Study Center on his recent research on the impact of the pandemic on young children, their families and child care providers. We cannot forget that early childhood professionals are experiencing mental health concerns during this time as well. With low pay, limited benefits and the added stress of the past year, even veteran professionals are past their breaking point. This in turn can have an impact on the children under their care.    

Preliminary research from Dr. Gilliam has highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the early childhood workforce. Prior to the pandemic, only seven percent of child care providers experienced elevated levels of stress compared to about 20 percent in May and June of 2020 and 19 percent in June of 2021. Additionally, about 9.6 percent of providers experienced depression prior to the pandemic compared to 41.7 percent in May and June of 2020 and 35.8 percent in June of 2021.

While child care workers enabled parents to work before and during the pandemic, they are an overworked and underpaid group, overrepresented by Black women who have been historically subjugated to positions of servitude raising white children for little to no pay. It is no surprise that Dr. Gilliam found in his preliminary research that 6.9 percent of early childhood educators experienced racial aggression/exclusion and 15.5 percent witnessed it.

A Promising Solution to Support the Mental Health of Infants, Toddlers and Caregivers

Infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) consultation is an evidence-based, collaborative service that partners qualified infant and early childhood mental health professionals with adults who have caregiving responsibility for children. The practice is rooted in the promotion of equitable relational and emotional well-being through the formation of supportive relationships with adults who care for children. This service differs from traditional mental health services, which tend to be primarily individually focused on infant, child or adult dysfunction and treatment, to instead a more public health/promotional approach by assisting the adults who care for children. 

IECMH consultants may focus on the needs in a classroom, those for a child/family or those of a system or program to improve the quality of life for children and their caregivers. Coming from varying backgrounds like early education, psychology, social work counseling and more, IECMHC professionals aim to equip caregivers to support infant and toddler emotional development. Additionally, they intend to prevent, identify and hopefully reduce stress and stress reactions amongst staff.

In New Jersey, IECMHC is operated through the Social Emotional Formation Initiative (SEFI) out of Montclair State University’s (MSU) Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health (CAECMH), which is funded by the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Family Development. SEFI supports the adults who care for infants and young children to reduce stress and promote relational and developmental health. This program is able to provide services virtually and in person in English and Spanish for early care and education programs in all counties of New Jersey. The MSU team has recently expanded to 18 consultants who are able to provide services to the multidisciplinary professionals around the state. 

MSU also offers additional programs and services under the auspices of the Professional Formation Center for the Early Relational Health Workforce, which provides professional formation, coaching/consultation and systems coordination to the multidisciplinary workforce who support families prenatally through Kindergarten, including home visitation programs, doulas and other childbirth educators, Early Intervention practitioners, the Children’s System of Care and any other programs or services that intersect with young children and families. These include Keeping Babies and Children in Mind (KBCM), a training series designed for professionals working with young children to raise knowledge and build their competencies on how to support early relational and developmental health. While the training was originally implemented after Hurricane Sandy to address the impact of disasters on young children, it has now been expanded statewide and is offered for free to all prenatal, infant, early childhood and family service professionals. Additionally, the 3Cs program, Conversations for Connection, Comfort, and Calm, started at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and provides the early relational health workforce a space for support and reflection. MSU also offers longer term Reflective Consultation groups for professionals who may be interested in a longer term reflective experience, or those interested in the NJ-AIMH Endorsement). 

Conclusion

As families continue to return to work, our child care providers are even more essential than ever. So while Celebrate Babies Week is over, it’s important to continue to advocate for and address the needs of our early childhood workforce. For more information about the SEFI Support program or the Professional Formation Center at MSU, please email sefi@montclair.edu or call 973-826-7971.