COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON CHILDREN AND YOUTH Remote location using Microsoft® Teams Tuesday, October 17, 2023 1:00 p.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS, CHAIR COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS, VICE-CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY
Good afternoon. Before we begin the public hearing, I will make the following announcement: Due to the continuing threat to public health from COVID-19, City Council Committees are currently meeting remotely. We are using Microsoft Teams to make these remote hearings possible. Instructions for how the public may view and offer public testimony at public hearings of Council Committees are included in public hearing notices that are published in the Daily News, Inquirer and Legal Intelligencer prior to the hearings and can also be found on PHLCouncil.com. I now note that the hour has come. Clerk, will you please call the roll to take attendance.
And Members that are in attendance will please indicate that you are present when your name is called. Also please say a few brief words when responding so that your image will be displayed when you speak. Clerk.
Present. Can everyone please hear me? (Nodded head.)
Okay. Great. Perfect. All right. Thank you. A quorum of the Committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. This is the public hearing of the Committee on Children and Youth regarding Resolution No. 17 230637. Clerk, will you please read the title of the resolution.
Thank you. Resolution No. 230637, a resolution 25 authorizing the Committee on Children and Youth to hold hearings to evaluate existing support services for Early Childhood Education and Pre-K Centers and Providers and to examine the role of high quality Early Childhood Education and Pre-K in addressing the childhood poverty and promoting the future academic success of children in Philadelphia.
Thank you. Before we begin to hear testimony from the witnesses we have for today, everyone who has been invited to the meeting to testify should be aware that this public meeting is being recorded. Because the hearing is public, participants and viewers have no reasonable expectation of privacy. By continuing to be in this meeting, you are consenting to being recorded. Additionally, prior to recognizing Members for questions or comments they have for witnesses, I will note that for the record at this time that we will use the chat feature available in Microsoft Teams to allow Members to signify that they wish to be recognized. In order to comply with the Sunshine Act, the chat feature must only be used for this purpose. Before I call on the Clerk to call the first panel, I would like to ask any of my colleagues if they would like to make any opening remarks.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to say a few brief remarks.
Good afternoon, colleagues. I want to thank you for your attendance at this very important hearing. I want to especially thank Chairman Phillips for your hard work and your dedication and most importantly your team in bringing this hearing together. I introduced this resolution 6 to call attention to resource gaps in our City's early childhood education system and to explore policy changes that would better support our ECE providers. These conversations were officially focused on financial resources, and I imagine that everybody in this room has read about the funding gaps that have strained our early childhood providers. But as we explored the issue, it also became apparent that our child care providers who have families of young children are in need of additional behavioral health support. As we will hear, our young people are experiencing behavioral health challenges at rates that are overwhelming, particularly in our child care provider centers, hindering our children's educational development and leaving parents unsure where to turn for assistance. As we focus on improving early childhood education in our City and providing additional financial resources for child care providers, it is important that we also ensure that these providers and families have access to the behavioral health programs they need to support a child's healthy development. Our City's early childhood providers are highly trained and extraordinarily dedicated educators. It is imperative that we provide the financial resources and social services to support these educators and the families that they serve. I would like to thank all of our witnesses for their time this afternoon and for their willingness to share their stories. And thank you to our partners and the Administration for your interest in this issue and the commitment that you consistently express for increasing support for early childhood education providers and families with young children. I look forward to working with all of you as we continue the important work of preparing our children for future success. And for me the reason why I began to focus on this particular issue is because as we look at the issue of gun violence in the City of Philadelphia, I know that the role of education plays a pivotal role in increasing the childhood life expectancy of our young people. And so, when I look at how we talk about the school-to-prison pipeline, we talk about the Pre-K, the college academic achievement pipeline, it always start with making sure a young person gets a quality early childhood education. And so, for me this is probably one of the most important issues that we can do to set our young people on a path to success. With that being said, Mr. Chairman, I'm going to thank you for your leadership in hosting this hearing, sir.
Thank you, Councilmember Johnson. I would like to recognize Councilmember Curtis Jones.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to the author of this resolution. I would only go on the record to make sure that a part of this recognizes the cuts and the discontinuation of federal resources that have during the pandemic helped to stabilize this industry and to see what the effects of these reductions and supports will mean not only to the providers but to the parents who utilize this as a means to determine whether I'm going to go to work or whether I'm going to stay home because I cannot afford that kind of expense within my household budget. So I look forward to that discussion. And thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for your laser focus on this issue. Economic development is at the bedrock of good early child care. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Councilmember Jones, for your remarks. I would like to also ask if there are any other colleagues that would like to make any opening remarks as well?
