[Senate Hearing 113-300]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 113-300
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT AND
EDUCATION IN INDIAN COUNTRY: BUILDING A FOUNDATION FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
FEBRUARY 26, 2014
__________
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COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
JON TESTER, Montana, Chairman
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming, Vice Chairman
TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
TOM UDALL, New Mexico JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota
AL FRANKEN, Minnesota MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
MARK BEGICH, Alaska DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
Mary J. Pavel, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Rhonda Harjo, Minority Deputy Chief Counsel
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on February 26, 2014................................ 1
Statement of Senator Barrasso.................................... 3
Statement of Senator Heitkamp.................................... 3
Statement of Senator Tester...................................... 1
Witnesses
Costello, E. Jane, Professor, Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Medicine; Associate Director for Research, Center
for Child and Family Policy, Duke University................... 34
Prepared statement........................................... 36
Fabre, Barbara, Chairwoman, National Indian Child Care
Association; Director, Child Care/Early Childhood Program,
White Earth Nation............................................. 24
Prepared statement........................................... 25
Power, Jacquelyn, Superintendent/Principal, Blackwater Community
School......................................................... 29
Prepared statement........................................... 31
Smith, Linda K., Deputy Assistant Secretary/Inter-Departmental
Liaison for Early Childhood Development, Administration for
Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services....................................................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Wells, Danny, Executive Officer, Division of Education, Chickasaw
Nation......................................................... 17
Prepared statement........................................... 19
Appendix
Darling, Sharon, President/Founder, National Center for Families
Learning (NCFL), prepared statement............................ 46
Goes Ahead, Ginger, Program Manager, Crow Head Start Program,
prepared statement............................................. 44
Haight, Jacki, President, National Indian Head Start Directors
Association, prepared statement................................ 49
Hee, Wendy Roylo, Executive Director, Native Hawaiian Education
Council, prepared statement.................................... 56
Naone, Dr. Kanoe, CEO, INPEACE, prepared statement............... 53
National Indian Education Association, prepared statement........ 47
Rawlins, Namaka, `Aha Punana Leo, Inc., prepared statement....... 52
Schatz, Hon. Brian, U.S. Senator from Hawaii, prepared statement. 43
Whipple, Willeen, Senior Manager--Tribal Affiliations, Parents as
Teachers National Center, prepared statement................... 55
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT AND
EDUCATION IN INDIAN COUNTRY:
BUILDING A FOUNDATION FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2014
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Indian Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:30 p.m. in room
628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Jon Tester,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JON TESTER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA
The Chairman. Good afternoon, and welcome.
Today marks my first hearing as Chairman of this Committee,
and I look forward to working with each of my colleagues,
including my ranking member, to address the challenges that are
facing American Indians and Alaska Natives across this Country.
I grew up neighbors to Indian Country. I am humbled by the
responsibility to serve it in this position. I know that every
member of this Committee shares my commitment to ensure the
tribes in Indian communities have every opportunity to succeed
and grow and that we are protecting and honoring our
responsibilities to Indian Country.
I also want to begin my tenure here as Chairman with a
little action and an extended invitation to my colleagues on
this Committee, whether you are here today or watching, to come
up to me with any bills that we might be able to take up in
this Committee so that we can move them out of this Committee
quickly, get them to the Senate Floor, and move them onto the
President's desk. I am looking forward to taking action on the
important legislation that is so meaningful for our
constituents and utilizing this Committee to continue to move
Indian Country forward.
Speaking of moving Indian Country forward, today's hearing
is on Early Childhood Development and Education in Indian
Country: Building a Foundation for Academic Success, the first
of what I hope will be a series of hearings to examine the
educational needs in Indian Country. This is a very important
issue to the tribes in my home State of Montana and across this
Country. Just last week I toured several reservations in
Montana and education was a prominent concern that was brought
up in all of these communities.
As a former educator, I know first-hand the impacts of
quality education and what those impacts can have on our youth
throughout their lives. I believe that improving these
opportunities can be a starting point for addressing man of the
issues that are so prevalent throughout much of Indian Country.
Today we are going to focus specifically on early childhood
education. Among the many benefits of early intervention and
supporting early childhood development is the potential for
increasing family and community involvement and the lives of
our children. When we invest in early childhood, we are
investing not only in the child but the family and the
community around him or her. And to me, that is a good policy.
Another important benefit that I want to highlight and that
I know we will discuss in further depth today is the ability of
our programs to support Native languages and help preserve and
protect these important connections to Native culture and
identity, which is something I strongly support. There are many
programs under the Federal umbrella that provide early
childhood development and education for Native children. We
need to look at whether these programs are operating
efficiently and effectively and to see what steps we need to be
taking in Congress, if any, to improve the quality of early
childhood education that Native children are receiving.
Our witnesses represent a wide array of Indian programs
that provide early childhood education on tribal lands,
including the Department of Health and Human Services Child
Care Development Block Grant Recipient and the Family and Child
Education program supported by the Bureau of Indian Education
at the Department of Interior. Another witness is an
administrator from the tribal division of education, Dr.
Costello from Duke University, who has joined us to discuss the
impacts that early investment in a child's life can have on the
long-term outcome for that child.
Before that, we will be hearing from the Department of
Health and Human Services. I am excited to learn that the
Department's witness is a fellow Montanan. I look forward to
hearing from all our witnesses today about early childhood
development and education programs operating in Indian Country.
I welcome suggestions for what Congress can do to improve these
programs.
In particular, I hope we can discuss how these programs are
working together. Several programs and services are often
similar or duplicative. And we must make these programs more
efficient and at the same time ensure that Native youth are
provided with the best opportunities to lead fulfilling and
protective academic lives.
I want to thank the witnesses for traveling a long way to
Washington, D.C. to present your perspective on this important
issue. With that, I will turn to Senator Barrasso, Ranking
Member Barrasso, for his statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BARRASSO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM WYOMING
Senator Barrasso. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for
holding this hearing on early childhood development and
education in Indian Country. I want to begin by welcoming you,
Senator Tester, to your new role as Chairman of the Committee
on Indian Affairs. I look forward to continuing to work with
you and continuing this Committee's longstanding tradition of
bipartisanship.
Over the years, the Committee has held several oversight
hearings on education in Indian Country, as you mentioned. The
consistent message from tribal leaders has been that education
for their people is among the highest of all priorities.
We all know that a quality education is a critical factor
for success in today's world. The earlier it can start for
children, the better. So I look forward to hearing how well
Indian children are being prepared for tomorrow and what
improvements are still needed.
I also want to welcome the witnesses to today's hearing.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Barrasso.
Senator Heitkamp?
STATEMENT OF HON. HEIDI HEITKAMP,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA
Senator Heitkamp. Thank you, and I guess I should
congratulate my good friend from Montana, Jon Tester, on taking
over on this Committee. I think he is somebody who completely
understands the challenge of many of the tribes that live in
North Dakota and certainly the large land tribes. Being an
educator, I think he shares the concerns of so many of us
regarding Indian education.
Just to tell a story, a tribal chairman in my State,
Standing Rock, recently talked to me. His whole focus was
education. He said, do you ever watch the little kids run to
the bus on the reservation? They run and their spirits are
high. It seems to soar. He said, then they get kind of in sixth
grade and they walk to the bus. And then they get to high
school and they walk away from the bus. Something happens
there, from that exuberant spirit of starting an education and
opportunity to walking away from education. This is the hope,
that when we all work together and we begin to have hearings
like this, begin to talk about how we can solve these problems,
that we will see educational achievements, at least equal to
the other residents of my State, within Indian Country.
I know we can accomplish that, because it is not about the
limitations of the child, it is about the limitations of the
system. So thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing.
Ranking Member Barrasso, I share with you your concerns and
hope that I can be part of any solution discussions that we
have as a result.
The Chairman. And you will be. Thank you for your comments.
Now I would like to welcome the first panel, the first
panel is a panel of one. I would like to welcome that panelist,
Ms. Linda Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Inter-
Departmental Liaison for Early Childhood Development at the
Administration for Children and Families. You will be
presenting the views of the Department of Health and Human
Services. Welcome, Linda, we look forward to your testimony,
and you may begin.
And if you could keep it to five minutes, we would
appreciate it. Your full testimony will be a part of the
record.
STATEMENT OF LINDA K. SMITH, DEPUTY ASSISTANT
SECRETARY/INTER-DEPARTMENTAL LIAISON FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD
DEVELOPMENT, ADMINISTRATION FOR
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN
SERVICES
Ms. Smith. Chairman Tester, Vice Chairman Barrasso and
members of the Committee, I am pleased to be here today, and
especially to discuss early childhood education in Indian
Country.
First I want to congratulate you, sir, as you convene your
first hearing as Chair of this Committee. And I think it is
amazing that it happens to be on early childhood education,
where we know it all begins.
It is my honor to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Early Childhood Development at the Administration for Children
and Families. I am responsible for tribal home visitation,
child care, Head Start and Race to the Top Early Learning
Challenge. The Early Learning Challenge, by the way, is jointly
administered with the Department of Education.
I am a native of Montana and was born and raised on the
Flathead Reservation in Northwestern Montana. In fact, I
volunteered in one of the first Indian Head Start programs on
the reservation. That experience still influences many of the
decisions I make today.
My first paid position in the early learning field was in
the Northern Cheyenne Reservation where I was hired by the
tribal community action program to set up a child care program.
I have witnessed first-hand the differences that these programs
can make for our Native American children's school readiness
and family stability.
Through our work with tribes, we are seeing improved
conditions in Indian Country. For example, in Minnesota, we
funded the Alliance for Early Childhood Professionals to expand
early learning environments in the Dakota and Ojibwe languages.
Children in the program report a new sense of self-awareness,
improved academic performance and are more active participants
in school. The wider Ojibwe and Dakota community also report a
renewed sense of pride and hope as they see children speaking
their native languages. As one teacher said, if we revitalize
our language, we revitalize our people.
Despite the progress, much remains to be done. In 2010,
over 28 percent of American Indians lived in poverty, compared
to just over 15 percent of the total population. Of those over
age 25, 77 percent had a high school diploma and 13 percent had
a bachelor's degree, compared with 86 and 28 percent,
respectively, for the U.S. population. Twenty-eight percent of
Native American households with children were food insecure,
compared with 16 percent of non-Indian households. And finally,
Native American children are more likely to experience
violence, substance abuse and neglect.
Given these facts, we are working to improve the well-being
and early education of Native American children. Our efforts
reflect the President's Early Learning Initiative, which starts
with home visitation as the early point for early childhood
services and continues to school entry. The tribal home
visitation program is administered by ACF in collaboration with
the Health Resources and Services Administration. It is funded
by a 3 percent setaside from the Maternal Infant and Early
Childhood Home Visitation Program.
The program supports the development of Native American
children through voluntary, culturally-appropriate, evidence-
based home visiting. To date, we have competitively awarded 25
grants totaling over $32 million to tribes and urban Indian
organizations. Over 100 tribal entities have applied for
funding.
As a part of our home visiting efforts, we are exploring
ways to validate an early childhood developmental screening
instrument in Native populations to ensure that children are
appropriately screened for developmental delays at the earliest
possible times. We know that the earlier the delays are
identified, the sooner children can receive services and the
better their odds are for success.
In tribal communities, the Child Care and Development Fund
plays a crucial role in supporting parents as they move toward
economic self-sufficiency and improving learning for children.
CCDF, as it is known, is authorized by the Child Care and
Development block grant. It provides funding to 260 tribes that
either directly or through consortia arrangements administer
child care programs for over 500 federally-recognized tribes.
The tribes receive up to 2 percent of CCDF funding, or about
$100 million. In 2011, approximately 30,000 children were
served with this program.
Tribal grantees incorporate culturally-relevant activities
into their child care programs. For example, the Chippewa Cree
Tribe on Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana blended child care
funding with funding from the Administration for Native
Americans to create language immersion child care programs from
birth to three. In addition to child care, we provide funding
for 150 Head Start programs across 26 States. These programs
serve more than 22,000 children by providing comprehensive
health, education, nutrition and other services. Family
engagement is strong. Last year, over 24,000 parents and
community members served as volunteers. Funding for this fiscal
year is over $123 million.
Our tribal Head Start programs have worked hard to improve
school readiness and meet the new teacher requirements required
by Congress. Today, 70 percent of all preschool teachers have
an associate degree and 32 percent have a BA degree or higher.
HHS partners with the Department of Education to administer
the Early Learning Challenge program. This program supports 20
States in developing new approaches to close the school
readiness gap and improve our systems. States actively partner
with tribal programs. For example, Minnesota is working
directly with the White Earth Reservation, which is among
Minnesota's poorest communities. Funds support school readiness
scholarships, workforce development and health consultation to
child care providers.
Lastly, I would like to thank Congress for appropriating
the $500 million to improve the quality of programs for infants
and toddlers through the Early Head Start Child Care
Partnership program. This year, at least $15 million of that
money will be available to programs in tribal communities.
In closing, let me say that we at ACF are committed to
ensuring that programs are responsive to the tribal community's
values, needs, traditions and priorities. I appreciate the
Committee's interest in this issue and I would welcome and be
happy to address any questions that you have.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Smith follows:]
Prepared Statement of Linda K. Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary/Inter-
Departmental Liaison for Early Childhood Development, Administration
for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Chairman Tester, Vice Chairman Barrasso and members of the
Committee, I am pleased to appear at this hearing to discuss early
childhood development and education in Indian Country. I want to take a
moment to congratulate Chairman Tester as he convenes his first hearing
as the Chairman of this Committee and to thank the former Chair,
Senator Cantwell, for her work to improve the outcomes for children and
families in Indian Country. The Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) looks forward to continuing to work with the Chairman and the
other Members of this Committee.
It is my honor to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary and
Interdepartmental Liaison for Early Childhood Development at HHS's
Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Here at HHS, I am
responsible for the Tribal Home Visitation, Child Care, Head Start and
Early Head Start Programs and the Race to the Top--Early Learning
Challenge program, which we jointly administer with the Department of
Education.
I am a native of Montana and was born and raised on the Flathead
Reservation in Northwestern Montana. In fact, I volunteered in one of
the first Indian Head Start Programs on the Flathead Reservation and
that experience influences many of my decisions today. My first
position in the early learning field was on the Northern Cheyenne
Reservation where I was hired by the Tribal Community Action Program to
set up a child care program, following that I set up a preschool
program for children aged two to five at the St. Labre Indian Mission.
I witnessed first-hand the difference that such programs can make for
our Native American children's school readiness and for their families'
stability.
I bring this background to my current position and that is why I am
so pleased to be here today. I am passionate about the need to better
serve our Native American communities. Through ACF's work with tribes,
we are seeing improved conditions in Indian Country. For example, in
Minnesota we funded the Alliance of Early Childhood Professional to
expand preschool program capacity to provide challenging and
stimulating learning environments in the Dakota and Ojibwe languages.
Children in the program report a new sense of self-awareness, improved
academic performance and more active participation in school. The wider
Ojibwe and Dakota community also reported a renewed sense of pride and
hope as they see children speaking their Native language. As one
teacher said, ``If we revitalize our language, we revitalize our
people.''
Another ACF funded project, a summer camp in the Native Village of
Afognak, Alaska, is connecting children with their heritage and helping
them form positive, supportive relationships with Tribal elders. These
youth are also demonstrating improved communication and conflict
resolution skills.
Despite the progress being made, there is much work that remains to
be done. In the 2010 to 2011 school year, the percentage of children
and youth served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
was highest for American Indians/Alaska Natives. In 2010, approximately
28.4 percent of the AI/AN population lived in poverty compared to
approximately 15.3 percent of the total population. In 2010,
unemployment on Indian reservations was at approximately 50 percent and
49 percent of AI/AN children lived with parents who lacked secure
employment compared to approximately 33 percent of the total U.S.
population. In 2010, of those aged 25 and older, approximately 77
percent had a high school diploma and approximately 13 percent had a
bachelor's degree, compared to approximately 86 percent and 28 percent
respectively for the entire U.S. population. The AI/AN population has
approximately 1.6 times the infant mortality rate of the non-Hispanic
White population and AI/AN infants are approximately 1.7 times as
likely to die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). They are
approximately 2.5 times as likely as Non-Hispanic White infants to have
mothers who began prenatal care in the third trimester or did not
receive prenatal care at all. Children in AI/AN families are more
likely to experience violence, substance abuse and neglect. A study of
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) in seven tribes found that
approximately 86 percent of participants had one or more adverse
experiences and approximately 33 percent had four or more. Finally,
approximately 28 percent of AI/AN households with children were food
insecure, compared to approximately 16 percent of non-AI/AN households.
Given these facts, HHS is moving forward through a number of
programs to improve the well-being and education of AI/AN children. ACF
has four important programs that serve children prenatally through
school entry that I will discuss. These efforts mirror the President's
Early Learning Initiative, which starts with home visiting as the entry
point for early childhood services through the Maternal, Infant, and
Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program and also includes:
The Child Care and Development Fund;
Early Head Start and Head Start Programs;
The Race to the Top--Early Learning Challenge Program; and
The Tribal Early Learning Initiative.
In addition to these programs, the Administration for Native
Americans, an office within ACF, supports projects targeted to
education, including early education. We also work collaboratively with
the Department of Education, which administers the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA Part C and Part B, Section 619
funds are distributed directly to Tribes through the Bureau of Indian
Education for the coordination of services for AI/AN children with
disabilities. Finally, we are currently working to implement the Early
Head Start/Child Care Partnerships funded this year by the Omnibus
Appropriations Act.
Tribal Home Visiting
The Tribal Home Visiting Program is administered by ACF in
collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA) and is funded by a three percent set-aside within the MIECHV
Program. The Tribal program supports the development of happy, healthy,
and successful AI/AN children and families through voluntary, high
quality, culturally relevant, home visiting services that address
critical maternal and child health, child development and early
learning, family support, and child abuse and neglect prevention needs
and promote linkages among the various early childhood programs. Home
visiting programs serve pregnant women, expectant fathers, parents and
primary caregivers of children from birth through kindergarten entry.
The Tribal Home Visiting Program is an evidence-based program. ACF
conducted a systematic review of home visiting models previously
implemented in tribal communities and found that none met HHS
``evidence-based'' criteria for use with AI/AN populations. Home
visiting models selected by tribal home visiting grantees are
considered ``promising approaches'' and must be rigorously evaluated to
contribute to the evidence base. Models selected by tribal home
visiting grantees include Parents as Teachers, Family Spirit, Nurse
Family Partnership, Parent-Child Assistance Program, Healthy Families
America, SafeCare, and Healthy Steps.
To date, we have competitively awarded 25 grants totaling $32.5
million to three cohorts of tribes, consortia of tribes, tribal
organizations and Urban Indian Organizations. Tribal interest in the
program is very strong; over 100 tribal entities from 25 states have
applied for funding. Tribal Home Visiting grantees, such as the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Northern Arapaho Tribe
on the Wind River Reservation, are located in 14 states, including
Montana, Wyoming, Washington, Arizona, Alaska, New Mexico, and
Minnesota. Grants were awarded for five-year periods. Additionally,
HRSA's state Home Visiting Program in 11 states is currently working
with 24 tribal communities to provide evidence-based home visiting
services.
ACF provides extensive technical assistance to grantees through a
Tribal Home Visiting Technical Assistance Center, the Tribal Home
Visiting Evaluation Institute and a Tribal Early Childhood Research
Center that supports leadership and promotes community-based
participation in the research and evaluation of the program.
