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We here at The Gravely Group recently started piloting a new training on the Multicultural Principles for Early Childhood Leaders. We’ve been using this document for years, incorporating its lessons into many of our trainings, such as on ERSEA and Family Engagement. But we recently decided to review it again in its entirety after our…

We’ll be honest. If you had asked us during our last Year in Review blog if we’d still be talking about COVID-19 affecting our day to day lives, we’d have said, “I sure hope not!” In December 2020 when we were writing it, the vaccines had just become available for those at highest risk and…

Early childhood education programs across the country face unprecedented shortages in staff, a problem that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The child care industry employment rate is down more than 10 percent from pre-pandemic levels and child care staff hiring has become more challenging than ever, as the Office of Head Start (OHS)…

This past June, we wrote a blog outlining Head Start’s expectations for programs in the 2021-2022 school year. In it, we explained how the Office of Head Start (OHS) is expecting all programs to work towards full in-person enrollment for this program year. We explained that while OHS had originally supported virtual and remote services…

This is the fourth and final blog in our series on the OHS publication Supporting School Readiness and Success of Young African American Boys Project. In our first three blogs, we talked about the origins of the project, defined the culturally responsive lens, and talked about why it focuses on African American boys in the…

This is the third blog in our four-part series on the training document, Supporting School Readiness and Success in African American Boys Project. In our first blog of the series, “An Introduction to the “Supporting the School Readiness and Success of African American Boys Project’’, we discussed how the Office of Head Start’s National Center…

This is the second blog in our four-part series on the training document, Supporting School Readiness and Success in African American Boys Project. In our first blog of the series, “An Introduction to the “Supporting the School Readiness and Success of African American Boys Project,” we mentioned the Culturally Responsive Strength-Based (CRSB) Framework. It’s this…

I’m always surprised at the breadth and depth of information available at the Office of Head Start’s (OHS) Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECKLC). If you have a question or a problem, chances are there’s a document or resource available that can help. I came across one such document in an email from ECKLC…

“Father engagement is not a stand-alone program initiative, but a vital and integrated aspect of parent, family, and community work.” – Birth to 5 Father Engagement Guide Like most things in life that are worth the effort, engaging fathers takes work. Sometimes, it takes a lot of work. However, family engagement is one of the…

Summer is the time for planning. And after the confusion and societal upheaval of the last year, this upcoming school year is going to take more planning than usual. The Office of Head Start (OHS) recently released a program instruction outlining their enrollment expectations for the upcoming school year. In short, it states that designees…