Mr. Chair, I just would like to note for the record that I am present. This is Councilmember Thomas.
Councilmember Thomas is present for the record. Please note, Clerk. Thank you. All right. Clerk, will you please call the first panel or witness we have to testify this afternoon on Resolution No. 230637.
All right. Thank you so much for joining us today. Are you connected and ready to proceed, panelists? DEPUTY
All right. Awesome. Can you please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony. We're going to start with Vanessa Garrett Harley. DEPUTY
Good afternoon, Chairman Phillips and members of the Committee on Children and Youth. I'm Vanessa Garrett Harley, Deputy Mayor for the City of Philadelphia, Office of Children and Families. I'm here today with Sean Perkins, who's the Chief of Early Childhood Education for the City and members of our early childhood education team. We are here to testify on Resolution No. 230637, which was introduced by Councilman Johnson to evaluate the existing support services for early childhood education or ECE as we call it and Pre-K centers and providers and to examine the role of high quality early childhood education and Pre-K opportunities in addressing childhood poverty and promoting the future academic success of children in Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, there are approximately 100,000 children under the age of years old. It is critical to their success and ultimately the success of our City that we support the developmental and educational needs of this group of young people. For this reason, Mayor Kenney developed the PHLpreK program to ensure that all 3- and 4-year-olds in Philadelphia had access to high quality, free Pre-K. PHLpreK has served over 17,000 children since its inception in January 2017. This school year we have 5,250 seats available in 224 locations across the City in 43 different zip codes. The program serves a diverse group of 3- and 4-year-olds. Last year 84 percent of the children in PHLpreK were children of color. percent spoke a language other than English at home, and over 70 percent of the families who self-reported their income had an annual income of less than 60,000, which is equivalent to living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level for a family of four. We are proud of the fact that the neighborhoods where PHLpreK enrollment grew the most are neighborhoods where predominantly Black and Latinx families live. These neighborhoods because of systemic racism have historically experienced intergenerational poverty as well as public and private disinvestment. Our research shows that across all years of PHLpreK programming the neighborhoods with the highest rate of student enrollment were those with the highest rates of child poverty and the highest percentage of non-White residents. Our preschool locations are largely run and operated by women of color. 62 percent of PHLpreK centers self-identify as M/W/DBE-owned. Each year we run an application process to identify and partner with preschool centers that are in parts of the City where there are not enough preschool seats for the children living there. We also prioritize regions where there are limited publicly-funded seats relative to the number of children living in poverty and in circumstances with high risk factors, such as low maternal education, teen mothers, insufficient prenatal care, low birth weight, prematurity, elevated blood lead levels and/or housing insecurity. This year we expanded PHLpreK by 950 seats and added locations in these priority neighborhoods. Since PHLpreK started, over 500 teachers have been hired and our centers have improved in quality. With the program starting in 2017, just over 50 percent of our seats were rated as high quality in the state's quality rating system. This year 97 percent of our seats are in high quality-rated centers. This significant improvement in quality is largely attributed to supports afforded to our centers, which include trauma supports, instructional coaching, business and operational assistance, classroom management techniques, family engagement and teacher and student recruitment. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we also trained the supported centers on emergency virtual learning options. We centralized personal protective equipment acquisition and distribution and we offered supplemental grant funding and partnered with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health to train on proper health and safety protocols.
Our Early Childhood Education Division in the Office of Children and Families works with our colleagues at the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services to ensure that our youngest learners have access to behavior health supports both in and out of the classroom. As many of the children and their families live in areas of the City plagued by violence and trauma, we are also incredibly focused on ensuring that the Pre-K community has access to community-level trauma supports. This includes counseling services in response to traumatic events by the Network of Neighbors, the Community Wellness Engagement Unit, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Uplift Center for Grieving Children. We are incredibly appreciative of the funds that the Mayor and City Council appropriated for FY24 to spend on increased trauma support for our youngest learners. We're in the process of planning for these services and will continue to update the community as they roll out. Finally, our office works very closely with the School District of Philadelphia to ensure that our youngest learners are prepared for and registered for kindergarten. We also work closely with our partners at the PA Department of Human Services to ensure that we are providing quality learning in all areas of the City and that our rates are consistent with the state's subsidies. While we have made enormous progress with our program, we know there's more work to do. And through partnership and collaboration with our families, center directors, advocates and our other governmental partners that we will continue to support our City's youngest learners. My team and I are available to answer any questions. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your testimony. And, Sean Perkins, are you on the record to speak as well?
No, no. I'm just here to support Deputy Mayor Garrett Harley.
