Mixed Delivery with Heather Smith, A Call To Action for Families Needs Assessment

Nancy Sherod, Ana Garcia, and Heather Smith spend time discussing the work the Early Education and Development department is doing with regards to the mixed delivery system for early learning and childcare on behalf of San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. This work aims to increase equity and access by sharing the options to families about the various settings like Transitional Kindergarten, state preschool programs, Head Start, and family childcare providers. The UPK mixed delivery work group, led by Elaina Holley, includes diverse stakeholders to develop a system that meets the specific families' needs throughout San Bernardino County. This episode focuses on an upcoming family survey that will help the workgroup gather data on barriers and successes for supporting their children, with a specific focus on families with children aged 3-4. The goal is to create actionable steps based on this data to improve early education and care throughout the county.

UPK Needs Assessment
https://bit.ly/SBCUPKNeeds

Early Education and Development webpage:
https://www.sbcss.k12.ca.us/index.php/en/ess-2019/early-education-and-development

Music by lemonmusicstudio from Pixabay - Where the Light Is

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Ana Garcia, Heather Smith, Nancy Sherod

Nancy Sherod  00:08

Welcome to 2025 everyone. This is Nancy Sherrod

Ana Garcia  00:11

and Anna Garcia from San Bernardino County, superintendent of schools, and we're happy to start another year with our department's podcast. Tomorrow's readiness starts today.

Nancy Sherod  00:20

We're talking to parents, teachers, family, child care providers, administrators, or anyone that has a passion for all things early learning.

Ana Garcia  00:28

This month, we are bringing back our director of Early Education and Development, Heather Smith, to share with us some of the latest information the mixed delivery work group is working on welcome Heather. Hi.

Heather Smith  00:38

Thank you for having me again. 

Nancy Sherod  00:39

We're always glad to have you with us. All right, before we jump in to the current work and the current conversations that are happening, let's just start in case we have new listeners, our listeners that are back, and it's been a while, talk a little bit about what mixed delivery is. 

Heather Smith  00:55

Absolutely in a nutshell, the mixed delivery system provides families with the choice of a variety of early learning and childcare settings that meet their unique needs. The system includes Transitional Kindergarten state preschool programs, Head Start and Early Head Start family childcare providers as well as family, friend and neighbor providers. The mixed delivery system really aims to increase equity and access to high quality learning environments regardless of the program type that families choose to utilize for their children's care. 

Nancy Sherod  01:34

So let's talk a little bit about that. Because you said a few buzz words, equity and access. Like, if we're thinking we want to provide equity and access, what are examples, so that if we're talking to we're talking to someone that doesn't have a familiarity with it, what do we mean when we say we're trying to aim to increase equity and access? 

Heather Smith  01:50

Well what we want to do is we really want to decrease barriers. So some families might have difficulty with the cost, for example, for daycare or childcare, we know it's incredibly expensive, and so we want to make sure that we are providing them with options that are less expensive. We might have families who have barriers with the schedule. For example, maybe they work a swing shift or in a graveyard shift, and we want to make sure that we put them in touch with family child care providers that offer that type of schedule. So really looking at increasing their access to high quality environments based on the needs that they might have.

02:26

Excellent,

Ana Garcia  02:27

that's great. And Heather, what are some of the activities the committee has worked on over the past year? So over the past year,

Heather Smith  02:33

we've been quite busy. Our UPK mixed delivery work group really was born out of a UK mix delivery grant which we received, our county office received, and one of the deliverables for that grant was to put this work group together. And what we wanted to do is we wanted to bring together our educational partners within our early education system. And there were specific invitations that we needed to send out per our grant opportunity. We wanted to make sure we included our quality start San Bernardino partners such as child care resource center, first five San Bernardino, our preschool services department partners as well as Cal State San Bernardino. But then we also wanted to make sure that we heard the voices of our educators, both our preschool and our transitional kindergarten teachers, their collective bargaining units are invited to be at the table, as well as representatives from our tribal nations and those with expertise in inclusive practices for children with special needs or who may be multilingual. So we have a lot of representatives on our work group, including, as well, our community based organizations, because they bring a viewpoint and an expertise to the table that is highly valuable to the conversations we have. We get all of these folks in the room, and we really talk about opportunities that we have with UPK, which is universal pre kindergarten, for those listeners that might not know what that acronym is, and the mixed delivery system that we're really working to develop in our county in order to support, again, our children and our families, but also our our organizations, and the educators that work in those organizations

Nancy Sherod  04:19

well, and Anna and I get to sit In on some of these meetings. So it's definitely a high energy, a lot of fun. People in the room, really, from all over from districts to private child care to private schools, private preschools. It really is a fun group.