Tribal Home Visiting grantees have had many successes in
developing, implementing, and evaluating programs that meet the needs
of their communities. This includes using the needs assessment process
as a community engagement strategy; involving elders and community
members throughout planning, implementation, and evaluation; capacity
building for implementation of evidence-based practices, data
collection, research, and evaluation; innovations in cultural
adaptation and service delivery; and service integration and systems
building. The Tribal Home Visiting grants have been seen by many tribal
communities as a source of hope, transformation, and healing to recover
from generations of trauma and loss.
As a part of the Tribal Home Visiting Program, we are exploring
possible ways to validate an early childhood development screening
instrument in Native American populations to ensure that children are
appropriately and adequately screened for developmental delays as early
as possible. We know that the earlier delays are identified, the sooner
children can receive the services they need, and the better their odds
for success will be.
Additionally, tribes or tribal organizations receive MIECHV funds
from states via subcontracts. Eleven state MIECHV programs are
currently working with 24 tribal communities to provide evidence-based
home visiting service. Through statewide needs assessments these tribal
communities have been identified as at-risk communities and have been
prioritized to receive state MIECHV funding.
Child Care and Development Fund
In tribal communities, the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF)
plays a crucial role in offering child care options to parents as they
move toward economic self-sufficiency, and in promoting learning and
development for children. CCDF, which is authorized by the Child Care
and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act, is a dual purpose program with
a two-generational impact, uniquely positioned to support both school
readiness and family economic success. CCDF provides access to child
care for low-income parents in order to enable them to work and gain
economic independence, and it supports the long-term development of our
Nation's most disadvantaged and vulnerable children by making
investments to improve the quality of child care.
CCDF is especially important because it has such a broad reach in
Indian Country. CCDF currently provides funding to approximately 260
tribes and tribal organizations that, either directly or through
consortia arrangements, administer child care programs for over 500
federally-recognized Indian tribes. By law, tribes receive up to two
percent of CCDF funding, or about $100 million. Tribal CCDF grantees,
who served approximately 30,000 children in fiscal year 2011, are
generally located in rural and economically challenged areas.
One of the key goals of CCDF is helping children from low-income
families access high quality care. Tribal grantees are innovative in
how they invest in quality, and many tribal grantees incorporate
culturally-relevant activities into their child care programs. Tribes
preserve their languages by developing child care curricula that
focuses on Native American language. For example, the Chippewa-Cree
Tribe of Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana braided CCDF funding with
grant funding from the Administration for Native Americans to create a
language immersion child care program for children from birth to age
three. The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians in Maine invited Tribal
Elders to teach children traditional stories in their native language.
Given the research on the positive cognitive benefits of bi- or
multilingualism, these are powerful innovations that have important
impacts on young children. Tribal grantees also include traditional
song and dance, regalia making, and other cultural activities to enrich
children's learning experiences in child care and engage families in
their children's care and education.
The CCDBG Act allows Tribal Lead Agencies to use CCDF funds for
construction or renovation of child care facilities. Since 1997, 131
new child care facilities have been constructed. Within the new
facilities, tribes have also included space for gardens with
traditional plants and playgrounds that incorporate Tribal culture into
the design.
Tribes also use CCDF to coordinate with Head Start and Tribal Home
Visiting Programs and to pool resources. In some tribes, child care and
Head Start funds are pooled to provide comprehensive services for
tribal families and children. In other tribes, child care provides
wraparound services for Head Start in order to accommodate parents'
working and educational schedules. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz
Indians of Oregon uses CCDF and Head Start funds to pay a quality
coordinator who oversees all classrooms at the tribe's child care
center and ensures that all activities are developmentally appropriate
and that any training needs of the staff are identified and addressed.
In addition, some Tribes use CCDF to provide inclusive child care
and coordinated services for children with disabilities to meet the
developmental and educational needs of each child. For example, the
CCDF Early Childhood Program of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa in
Minnesota collaborates with the local school's Early Childhood Special
Education Coordinator to ensure that children with disabilities are
provided appropriate services such as Individual Education Plans and
sign language interpreters.
CCDF acts as a key facilitator of tribal-state early childhood
partnerships. Indian children have ``dual eligibility'' and are
eligible to receive either state or tribal CCDF services. Tribes work
together with states to leverage their CCDF resources and to reduce
duplication of services.
Some tribes are also participating or preparing to participate in
states' Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS). QRIS is a rating
system of voluntary, higher standards for child care that provides
financial incentives and technical assistance to providers as they move
to higher standards of quality. QRIS also helps families find quality
care by providing them program ratings. These partnerships with states
and other federally-funded programs allow tribes to align CCDF with
other early care and education programs so that more low-income, tribal
children have access to high quality early education.
Head Start and Early Head Start Programs
Since 1965, the Office of Head Start (OHS) has provided funding to
AI/AN tribes. In 1965, OHS funded 43 programs in 14 states. Today there
are 150 Head Start Tribal programs, including 58 Early Head Start
programs across 26 states. Tribal programs serve more than 22,000 Head
Start and Early Head Start children and families and provide
comprehensive health, education, nutrition, socialization and other
developmental services. This represents approximately 50 percent of all
AI/AN children and families served by Head Start and Early Head Start.
The remaining AI/AN families are served by non-AI/AN Head Start and
Early Head Start programs. Total AI/AN Tribal program funding for this
year is over $123 million.
The size of AI/AN programs varies from the smallest program with
just 15 children to the largest program with over 2,100 children, 1,300
of whom speak a Native American language or language other than English
in their homes.
Federal staff provides direct oversight and ongoing support to AI/
AN programs. Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA) is also provided
through three components: Direct T/TA funding to grantees; AI/AN T/TA
Centers; and, National T/TA Centers.
Tribal Head Start programs have worked hard to improve quality,
focus on school readiness and meet the new teacher credential
requirements mandated by the Improving Head Start for School Readiness
Act of 2007. Although AI/AN programs face many challenges in meeting
the new requirements, they have shown steady improvement since 2008 in
increasing the number of teachers with credentials. Today,
approximately 70 percent of all preschool teachers have an associate
degree and approximately 32 percent of those teachers have earned a
baccalaureate or higher degree.
Family engagement and community involvement remain strong within
AI/AN Head Start and Early Head Start programs and just last year over
24,000 parents and community members served as volunteers. A majority
of tribal programs have partnerships with their local schools, which
result in alignment of school readiness goals, inclusive opportunities
and IDEA services for children with disabilities, and successful
transition from Head Start to kindergarten.
Approximately eighty-five percent of children served in AI/AN Head
Start programs have health insurance and approximately 95 percent have
a consistent source of health services, many are served through Indian
Health Services. Again, these figures are much higher than those of the
general AI/AN population.
In 2011, ACF issued a final rule for the Head Start program that
requires grantees to compete, as part of the Designation Renewal
process, for further funding if they meet one of seven conditions. This
new regulation, central to the 2007 Head Start reauthorization, is a
means for continuing to improve quality of grantee services to
children. In accordance with the Head Start Act, tribal programs are
not required to compete for funding if they meet one of the seven
conditions. However, they are required to enter into a 12 month
government-to-government consultation and receive intensive training
and technical assistance to improve program quality.
At the end of the 12 months, OHS must conduct a re-evaluation to
determine if a tribal program will be required to compete for continued
funding.
The Office of Head Start continues to honor and respect our
government-to-government relationship with all tribes through continued
consultation and collaboration throughout the Designation Renewal
process. Thus far, all AI/AN programs that have been required to engage
in the 12 month consultation and program improvement process and have
undergone re-evaluation have been successful and will now receive their
first five-year grant.
Race to the Top--Early Learning Challenge
HHS partners with the Department of Education to administer the
Race to the Top--Early Learning Challenge program. This program
supports 20 states in developing new approaches and systems to raise
the bar across early learning and child development programs and to
close the school readiness gap.
Although states are the eligible entities for the Race to the Top
Program--Early Learning Challenge, many of the 20 Early Learning
Challenge grantees are actively implementing the program in AI/AN
communities. For example, Minnesota is working directly with four
target communities, one of which is the White Earth Reservation which
is among Minnesota's poorest communities. Minnesota will fully
implement its state plan with intensive concentration in these four
target communities through a multi-pronged approach to preparing
children for school. Among the activities Minnesota is undertaking with
the White Earth Reservation are: supporting scholarships to early
childhood educators that would enhance workforce development in the
community, providing grant awards to child care providers in the
community to provide child care health consultation, and training child
care health consultants through the Minnesota Department of Health.
Minnesota, as part of its TQRIS expansion efforts, will try to expand
high-quality and early care and education to difficult-to-reach
families by conducting focus groups with families in high-need
communities. Through these focus groups the grantee team will generate
new outreach tactics that are geared toward specific communities,
including Native American communities in the state.
Tribal Early Learning Initiative
Since 2012, ACF has partnered with four tribes on the Tribal Early
Learning Initiative (TELI). The program supports tribes in their
efforts to fully coordinate all early learning programs to better meet
the needs of children and families and raise the quality of services to
children prenatal through age five. The TELI is a ``learning
laboratory'' focused on quality improvement and innovation. We work
with the tribes to identify and address obstacles that could block
efforts to meet the needs of their populations. Tribal activities
include creating a single tribal early learning program enrollment form
to be used by all programs, investing in a data system to allow sharing
of relevant data across early learning programs, conducting joint
dental services for children and holding joint professional development
opportunities across programs. The participating tribes are the:
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
White Earth Band of Chippewa of Minnesota
Pueblo of San Felipe of New Mexico
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana
The Administration for Native Americans
The Administration on Native Americans (ANA), within ACF, not only
supports projects that address poverty, but also related projects
supporting education, including early childhood education. Over the
last five years ANA has awarded an average of $40.8 million annually in
time-limited project grants to promote social and economic self-
sufficiency, including projects that have established, strengthened, or
enhanced early childhood services for children and families.
In fiscal year 2013, ANA awarded approximately $4.1 million in
nineteen new language grants combined with $9 million in continuation
funding for forty existing language grants. ANA language funding
provides opportunities for Native American communities to assess, plan,
develop and implement projects to ensure the survival and continuing
vitality of Native American languages and to promote social unity and
self-sufficiency. Examples of funded programs include:
The Crow Tribe of Indians for a Native American language
nest for pre-school children enrolled in Head Start and
reservation-based child care programs.
The Salish Language Acquisition Project to provide language
training immersion to school teachers to increase the
instructional capacity both in schools and in the community.
The Piegan Institute for instruction in the Blackfeet
language to increase parent and community engagement in
language learning.
Recent ANA grants have supported the use of Native American
language speakers as instructors in Early Head Start and Head Start
classrooms, the creation of immersion classrooms in Head Start centers,
the development or adaptation of early childhood curricula that is
linguistically responsive to Native American early childhood care and
education settings, and early childhood teacher development through
partnerships with local tribal colleges or universities or through
master-apprentice training programs. Because of their flexibility, ANA
funds have been critical to language program enhancement, quality
improvement for existing or emergent languages, and Native American
language instruction.
Beyond its project funding, approximately $3 million in ANA funding
provides T/TA designed to help AI/AN communities develop and sustain
self-determined programs that support Native social and economic
development strategies and language preservation and maintenance. ANA
provides T/TA through four regional training and technical assistance
centers. Between fiscal years 2009 and 2012, ANA conducted 771 Project
Planning and Development trainings and 1,189 Pre-Application trainings.
The T/TA program vision is for AI/AN community members to gain the
skills to help their communities achieve long-range goals. The ANA T/TA
program approach is based on facilitating connections of Native
community members with federal partners and advocates. In 2012, the
regional T/TA centers established Virtual Community Centers (VCCs) as
on-line spaces for grantees to network, identify partners, and share
information. The Native Languages VCC supports indigenous and Native
American language program development and sustainability, as well as
seeks to foster greater collaboration amongst ANA language program
grantees and practitioners. ANA T/TA centers also conduct webinars on
various topics identified by Native communities as needed. In 2012, ANA
T/TA centers held a total of 34 webinars attended by 629 participants.
Early Head Start/Child Care Partnerships
Lastly, I would like to thank Congress for appropriating $500
million to increase the quality of child care for infants and toddlers
through partnerships with the Early Head Start program. This means that
at least $15 million will be available to fund partnerships between
Early Head Start programs and child care centers and family child care
homes in Tribal communities. We believe that these partnerships will
have a significant impact in improving access and quality care for AI/
AN infants and toddlers.
We have already met with representatives of the tribal child care
community to solicit input for this program and are currently
developing the details. We are eager to use the lessons learned from
the TELI project to inform this work.
As with all of our nation's early learning programs, there is more
that could be done to provide more high quality, stable programs for
all of our youngest and most vulnerable citizens. As the President's
Early Learning Initiative demonstrates, we are committed to learning
from what we are currently doing to inform our future home visiting,
child care and Head Start programs and to ensure that they in turn are
responsive to tribal communities' values, traditions and priorities.
I very much appreciate the Committee's interest in this issue and
the opportunity to speak with you today. I look forward to working
together to continue to improve services to our American Indian and
Alaskan Native communities. I would be happy to address any questions.
The Chairman. Thank you for your testimony. I appreciate it
very much.
I do have some questions and then we will get to the other
members of the Committee.
You mentioned that the models used for home visiting are
not evidence-based but rather they are considered promising
practices.
Ms. Smith. Yes.
The Chairman. How are you collecting data on these programs
to see if the results add up?
Ms. Smith. We have a very strong evaluation component to
the tribal home visitation program. One of the reasons that we
don't have evidence-based programs in tribal programs is
because the programs that are approved for use in the States,
(I think we have approved 14 of them) have not been validated
in tribal communities. So we really had to think of a different
way to do that.
At the end of probably this year, we will see the first
one, we think, validated in tribal populations. It was one that
was specifically designed for Native American families. We are
conducting an extensive research-based evaluation of the
different models, and we should have much better data probably
within the next two years.
The Chairman. Could you give me an insight on what kinds of
metrics are being used to develop the results?
Ms. Smith. We have a number of different metrics that we
are evaluating. What we have are benchmarks that we have set up
for the individual programs. The communities have proposed the
benchmarks and how they are going to meet the various
requirements of the home visitation program. So, in particular,
things like is there a reduction in infant mortality? Is there
an increase in school readiness? The measurements vary,
depending on what the tribe has selected. But they are all
designed to fold into the benchmarks for the overall program.
The Chairman. Okay. Well, I would just say, I would hope
that you would be tracking the students along the way to see if
there is--I mean, infant mortality is very, very important--but
also to see how well they are doing in school compared to kids
who came from similar economic backgrounds and did not have the
program.
Ms. Smith. I will get back to you on that for the record.
The Chairman. Just so you know, my goal is, I think early
childhood is a huge bang for the buck. But we have to make sure
that it is a huge bang for the buck. If we put money in it and
it doesn't end up doing any good, then we have to change what
we are doing.
Ms. Smith. Right.
The Chairman. So in order to do that, you have to evaluate
and you have to track and all that good stuff that nobody likes
to do, but it is a necessary evil of the job.
Another question. In your testimony you mentioned four
separate programs at HHS that serve early childhood development
needs. You have Child Care and Development Fund, you have Early
Head Start, you have Race to the Top, you have Tribal Early
Learning Initiative, and there are some other programs, I
think, including the Administration for Native Americans. Is
there any coordination between these programs where tribes are
receiving multiple grants from multiple programs that
potentially could be serving the same kids?
Ms. Smith. Absolutely. This is one of the reasons for the
Tribal Early Learning Initiative. I know Barbara Fabre is going
to testify after me, and she is one of the sites where we have
that initiative going on. One of the things that I first did
when I got into this job was to try and take a look at how we
could break down the stovepipes and the barriers between child
care, Head Start, Early Head Start and home visiting. So we
have funded four communities to look at how they can do that.
We are using those as learning laboratories for how we will do
this throughout the Country. I visited a reservation right
after coming into the job and saw real disparity between the
Head Start program and the child care program. And it makes no
sense to me, with two federally-funded programs, to not have
more continuity in the quality of what is going on.
So we are very seriously looking at that and working on how
we can bring these programs into a more blended, braided
approach. There is no question about that.
The Chairman. Okay, at this point in time, though, would
you say the coordination exists, or are you still working on
coordination?
Ms. Smith. I would say it exists some places and we are
working on it in others.
The Chairman. Okay. Senator Barrasso?
Senator Barrasso. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I
appreciate the testimony. Your written testimony mentioned that
a majority of tribal Head Start programs have a partnership
with their local schools. These partnerships result in an
alignment of school readiness goals and a successful transition
from Head Start to kindergarten. What can be done to encourage
more partnerships, state-tribal partnerships and even other
programs to increase early educational opportunities?
Ms. Smith. I think what one of the reasons that we are
trying what we are doing with the other initiative is to
incentivize this to happen and give people the incentive and
the time to sit down and plan these things together. What I
have found in the work that we have done with the projects that
we have now is that there are a lot of misperceptions out there
about the different funding streams and why they can't work
together. What we are trying to do is sit down with folks and
say, no, this isn't a barrier. And if it is, we are willing to
go back and look at that and fix it. So we have spent a fair
amount of time looking at different items that people think are
problems and they really aren't. I think that is one of the
things we are learning out of the Tribal Early Learning
Initiative project, is we need to do a better job of being
clear about the expectations that go along with the different
funding streams.
Senator Barrasso. In your written testimony and even some
of your oral presentation, you noted the family engagement and
community involvement that remains strong within the Indian
Early Head Start programs. You said last year over 24,000
parents and community members served as volunteers for Head
Start and Early Head Start programs. Last week, I was at home
in Wyoming and, on the Wind River Reservation, at the Wind
River School visiting with students. A number of parents were
there for part of that visit.
How do you think parents could become more involved in
their children's early education and development and then stay
involved? It's kind of what we heard from Senator Heitkamp,
running to school, walking to school, running away from school.
This is very telling. We want to get the parents equally
engaged. Any thoughts you would have on that?
Ms. Smith. I think this is one of the good news stories
from the Head Start program, to be honest with you. Anyone who
has been affiliated with the Head Start program knows that they
really encourage parent engagement, family engagement. I think
that number demonstrates that.
What we really need to do is figure out how we bridge that
into the public school system. Because it becomes harder in the
public school system to engage parents in the same way, because
parents don't have to take their children to the classroom and
pick them up from the classroom, so they lose that engagement
with the teachers. It is automatic in the earliest years,
because the children just simply have to go with parents.
So I think we need to come up with other strategies. We
have between the Department of Education and HHS what we call
an interagency policy board. And we are examining this very
issue between the two agencies on how do we begin to really
engage families in the education system, beginning at birth but
continuing into the public schools. It gets harder as time goes
on. I understand that. But I think we want to look at that.
The other thing I would say is that we are interested,
through our Office of Research at ACF, in looking more intently
at what makes families engaged at one level and not the other.
So we are aware of that.
Senator Barrasso. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Senator Heitkamp?
Senator Heitkamp. I have quite a few questions, a lot of
which I will submit for the record if that is possible.
But I want to pick up on this theme of coordination. For
every one of those programs, there is probably a grant writer
and then there is probably an auditor, and there is probably
about 20 percent administrative cost that doesn't go to kids.
But yet we all turf fight because we have our program and we
like our program.
So I understanding trying to find it seamless. But people
are going to find a way to say, we can't coordinate, unless
somebody tells them that they have to coordinate or they are
not going to get any of the money. And a lot of this should be
directed locally. We should hold people accountable for those
dollars and those resources, but we have absolutely got to
engage the entire community, and in fact, the local government,
which in this case is in many cases tribal government.
So I want you to do some serious thinking about how we can
mandate, not just encourage, not just try and take down
barriers, but require that there be a single focus with
appropriate resources. And that focus should be the education
of kids.
But I want to tell you, I had kind of a little wake-up call
yesterday at my office. I was visiting with some grade school
principals, one of which was in Mandan, my home town and the
other one was in Bismarck. I asked them what the big issue was
for them, and I thought it was going to be early childhood
education, thought it was going to be No Child Left Behind. And
both of them said, it is mental health. It is mental health
problems within the community that they are serving. And they
both serve populations, about a third of their kids are Native
American kids, transitioning from spot to spot to spot. That is
another whole issue, about the lack of consistency in education
by moving around.
But I want to know what you are seeing in the work that you
do and your agency does in mental health, and what you think
can be done to address some of those concerns. I want you to
focus in particular on what I think might be a problem, which
is post-traumatic stress as a result of witnessing family
violence.
Ms. Smith. And I totally understand that, and that would
not surprise me as an answer to that question. Because we hear
that even in the earliest years. When you ask teachers in
classrooms what is the most challenging thing they have to deal
with, you can call it whatever you want to, behavior, social-
emotional development, mental health issues, but one way or
another we have issues surrounding that whole area. So I like
to call it social-emotional development of our children.
I tend to think that it gets back to parents and parenting.
We are going to have to pay more attention to how we help
parents understand basic child development. I think some of
what goes wrong in communities, or with parents in some of the
families is inappropriate expectations.
Senator Heitkamp. And I get that. But let me tell you the
story. Two little boys on the school bus beat up two little
girls on the school bus. And when they get to the principal's
office, they ask them why. They said because they want to see
their dad, because last night their dad beat up their mom and
he is in jail. So you can talk about parenting, but we have an
immediate crisis situation that we need to deal with. I am
wondering how, I mean, that is a long-term solution. But how do
we deal with the emergency of that issue?
Ms. Smith. I think we need to get better resources to our
schools and to our early childhood providers. We know that we
have a lack of trained people in this area available to these
programs. There is no question about that. The whole area of
mental health is front and center in so many ways. But we just
lack the resources and the trained people, the skilled people
for the ages of the children and the issues that we are dealing
with.
Senator Heitkamp. And I agree. So what are you doing to
kind of look long-term at fixing that skills gap and helping
those schools?
Ms. Smith. My role is not with the schools necessarily. It
is with the preschool component. But we are looking at that,
and we are working with other areas of the Department of Health
and Human Services. We have been working with SAHMSA, which
does have the funding for social-emotional mental health
issues, and HRSA and other colleagues throughout the Department
of Health and Human Services to take this issue on.
I wouldn't sit here and say we have answers yet. Because it
is very complicated. But we started this work about six months
ago, and we have a very solid group, interagency group of
people taking a look at it. Centers for Disease Control are
involved in it with us, the Office of Special Education over at
the Department of Education.
Senator Heitkamp. Mr. Chairman, if I can ask, as you work
through that, if you can make those reports available to us and
that progress in addressing that issue available.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Heitkamp. I am going to
ask a few more questions, and if you guys have a few more, you
certainly can. I think we are going to have a little time, we
have to be out of here by 4:00.
I have a couple of questions, Linda, and I would just say
this before I ask these questions. Senator Heitkamp's questions
are good, and I think it is important that the people in the
Department start thinking about solutions to problems and how
you can best address them. We know we have issues out there
around mental health, we just had testimony at the last hearing
we had, one in four kids are coming out with the same PTSD that
soldiers are coming back with, same rate.
So we have to think about solutions to the problems, so
that we can visit about them at this level and move forward. We
will help you in that.
We will hear in the upcoming testimony of the next panel
about the struggles that some tribal programs are having in
meeting class certification, particularly due to a scoring
system that does not take into account differences in cultural
communication styles. Is this an issue you are aware of and if
so, what is ACF doing about it?
Ms. Smith. This is actually a very interesting issue that
we have had. I am aware of it and we have had a lot of
conversations about it.
We were talking about this just yesterday afternoon. I
think you are talking about the class rating scale for the
recompetition of Head Start.
The Chairman. That is correct.
Ms. Smith. The highest scoring programs in Head Start
across the Country, not just in Indian Country, are in the
Native American program. So I think this is one of those areas
where there is a perception that it is a problem and it is
probably not as real as it is thought to be. The highest score
period and the only perfect score in a program is in the Native
American program.
And it is not to say that they are all that way, but for
the most part, the class is doing what it is intended to do.
The Chairman. Good enough.
Can you describe the partnership between home visiting
models, Early Head Start, and Head Start, very briefly? Mainly
I want to know, is there any duplication in those services.
Ms. Smith. We are trying to make sure that there isn't.
Now, one of the things that does get a little confusing is
there is an Early Head Start home visitation model. And that is
an approved model by the Department for use with home
visitation funds. When that is the case, it is a program that
is not duplicative of Head Start or Early Head Start, it is
just a model that the program has chosen to use. Home visiting
is a strength of the Head Start program and has been for a long
time. So the model is selected fairly frequently, I think it is
the third most used of the programs out there. So it isn't a
duplication, but it may sound like it is.
The Chairman. I encourage partnerships in innovative use of
funding. You talk about it in your testimony, the immersion
program at Rocky Boy. I have heard from many tribal communities
that one of the biggest areas that they need access to is
quality health care. There are simply not enough slots around
for the kids that need the child care, and when I said health
care, I mean quality child care. There are not enough slots for
the demand.
Is ACF doing anything to address the child care shortage,
quality child care, I should say?
Ms. Smith. Well, we have, as you may know, rewritten the
Child Care regulation, which we took public comments on last
year. We have now gone through all the comments and will
publish a final rule some time this summer. Almost every
modification done to the regulation has been about quality,
about building better health and safety requirements into the
program, about basic training, which was not there, about
continuity of care for children, so that they can stay in the
program and not be jerked around just randomly. We are
establishing a minimum time that a child could stay before
having their eligibility redetermined.
We have really taken that seriously. The whole new
regulation looks at the quality issue. We are very concerned
about it.
The Chairman. I got you. I heard you talk about quality
health care, and I think it is very, very important. But what
about the shortage of health care? I am sorry, I have health
care on the mind, shortage of quality child care. What about
the shortage?
Ms. Smith. Well, sir, I think there is a shortage of
quality child care across this Country. I would open with that.
And that isn't to say it isn't a crisis in Native America
communities, because it is.
We are limited by the law in terms of how much money we are
allowed to put into the child care program. That is 2 percent
of the total block grant. I think the panel that follows me may
shed some light on that for you.
But we are aware of the problem. I think we wish we could
do more.
The Chairman. Senator Heitkamp, do you have any questions?
Senator Heitkamp. No, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. All right, well, thank you very much, Linda.
We appreciate your testimony. While we are setting up the next
panel, I will just tell you, while you were talking, there were
folks behind you shaking their heads. I think there are a lot
of folk who will help on the issues we talked about today with
some consultation. Thank you.
As the next panel comes up, I will make a brief
introduction of who is on that panel. They can further flesh
out who they are once they start speaking.
Mr. Danny Wells is the Executive Officer for the Division
of Education in the Chickasaw Nation in Ada, Oklahoma. Ms.
Barbara Fabre is Chairperson of the National Indian Child Care
Association and Director of Child Care/Early Childhood Program,
White Earth Ojibwe Nation, White Earth, Minnesota. Ms.
Jacquelyn Power is Superintendent/Principal of Blackwater
Community School in Coolidge, Arizona. And Dr. E. Jane Costello
is the Associate Director for Research, Center for Child and
Family Policy, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
I appreciate all of your testimony that you have written
in. We will give you five minutes. I am going to hold you
pretty close to it, because I want to save a little time for
questions. So if you will keep it close, your entire written
testimony will be a part of the record. We will start out in an
inappropriate fashion, we will let the guy go first. Mr. Danny
Wells, you can go first.
[Laughter.]
STATEMENT OF DANNY WELLS, EXECUTIVE OFFICER, DIVISION OF
EDUCATION, CHICKASAW NATION
Mr. Wells. My name is Danny Wells. I am a Chickasaw tribal
citizen, serve as the Executive Officer of the Division of
Education, representing the Chickasaw Nation.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing us the opportunity,
and the Committee for allowing us the opportunity to provide
best practices and also to address some challenges with regard
to our early childhood development program.
One of the things I think we have discovered is that we all
believe and we all know that an effective early childhood
program is the foundation for academic success. To get an early
start, to get a big start, to get a good start is key to
success. The Chickasaw Nation early childhood is comprised of
two parts, Child Care and Head Start. Basically what we do is
we have those two programs that are involved in our early
childhood program. Within those, we have over 400 children that
we serve in Child Care, 200 of which are served in our Early
Childhood Development facility. We also serve 271 Head Start
children at four different facilities.
What we find is that with a partnership between the two
that they engage one another and it is a more seamless
transition from one to the other. One of the things we want to
make sure that we pass on is school readiness is a key focus,
at least based on Head Start. From our perspective, it has
always been a focus for us. School readiness has always been
key for us, it has always been a focus for us. It is always
something that has been of the upmost importance.
So when it was identified that that was a key, we already
knew that. So what we did was basically, we simply tried to put
it in a written format so that we could share that with others
and when we were asked to share that with the Early Head Start,
we had that ability. But again, that was already in place. As a
matter of fact, most of our staff are former public school
teachers, myself included.
And so when we start looking at different things that we
can do, and we start looking at facts, what we find and
identify that is key for us is to identify key staff.
Certified, qualified teachers, that is key for us. And that is
most important. So we focus on that.
I will also share with you that about 70 percent of our
Head Start staff are Native. About 75 to 80 percent, probably
closer to 80 percent, of our Child Care are Native as well.
Along with what we think is a strength becomes a challenge.
It is really difficult to find qualified, certified teachers in
Indian Country, particularly in our rural areas. The law
requires that, particularly in Head Start. We do it in Child
Care because we think it is the right thing to do. We felt like
that makes us have a more quality program. But it gets
difficult, particularly early childhood. Our focus is typically
on early childhood and elementary education, those are the two
groups that we typically look at. But to go a little step
further, we require our elementary ed teachers to go ahead and
get certification in early childhood, because we want to be a
highly qualified program.
So we start looking at things, you mentioned early
intervention, Linda, and that is one of the things I want to
make sure that we, that is one of the things that is key to us.
Behavioral issues have become a bigger and bigger problem, and
become bigger all the time. So we have a staff of there people
that address our Child Care and Head Start that upon a
teacher's referral, they follow up on those and they try to
ascertain what the problem is, what things can be done. And
then we put a plan of action in place, so we can head off those
things before they get along further in public school. Those
things are addressed. And we start early.
And by the way, our day care, or what we call our child
care, is much more than a babysitting service or a day care
service. We start with our infants, teaching them sign language
so they can communicate. As they reach one or two years old, we
are teaching high reach curriculum. When they reach three and
four years, we go to Frog Street Press. And our Head Start
program uses Creative Curriculum and Frog Street Press. So for
us, it is all about academics. It is all about social
relations, too, but for us, academics is huge.
So what we would like the Committee to know is, there are a
lot of us out there doing the right thing for the right
reasons. We are trying to prepare our children to be
productive, to be successful. That is our intent, that is what
we are always looking at, to try to do the best that we can.
In all the classrooms, we are fortunate that we have smart
boards. Great teaching tool. They are going to see those things
as they progress into public school and on to college. So that
is something they are going to be accustomed to.
Some things that we have that perhaps are unique, our Child
Care program is also in charge of an after school program, so
that our children that are in public school have a place to go.
We also do after school for our Head Start. Our Head Start
programs are part-day programs. So they finish at 1:00 o'clock,
so they transition into our Child Care, so that they will have
not just babysitting service, but they will have academics. So
for us it is, again, all about preparing our children.
The Chairman. Time flies when you are having fun. Your five
is up, can you wrap up, please?
Mr. Wells. Absolutely. Basically I do want to share with
you, the CDBG grant is one of the things I was supposed to
mention, that because of that, we built quality, I invite all
of you to come and see our child care facility, it is
extraordinary. We built a child care facility with that money,
we also built an addition to our Ardmore Center. So we are
thankful for the fact that we received those grants. Thank you
so much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Wells follows:]
Prepared Statement of Danny Wells, Executive Officer, Division of
Education, Chickasaw Nation
Good afternoon, my name is Danny Wells, Executive Officer for the
Division of Education, representing the Chickasaw Nation. Thank you
Senator Tester and the Committee for allowing me this opportunity to
provide ``best practices'' and ``challenges'' in regard to education
and particularly in Early Childhood Development.
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized tribe located in
south-central Oklahoma and encompasses all or parts of 13 counties. The
Chickasaw Nation division of education serves approximately 14, 200
students per year from across the United States. The majority of our
Chickasaw students in Oklahoma attend public schools. Currently there
are an estimated 59,474 students enrolled in the public school
districts within the tribe's jurisdiction; 14,801 are Native American.
The Chickasaw Nation constitution provides the Governor with broad
discretion to develop and guide the division of education. The division
of education is comprised of 210 employees and 5 departments:
childcare, head start/early childhood; education services; office of
supportive programs and vocational rehabilitation. Our goal at the
Chickasaw Nation is to develop programs and services that enhance the
overall quality of life of Chickasaw people. Our services and programs
are not limited to Chickasaw citizens. We have a wide range of services
that benefit other Native Americans and non-Natives as well. Many of
our programs rely heavily on outside partners in order to address the
needs of our people and local communities. We realize that education
provides a stepping stone for people to become productive citizens. For
that reason, we embrace the idea of becoming better partners with our
local schools to improve the education for all students.
Most people agree that providing our children with a solid
foundation is one of the most rewarding investments we can make. We are
increasingly learning just how early in a child's life this education
should start if we want to best prepare our children for future
successes in all areas of life.
Mounting studies demonstrate that by age six, a child's capacity to
learn is largely formed. Seemingly unremarkable childhood play teaches
communication, thinking, and problem solving skills. A high level of
stimulation with books and talk can mean that a child will possess a
20,000-word vocabulary by age five rather than 5,000 words, the average
for children who are not often engaged with language. This early gap
has long-term repercussions for a child's cognitive development. The
gap between the child who is stimulated at an early age and the one who
is not is likely to widen throughout the school years. Staggering
evidence supports the case for broad access to early childhood
programs:
Children who participate in quality programs require less
special and remedial education, the cost of which is growing
twice as fast as regular education, and demonstrate higher
achievement in math and reading through age 21;
As teenagers, these children have lower pregnancy rates,
lower delinquency rates, higher test scores, and higher high
school graduation rates;
Adults who received early education suffer lower rates of
unemployment and commit fewer crimes.
Early childhood, which is the period in a child's life from birth
through age five, is a critical time for children to develop the
physical, emotional, social, and cognitive skills they will need for
the rest of their lives.
A child's cognitive development during early childhood, which
includes building skills such as pre-reading, language, vocabulary, and
numeracy, begins from the moment a child is born. Developmental
scientists have found that the brain acquires a tremendous amount of
information about language in the first year of life even before
infants can speak. By the time babies utter or understand their first
words, they know which particular sounds their language uses, what
sounds can be combined to create words, and the tempo and rhythm of
words and phrases.
There is a strong connection between the development a child
undergoes early in life and the level of success that the child will
experience later in life. For example, infants who are better at
distinguishing the building blocks of speech at six months are better
at other more complex language skills at two and three years of age and
better at acquiring the skills for learning to read at four and five
years of age. Not surprisingly, a child's knowledge of the alphabet in
kindergarten is one of the most significant predictors of what that
child's tenth grade reading ability will be.
When young children are provided an environment rich in language
and literacy interactions and full of opportunities to listen to and
use language constantly, they can begin to acquire the essential
building blocks for learning how to read. A child who enters school
without these skills runs a significant risk of starting behind and
staying behind.
Intended primarily for preschoolers from low-income families, head
start's mission is to promote school readiness to enable each child to
develop to his or her fullest potential. Through head start and child
care, children receive comprehensive health services, including
immunizations, physical and dental exams and treatment, and nutritional
services. The head start and child care program engages parents in
their children's learning and helps them make progress toward their
educational and employment goals. National research is clear: the
earlier children are exposed to a rich learning environment, the better
their chances of succeeding in school.
Best Practices
The Chickasaw Nation Early Childhood development program consists
of the department of child care and the department of head start which
serve children from birth to five years of age. Both departments focus
on school readiness and preparation and family involvement in school
readiness. The staff understands and promotes the importance of
preparing children to be ready for school and the significance of
parent and family engagement activities which are grounded in positive,
ongoing and goal-oriented relationships with families. The Head Start
Parent, Family and Community Engagement Framework serves as a guide to
prepare our children for school and sustain development and learning
gains through third grade. The Head Start Child Development and Early
Learning Framework is used to identify goals and measure progress
toward school readiness.
The Chickasaw Nation child care program serves over 400 children
and the head start program is funded for 256 children and serves 271
children in a center-based program option. The child care program
provides 17 classrooms in two level child care facility and the head
start program provides 14 classrooms in four centers. All four head
start centers operate as part-day programs and the child care program
is a full-day program. Through collaboration with the Chickasaw Nation
Child Care program, child care services are available from 1:00 p.m.
until 5:30 p.m. at Ada, Ardmore and Tishomingo. Through collaboration
with one public school, classroom instruction has been extended until
3:00 p.m. at Sulphur. The Ada and Ardmore head start centers provide
summer school to children and families during the month of June.
The child care Early Development Center is open and available to
children year round. In addition to the Early Childhood Development
center the child care program provides an after school program to
school age children as wells as a summer school age program for
students up to 12 years of age.
The Chickasaw Nation Cultural Resources Department provides a
Chickasaw language program for all centers. Language preservation
specialists visits each classroom throughout the year to offer lessons
which includes Chickasaw words for numbers, colors, animals, body
parts, commands and traditional greetings. The lessons also include
proper pronunciation, stories, poems, activities and songs.
Additionally, the Chickasaw language is used every morning in the
classroom during circle time. The education component is met through a
variety of curricula. A comprehensive approach to each child's
individual educational needs is met by using the High Reach Curriculum
in the child care facility and the head start uses the Creative
Curriculum and the Frog Street Press curriculum. Each child is
introduced to a variety of languages including Chickasaw, American Sign
Language, Spanish and English. Infants are taught sign language to
increase their level of communication. Pictures and repetitious use of
words and phrases help the children to grasp the languages. The head
start program has participated in the Reading is Fundamental program
the past ten years and the child care program utilizes the Dolly Parton
book program. Many child and family literacy activities are conducted
throughout the year as well as three book distributions. Lending
libraries are available at each center to support family literacy.
Each child is screened at enrollment, using the Brigance screening
tool to determine the child's beginning level of performance. The
Teaching Strategies Gold ongoing assessment is performed with each
child to develop the best education program for his/her individual
educational needs.
Interactive SMARTBoards have been installed in all classrooms in
all centers. Teachers have been assigned laptops on which they plan and
program their lessons to present on the SMARTBoards. The teachers use
the smart boards daily to engage and motivate the children. Share point
is utilized so teachers can share educational websites. Head start and
child care teachers have Bachelor degrees in Early Childhood or
Elementary Education or are in the process of completing a degree.
The Office of Supportive programs administers the JOM program, the
STEP program, Tutoring Reimbursement program, Science, Technology and
Math (STM) program and the Chickasaw Honor Club program. The Chickasaw
Nation was fortunate to be awarded the State Tribal Education
Partnership (STEP) grant which is a consortium with the Cheyenne/
Arapaho tribe. The STEP program is designed to assist the Oklahoma
State Department of Education in monitoring and reporting on the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) formula grant programs.