Heather Smith  04:33

Our work group is led by Elena Holly, who is also our local planning council, or LPC, as it's commonly referred to, she's our coordinator, and she does a really good job bringing in guest speakers to discuss different components of universal pre kindergarten and the mixed delivery system. She wants to make sure that all parties in the work group, as well as those who might be in attendance, have the same foundational understanding of what UPK is. As well as a mixed delivery system, also the same understanding of the programs that are available. Because our goal are, we aim to make sure that we have empowered all of the providers, regardless of what setting type they're in, to be able to speak to the options that families have. So for example, if I am a transitional kindergarten teacher, and a family comes to me and asks about a different type of setting for my child. I want to be prepared to share with them what Head Start is and what state preschool is, and have they looked into their family, child care providers in their neighborhood and things like that. So that's another part of the true essence of mixed delivery is making sure that everyone has the content and the expertise to be able to speak to it if families have questions.

Nancy Sherod  05:48

Well, I think that's the greatest thing is, you know, in our era, aging us a little bit, you went to wherever you went, and then you went to kindergarten, right? And then in the last 10 years, TK has made this, you know, surge and preschools have made a surge, but now the mission of the group is really to get the word out you have options. If you have a four year old, here's what your options are. If you have a three year old, you now have a different layer of options as well. And so it's really helping all of them. Can you talk a little bit about the format of a meeting? 

Heather Smith  06:18

sure absolutely. We actually, I mean, it's a public meeting. It is in person. It typically is convened at one of our San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools buildings here in San Bernardino. And we meet on a quarterly basis. Our next meeting is actually scheduled for one o'clock pm on January 8, coming up at our Dorothy Ingram Learning Center in San Bernardino, and what we do is we bring together all the folks in person, and we have just some really rich conversations around developing the system. One of the things that I always share in these meetings is we will, it's not likely that we'll have this opportunity again, and so we want to make sure that we really get this right when we start looking at truly developing that system that is going to meet the needs of all of the families in our county and the unique needs that their children

Ana Garcia  07:08

have. And Heather, I think this group is great already, but who would you like to invite to any future meetings moving forward, we

Heather Smith  07:15

are always, always, always looking to add more voices to the conversation. We don't want to develop a system based on what we think families need. And so, of course, having families around the table to share what their actual needs are, what the barriers are that they're truly experiencing, as well as sharing successes that they have experienced when enrolling their children into into preschool or transitional kindergarten or family child care setting. So of course, we always want to make sure that we are including parents and families around that table. Really want to make sure that the conversation includes members of that's reflective of our community, right? We want to make sure that we have folks from all the different areas that are engaged in the work, engaged in the services that we provide, so that we're developing system that's truly reflective of the needs of our community.

Nancy Sherod  08:10

Ok ay, so let's go back, rewind, because we started this group, it's been almost about a year now, right? So we started off with a few big steps, like we started off with, where are we going? And we started, like, with, we're going to start here, and we're going to move through some of those things. Because, Oh, can you kind of summarize synopsis, just some of the big arrows we created for this work? Because I'm excited to share what we are really doing right now, but I want to talk about how we got to where

Heather Smith  08:37

we Yep, absolutely. That's great question we are. The beautiful thing about our work group is that we truly do work in it. It's not just a sit and get type of meeting. We really design them in a way to get feedback and input from the folks that are in the room. So for example, we started this group by having each of the different setting types share that's right information about what they do, so that we could again, build that foundational knowledge amongst the group, so that we are, you know, armed and ready to answer questions that might might come up out in the community. So we started with that. Then we really started thinking about, okay, if we're developing a system that is going to be reflective of our families and what they need. What type of questions might we ask our families? What might we need to know? What data do we need to collect from them before we start developing this system? Because we don't want a system that's developed by you know, Heather,nancy anna we need some other voices and in order for it to be truly reflective and responsive to the needs in our community, we need to get their input and their perspective on what's going on in their lives. And so we spent quite a bit of time really looking at developing some questions that we might want to think about asking our community members and our family. Families that have children ages zero to five, in order to start developing a needs assessment. And from there, we'll talk a little bit more about that needs assessment in just a couple minutes, but then we'll take that opportunity to take some of that data, disaggregate it, and develop next steps in terms of where we're going to go next.