In addition, the program is working in conjunction with four school
systems to provide support and assistance for American Indian students
in an effort to help them to be more successful in school. Full-time
education specialists provide ``wrap around'' services for students and
their families and are part of the ``front line'' in targeting students
who are in need of assistance. The specialists help facilitate
opportunities for gifted and talented students, identify students who
are at risk of dropping out of school, provide assistance for those
with academic issues and work toward improving parent/guardian
relationships with the schools. The specialists also are in a position
to help build cultural awareness for the school, students and families.
The Student Tutoring Reimbursement program is a reimbursement
program for school age Chickasaw students in grades 1-12 in the areas
of math, reading, writing and science. Students must be referred by a
teacher or counselor and have a documented IEP or be making a ``C'' or
below to be eligible.
The STM program was implemented to promote and increase interest in
the areas of science, technology and math.
The program is offered to four age groups of FIRST robotics
levels: 6-8 years--Junior FIRST LEGO League (Jr. FLL), 9-14
years--FIRST LEGO League (FLL), 15-18 years--FIRST Tech
Challenge (FTC) and FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). The FTC
level is designed for students that have no previous experience
and the FRC level is for students that have at least one year
of experience. These four programs provide students on
opportunity to be involved in numerous competitions.
The Chickasaw Nation Aviation Space Academy (CNASA) program
is a week long summer day camp for students in grades 5-12 who
have an interest in space aeronautical engineering.
Space Camp is an all-inclusive week-long summer camp
sponsored at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville,
Alabama and is available to Chickasaw students 9-18.
East Central University Robotics Camp is a week-long summer
camp sponsored by East Central University. The STM program
sponsors 10 Chickasaw students each year and the STM staff
assists with the camp.
The Summer Science School for Day Care is an hour long
hands-on learning opportunity each week for youth enrolled in
the summer day care program.
The STM Learning Academy provides short-term classes in the
summer for students interested in robotics. Examples of classes
offered include: basic electrical and mechanical engineering,
CADD design, LABVIEW programming, multi-media and photography.
The Chickasaw Honor Club is an incentive program which is comprised
of three components and serves Chickasaw students in grades 2-12. Gift
cards are awarded to students who excel in academics, attendance and
above and beyond in areas such as academics, athletics, band/music, and
citizenship.
The Education Services administers the Higher Education program,
the Career Technology program, Native Explorers, Junior Native
Explorers, the Summer Science and Medicine Expedition, Hinoshi'
Himitta' (New Path) and the Chickasaw Nation Summer Leadership Academy.
The Native Explorers program provides educational programs
and promotes partnerships that increases the number of Native
Americans in science and math. The main goal is to promote and
introduce STEM fields in order to increase the number of Native
American students enrolled in STEM majors. The Native Explorers
program partners with scientists and educators at the OSU-
Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa, OK; the Sam Noble Museum
of Natural History in Norman, OK and the Chickasaw Nation in an
effort to broaden its range of impact and further increase the
number of Native Americans who study the sciences and/or
medicine.
The Junior Native Explorers offers opportunities for
students to participate in activities which include earth
science, natural science and biomedical science and is open to
Chickasaw students between the ages of 6-18.
The Summer Science and Medicine Expedition provides the
opportunities for five college students to participate in a two
week expedition which includes an archeological dig.
The Hinoshi' Himitta'' (New Path) is a program designed to
help Chickasaw junior and senior high school students
transition into post-secondary education programs. The focus of
this program is to encourage first generation students to
attend post-secondary education.
The Chickasaw Summer Leadership Academy is a two week
academy in partnership with Southeastern State University. The
purpose of this academy is to identify first generation
students and provide a college experience as they live on
campus during each week and attend classes designed to assist
them with transition into post-secondary education.
Acknowledgments
The Chickasaw Nation appreciates being a recipient of some of the
Indian Community Development Block grants (ICDBG) the past few years.
These grants have enabled us to build a phenomenal Early Childhood
Development center, an STM building to house our science, technology
and math efforts, a Sick Child Care center to serve mildly ill children
and an expansion at one of our head start centers which enabled us to
add two classrooms and a cafeteria. We are also about to begin
construction on a new Early Childhood Development center in Ardmore, OK
thanks to being awarded another ICDBG.
Challenges
Johnson O'Malley
The Chickasaw Nation serves as a contractor for the Johnson
O'Malley (JOM) program for 52 public schools within the Chickasaw
Nation boundaries. This funding provides supplemental educational
opportunities for approximately 8,200 Native American students in our
area assisting with school supplies, educational materials, tutoring
and cultural education. Each school has a JOM coordinator and parent
committee that oversees the use of the funds.
In 1994 the Johnson O'Malley student count was frozen and the
funding has not increased since 1995. Currently over 90 percent of
Native American students are in public schools yet the funding has
remained the same, resulting in fewer services for the students.
Additionally when the student count was frozen, the JOM funds were
placed under the Tribal Priority Allocation (TPA) category of funding
and the JOM office at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was closed.
There is no contact person for the JOM program to maintain and
administer the program. There has also been a move by the Bureau of
Indian Education (BIE) to eliminate the JOM program so they can use the
funds for other uses. The BIE's priority is students located within BIE
funded schools. As mentioned earlier, most Native American students
attend public schools. The Native students in public schools do not
have a voice in the BIE or BIA to advocate for their academic success.
The best advocate for Native students is the tribes.
Tribal Interaction with Schools
Tribal interaction with schools could be improved by allowing
Tribal Education Agencies (TEA) access to students and educational data
of students enrolled in public schools within the tribal boundaries.
These TEAs could assign representatives to the schools to have direct
contact with the students and could assist them with tutoring and help
address attendance issues with an emphasis on access to tribal
programs. Connecting students and families to tribal programs gives
much needed access to family counseling, behavioral health
professionals, mentoring programs, cultural and language programs to
name a few. There are too many issues in public schools to expect the
teachers or administrative staff to be aware of tribal programs, which
results in tribal students being disconnected to services that could
help them perform better academically and socially. Tribal
representatives should have access to student records (attendance,
grades, etc.) so that tribes can become partners with the schools to
improve the tribal student's education or prevent at-risk students from
failing or dropping out of school.
The curricula for public schools are determined by committees
appointed at the district and state level. Unfortunately, in states
with populations of Native American students, there are times when
schools include offensive material into curricula without being aware
of the nature of the offense. For example, in Oklahoma, public schools
often conduct activities portraying the ``Oklahoma Land Run'' without
realizing the negative connotation of the act to Native American
students. Most teachers and administrators are not aware of the
negative impact they have on the students and their families. There are
better ways to study historical periods of statehood or other events,
and with a tribal representative on the curricula committee, it could
be accomplished in a manner that is not offensive.
Accountability
Schools could be held more accountable for the education of Native
American students if funding for Indian Education programs such Title
VII and Impact Aid were administered by the Tribal Education Agencies
in the area. This could be done in a manner similar to the JOM
contracts. Currently, schools are only required to have public hearings
or oversight committees appointed by the school administration. Tribes
are often not given adequate notification for the hearings and may not
be asked to participate at all. As a result the funds are often spent
for educational services for the entire school population, not the
Native American students for which the funds are allocated. If the TEA
had oversight, it could ensure proper expenditures. For years tribes
have been asking local schools how the Title VII and Impact Aid funds
are spent. Schools are reluctant to share the information with the
tribes but when they do answer their typical response is ``the funds go
into one pool and cannot be tracked;'' they cannot tell us specifically
if the funds were spent on Native students. Realistically we know the
funds are federal dollars and must be reported to the funding agency so
there is some type of reporting mechanism involved.
Culture and Native Language
Over the past decades, tribes have made great advances in capturing
and preserving their culture, history and languages. Culture, history
and language make us who we are and help us to understand our struggles
and accomplishments. It is unfortunate that the public school textbooks
have not preserved this information or portrayed accurate Native
American history to students. History and culture validates people's
existence. Native students look to their history and culture to
validate who they are and why they are here. Working with public
schools, tribes can provide accurate and relevant history and culture
so all students can benefit from the information and presentation.
Tribes can be a resource for language, cultural or history curricula,
and it can be designed so that it will abide by State's Common CORE
Standards.
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requires a teacher be
considered ``highly qualified'' in order to teach a language for school
credit. Most fluent tribal speakers are elders and do not have the
degree or certification to become ``highly qualified.'' Those same
speakers are being lost at an alarming rate due to their age. Native
languages are highly endangered and action needs to be taken before
they are lost. The tribes are the best judge to say who is an expert
speaker of their language. NCLB should include language which allows
tribes to certify their language speakers according to standards the
tribe determines. Additionally, Native language should be certified as
a world language credit so that it is accredited for purposes of
graduation. Currently, Native language is counted as electives due to
the challenges of teacher certification.
In conclusion, we applaud the efforts of this committee to address
issues related to Native students and education. Working together, we
believe the impact of this effort will not only benefit Native American
students but will also positively impact their families, communities,
and all students in public schools!
The Chairman. I appreciate your testimony. There will be
some questions. Thank you, Mr. Wells.
Ms. Fabre?
STATEMENT OF BARBARA FABRE, CHAIRWOMAN, NATIONAL INDIAN CHILD
CARE ASSOCIATION; DIRECTOR, CHILD CARE/EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAM,
WHITE EARTH NATION
Ms. Fabre. Mr. Chairman, Vice Chair and members of the
Committee, my name is Barb Fabre, and I am a tribal member from
the White Earth Nation Anishinaabe Tribe. I have worked for the
tribe for over 20 years and with CCDBG for the last 20 years.
As you are aware, the early years in a child's life makes the
most difference in the future and defines what kind of human
being they will become and what kind of citizen they will be.
These early years are especially important with children from
low income communities and tribal communities in particular.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to
Hayden. Hayden is a 10-month old who is in our child care
learning center. Hayden's dad is a maintenance worker and his
mom recently enrolled in college. Their annual income is
$26,000. They can't afford their own home, so they are living
with their relatives. The child care bill alone for Hayden is
$4,200 per year. But thanks to the tribal setaside for CCDBG,
their child care cost is supplemented with child care
assistance, and now Hayden's dad has been able to also enroll
in college while he still works.
Young children from different socioeconomic groups come to
school with dramatically different vocabularies. Low income
children enter kindergarten with a 3,000 word vocabulary. But
children from middle class families enter with a 20,000 word
vocabulary. The achievement gap starts there, especially for
our Native children. As you know, tribal communities are one of
those socioeconomic groups.
Preparing for my visit here today, I heard from tribal
communities all over Indian Country. They told me about their
successes, the early intervention, school readiness initiatives
they are doing, the language and vocabulary, parent
conferences, social-emotional skill building. And to Senator
Heitkamp's comment, we are dealing with behaviors in child
care. We have limited resources, we don't have staff, we don't
have coordinators, health coordinators. Children who have
adverse experiences of prolonged toxic stress associated with
poverty, child abuse and serious neglect, parental substance
abuse, neighborhood violence or maternal depression also need
interventions to build the foundational skills necessary to
reach their full potential.
As I heard from the tribes, I also heard about their
struggles. They have had to downsize staff, long waiting lists,
and as you will read in my testimony, many more tribes endure
long waiting lists. The lack of child care facilities, and like
Mr. Wells, child care is not babysitting. Tribal child care is
definitely not babysitting. In any given community, Head Start
serves about one-third of the community's children. About
another third is in some form of child care, while another
third is not in anything.
So we take that very seriously. We go out into the
community and we provide early childhood services. Our tribal
child care has recently added early childhood to our name,
because we are the early childhood program for our community.
We are doing parent engagement, parent training, community
training.
As you will read in my testimony, you will see that over
the last 17 years, approximately 25 new CCDBG grantees, which
is a good thing. Right now there are 260 grantees. It is good
that they are getting CCDBG, but that just also means that the
pie is not getting any bigger, we are just slicing it into
smaller and smaller sections. So that is the struggle with
tribal CCDF in Indian Country. We are faced with a lot of
issues, but we are also faced with funding extremes.
While the concern is avoiding duplication, it really comes
back to lack of funding and resources. We too believe in a
continuum of learning from birth on up. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Fabre follows:]
Prepared Statement of Barbara Fabre, Chairwoman, National Indian Child
Care Association; Director, Child Care/Early Childhood Program, White
Earth Nation
Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, I am Barbara Fabre, a
tribal member from the White Earth Nation in Minnesota, the largest of
11 tribes in Minnesota. I am the Director of White Earth Child Care/
Early Childhood Program and Chairwoman of the National Indian Child
Care Association, that is representative of tribal child care programs
throughout Indian Country. It is an honor to be here today and I am
proud to be here to represent tribal child care. I applaud the
Committee on Indian Affairs for its decision to include tribal child
care in the oversight hearing on early childhood development.
The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 1990,
(CCDBG Final Rule 45CFR 98 and 99, published August 1992), also known
as the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), is to increase the
availability, affordability and quality of child care services for
children (families and communities). This federal funding is for
States, Territories, Indian Tribes, and tribal organizations in order
to: (1) provide low-income families with the financial resources to
find and afford quality child care for their children; (2) enhance the
quality and increase the supply of child care for all families,
including those who receive no direct assistance under the CCDF; (3)
provide parents with a broad range of option in addressing their child
care needs; (4) strengthen the role of the family; (5) improve the
quality of, and coordination among, child care programs and early
childhood development programs; and (6) increase the availability of
early childhood development and before-and-after school care services.
While a 1994 mandate, reaffirms a government-to-government relationship
between Tribes and the Federal Government and directing agencies to
design solutions and tailor Federal programs, in appropriate
circumstances, to address specific or unique needs of tribal
communities, tribal child care programs are designed locally and able
to meet the unique needs of tribal communities.
The National Indian Child Care Association is the recognized
representative body of the Tribal Child Care and Development Block
Grant grantees. The Association was developed in 1993 to provide
information, support, coordination, and advocacy for Tribal child care.
Two hundred sixty Tribes and Tribal organizations received Child Care
and Development Block Grant in FY 2013 (259 Tribes and Tribal
organizations (including 20 consortia), encompassing approximately 520
Federally-Recognized Tribes; and 1 Native Hawaiian grantee. (35 Tribes
have consolidated their CCDF funding with employment, training and
related services into a P.L. 102-477 Plan. There were 30,598 children
serviced by Tribal CCDF in FY 2011 (this number reflects only the
number of children who received CCDBG child care assistance (subsidy),
and does not take into consideration the thousands of children being
served in tribally licensed centers or tribally licensed child care
providers and other quality initiatives/services that Tribal child care
programs do beyond the ACF700 Report aggregate data form). The Child
Care and Development Block Grant is the single largest program
authorized under the Personal Responsibilities and Work Opportunities
Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) affecting Tribal governments. Participation
in the Child Care and Development Block Grant allows Tribal governments
and organizations the opportunity to design, implement, and support
programs which are beneficial to the unique needs of our Tribal
citizens. The mission of National Indian Child Care Association is to
unify tribes and tribal organizations to promote high quality
culturally relevant child care and development. National Indian Child
Care Association provides leadership, support, and communication on
behalf of Native America, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiians children,
families, and communities. NICCA also recommends that any language
regarding CCDBG properly include Native Hawaiians and these proposed
technical corrections would not have Native Hawaiian compete with
American Indians or Alaska Natives for limited funding. Instead, these
technical corrections address the CCDBG bill's requirements that states
serve all Native populations and coordinate with Native organizations;
and apply strong child care standards to all Native child care
organizations.
The number of Tribal child care programs receiving funding through
the Child Care and Development Block Grant has increased. The amount of
funding that Tribes and tribal organizations receive each year is
contingent upon the number of Tribes and tribal organizations
participating and the number of children in each Tribe or service area.
The per child amount of funding for Tribes has decreased from $164.00
per child in 2002 to $140.00 per child in 2011. That is less than the
per child rate that was received by Tribes and tribal organizations in
2001. The percent of set aside for Tribes and tribal organizations is
currently ``up to two percent at the discretion of the Secretary.''
Currently, tribal set aside is at the maximum we can receive under
current law, which has been the same since 1996, although services
rendered by Tribal child care programs have significantly increased,
cost of living (inflation), the demand for child care (assistance and
capacity), and more tribes receiving CCDBG funding has been a hardship
for Tribal child care programs throughout Indian Country.
While Tribal child care has been diligently providing quality child
care to parts of the country that are typically rural, high poverty
areas, funding to maintain that quality and expand services remains a
huge barrier. As you are aware, the CCDBG has not been reauthorized for
the past 17 years, and with additional tribes receiving CCDBG funding,
the two percent has been rationed to even more tribes. While there is
hope of a reauthorization of CCDBG, Tribal child care programs will
continue to lose ground if the tribal set aside is not increased to
five percent. Due to the inadequate investment in child care, tribes
are constantly having to decide on what is more important, serving more
eligible children or improving quality.
As a tribal CCDBG Tribal Administrator since 1993, I have first-
hand experience of implementing CCDBG services and know the many facets
of child care licensing, child care assistance, training, quality
rating, school readiness, parent engagement, economic development and
early learning. The White Earth Child Care Program was created in 1993
when the Tribe received CCDBG funding, which has allowed us to provide
child care assistance, develop our own tribal licensing standards,
which in some areas, exceeds the State's licensing standards for
family/group child care, provide quality improvement grants to
providers and centers to meet licensing requirements or improvement,
School-Age Child Care grants, monthly monitoring visits, early
childhood curriculum/child development training, and manage two child
care centers (one is funded by CCDBG & parent fees and other is funded
by the Tribe & parent fees). We also provide outreach and resources to
relative caregivers who provide child care (unlicensed), and provide
(free) community trainings on child development, parenting and school
readiness. While we are one of the larger Tribal child care program,
there are as many high quality smaller Tribal programs, that are
struggling to maintain services. The Colusa Indian Community in Colusa,
CA for example, receives $26,000, and serves 70 children, could only
subsidize approximately 4 children per year based on our current grant
award per year, which would only cover tuition. The Colusa Center has
made tremendous efforts to meet the highest quality in early learning
and development possible and state they are fortunate that the Tribe
believes in investing in early care and education. They would turn
children away more than accept them in our care if the Tribe didn't
invest funding. They also struggle to meet the needs of their children
enrolled who have special needs. Services are often limited to one 30
minute session per week, leaving their staff to care for children on a
one on one basis, leaving a higher ratio for other staff. They cannot
afford to pay for more staff. This is a constant balance and struggle,
as well as being able to afford specialized training and/or staff who
have the training and education.
In 2010, White Earth Reservation was selected as one of four
Transformation Zones under Minnesota's Race to the Top/Early Learning
Challenge Grant, which allows us to administer the Early Learning
Scholarship Program, to target children/families who are not in any
kind of early learning program and provide direct services to children
by allowing parents the opportunity to choose the best quality rated
early learning program (parent directed scholarship program) such as
child care, head start or school-based preschool, that fits their need.
Children are then placed in a quality Parent Aware rated early learning
program that will help develop a strong foundation of learning. In
order to help families support healthy brain development, parents are
required to attend a minimum of 4 hours of child development training
per year (parents, providers and community members are invited to all
trainings our Program provides) and are assigned a Parent Mentor that
provides early literacy and language development resources on a monthly
basis. The collaboration with the State of Minnesota is to ensure
quality early childhood access to children who would not otherwise be
in an early childhood setting prior to entering kindergarten, was made
possible because, of our established tribal CCDBG program, as a vehicle
for reaching hundreds of Indian families and rural communities. While
this is unique to tribes in Minnesota, not all Tribes share this
success of working with the State government and much needs to be done
to help encourage States to reach out and work with their Tribal CCDBG
partners. Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton and the 2013 Legislature
approved $40 million in scholarships for families to access high
quality, Parent Aware-rated early learning programs this biennium,
along with statewide full-day kindergarten that will begin in 2014.
These initiatives are expected to have a positive impact on
kindergarten readiness and early learning success in years to come.
Tribal child care programs take `school readiness' very seriously and
work with children in our tribal child care programs to help build
skills, knowledge, behaviors and accomplishments that children should
know and be able to do as they enter kindergarten in the following
areas of child development: physical development; the arts; personal
and social development; language and literacy; and mathematical
thinking.
Prior to receiving CCDBG funding, the White Earth Reservation had
only 8 state-licensed child care homes within a 1300 square mile
radius. With 9 rural communities averaging 150 to 1,000 people in each
community (10,000 individuals live within the reservation boundaries),
there simply was not enough child care. With CCDBG funding, the Tribe
developed its own licensing process and standards, there are 7 state-
licensed child care homes and 14 tribally licensed child care homes and
2 tribally licensed centers. Of the 16 tribally licensed child care
sites, 14 are Parent Aware rated (MN's quality rating system), with 5
rated 4-Star, 4 rated 3-Star, 1 rated 1-Star and 4 in the process who
will be 3-Star. Our Program also worked with 3 state licensed providers
within the reservation boundaries who serve our Native children, to
help them receive a 4, 3 and 2 Star rating. While the numbers of
licensed child care sites have doubled, there are still long waiting
lists at these licensed child care sites AND waiting lists at both
county and tribal child care assistance programs, to help low-income
families pay for child care costs.
Tribes across Indian Country have shared their struggles at their
current funding, in Washington, the Tulalip Tribe have 16 on their
waiting list. In Muscogee Creek Nation, they have seven tribal child
care centers, a child care assistance program, Resource & Referral and
tribal licensing. They serve 250 children and have 75 children on their
waiting list. The Shoshone Bannock Tribes in Idaho has 81 children on
their waiting list in their Child Care Center. While a successful
program, they still lack space and have to cut their budgets
dramatically over the years with their Centers and trying not to cut
child care assistance program. With the ever increasing food costs and
utility expenses, they are experiencing the decision many Tribal child
care programs are faced with having to use their limited CCDBG funds
for quality or quantity. Muscogee Creek Nation in OK, stated that `by
having more tribal child care programs or expanding the current
centers, they could serve more tribal families and more jobs can be
offered to tribal members.' Due to the number of tribal participants,
the demand for child care in Indian communities, and fluctuation in
tribal funding, Tribes have experienced a significant decrease in the
ability to provide quality services in Indian Country. This is
particularly detrimental to existing programs, which must reduce the
level of child care services to Indian families from year to year.
According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, American Indian
children are the only group that collectively lost ground since 2000 on
several well-being indicators. Child poverty continues to rise at a
faster rate than for any other ethnic group in the United States.
Additionally, the child death rate for children aged 1-14 has decreased
by 9 percent for non-Indian children but has increased by 15 percent
for American Indian children. Indian Country has a poverty rate of more
than 31 percent, the highest poverty rate of any ethnic group in the
United States, nearly three times the national average. Reservations
are experiencing unemployment rates of 50 percent, almost 10 times more
than the national average. Native children are the most at-risk
population in the United States, confronting serious disparities.
American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children need
quality child care settings to improve lifelong outcomes. Increased
risk factors such as poverty, low birth weight, and low educational
attainment of mothers contribute to the need for investment in quality
child care in Indian country. There are many challenges faced by
American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children, Tribal
child care is a vehicle for intervention and support of quality care
and cultural strengths. The Federal Government must take into account
the needs by tribal communities, which must be determined by tribal
communities, and served by tribal programs in order to make meaningful
changes to practices. Reduced funding and resources will continue to
undermine tribal culture and American Indian, Alaska Native and Native
Hawaiian children's development. Mayor Charlotte Brower, North Slope
Borough, Alaska stated ``. . . Child Care is the number one issue for
all working parents. In order to keep full time job, working parents,
need this service. I support sustainable, quality and affordable child
care services and will support working parents.''
The flexibility of CCDBG funding, allows Tribal child care programs
to uniquely braid and immerse, culture and Native language teachings
throughout their programming and classrooms. There continues to be
emerging evidence that dual language early childhood education programs
have solid potential to help children prepare for school, and helps the
Tribe revitalize and maintain their language. If you were to visit
Tribal child care classrooms around the country, you would see parent
engagement, language immersion, regalia making, dance and drum. For
children, parents and staff, making the regalia helps understand its
meaning and helps provide an opportunity to re-engage with our culture
from which we have become disconnected.
While tribal child care looks slightly different in every
community, the priority is the same, to provide high quality child care
to tribal communities which are typically the highest poverty areas in
the state. Tribal child care programs vary from offering center-based
services, child care assistance, child care licensing, monitoring,
quality improvement and health/safety grants, professional development,
after-school programs and working with partners such as head start,
employment agencies and schools to ensure quality and a continuum of
services, as no one program or school can serve all the communities
children.
Tribal grantees participating in the CCDBG have increased from 226
in 1994 to 258 in 2010; however, all federally recognized Tribes are
eligible to participate and some Tribes also provide services for
descendants of tribal members, who may not have the blood quantum to be
enrolled. Current Head Start legislation authorizes a minimum of 4
percent set aside for Indian Head Start programs. With inflation at
approximately 3 percent per year, Tribes have experienced a significant
decrease in the ability to provide services in Indian Country. This is
particularly detrimental to existing programs, which must reduce
funding of all child care services to Indian families. This greatly
affects the children of families that are working to transition off of
public assistance programs through work and educational opportunities.
No Access for Additional Funding for Tribal Child Care
Although demands on Tribal resources have increased, Tribes do not
have access to additional funding. States have a tax base that
generates funds for necessary programs, and the myth that if Tribes
have a casino, they are wealthy, when in fact, casino revenues are
generally limited (with the exception of a few) and are put back into
helping their tribal communities. States also have access to additional
federal funds that tribes do not have access to, because of no tribal
set-aside or tribal language included in new or existing initiatives.
Child Care Development Block Grant funds are the only funds for Tribal
child care. Native American, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiian parents
must have access to high quality early learning experiences for their
children. Indian children, who are in quality early learning
environments at home, in care with family or friends, or in more formal
early childhood settings, experience positive outcomes later in life,
as proven through the extensive research shows that investing in early
childhood has a return investment.
According to a report, ``one of the most productive investments
that is rarely viewed as economic development is early childhood
development (ECD). Several longitudinal ECD studies that are based on a
relatively small number of at-risk children from low-income families,
demonstrate that the potential return is extraordinary. In a previous
essay, we found that, based on these studies, the potential annual
return from focused, high-quality ECD programs might be as high as 16
percent (inflation adjusted), of which the annual public return is 12
percent (inflation adjusted),'' (Rolnick & Grunewald, 2006).
When it comes to economic development, tribal child care is one of
the key important components of economic development planning in tribal
communities, next to jobs and housing. Jobs cannot be created without
the support of child care services. Tribal child care is a vital
service in Tribal communities to insure parents have the ability to
maintain education and employment for self-sufficiency and to help our
tribal families go off or stay off the State's TANF rolls.
In closing, Tribal child care is not babysitting, it is a vital
services to tribal communities and is often the glue to collaboration
between preschool programs, school districts, parents and economic
development. Tribal child care programs are help their State by being
able to offer comprehensive child care/early childhood services to the
most vulnerable communities in the State--tribal communities, and who
better to serve tribal communities and tribal families but Tribal
programs. Child care teachers/providers who are supported and monitored
by Tribal CCDBG programs are proud of the services they offer; early
childhood screenings, assessments, authentic observations, social and
emotional skill building, culture/language, early interventions for
children with special needs and parent conferences, that reinforce
parent engagement and a continuum of foundational learning skills from
home to child care, to head start on through school. While there are
many gaps, probably the biggest one is funding, when it comes to what
our Congress can do for tribal child care, is to help Tribal Child Care
be fully funded by providing the 5 percent increase in the CCDBG tribal
set aside.
References
Federal Register--Part II, Department of Health and Human
Services, Administration for Children and Families, 45 CFR Parts 98 and
99, Child Care and Development fund; Final Rule, July, 1998.
Marks, Amy Kerivan, Goll, Cynthia Garcia, Brown University,
Psychological and Demographic Correlates of Early Academic Skill
development Among American Indian and Alaska Native Youth; A Growth
Modeling Study, Developmental Psychology, 2007, Vol. 43, No 3, 663-674
National Indian Child Care Association Legislative Issues, 2011-
2012
Rob Grunewald and Arthur Rolnick, A Proposal for Achieving High
Returns on Early Childhood Development, Federal Reserve Bank of
Minneapolis, March 2006, Prepared for ``Building the Economic Case for
Investments in Preschool'' Washington, D.C., December 3, 2004. Convened
by the Committee for Economic Development, with support from The Pew
Charitable Trusts and PNC Financial Services Group.
Sarche, Michelle, Spicer, Paul, Poverty and Health Disparities for
American Indian and Alaska Native Children, current Knowledge and
Future Prospects, 2008 New York Academy of Sciences, University of
Colorado Denver, American Indian and Alaska Native Programs, Aurora,
Colorado, USA
2012 MN School Readiness Study: http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/
StuSuc/EarlyLearn/SchReadiK/
The Chairman. Thank you, Barb. Thank you for your
testimony.
Ms. Power, you may proceed.
STATEMENT OF JACQUELYN POWER, SUPERINTENDENT/PRINCIPAL,
BLACKWATER COMMUNITY SCHOOL
Ms. Power. Chairman Tester and Senator Heitkamp, my name is
Jacquelyn Power, and I have been the superintendent and
principal at Blackwater Community School for the past 20 years.
Blackwater is an early childhood through grade 2 Bureau of
Indian Education grant school. Thank you for inviting me to
participate in this panel and talk about the FACE program.
Our school has participated in the Family and Child
Education program for the past 21 years. We have been
recognized twice by the BIE for quality implementation of this
program and our pre-school teacher, Ms. Paul, has been
recognized by the National Center for Families Learning as the
Toyota Teacher of the Year.
FACE has directly impacted the quality of our school. As a
result, Blackwater has made AYP since the beginning of the No
Child Left Behind legislation. FACE is the most significant
education initiative in the BIE's history.
The FACE program was designed to prepare preschool children
to enter kindergarten ready to learn. FACE is the only
evidence-based program in the BIE evaluated for the past 23
years by Research and Training associates.
The goals of the FACE program are to support parents and
guardians in their role as their child's first and most
influential teacher, strengthen family, school, and community
connections, increase parent participation in their child's
learning and expectations for academic achievement, support and
celebrate the unique cultural and linguistic diversity of each
American Indian community, and to promote lifelong learning.
During the 23-year history of FACE, the program has
gradually increased to five pilot sites to 43 sites throughout
the Nation, serving approximately 41,000 adults and children.
It is a comprehensive program consisting of home visits, parent
education, job training, pre-school and parent and child time,
when parents and children interact in a structured learning
environment.
To put a face to this date is important. One student that I
have known since she was in elementary school stands out in so
many ways. She had a learning disability in elementary school.
However, as she entered a feeder school, she became discouraged
and felt disconnected from school. In spite of her parents'
best efforts, she dropped out of high school.
Over the next few years, she became a mother of five
children with little hope for the future. For her, the only ray
of hope was the FACE program. She spent four long, hard years
working to prepare for the GED and in December of 2013 she
passed. So many times she expressed her interest in working
with special needs children, because of her personal life and
challenges. Today this student is working for Blackwater as a
classroom aide for a special needs child. Without FACE, her
dreams would never have been realized, and her children's
future would have been compromised.
When FACE started, two national models were selected for
implementation. The Parents as Teachers Home Visiting Model was
selected based on the curriculum's focus on increasing parent
involvement in the child's development, plus early detection
and referral based on developmental needs. The National Center
for Families Learning was selected as the center-based model
that included both pre-school and the adult education component
that continued the role of parents as integral to the success
of their child in school. Both of these models focused on
parent engagement which is critical to a child's success in
school.
Some of the outcomes for the Home Based program show nearly
100 percent of children from tribal families receiving this
service enroll in preschool. Participating families have more
than 50 books in their homes, which is significant, because
most Native families only have 10 books.
The results of the center-based program for preschool and
the adult education program have consistently shown when
children attend FACE regularly, they exceed the national
average in English language development and vocabulary. FACE
preschool supports school readiness with increased parent
involvement, including reading out loud to their children, more
literacy materials in their home, and particularly children
with special needs with early intervention score at the
national average.
Throughout the history of FACE, approximately 5,250 adults
gained employment during their FACE participation. Finally, the
FACE program supports the preservation of Native languages. For
Gila River this is critical because the O'Odham language is
almost extinct. Within FACE, the parents and preschool children
are using the computer to develop O'Odham-English books that
they share at home and are in our school library.
In closing, I wish to emphasize the need to continue the
four-component model of FACE that includes technical assistance
from our two national partners. The FACE model recognizes that
education begins at birth, and parents are the first and most
important teacher of their child. Today, many parents in FACE
programs are here with me today to ask and thank Congress for
supporting the FACE program and helping to expand it to all
FACE sites within the United States.
And thank you for this opportunity, and I would be glad to
answer any questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Power follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jacquelyn Power, Superintendent/Principal,
Blackwater Community School
Chairman Tester, Vice Chairman Barrasso and members of the
Committee my name is Jacquelyn Power and I have been the
Superintendent/Principal at the Blackwater Community School for the
past twenty years. Blackwater Community School is an early childhood
through grade two Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) grant school. Thank
you for inviting us to participate in this important hearing on early
childhood education and to comment specifically on the impacts of the
FACE program.
Our school has participated in the Family and Child Education
program for the past twenty-one years. We have been recognized twice by
the BIE for quality implementation of this program and our pre-school
teacher, Ms. Gwendolyn Paul, has been recognized by the National Center
for Families Learning as the Toyota Teacher of the Year.
The FACE program in my opinion is the most significant education
initiative in the Bureau of Indian Education's (BIE) history. In the
Bureau of Indian Education too often programs come and go, many without
positive results. However FACE has continued because it is based on the
latest research and best practices and has long term data to
demonstrate its success. FACE has directly impacted the quality of our
school with the result that our school has made AYP since the beginning
of the No Child Left Behind legislation.
The FACE program was implemented to address the need to prepare
children for school as the majority of children enrolling in BIE
schools were not prepared for kindergarten. It was also started due to
the lack of resources, financial and facilities, to expand the Head
Start Program. This situation still exists in many locations throughout
Indian country. As an example, in our school's attendance area we do
not have one Head Start Program. If it were not for FACE, children
would not have access to a quality pre-natal through early childhood
program prior to entering kindergarten at Blackwater Community School.
FACE is the only evidence-based program in the BIE, having been
evaluated for the past twenty-three years by an outside evaluator.
Beginning in 1990, based on an extensive tribal consultation
process, FACE was implemented at six sites, serving almost 500
participants. The FACE program primarily serves families with children
prenatal to 5 years of age by providing parenting education services,
adult education or early childhood services. The goals of the FACE
program are to:
Support parents/primary caregivers in their role as their
child's first and most influential teacher.
Strengthen family-school-community connections.
Increase parent participation in their child's learning and
expectations for academic achievement.
Support and celebrate the unique cultural and linguistic
diversity of each American Indian community served by the
program.
Promote lifelong learning.
During the 23-year history of FACE, the program has gradually
increased to 43 sites and has served approximately 41,000 adults and
children. The design of the program since has been to support children
and their families from birth through age four. It is a comprehensive
program consisting of home visiting, parent education to increase
parents' formal education levels to prepare them for employment, pre-
school for three and four year old children, and parent and child time,
when parents and children interact in a structured learning
environment. It is important to note that this comprehensive approach
is critical as each component by itself is not sufficient to improve
school readiness on its own.
Two home visiting parent educators are usually employed at each
site and are required to serve 12 families weekly or 24 families bi-
weekly, reaching a maximum of 48 families served at a site at any point
in time. These trained parent educators work with families in their own
homes, to help parents make age and developmentally appropriate choices
regarding the early literacy activities, healthcare, and development of
their children. FACE preschools can serve a maximum of 20 children and
15 parents in the adult education component.
When FACE started, two national models were selected for
implementation. The Parents as Teachers Home Visiting Model was
selected based on their curriculum's focus on increasing parent
involvement in their child's development and learning; early detection
of developmental delays; and helping support parents prepare their
child for school. The National Center for Families Learning was
selected as the center based model that contained both a pre-school and
adult education component that continued the role of parents as
integral to the success of their child in school. Both of these models
focused on parent engagement that research show is critical to a
child's success in school. Since FACE started each site has received
continued technical assistance and professional development from these
two nationally recognized organizations. Their commitment to quality
training and support make it possible for FACE to produce positive
outcomes year after year.
Some of the outcomes for the Home Based program show:
Almost 100 percent of children from tribal families
receiving home based parent education services go on to attend
preschool, and they attend for a longer period.
81 percent of parents report reading to their children
almost daily.
Participating families had more than 50 books on average in
their homes compared to the majority of Native American homes
with less than ten books that are developmentally appropriate.
87 percent of FACE children in the PAT home based component
received a screening (developmental, hearing, vision, dental or
health), which is more than double the percentage of children
screened when the data was first reported in 1997.
83 percent of 19-35 month old children in the FACE program
were current with their immunizations (compared to the 76
percent national average.)
The results of the Center Based program, the pre-school and adult
education components, have consistently shown:
Children who attend FACE preschool enter below the national
percentile rank, but leave on a level playing field with
children nationally.
Due to early intervention, FACE children are half as likely
to need special education services at kindergarten entry.
After one year of FACE preschool, children with special
needs score near the national average, lowering the need for
costly, long-term special education.
Indian children leave BIE FACE with significant and
meaningful gains in expressive language development.
When children attend FACE regularly they exceed the national
average in English language development and vocabulary.
That FACE preschool supports school readiness with increased
parent involvement, more literacy materials at home, and more
reading aloud.
Throughout the history of FACE, approximately 5,250 adults
gained employment during their FACE participation.
Most parents indicated that FACE helped them a lot in
increasing the amount of time they spend with their child (85
percent), in becoming more involved in their child's education
(82 percent), in increasing their understanding of child
development (81 percent), in becoming a better parent (80
percent), in encouraging their child's interest in reading (76
percent), and in increasing their ability to speak up for their
child (73 percent).
Like these national results, in my 20 years at the school I have
seen first hand the impact of this program in our community and in our
families. Blackwater's FACE program serves an average of 95 adult and
children per year in the home based and center based programs. This
calculates to 1995 participants in the 21 years of operation at the
school.
Since 1993, 65 adults completed their GED diploma, 77 adults have
been inducted into the National Adult Education Honor Society, 15
adults received college scholarships, and one parent now sits on the
school board. In fact, a typical class is composed of parents who
dropped out of high school and others who enroll in college classes for
the first time. Even more important is the parents' commitment to
reconnecting to education for themselves and their child in the FACE
program.
To put a face to this data is critical to this discussion on Early
Childhood Education. One student that I have known since she was in
elementary school stands out in so many ways. She had a learning
disability in elementary school. However, as she entered a feeder
school she became discouraged and felt isolated and disconnected to
school. In spite of her parents best efforts she dropped out of high
school. It wasn't long after that this student became a teenage mother.