Nancy Sherod  10:17

So if you're coming to these meetings, and we want you to come to the meetings, prepare to roll up your sleeves, you get a marker in your head, you write all over papers. And I think that's the greatest thing, is it really has a room full of voices. It's a room full of voices that are representing avenues that you don't even realize exist unless you're living in that that world. And so this is an opportunity to really bring those together, and

Heather Smith  10:41

I think the synergy of the voices in that room, because we all have the same goal. We're all looking at improving outcomes for kids, helping children to be school ready, helping kids to have language and literacy proficiency, and helping families to get what they need. It's just a really great group to work with. We're really fortunate that we have those, those folks in the in the room with us,

Ana Garcia  11:04

and so let's discuss about the upcoming family survey and needs assessment. Heather, so

Heather Smith  11:09

we're really, really excited about our needs family, our family needs assessment. It has been a long time coming. I mentioned that we, you know, have been working on this, developing some questions. We're partnering with CCRC, who has been incredible, Olivia piato and her team. Thank you. Thank you. You guys are so fantastic. We have gone through a few different iterations of the questions that we're going to ask. It is a digital survey, so folks will be able to take it online. Takes about 15 minutes or so to take and it really is digging deep into, as I mentioned before, you know, what successes have families experience when registering or enrolling their children into early learning and care settings? What barriers have they, you know, come across that have made the process difficult or even impossible for them? And then there's opportunities for open ended like give us suggestions. If you have solutions to the problems we want to hear about that too. There are going to be opportunities for follow up interviews with CCRC as well. So there is an opportunity for folks that are completing the survey to check, yes. I would like to give more information, because we can get so much out of a survey. But really, those one on one interviews are going to give us even deeper, deeper information to look at. And then those who complete the survey get entered into a $50 raffle or opportunity drawing, rather for a gift card. So we're really looking at encouraging folks to fill that out, especially for those that are not currently engaged in the early learning and care system, we want to hear from you what what is it that you need so that you can engage in the system more easily? So

Nancy Sherod  12:51

who are we wanting to fill this out? If I'm a child care provider or if I'm a parent, who are we asking this is who we need to be filling this out to get this data.

Heather Smith  13:01

It is a family needs assessment. Thank you for clarifying. And so we are really targeting families that have children ages three to four. Is our sweet spot, because we're really looking at preschool TK enrollment and opportunities for that through universal pre kindergarten. But there is, you know, if you start the survey, there are a couple preliminary questions that if you aren't in the target population, it will very politely thank you for engaging in the survey, and then exit you out. So we have some built in filters to help, to help make sure that we've got the right, right data coming in. So

Nancy Sherod  13:34

the hope is we're going to get this data, and then where does this work group going?

Heather Smith  13:38

So then we get to disaggregate all of the data. It's it's right, I'm so excited for that part, to really hear from our families, to really figure out what it is that they need. And so we'll bring all of that data back to the work group. Olivia and her team, again, will will make sense of all of it, because they are just amazing at that work. And then we'll be able to develop next steps. So based on actual real time information from our families, this is what they're saying they need. How can we then respond to those needs and respond to the information that they've given us? Because nobody likes to take a survey and then not have any action steps follow up. So that is our goal

Nancy Sherod  14:18

. So we're looking for actionable steps based on the data that families are seeing, yep. So this is a chance to have a voice. If you have a three or a four year old, we are looking to support you. Or if you know a neighbor, a friend, a family, anyone, we are just looking to find out what the needs are from all areas, right? Look at child care needs 

Heather Smith  14:39

correct basic needs, or some basic needs questions. So if you know, transportation, for example, is a barrier you can't get your kiddo to the setting that you prefer for them. That could come up in the in the survey. Maybe housing or food insecurities could come up in the you know, if you are chat. Using between paying for groceries and paying for childcare. You know, those kinds of things will also come up. And so we'll be able to identify some of those trends and patterns in the data as well.