Over the next few years, she became a mother of five children with
little hope for a future. For her, the only ray of hope was the FACE
program. She spent four long years of hard work preparing for the GED
and in December 2013 she passed. On so many occasions we would talk
about her future and what she hoped to accomplish. So many times she
expressed her interest in working with special needs children because
of her personal life and challenges. Today, this student is working at
Blackwater as a classroom aide to a special needs child. Without FACE,
her dreams would have never been realized and her future and that of
her children would be compromised.
Historically, the majority of parents who enroll in FACE with their
children are mothers; however, over the years I have seen more fathers
attend school with their children. One father that stands out entered
FACE without a high school diploma and was a father of five children.
In fact, both he and his wife shared the duty to attend the FACE
program with one of their children over the years. Both of them
completed their GEDs. His wife is in college and working for Gila
River. The father, not only completed his GED, but also received the
prestigious Friedlander Award in adult education for his
accomplishments in FACE. Besides working to complete his GED, he
started his own business as a DJ, which is highly successful. He also
works full time for Blackwater Community School in food service and
facilities. All of their children have thrived in school and their
futures will be secured because of the commitment their parents made to
FACE.
The Home based program is equally successful and its focus on early
screening for disabilities is a hallmark of this component. As a result
of these early interventions, I have seen a reduction in referrals to
special education. In fact, the school's average special education
population has dropped from a high of over 20 percent to an average of
10 percent.
Equally important is the success the FACE children demonstrate when
they enter kindergarten. These children are prepared to learn and
demonstrate consistent proficiency in reading and math. Since the
beginning of NCLB the school has always made AYP. Moreover, in 2013
Blackwater was awarded a B letter grade by the Arizona Department of
Education for its performance on the Stanford 10 test.
Finally, the FACE program supports the preservation of Native
languages. For Gila River this is critical because the O'Odham language
is almost extinct. Within FACE, the parents and preschool children are
using the computer to develop O'Odham/English web-based books that are
then added to the school library and taken home to practice the
language. Both the parents and children are learning their Native
language at school as well as their culture. This is critical to the
survival of the rich legacy of this tribe and the FACE program provides
the foundation for this effort. The commitment to the preservation of
the language continues in the K-2 program as well.
In closing I wish to again emphasize the need to continue FACE as
the four-component model as it was originally designed to include the
provision of technical assistance from the two nationally recognized
models. Families need and require a comprehensive literacy program that
recognizes education begins at birth, as parents are their first and
most important teachers. It is a proven model based on twenty-three
years of data. I am providing for the record the Executive Summary from
Program Year 2012 for your information as well as some preliminary
Program Year 2013 data that will be released in the near future that
shows current outcomes similar to those in the previous year. We thank
Congress for its continued support of this program that is so important
to successful education achievement of Indian children and urge
Congress to expand this model to all BIE schools.
I very much appreciate this opportunity to speak on behalf of this
program and to have the opportunity to speak with you today. I would be
happy to address your questions.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Power. Thank you for your
stories of success.
Dr. Costello, you may proceed.
STATEMENT OF E. JANE COSTELLO, PROFESSOR,
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY AND BEHAVIORAL
MEDICINE; ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR RESEARCH, CENTER FOR CHILD AND
FAMILY POLICY, DUKE UNIVERSITY
Ms. Costello. Chairman Tester and members of the Committee,
thank you for this opportunity to testify today. I am a
psychiatric epidemiologist, and would be glad to explain that.
[Laughter.]
Ms. Costello. I am most grateful for your continued support
of basic science, funded in this case through the National
Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse.
However, the views that I express here are not necessarily
those of the NIH or of Duke University. They are my own.
The research that I want to present to you today carries, I
think, a very clear message: we pay now or we pay later. Let me
explain. Our tax dollars can support poor families while their
children are growing and developing, or we can pay the higher
cost of obesity, alcohol and drug abuse, crime, and loss of
economic productivity down the road. I am not just saying this,
let me tell you about the data.
For 20 years, we at Duke have studied the same group of
1,400 people living in the mountains of western North Carolina,
of whom 350 are American Indians from the Eastern Band of
Cherokee Indians. The children whom we began to study in the
1990s, have now grown into their 30s and we are able to look at
the long-term effects of investments in their health, education
and welfare.
In particular, we are able to examine the long-term effects
of an important decision made by the tribe 20 years ago when
they opened a new casino on the Qualla Boundary, which is their
home in North Carolina. Casino revenues were spent on tribal
services in general, including behavioral health, drug abuse
prevention, health care and education and social services. But
in addition, every enrolled member of the tribe has each year
received a proportion of the casino's profits for their own use
and the use of their families.
So did this extra money that the tribal families received,
around $4,000 a year per person, did it have an effect on
children's health and development? We could answer that
question with some confidence, because we could compare the
children's emotional and behavioral problems before and after
the income supplements began. We found that when families lived
above the poverty line, their children had relatively few
emotional and behavioral problems, and the added income made
little difference. If families were so poor that even the
income supplement did not raise them above the Federal poverty
line, their children had a lot of problems, which continued
even when the families received the additional income.
However, for the group of families who hovered near
poverty, the cash supplement that lifted them above the Federal
poverty line had a powerful effect in both the short and the
longer term. In the years before the supplement, the children
in these families had high levels of anxiety, depression and
conduct problems. Four years after the supplement began, levels
were no higher than in children who were never poor. The
details of this can be found in an article of the Journal of
the American Medical Association, which I appended to my
testimony.
We have now followed these children into their 30s, and
with the aid of economist Randy Akee of UCLA and Emilia
Simeonova of Johns Hopkins University, we have shown that there
were marked effects of this cash supplement in many areas of
life, particularly for those who are the youngest when the
supplement started. As adults, they used less alcohol and fewer
drugs. They were less likely to commit minor crimes, and more
likely to graduate from high school. Teen pregnancies were less
common, and the IQ of this group, when measured at age 25, was
a bit higher. Obesity, while unfortunately high in this part of
North Carolina, increased less after the supplement was
introduced.
You may well think that the investing $4,000 a year in a
child or adolescent puts this sort of income supplement out of
the question. So we have conducted a cost benefit analysis that
tracks the cost of the supplement over the years against the
savings resulting from it. We found that the cost of the
supplement exceeded the dollar value of the benefits for the
first four years, after which the value of the benefits
relative to the cost steadily increased and soon substantially
exceeded them to a total of some $20,000 by age 25.
What these data tell me is that we pay now or we pay later.
Twenty years of research I think have made this result very
clear.
Thank you for your attention, and I am happy to answer any
questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Costello follows:]
Prepared Statement of E. Jane Costello, Professor, Department of
Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine; Associate Director for Research,
Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University
Chairman Tester and members of the Committee, thank you for the
opportunity to testify before you today. We are most grateful for your
continued support of basic science like this, funded through the
National Institutes of Health. My remarks today reflect my own views,
not necessarily those of the NIH or Duke University.
The research that I will present to you carries a clear message:
that when it comes to raising children to be independent citizens, we
pay now, or we pay later. Let me explain. For 20 years we have studied
the same group of 1,400 people living in the mountains of western North
Carolina. 350 of them are American Indian, from the Eastern Band of
Cherokee Indians. The children whom we began to study in the 1990s have
now grown into their 30s, and we are able to look at the long-term
effects of investment in their health, education and welfare by the
Tribe and the community. In particular, we are able to examine the
long-term effects of an important decision made by the Tribe 20 years
ago, when they opened a new casino on the Qualla Boundary, their home
in North Carolina. Casino revenues were spent on tribal services
including behavioral health, drug abuse prevention programs, health
care, education, and social services. In addition, every enrolled
citizen of the Tribe has each year received a proportion of the
casino's profits.
Did the extra money that tribal families received (around $4,000
per person per year) have an effect on children's emotional and
behavioral problems? We could answer the question with some confidence
because we could compare children's emotional and behavioral problems
before and after the income supplements began. We could also compare
the Indian children with others, mainly Anglos, living in the
surrounding counties. These, of course, were not tribal members and did
not receive the supplementary family income from the casino. The focus
of the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was on
emotional and behavioral problems, and also on physical health and
obesity, as well as school performance, crime, and education. We found
that when Indian families lived above the poverty line, their children
had relatively few problems and the added income made no difference. If
families were so poor that even the income supplement did not raise
them above the federal poverty line, their children had a lot of
problems, which continued even when the families received additional
income. However, for families that hovered near poverty, the cash
supplement that lifted them above the federal poverty line had a
powerful effect in both the short and longer terms. Four years before
the supplement, children in these families had high levels of anxiety,
depression, and conduct problems; four years after the supplement
began, levels were no higher than those of children who were never
poor. Details can be found in an attached article link from the Journal
of the American Medical Association.
We have now followed these children into their 30s, and with the
aid of economists Randall Akee of UCLA and Emilia Simeonova of Johns
Hopkins University, we have shown that there were marked effects of the
cash supplement in many areas of life, particularly for the youngest
children. As adults, they used less alcohol and fewer drugs. They were
less likely to commit minor crimes, and more likely to graduate from
high school. Teen pregnancies were less common, and the IQ of this
group, when measured at age 25, was a bit higher. Obesity, while high
throughout the area, increased less after the supplement was
introduced.
You may well think that the cost of investing $4000 a year in a
child or adolescent puts this sort of program out of the question.
However, Akee and Simeonova have tracked the costs of the supplement
against the savings in expenditures on crime, drug abuse and mental
health treatment, and medical care. They have found that after the
first four years, when the cost of the supplement exceeded the dollar
value of the benefits, the value of the benefits relative to the costs
has steadily increased. The attached diagram link shows that by age 26,
the latest age for which data are available, the benefits exceed the
costs by a factor of three to one. For further details I would refer
you to an article in the New York Times:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/what-happens-when-
the-poor-receive-a-stipend/?smid=fb-share
We also include links to several academic papers describing the
effects of the family income supplement.
Based on these data, we can choose to pay less now or pay more
later. Our tax dollars can support poor families while their children
are growing and developing. Or we can pay the higher costs of their
lack of education, obesity, alcohol abuse, and crime in the health care
and criminal justice systems and in loss of economic productivity down
the road. Twenty years of research make the choice very clear.
I am happy to answer any questions or provide more information.
Thank you for your attention.
Costello EJ, Compton S, Keeler G, Angold A (2003). Relationships
between poverty and psychopathology: A natural experiment. Journal of
the American Medical Association, 290:2023-2029. http://
devepi.duhs.duke.edu/library/pdf/17227.pdf
Akee R, Copeland WE, Keeler G, Angold A, & Costello EJ (2010).
Parents' incomes and children's outcomes: A quasi-experiment. American
Economic Journal: Applied Economics 2:86-115. PMCID: PMC2891175. http:/
/devepi.duhs.duke.edu/library/pdf/22924.pdf
R. Akee, E. Simeonova, W. Copeland, A. Angold, E. J. Costello:
Young adult obesity and household income: Effects of unconditional cash
transfers. American Economics Journal: Applied Economics 2013, 5 (2):
1-28. http://devepi.duhs.duke.edu/library/pdf/25623.pdf
The Chairman. I want to thank you for your testimony. That
is very interesting. I have a bunch of questions, but we are
going to start with Mr. Wells.
You talked early on in your testimony about qualified,
certified teachers: being hard to get them. I got the
impression by your testimony that you are staffed up pretty
well, though? You have them in the classroom?
Mr. Wells. Yes.
The Chairman. How did you achieve it? It is a tough
problem. How did you get them?
Mr. Wells. Honestly, basically what we did was our Head
Start program, we have very little turnover. The reason for
that is because of the government's financial support. Our
tribe puts in more money than we receive Federal money. Because
of that we can raise our salaries and retain our teachers. That
is the bottom line.
The Chairman. It is driven mostly by salary.
Mr. Wells. And we have great working conditions. We have
wonderful facilities, great fringe benefits.
The Chairman. One more question, you talked about child
care and Head Start, and you talked about a program that sounds
pretty darned good. What percentage of the population of need
are you serving? Are you serving 100 percent of the need out
there, or can you give me an idea?
Mr. Wells. No. Probably 25 percent.
The Chairman. Twenty-five percent of the need. Okay.
Ms. Fabre, I believe it is important that all members of
the Native community be considered in development policy. I
appreciate the work that the National Indian Child Care
Association has done to ensure this.
Are there any early childhood education issues that seem to
affect only discrete portions of Indian Country, say Native
Hawaiians or southeastern tribes?
Ms. Fabre. Yes. There are several. Just to talk about White
Earth a little bit, we are a part of the Talle program, that is
one in four tribes throughout Indian Country. I think that will
be very helpful about breaking down the silos. There is the
Head Start-Child Care collaboration grant that is coming out.
That will be beneficial to a few tribes that do receive it.
The Chairman. You gave some examples of tribal
organizations doing a lot with a little bit of money.
Specifically, as it regards enrollment. Would an infusion of
capital be enough to increase capacity? As we have seen with
some tribes, infrastructure is a problem. I think it is more
than just a few of the tribes. So do you get my drift here?
If we have capital for, let's say to increase the number of
teachers we have, would we also need to have capital for
infrastructure?
Ms. Fabre. Yes. We also require teacher qualifications, and
it costs more to pay teachers with credentials.
The Chairman. Yes.
Ms. Fabre. So of course that comes with high quality. We
also need child care assistance. We have the funding for child
care, CCDBG is critical in Indian Country right now. Because we
are struggling with having to decide on quality versus
quantity. It is always a balancing act.
The Chairman. Okay. Ms. Power, superintendent and principal
at Blackwater Community School, been there for a number of
years, 20, have you seen a cultural shift during your time
there?
Ms. Power. I have. And it really has come from the FACE
program. We have had it so many years that the parents who have
gone through this program are an integral part of our whole
parent involvement. Many of them actually have ended up working
for our school now, starting part-time, going to full-time. But
because many of them have multiple children, they stay very
connected to the school. One of our parents is a school board
member.
But it really has changed how they look at school, because
there was, when I first came there, most of the parents saw
school as, you take care of the children and we will sit back.
But the FACE program is so empowering. It was targeting most of
the young parents that had dropped out of school and had no
other options in front of them. So they come back, and this
program is unique because it lifts the whole family. They are
required to come to school every day with their children. So
they now have a different perspective on school, and they are
very much involved.
The Chairman. Okay, you have been there 20 years. How about
the students? Maybe I should say the children of the parents.
Ms. Power. Again, because the program certainly does, it
actually starts at inception with home visiting, we have two
home visitors and they work with those families until the
children turn three, then they come into preschool with their
child. Then we track them academically as they go into K-2
school with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. So we track them
transitioning into kindergarten, to give them NWEA/DIBELS to
see where they are. And we find those children are academically
stronger.
The Chairman. Good. That is good. Senator Heitkamp?
Senator Heitkamp. Just a couple of questions. One is the
challenges of credentialing. I don't think there is any doubt
about it, and I really applaud the programs that you have
described as really requiring a high level. But what if we
can't achieve that? Are we sacrificing quality? I will give you
a for-instance. Right now, Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikira Nation,
in the bowl of the Bakken, even if you could recruit a teacher,
there is absolutely place for a four-year degree teacher to
live. So with the standard of 50 percent, the Federal standard
of 50 percent, they are finding it extraordinarily difficult to
meet the Federal standard.
So do you give up and send the kids home? That is the real
challenge here. Have you looked at any strategies to do home-
grown credentialing, or can we look at some other kind of
strategy to make sure there are quality programs without having
this hard and fast rule of 50 percent? I will start with you,
Mr. Wells.
Mr. Wells. That is basically what we are attempting to do,
is home-grown. Because within our division of education, we
have higher education. So we know what we are turning out, we
know what we are paying for. So therefore, we have a list. We
are looking for those students that we can encourage to come in
and work for the tribe. So we are doing some of that.
In Ada, Ardmore, it is probably not quite as difficult, but
in those little rural towns, it is really, really difficult,
because people don't want to live there. They want to live in a
little larger area. From my perspective, a retired school
teacher, I think education is important no matter what. And
yes, we absolutely want the top, we want the best that we can
provide. But some is better than none. And I don't want to give
up on a program that I think is successful. Child Care and Head
Start both are extremely successful programs. They make a
difference. They always made a difference and they will
continue to make a difference.
The ideal scenario is we have totally qualified, certified
teachers. That is what we are trying to get to. It is a
challenge. It is going to be a challenge, it has been a
challenge. We try to home grow them, we try to get people
involved, we try to encourage our young people as they go
through school to consider being a teacher.
Senator Heitkamp. Mr. Wells, have you ever tried to stipend
teachers? Kind of look at kids out of high school who may want
to go to college, provide the resources for college with a
commitment for----
Mr. Wells. We pay a supplemental, is what we pay for all of
our students--Chickasaw students--that go into college, we
provide supplemental funding. We pay books, we pay fees, we
pay--not all of them, that is why it is a supplemental program.
We will pay up to 12 hours. So we are attempting to do what we
can. I don't know if that answered your question or not.
Senator Heitkamp. I am trying to get a commitment from you
that if we just help transition these folks that maybe the 50
percent hard and fast rule is one that needs to have
flexibility.
Mr. Wells. I think it needs to have flexibility,
absolutely.
We have kind of backed ourselves into a corner. We are
making a requirement that is difficult to meet. If you talk to
anyone in Indian Country, I think you will find even though we
are successful, we are not completely successful. Right now, we
are short a teacher. We have been trying to get a teacher
identified for three months.
Senator Heitkamp. It is so tough, because we want
absolutely the highest quality. But we also don't want to
credential our way out of a program.
Mr. Wells. Absolutely.
Senator Heitkamp. I think Ms. Fabre, obviously you have the
same kind of level of challenge. Can you repeat a statistic? I
was looking for that in your written testimony and couldn't
find it quickly. It is the one on vocabulary.
Ms. Fabre. It is Dr. Risley's work, and it is children from
high poverty areas, and children of color, particularly, are
coming to school with 3,000-word vocabulary, and middle class
children are coming to school with a 20,000-word vocabulary. It
is huge.
Senator Heitkamp. And isn't it true among a lot of
academicians, they will tell you they will never catch up? You
start out that far behind and it is so extraordinarily
difficult to catch up.
Ms. Fabre. I agree. But I have hope. Because our Early
Childhood is making a difference.
Senator Heitkamp. We can't have anything but that. But that
is hope that you can in fact better prepare children into
schools. But without that early childhood intervention, to try
and say, okay, now you are going to go to first grade or
kindergarten, and you are going to compete on this level for
attention in the classroom, when you are so far behind in terms
of your understanding of the language, even, there you are. It
just I think reinforces the Chairman's observation and
certainly the reason why I am here, this absolutely is the
beginning of a change. If we don't do it here, we will continue
to spin our wheels. We will continue to spend money on Title I,
we will continue to spend money on prisons, we will continue to
spend money on juvenile detention. And we will continue to be
frustrated.
So I want to thank all of you for the tremendous work that
you have done, for keeping hope and faith that we can in fact
change this. It is for so many children the absolute hope of
the future.
The Chairman. You are on a roll.
I have a few questions for Dr. Costello. Your research is
incredibly interesting. You talked about a $4,000 stipend for
350 Cherokee out of 1,400 you dealt with. Do you know; what is
the poverty line for a family of four?
Ms. Costello. It varied from year to year across the 20
years of study, but around $25,000.
The Chairman. Could you give me just, I will let you flesh
this out a little more, a little bit more about what you saw
before and after the stipend when it came to early childhood
development?
Ms. Costello. I have to make a couple of caveats. The study
starts later in age, we didn't start the study until they were
nine. We want to do another study going back even earlier on.
The other thing I want to say is that we didn't go into
this with funding to do this study. It emerged serendipitously
out of our study of the development of the emotional and
behavioral problems, which included the Eastern Band of
Cherokee. And they did this thing of opening a casino and
putting money into families, both into the community and into
families. What we saw was, looking at the difference between
before and after, a significant fall in the number of emotional
and behavioral problems, conduct issues.
The Chairman. So let me ask you this, and you talked about
the three different groups, folks that were already above the
poverty line, the folks that were hovering around the poverty
line, a little below, and the folk who were poor. And I believe
your testimony talked about the folks above the poverty line
did about the same after the stipend as before, and the folk
who were very poor did about the same after the stipend. It was
the folks you got above the poverty line that really made a
difference.
I would assume this includes everything, teen pregnancy,
drug abuse, scholastic underachievement, the works?
Ms. Costello. Yes, it did.
The Chairman. Did you see any rise at all, any improvement,
should I say, at all, as far as the folk who were extremely
poor?
Ms. Costello. Yes, but people don't stay in the same band,
the same poverty band forever.
The Chairman. If they stayed in that poverty band, nothing
improved?
Ms. Costello. If they stayed in that poverty band, nothing
shifted them. I think it is important to say that exactly the
same patterns were seen in the White community that surrounds
the Qualla Boundary. Because we studied 1,000 White kids too.
So what I am saying is this was a general pattern. But we
couldn't ascribe cause to it in the White community, because
kids could have moved out of poverty because their families
worked harder or something.
The Chairman. How widespread is the information you got?
What I am asking is, have any of the agencies asked for it, or
do you offer to pass it along? It looks like we have a lot of
programs out there, we are spending a lot of money on them,
maybe we ought to just give them a cash stipend.
[Laughter.]
Ms. Costello. Well, it is an option.
[Laughter.]
Ms. Costello. The thing is that the research to find out
the answer to your question is extraordinarily expensive and
time-consuming. This study, as I said, has gone on for 20 years
and cost the Federal Government many millions of dollars. It is
very difficult to set up an experiment where you say, well,
let's assign some people randomly to be poor and some people
randomly to be less poor.
The Chairman. So I am going to ask the question I meant to
ask to begin with, and that is, it looks like you have some
pretty interesting information, pretty informative information.
You have spent a good potion of your life doing it. Who is
using it?
Ms. Costello. Well, the Nobel Prize-winning economic Jim
Heckman from Chicago is using it to support his efforts, which
you may be familiar with, to encourage early education,
investment in early education. He actually uses our data for
that.
The Chairman. Good. That is good, because it appears to me
to be good research, and it should not end up in a file
somewhere and not be paid attention to.
I want to thank the witnesses. We have a few other
questions we will put in for the record, if you have the time.
Senator Heitkamp. Mr. Chairman?
The Chairman. Yes, Senator Heitkamp.
Senator Heitkamp. Could I just make a point?
The Chairman. You can ask another question if you like.
Senator Heitkamp. Thank you. The Congress is currently
considering, and this is to the doctor, currently considering a
minimum wage increase. As you know, the current minimum wage is
$7.25 an hour, which results, for a full-time worker, 40 hours
a week, in $15,000. If the minimum wage increased that we are
looking at, which is $10.10 an hour would actually be achieved,
that would be a $6,000 increase in salary for that family that
year. I am wondering, and I know this is a little off topic,
but it seems to me that your research would suggest that that
influx of dollars could have a mammoth impact long term in
terms of investment. So I just wanted to make that point.
Ms. Costello. Thank you. I agree.
The Chairman. Point well taken. Thank you very much for
your testimony.
In closing I would just say this, we appreciate everybody
who testified today. When I first came to this Committee, Byron
Dorgan was chairman and Craig Thomas was ranking member. Byron
Dorgan was from North Dakota, Craig Thomas was from Wyoming. I
often showed up and was the only member there from Montana, so
it is interesting how the cards in the deck have been shuffled.
We thank you all for your testimony, appreciate it, and
this isn't the last hearing we will have on it.
With that, the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:43 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Prepared Statement of Hon. Brian Schatz, U.S. Senator from Hawaii
This is the first hearing of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
with Senator Tester serving as our Chair. I look forward to working
with Senator Tester in his new role, as well as continuing to work with
Senator Barrasso as Vice-Chair. This committee has always been
fortunate to have leaders from both sides of the aisle committed to
bipartisan collaboration. I am very confident that Senators Tester and
Barrasso will build upon that tradition and forge the kind of close and
productive working relationship needed to make progress for native
communities and address longstanding problems.
Thank you for holding this important hearing today. I support a
strong federal commitment to early childhood development and education
programs for native families. Such programs are an integral part of the
trust responsibility of the United States and are fundamental to
helping native children succeed, and native communities thrive.
I have had the opportunity to visit and observe early childhood
development and education programs throughout my state. In addition, my
wife and I have two young children. Like parents everywhere, we
struggle to balance our responsibilities and the new challenges we must
confront with our children on a daily basis. My experiences as a parent
have only strengthened my resolve to make a positive difference in
policies and programs designed to benefit children and help them get
the best possible start in life.
Unfortunately, in far too many native communities across this
nation, a lack of early childhood resources places native children at
risk of falling behind other students from their first days in school.
We must work together to build more opportunities for native children
to learn and excel in school and fulfill their true potential.
Some of the steps to make a positive difference are clear. We must
move forward reauthorization of early childhood development and
education programs that have proven effective addressing disparities
faced by Native Hawaiians, Alaska Natives, and American Indians. We
must work hard to sustain funding levels, further strengthen existing
programs, and establish new programs to build upon the foundation we
have already established.
We must also ensure that limited federal spending is targeted to
achieve the most positive outcomes. And the need to improve
coordination, maintain meaningful tribal consultation and promote self-
determination will be critical to our efforts to make early childhood
development and education programs work better for native families.
We need to provide tribes and native communities with the tools and
support needed to design programs in ways to best serve the needs and
circumstances of native children in their communities. I have had the
opportunity to visit and observe early childhood development and
education programs serving Native Hawaiian children and families
throughout my state. These programs are succeeding with at-risk
children and defying the odds.
Programs serving the Native Hawaiian community focus on family
literacy and provide an integrated model for early childhood
development and education based on substantial parental involvement and
participation. Hawaii is unique among the states in recognizing both
its indigenous language and English as official languages. The Punana
Leo preschools in Hawaii were the first preschool program in the United
States to be conducted entirely through a Native American language.
This statewide system of preschools has served as a model for Native
American language preschools throughout our country. In short, the
schools and programs I have observed are creative, innovative and
modern, while at the same time rooted in Native Hawaiian culture,
traditions and values.
Teaching a child, using his or her culture and Native language as a
foundation, has proven its merit, including early literacy outcomes.
That is why I am an original sponsor and strong supporter of S. 1948,
the Native Language Immersion Student Achievement Act, introduced by
Senator Tester. This bill would create a federal grant program to
support schools using Native languages as the primary language of
instruction from preschool through university levels.
Our SCIA oversight responsibilities are broad and we must depend on
a myriad of stakeholders to assist us in our work. So thank you for
joining us here today and offering your oral and written testimony. I
look forward to working with all of you to enhance educational
opportunities and outcomes for American Indian, Alaska Native and
Native Hawaiian students. Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of Ginger Goes Ahead, Program Manager, Crow Head
Start Program
On behalf of children and families that reside within the exterior
boundaries of the Crow Reservation, in Montana and Indian Country
across the United States of America, here is written testimony of the
issues and need for Early Childhood Educational opportunities within
the Native population.
The Crow Head Start Program is a vital service to children and
families that serve 304 students in four centers located in Crow
Agency, Pryor, Lodge Grass and Ft. Smith. As of the December 2013
enrollment, there are 14,000 enrolled members of the Crow Tribe, and of
those 540 Crow Tribal children are between the ages of 3-5 years old.
They represent the future and the stability of the Crow Tribe and
reservations across the country. Often children are facing barriers
that affect the family structure and tribal communities. Knowledge of
limited community resources present themselves in the lives of Natives
across the United States as they change with funding sources and the
quick depletion of program funds. The Crow Head Start Program employs
70 people, and is the second largest program within the Crow Tribe.
Poverty levels are substantial within the Crow Tribe. Currently,
the unemployment rate is at 47 percent among total enrolled members. Of
the 14,000 enrolled members there are currently 6,500 members who
reside on the reservation over the age of 18 years old. Of those 6,500
tribal residents the unemployment rate is at 80 percent. When a person
visits the Crow Reservation you immediately notice substandard
buildings and homes. The high cost of improving infrastructure within
the Crow Tribe has proved to be a barrier that all have to face. The
ability to improve water systems, sewer systems and utilities are
outstanding in cost. Transportation, safe housing, preventative health
care, nutrition and negative stereo types are prominent issues children
and their families face daily. The Crow Reservation is a rural entity
with limited access to consistent community resources such as housing,
preventative health care, educational and nutritional programs.
An opportunity and access to early childhood educational settings
are crucial in changing mindsets, lives, communities and families
within the reservation. The Crow Head Start Program partners with;
Ronald Mc. Donald Care Mobile, Big Horn County Best Beginnings
Coalition, Pryor School District, Lodge Grass School District, Hardin
School Districts, STEP developmental services, WIC, HRDC and Crow/
Northern Cheyenne Hospital, IHS and various Tribal and BIA Social
Service programs to provide services to children and their families.
Early Childhood Educators; with the best of intentions are often
under-qualified. This largely is due to the minimal opportunities of
employment within the Crow Reservation. Often Crow Tribal members, who
have received a college education, will move on to higher paying
positions within the tribal systems, move onto the public school system
with better benefits, or move into larger cities to gain employment and
maintain better housing.
Furthermore, Crow Tribal members have access to health care but the
quality of the services are that IHS provides are minimal. For
instance, the Dental department is geared to serve people with
emergency dental issues. It is rare to have obtained a dental
appointment due to the process to schedule one. Appointments are given
out once a month. A person needing to schedule a dental appointment
must call the first Monday of the month precisely at 8 am. In doing so,
a Tribal Member calls the Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital that has a
voice recording service that does not properly transfer phone calls. I
personally have not been able to get my children or myself, an
appointment for 8 years and have only had access due to emergency
dental issues, such as broken teeth with abscess. Preventative dental
care is not a prominent service within Tribal communities. This is just
one testimony to the quality of health care that the children and
families of the reservation receive.
Additionally, federal reviewers come and assess the Crow Head Start
Program, the classroom teacher/student interaction is scored on CLASS
(Classroom Assessment Scoring System). This scoring system does not
take into account the Native culture and imposes ideologies of
mainstream non-native ways of instructing students of this age. Two of
the four domains; Classroom Behavior and Instructional Support, does
not take cultural communication into account.
Crows are a quiet people, who speak when spoken to. Parents, elders
and clan systems guide children predominantly through directed
communication which reflects negatively within the CLASS scoring
system. Naturally, adults tell children what needs to be done, rather
than give the ability to make those decisions on their own. This gives
children the boundaries they need in order to feel safe and secure
resulting in less behavior problems.
Culturally, Crows are given the right to speak in public. Which;
means in a public gathering, you must present your prayers and wishes,
to a person given the right to speak. This person, usually a leader
within the Clan or community, will then repeat your prayer or wish.
Crow Head Start students are a product of ancestors that were once
educated in boarding schools against the will of the parents, thus;
creating distrust of public educational systems. The seed that was once
planted has reaped generations of Crow people; who have not only
discouraged obtaining an education but also, the importance of
attendance. This misunderstanding can only be changed continually,
starting with young parents. Gearing young parents and their children
to understand the importance of nutrition, safe and healthy lifestyle
choices and academic preparedness is one way to break this mindset that
hinders most Native people to achieve success outside the reservation.
The Crow Head Start Program has been placed on DRS (Designated
Renewal System) within the Office of Head Start due to health and
safety of the building, CLASS scores for teacher/student interaction,
database implementation and effective parent services. In order to
change these systems the Crow Head Start is working with FHI 360 to
ensure a proper Head Start Program is being implemented. We have
regular staff and parent trainings, implemented Child Plus data
collection software, regular cleanings and improvements of the
buildings.
However; those who work in the Crow Head Start Program, still
struggle to provide a quality program due to the structural integrity
of the Crow Center building, a failing boiler and aging buses. The
transportation portion of our program continues to face ongoing major
maintenance issues with providing service to ensure 85 percent
attendance within the program standards. ``Ensure a Quality Head Start
Program, Serving the Crow Nation, Exists into the Future'' is the goal
of our program and with barriers we face daily become increasingly
impossible.
Culturally, we as Native American's, are a beautiful people with
many assets that most don't revere as essential, in training children
in the way that they should go. Crow Culture has a clan system in
place, which trains children as a village should and though our customs
and ways may look and sound different from mainstream America.
Kindergarten preparedness is the rising need for these children as they
enter the private and public school systems. The Crow Head Start
Program goal for this year and upcoming years, is to raise entrance
scores for Crow children entering Kindergarten.
Thank you for your time and attention to the needs of the Crow
children and their families and Native people across the Great United
States of America.
______
Prepared Statement of Sharon Darling, President/Founder, National
Center for Families Learning (NCFL)
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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Prepared Statement of the National Indian Education Association
The National Indian Education Association (NIEA) appreciates the
work of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for recently holding a
hearing on ``Early Childhood Development and Education in Indian
Country: Building a Foundation for Academic Success.'' We request this
written testimony be submitted into the record. NIEA is the most
representative and inclusive Native education organization in the
United States. NIEA's principal goal is to advance comprehensive and
equal educational opportunities for American Indian, Alaska Native, and
Native Hawaiian students. Through this vision, NIEA supports
sovereignty over education by strengthening traditional Native cultures
and values that enable Native learners to become contributing members
of their communities.
The Federal Government must uphold the United States' trust
responsibility to Native education and including early education within
that context is critically important. Research suggests that early
education is the most effective and cost-efficient investment the
Federal Government and Native communities can make because providing a
strong education foundation increases a student's future academic
success, quality of life, and ability to attain college and careers.
The State of Native Education
Native education is in a state of emergency. Native students lag
far behind their peers on every educational indicator, from academic
achievement to high school and college graduation rates. Just over 50
percent of Native students are graduating high school, compared to
nearly 80 percent for the majority population nationally. Further, only
1 in 4 Native high school graduates who took the ACT scored at the
college-ready level in math, and only one-third in reading as compared
to more than half for white graduates. This resulted in only 52 percent
of Native students enrolling immediately in college in 2004.
Increasingly alarming, only 40 percent of those students actually
graduated college with a bachelor's degree by 2010. Nearly 62 percent
of White students graduated. For Native students to succeed in
secondary and post-secondary education, they must have a strong
foundation in early childhood learning. A child's brain grows the
fastest in the first five years of life, and research shows that high
quality early education has a positive impact on a child's cognitive,
social, and emotional development to help prepare for success in school
and in life.
Equity in Early Education
Cultural Inclusion and Familial Engagement
Early childhood education models should advance the unique
linguistic and cultural identities of Native children and students, so
that our children are educated in their Native language as well as
English and use assessment tools appropriate to the language of
instruction. Models should support multiple delivery systems, such as
family-child interaction learning programs and home visit programs that
have strong familial engagement components and display measurable
success rates. Instruction in early childhood education can be
delivered in a multitude of models, which take advantage of and
reinforce the fact that families have a critical support role in a
child's education, particularly during their formative years. Research
illustrates that actively including families throughout a child's early
education will improve verbal, motor, and adaptive skills as well as
guarantee greater academic success in subsequent years.
Collaboration Opportunities
Indian head start and early childcare programs, as well as tribal
education agencies, have decades of experience providing early
educational opportunities to Native children. Tribal inclusion is
particularly imperative for achieving the goals introduced in recent
grant competitions, like Race to the Top--Early Learning Challenge,
which seeks to prepare more children for kindergarten and build a
strong foundation for educational success. For Native students in
tribal communities, tribal partnership and input exemplifies locally
directed education and is critical to developing a student-centered
learning environment that meets Native children's unique cultural and
linguistic needs.
As the Department of Education continues to administer programs and
grant competitions, it is essential that the federal agency recognizes
the right of tribes to govern their individual programs under self-
governance grants under Public Law 100-297 or Public Law 93-638 self-
determination contracts. Ensuring tribes are in the position to work
effectively and efficiently with all federal agencies--as they do with
the Department of Health and Human Services to administer Indian Head
Start programs--is essential as tribes expand authority over their
local education systems.
Congress should also ensure early education partners are working
with Native-serving institutions of higher education, such as Tribal
Colleges and Universities (TCUs), because tribal citizens and
reservation residents often choose to attend TCUs as they are local,
affordable institutions of higher education. Collaborating with these
institutions would help ensure that partnerships include stakeholders
that better understand Native students' needs. Further, partnerships
with TCUs would, in turn, support TCU students and result in a
culturally cognizant workforce that better understands and works within
early education systems.
Full Funding
The Head Start model, with its holistic approach, has been
extraordinarily effective in Native communities. Head Start has been
and continues to play an instrumental role in Native education by
combining education, health, and family services to model traditional
Native education--accounting for its success. While sequestration was
stymied for the next two fiscal years, it is critical Congress
permanently replaces the sequester to protect Native education
programs, like Head Start, from future reductions.
Current funding dollars provide less for Native populations as
inflation and fiscal constraints increase, even though research
suggests there is a return of at least $7 for every single dollar
invested in Head Start. NIEA requests Head Start and Early Head Start
funding levels to be increased to $9.6 billion to replace the
disparaging effects of sequestration and provide upfront federal
investment in Native children and avoid more costly social
interventions in the future. This additional funding would allow early
education to reach more tribal communities and help more Native people
by triggering the Indian special expansion funding provisions (after a
full Cost of Living Allowance has been paid to all Head Start
programs).
Increased Access
Early education programs must ensure equal access for Native
communities and Native-serving institutions in order to better serve
our populations. For example, the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) is
ineligible for the Department of Education's Race to the Top
competitions. This exclusion fails to honor both the Federal
Government's trust responsibility to provide Native children with a
quality education as well as Executive Order 13592, ``Improving
American Indian and Alaska Native Educational Opportunities and
Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities,'' which aims to
leverage and coordinate federal resources to expand educational
opportunities for Native students.
While the BIE does not operate Head Start programs, the agency
operates 44 Family and Child Education (FACE) programs, which are
designed as integrated models for an early childhood and parental
involvement program assisting Native families in BIE-funded schools.
These programs promote the early identification of children with
special needs to provide appropriate services as well as deliver
support for the unique cultural and linguistic diversity of each Native
community served by the program.
NIEA requests that the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and
Congress ensure that tribes and the BIE are explicitly included as
Congress develops early education models, provides oversight to federal
agencies administering grant competitions, and works with the
Administration as it proposes new initiatives, like the recently
proposed $300 million FY 2015 Race to the Top--Equity and Opportunity
competition. Because the competition is aimed at improving the academic
performance of students in the nation's highest poverty schools,
Congress should ensure that tribes and the BIE are eligible entities to
compete and better serve the nation's highest-need and most vulnerable
students--Native children.
Conclusion
Once again, NIEA appreciates the continued leadership of this
Committee and we look forward to working closely with its members under
the leadership of Chairman Jon Tester and Vice-Chairman John Barrasso.