Nancy Sherod  15:10

And will the work group be able to make some actionable items that they're going to work with? Is that the hope of this? That

Heather Smith  15:15

is the hope Correct? Yes, more than a hope that is the will, that is the charge. We

Nancy Sherod  15:21

are going to make that happen. I love that. Okay, so this work group's not going away anytime soon. No, this is, do we have a timeline for what we're trying to do, or we're taking it as we come get data go there.

Heather Smith  15:31

It's really going to depend on what the data comes up with, because, again, we're going to be responding to that data in actionable ways. So I'm, I'm anticipating that there will be some short term goals that we can quickly put into place, and then there's going to be some long term planning that's going to really revolve around system development, because that type of work doesn't happen overnight. But we got to start with the data. To begin with, we got to start with the feedback and input. In addition, I wanted to also remind everyone and share with you that the survey will be in both English and Spanish. So if you have a preference for language, you will be able to do that right within the survey, and it will translate to Spanish on back and forth from Spanish to English for you, if you'd like to do that, and the survey will be found on our website. So sbcs.net if you navigate to the Early Education and Development page on our county website, you'll be able to find it that there as well, as our partners will also be sharing it out so

Nancy Sherod  16:32

and we will have a link in our notes. Yes, check out the story notes. It'll be there as well. Great. We have a date for this, right? Yes, there's a small window. So what's the window that we're pushing this survey out, thinking

Heather Smith  16:46

January 13? Yes, the date that we have settled on,

Nancy Sherod  16:51

okay, January 13. And it's a short window. So if, if and when you see it, everybody you want to jump on that opportunity. And do we have a target and how many we're hoping to get. How do I

Heather Smith  17:01

that's a right, loaded question. We'd love as many as possible, right? We would love to have, at least, you know, to really have actionable data. You know, we would, we would appreciate at least 500 responses to the survey, if not 1000 you know, we really want to be able to identify trends and patterns. Excellent.

Ana Garcia  17:21

So Heather, what is our call to action for these

Heather Smith  17:26

get involved with us. For sure, we really are looking at partnering with our broader community, the early learning and care community. We want to hear your voices, whether you are a family member, if you are a grandma, a grandpa, an auntie, an uncle, a caregiver, a guardian, a foster care provider. We want to hear your voice. In addition to those folks who are raising little ones, we want to hear from our educators, right our providers. What is it that you need from us, from a county office of education perspective, as well as our quality starts, San Bernardino partners, you know, we have amazing partnerships with an organizations out in the community. So we want to hear what it is that you need so that we can again, develop action steps that are really going to make a difference in the lives of the people that we serve. And so I would say that, you know, joining our work group, answering the survey, send us an email, give us a call, anytime we can get information from you. We really, would really, really, really appreciate that, because you know we are, we are fortunate in our county in that we have partners who are very, very well versed in and are dedicated to collective impact. And so we are not doing this alone, right? We have partners that are at the table with us, and have really long standing relationships with them, partnerships that are going to make the difference in the lives of children and families. And in order to transform lives through education, we got to start early. And so that's where, that's where our zero to five friends come in. 

Nancy Sherod  19:02

Well, we always love having you with us. Heather, you know that you're always welcome to come down here and hang out with us in the podcast room, right? Anna, yes, you're

Ana Garcia  19:09

probably our most popular

Nancy Sherod  19:13

information that you are leading the charge for. So we love having you down here. And mixed delivery is definitely an important initiative that we're working on. That's not just us. There's so many people in the room. So if you're looking to just be a part of a great community movement, this is an opportunity. It doesn't meet all the time. It's quarterly. That's four times a year. You can do anything four times a year, and I promise you, you will not be you will not be bored, you will not be overwhelmed. It's definitely fun, and we're not biased. It literally is fun, but it is an opportunity to really take part in the shifts we're trying to build this next generation and get opportunities in the hands of families that might not have had them beforehand, and start it younger and stronger, and really give the families what they need to make a huge charge forward for their little ones. So yeah, we thank you for sharing with us and for the updates on this impactful work. Thank you. Thank you.

Ana Garcia  20:07

And that's it for another episode. We hope you join us next month when we bring you another episode of tomorrow's

Nancy Sherod  20:12

readiness starts today.