We share your commitment to advancing early learning and making
improvements to ensure the programs serving Native communities are the
most efficient and effective as possible.
______
Prepared Statement of Jacki Haight, President, National Indian Head
Start Directors Association
Introduction
Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony on behalf of the
National Indian Head Start Directors Association (NIHSDA). The American
Indian and Alaska Native Head Start program continues to be one of the
most effective programs in Indian Country. Using a model that is akin
to the holistic approach of most Native communities, Indian Head Start
provides critical family and social services. Indian Head Start is also
on the frontline in the preservation of Native language and culture,
which have proven to be key elements in Native student confidence and
success in later years.
Indian Head Start programs have been a vital part of Head Start
since its inception in 1965, and they have a wealth of expertise to
offer regarding early childhood education. Founded in 1979, NIHSDA has
decades of experience as the voice of Indian programs within the
Federal Head Start Bureau, National Head Start Association, and other
early childhood development associations and Indian organizations.
NIHSDA welcomes the opportunity to work with the Committee to advance
thinking and legislation in the area of early childhood education.
The Importance of Head Start
Indian Head Start is the most important and successful Federal
program focused on the dire circumstances faced by all too many Native
children, principally by addressing health, education, family, and
community needs in a holistic manner akin to traditional Native
learning styles and cultural practices.
Native children are the most at-risk population in the
United States. Native children confront serious disparities in
education, health, and safety. From 2000-2012, child mortality
in the United States decreased by 9 percent while the child
mortality rate among Native children increased 15 percent.
Thirty-seven percent of Native youth live in poverty, and
Native youth suffer suicide at a rate 2.5 times the national
average. Fifty-eight percent of 3- and 4-year-old Native
children do not attend any form of preschool. The graduation
rate for Native students is 50 percent. Native children
disproportionately enter foster care at a rate more than 2.1
times that of the general population and have the third-highest
rate of victimization.
Indian reservations suffer from depression-era economics,
with terrible crime and health statistics to match. The Indian
reservation poverty rate is 31.2 percent, nearly three times
the national average of 11.6 percent. The Indian reservation
rate is comparable to the national rate at the height of the
Great Depression. The Indian reservation unemployment rate is
approximately 50 percent, ten times the national unemployment
rate of 5.2 percent (and on some reservations the rate is 80-90
percent). When you consider that 31.2 percent of Indian
families live in poverty and that high levels of poverty bring
significant problems to reservations where few resources are
available, a need arises for Head Start to address chronic
community social issues.
Most Indian communities are remotely located and there are
no other resources besides Head Start to address the special
needs of young Indian children who, on a daily basis, must deal
with the conditions described above.
The synergistic confluence of all of these negative factors
is overwhelming. Indian Head Start may be the best Federal
program in place that actually addresses the dire situation in
much of Indian country, but more resources are needed.
The Federal Government's Unique Responsibility to Indian People
The Federal Government has a unique responsibility to Indian
peoples based on the Constitution of the United States, treaties,
federal statutes, executive orders, Supreme Court doctrine, and
international law. This responsibility is particularly important in the
area of Indian education.
The Federal Government has a trust responsibility,
especially in the education area. The solemn obligations of the
Federal Government, often expressed in treaties and other
agreement, define the Federal Government's trust obligation to
protect the interests of Indian peoples, especially in the area
of education. These obligations have sadly been ignored for far
too long, and the impacts on Native children have been
staggering.
The Federal Government has a government-to-government
relationship with tribes. The Constitution, treaties, and other
sources of federal and international law set forth the
recognition of Indian tribes as sovereign nations with inherent
powers of self-governance. The Federal Government has committed
to a government-to-government relationship that manifests
itself in many ways, including direct and meaningful
consultation between Federal agencies and tribes on
legislation, regulatory policy, and other actions that may
significantly impact tribal communities.
The Federal Government historically has displayed a keen
understanding of the central importance of our ancient ways,
beliefs, culture and language to tribal unity and strength and
for years made every effort to destroy those beliefs. This
effort to kill our minds and our spirits failed, but not
without first doing great damage. Indian languages are in
retreat. Native students perform far below their potential.
Federal paternalism has created a crippling mentality for some
in Indian country that is founded on poor self-esteem.
Extraordinarily, the Native spirit has endured and, in recent
years, grown stronger. Much of the harm inflicted upon Native
peoples is being undone, to the extent it can be undone, by
Native people themselves. And yet the resources needed to
complete this great task can only be found with the originator
of the harm--the Federal Government.
It is a mark of America's unique character that the racist
policies of the past have been replaced with more humane
policies. For example, Title VII of the NCLB provides: ``It is
the policy of the United States to fulfill the Federal
Government's unique and continuing trust relationship with and
responsibility to the Indian people for the education of Indian
Children. The Federal Government will continue to work with
local educational agencies, Indian tribes and organizations,
postsecondary institutions, and other entities toward the goal
of ensuring that programs that serve Indian children are of the
highest quality and provide for not only the basic elementary
and secondary educational needs, but also the unique
educational and culturally related academic needs of these
children.'' (NCLB, Section 7101).
Funding Priorities for Head Start
In 2014, $8.59 billion was enacted for Head Start funding,
restoring Head Start to its FY 2012 funding level, plus a 1.3 percent
inflation adjustment. This much-needed restoration marked a significant
shift away from the devastating effects of sequestration upon Head
Start programs across the country. As programs begin to recover from
sequestration, it is critical to safeguard these advances by providing
sufficient Head Start funds for FY 2016.
The Indian Head Start funding formula. The American Indian
and Alaska Native Head Start program receives its funding
through a formula established in the Head Start Act for the
distribution of Head Start funds. That formula provides for
Indian Head Start to receive special expansion funds to make up
for errors in the application of the formula over a decade ago.
These expansion provisions were limited in time and did not
take into account what happens when the initial authorization
under the Head Start Act expired. The AIAN program has not yet
received the full benefit of these provisions and their intent.
Indian Head Start requests that Head Start be funded at a level
that would achieve the goals of the special expansion funding
provisions of the Head Start Act. As a general matter, there
should be a sufficient increase in funding to make up for the
effects of inflation over the last several years.
The Indian Head Start program profile. Only about 16 percent
of the age-eligible Indian child population is enrolled in
Indian Head Start. Of the approximately 566 federally
recognized Tribes, only about 188 have Head Start programs
funded through 150 grantees in 26 states. That means
approximately 378 Tribes do not have Head Start available for
their age-eligible children. These programs employ
approximately 6,627 individuals and 331 contracted people:
3,191of these employees and 86 people under contract are former
or current Head Start/Early Head Start parents. There are
approximately 34,901 volunteers, 22,942 of which are parents,
working in the American Indian/Alaska Native Head Start
programs.
Considerations for Head Start Reauthorization and Expansion
As the Committee considers matter related to both Head Start
reauthorization and expansion of early childhood education programs, it
should consider the following matters with regard to maintaining a
foundation for success for Indian Head Start programs:
The need for consistent and flexible funding. Head Start
programs have suffered from inconsistent funding. Funding
levels must be sustained and built upon to ensure that
programmatic gains are not lost in subsequent years.
Additionally, there is a need for flexibility in how expansion
funds are spent and how funds are allocated between Head Start
and Early Head Start programs.
The need to provide a physical foundation for success. Many
Indian Head Start programs operate out of the oldest buildings
on their reservations. Lack of adequate physical facilities for
Head Start programs hinders the ability of these programs to
meet the very specific health and safety needs of young
children. Without the necessary physical infrastructure,
programs struggle to furnish the quality academic foundation
that Head Start seeks to provide Indian children.
The need to maintain and sustain program quality in
effective and culturally appropriate ways. Tribes are deeply
committed to providing excellent programs for their youngest
population. The government-to-government consultation with
regard to how accountability standards are maintained is one of
the great strengths of the prior Head Start reauthorization. As
programs expand, and as Indian Head Start increases language
immersion programs, there needs to be a dialogue about how to
reliably measure program quality in culturally diverse
environments and in culturally appropriate ways.
Conclusion
Thank you for this opportunity to share the nature and needs of the
American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start program. Its value to
Indian Country is beyond measure. We urge your prioritization of Head
Start as you consider ways to improve the educational infrastructure of
Indian Country. We would welcome the opportunity to provide further
information by testifying as witnesses at the Committee's future
hearings.
______
Prepared Statement of Namaka Rawlins, `Aha Punana Leo, Inc.
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______
Prepared Statement of Dr. Kanoe Naone, CEO, INPEACE
INPEACE, the Institute for Native Pacific Education and Culture, a
Native Hawaiian statewide non-profit, supports an equitable high-
quality preschool program that works exceptionally in Native
communities and communities of color and poverty.
Research shows that 85 percent of the brain is developed by the
time children turn 5. As a former Hawaiian Immersion Department of
Education elementary teacher and as a mother I have seen the benefits
of early education and what happens when children don't have access to
quality learning. The single largest impact on the well-being of our K-
12 system is access to early childhood education. By providing families
especially those in Native and low income areas, access to early
learning where parenting education and empowerment is core, we can
dramatically and positively shift the well-being of the children in
those schools and areas. We believe an equitable early learning system
is of critical importance to the success of our children and the
economic future of our state.
INPEACE programs serve 4,500 people each year on 5 islands,
including: new mothers; single moms; non-traditional students, those
returning to school to improve their lives and better their families;
and families dealing with a variety of socio-economic challenges.
Although we welcome everyone into our programs and even have lots of
dads and grandpas, the majority of the participants are women, children
and Native Hawaiian. Our programs focus on early childhood education,
workforce development, and cultural land stewardship; and all share the
values of community empowerment and cultural enrichment. Our premier
early childhood program is called Keiki Steps.
Keiki Steps is a free parent participation preschool for children
ages birth through five. It supports families in becoming their child's
first teacher through school readiness activities that are culturally
relevant. Instead of dropping children off at a center to be cared for,
our families and extended families bring the children typically to the
local school where their older elementary age children are being
dropped off and stay for 3 hours a day Monday through Thursday with a
parent education or field trip every other Friday. So many of our
families want to keep their young children with them instead of handing
them over to others to care for them, so when both parents work, they
typically have grandparents or other immediate family members care for
their children. With our program, those caregivers or parents bring the
children to our parent participation preschool also known as a Family
Child Interaction Learning Program (FCIL). Ninety five percent of the
staff in Keiki Steps were once parents in the program and through the
organization's professional development program they are supported and
required to earn a Child Development Associate certificate within 18
months of employment, and then receive continued financial support in
obtaining Associate's and Bachelor's degrees. As a result, this is also
seen as a community economic development program and social justice
program. Here is a short video showing our program in action because so
many people have a hard time understanding just what we are: http://
youtu.be/--p7Mv42ZaSU.
Our annual cost of $2,400 per child is \1/3\ of what typical center
based care costs are, making it an economically viable option for
funding. We also have conservatively $2,500 dollars of volunteer hours
per child ($8.00 hour rate like that of a teachers aid) in the program
because parents/caregivers are required to ``volunteer'' alongside
their child for all hours of operation. Of note, with this model we
have statistically significant outcomes for the children in our program
with a substantial increase for children with multiple years of
participation as evidenced in the increase in pretest scores from year
to year. We use the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), a
nationally normed and validated test that is the only test that is a
predictor of 3rd grade reading scores. While we also have cultural
outcomes, we show that with our cultural approach to early education we
are able to get our children ready for and successful in the mainstream
DOE education system by utilizing a mainstream standardized test.
Here are our PPVT results. We annually serve 750 children and an
equal number of their parents/caregivers.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
As a Family Child Interaction Learning (FCIL) program provider,
INPEACE supports equity in preschool options for families because we
understand the value of this program in providing vital and culturally
responsive services to some of the state's highest need populations. We
are able to achieve success via FCILs by empowering families with the
knowledge they need in order to support their children throughout
school and life. Collectively, there are 6 organizations whom are a
part of `Eleu (a Native Hawaiian early childhood consortium) and
collectively we annually serve more than 25,000 children and their
families in the state of Hawaii, almost entirely funded by the USDOE
Native Hawaiian Education Program. We ask for continued support from
this program but also advocate for this option to be eligible for
funding through the Presidents new Early Learning Program. Our FCILs
are strategically placed in underserved areas where there are high
concentrations of Native Hawaiians and minority populations. As a
result, these families have access to FREE & high quality early
childhood education, a critical need in at-risk areas. Support of FCILs
in the Federal expansion of high-quality preschool sends a clear
message that the federal government understands the needs of the
community and is willing to diversify the early learning options based
on family need and choice!
Including FCILs as an option for early learning will move our
country one step closer to building a viable early learning system. We
have met with folks around the country who are requesting FCILs in
their state (in both Indian Country and other communities of color)
because they see the value and impact in has made in like communities.
We know this option will meet families' diverse needs and values to
effectively serve the community more broadly and support the success of
our most at-risk children. We support a system that provides families
with culturally responsive, high-quality early learning opportunities
that enables healthy, successful development, and the ability of each
child to reach their full potential.
Thank you for this opportunity to submit written testimony.
______
Prepared Statement of Willeen Whipple, Senior Manager--Tribal
Affiliations, Parents as Teachers National Center
My name is Willeen Whipple and I am the Senior Manager of Tribal
Affiliations for Parents as Teachers National Center. I am an enrolled
member of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana and part of the Sicangu
Lakota or Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.
My work through the years at Parents as Teachers has included
working on the home-based portion of the Bureau of Indian Education
Family and Child Education (FACE) project, the Investing in Innovations
(i3) Department of Education validation grant awarded to Parents as
Teachers (BabyFACE), and partnering with tribes and Urban Indian
Organizations implementing tribal home visiting programs. Parents as
Teachers in Tribal communities includes: forty-three FACE programs,
twenty i3 programs, thirteen Tribal Maternal Infant Early Childhood
Home Visiting Programs in ten states, eight Region XI Early Head Start
Programs, and twenty-seven Tribally-operated affiliates. Program
support is also provided for fifteen Alaska Programs serving Alaska
Natives and six Hawaii programs serving Native Hawaiians.
Although I can't speak for all 121 programs using the Parents as
Teachers model, I have witnessed or heard about the impact Parents as
Teachers has made throughout Indian Country. For example, in the last
program year a South Dakota i3 program has facilitated adult education
outcomes including: six GED's, one Criminal Justice degree BS, 4 AA
degrees from the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribal College, and one Certified
Nursing Assistant CNA certificate. We have also seen increased parent
involvement in the elementary schools. Research shows parents who are
involved in their child's early learning experiences continue their
involvement throughout their child's entire learning process.
Another area of impact is early literacy and school readiness.
These are important goals of the Parents as Teachers model and they are
funded goals of the FACE and BabyFACE programs. While book-sharing is a
piece of every PAT personal visit, continuation beyond the visit is
only possible if there are books in the home. According to the 2004-
2005 U.S. Census, 60 percent of the homes of American Indian
Kindergartners have 25 or fewer books, compared to 25 percent of homes
nationally that have as few. High quality children's books are
therefore provided to each enrolled FACE and BabyFACE child every
month. Every week parent educators in these programs see results such
as: adults in homes with no books build book shelves to hold their
growing children's book collection; one- and two-year-old children
begin to choose favorite books to bring to their parents to read; two-
year-olds ``read'' a favorite book, turning the pages as they tell the
story; parents who were afraid to even try reading a children's book to
their child begin to read with enough expression and enthusiasm to keep
their child's interest.
Meaningful impact also occurs around Parents as Teachers programs'
collaboration with tribal, federal, and state agencies to provide
quality care for families. Programs work directly with tribal early
intervention programs, tribal health clinics, and Indian Health Service
IHS. Hearing and vision screening results are shared with parents and
referrals for further screenings are made when necessary. Screenings
and Resource Networking are two of the four PAT components.
Parents as Teachers supports Tribal programs in their effort to
make cultural adaptations and enhancements during the activities and
delivery of family personal visits. Our model is an evidence-based
model often blended with Native curricula including: Positive Indian
Parenting and Fatherhood is Sacred. Tribes make their programs
culturally and linguistically competent using Native language and
practices.
In conclusion, there is a varied need at the program level to seek
funding and continue work in Tribal communities. The stakes are high
for Native families and a continued investment in home visiting
programs, as determined by the tribes, provides increased positive
education and health outcomes for indigenous families.
______
Prepared Statement of Wendy Roylo Hee, Executive Director, Native
Hawaiian Education Council
Aloha Chairman Tester and members of the Senate Committee on Indian
Affairs, Mahalo, thank you, for allowing us an opportunity to submit
comments at your oversight hearing on ``Early Childhood Development and
Education in Native Country: Building a Foundation for Academic
Success.''
The Native Hawaiian Education Council (NHEC) strongly supports
Early Childhood Education. A child's brain grows the fastest in the
first five years of life, and research shows that high quality early
education has a positive impact on a child's cognitive, social, and
emotional development to help prepare for success in school and in
life.
Last year, NHEC worked with partner organizations to adopt policy
statements that urge Federal and State backing of early education,
particularly to:
1.) Advance the unique linguistic and cultural identities of
Natives and acknowledge that children can be ready in either
their Native tongue or English, and use assessment tools
appropriate to the language of instruction. In 1978, Hawaiian
was adopted as an official language of Hawai`i, and children in
Hawai`i can receive an excellent education in either of
Hawai`i's official languages. Common sense dictates that
assessments should be conducted in the language of instruction
for a truer measure of achievement.
2.) Set aside funds for Native populations, including Native
Hawaiians, and require states with Native American, Alaska
Native and Native Hawaiian populations to consult with them in
the development of their state plans. Native Americans, Alaska
Natives and Native Hawaiians all have a special status by
virtue of their trust relationship with the U.S. government and
thus should be consulted on matters that involve Federal funds.
3.) Support multiple delivery systems, including but not
limited to, family-child interaction learning programs and home
visit programs that have a strong family/parent engagement
component that is measured through an assessment tool.
Instruction in early childhood education can be delivered in a
multitude of models, including family-child interaction
learning programs and home visits, which take advantage of and
reinforce the fact that families are the primary educators of
their children, particularly during their formative years.
Research shows that involving families in early education is
important and linked to improved verbal, motor, and adaptive
skills as well as greater academic success later in school.
Supporting families in their ability to educate their children
has strong cultural foundations.
Attached are the policies and resolutions adopted by the National
Indian Education Association; the Council for Native Hawaiian
Advancement; and the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs. * The last
group is a national one with approximately 70 clubs, almost half of
which are on the continental U.S. that range from California to
Tennessee.
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* The information referred to has been retained in the Committee
files.
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In March 2013, Senator Mazie Hirono introduced S. 519, the Pre-K
Act to direct the U.S. Secretary of Education to award matching grants
to states to enhance or improve State-funded preschool programs. The
bill set forth some excellent provisions, such as giving priority to
states that have curricula aligned with State early learning standards;
use nationally-established or best practices; and require each teacher
to have a degree in early childhood education or a related field. In
November 2013, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced the Strong
Start for America's Children Act that incorporates many of the
provisions of the Pre-K Act. The subsequent bill includes provisions
that support Native Hawaiians even more than the Pre-K Act by including
Native Hawaiians in the eligibility for Native set asides; requiring
Native consultation in the development of the state plans; and includes
funding for diverse providers.
We are pleased that the Senate is proposing measures to provide for
early childhood education, particularly in Native Country. This step is
needed, not only because of the effort for Native peoples to achieve
educational parity with the rest of the nation, but also because of the
trust relationship between the United States and this country's first
people. Mahalo nui, thank you very much, for your time and
consideration.
[all]