Okay. Great. Excellent. So are there any questions or comments from members of the Committee for the Deputy Mayor?
Yeah, I have a question. Well, it's always good to see you, Vanessa. DEPUTY
I want to thank the Administration for their leadership in making sure that Pre-K and supporting Pre-K programs throughout the City of Philadelphia was a priority when the Mayor became the Mayor here in the City of Philadelphia. Can you give me an idea of the amount of funds that supplement early childhood providers from the federal government, which actually kind of spurred this resolution because we know in the future that funding is actually on the verge of actually going away? So I want to get an idea of how much those funds impacted City-related programs. DEPUTY
I actually do not know the exact amount of federal funds. Sean, would you have any idea? If not, Councilman, we will have to get you the exact number. I have to talk to our Finance folks and see how much comes in. But would you have a general idea, Sean?
No, because those funds, federal, go to the state. So the State's Department of Office of Childhood Development of Early Learning then distributes those out locally, so we have to actually check with our partners at the state which I will gladly do.
Thank you. All right. I recognize Councilmember Curtis Jones.
On the original question of what the impact would be, do we have anyone scheduled from the state or do we have anyone from the industry that may even if it's from an individual business perspective, what those cuts will mean to their enrollment because every parent can't afford, you know, market prices for child care and what that could mean to their bottom line. And I think those are the big things because there's a rippling effect, Mr. Chairman, that if I can't find a babysitter, I don't go to work and I lose my job or conversely the business can't open because they spend on essential personnel that now can't find their way to work because they've been priced out of the market. I think that figure, that equation has greater impact than we actually know. And so, I'm glad about this resolution. But I think at the heart of what we need to discover is what will certain individual businesses be if it puts them below the median of being able to keep their doors open. That has a great impact on the City as a whole on our economy locally. So we need to get to the bottom of that figure and then be prepared to look at how we can help through PIDC, which I'm on the Board and so is Member Johnson, to be able to see if there are programs available to subsidize them in the meantime. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Deputy Mayor or Sean Perkins, would anyone like to take a stab at that comment or are you good?
No, I'm sorry. I was going to ask Sean if he had an idea of the percentage of seats in the City that might be federal. PHLpreK is our local -- the number of seats that we have, I know we have 5,250 this year with the increase that we just did of 950 seats. And then the School District as well as the state has a number of seats here. So I think the (inaudible) along with them have a majority of seats here, but maybe Sean has a number of the federal seats. I'll also say that we are currently somewhere around 88 percent in enrollment with PHLpreK so we still have some available seats that for some of these families if they can't qualify or have to leave because they lose their federal subsidy, they may be able to qualify for PHLpreK and/or there may be existing seats at the state level as well. But, Sean.
Across the City of Philadelphia is about 6,000 headstart seats that are federal funded. And I want to make sure I clear up, those federally-funded seats are still not full just like PHLpreK -- just like Pre-K Counts from the state funds as well. But I know there was an Inquirer article 15 that was written a couple of weeks ago that was talking about the loss of federal funds. Those are largely ARPA dollars that were meant as one-time use dollars. But again, those are federal dollars given to the state for them to distribute across the early care and education system. So certainly we don't want to lose any more funding, but I don't want to conflate headstart dollars, which again we have about 6,000 of those seats in Philadelphia versus ARPA dollars, which is a different intended use. And for Pre-K the state -- for context and awareness, the state has about 4500 Pre-K Counts seats here locally in Philadelphia that I know they're still looking to fill those seats as well. But PHLpreK still is enrolling as well. We have about 12 percent of our seats are still available. It's kind of a hot commodity in our City.
Interesting. Councilmember Johnson, you are recognized.
Yeah, I just want to also follow up to Councilman Curtis Jones. I think Councilman Jones when we get down to Panel 2, 3 and 4, you'll get a deeper dive into the impact of the ARPA funding leaving and the impact it's going to have on the actual industry. So they'll do a deeper dive as it relates to what that funding means when it does go away. And then we'll have a larger discussion on our strategies and hopefully we'll find ways to fill in the gap. And I know PIDC can certainly be an option. But also, I want to make sure that I've been reaching out to our federal partners and not letting them be left off the hook, right, as to the resolution, Congressman Evans as well as Casey and Fetterman and put them on the record that we did call on them to make sure that they come up with a strategy and a plan, because it's the federal funding that carries the bulk of providing the funding post-COVID that's going away, that we're going to need that bridge to kind of help keep these day care -- I don't want to say day care, but early childhood education centers afloat. And so, I'm sure they'll give us a deeper dive on what's needed from the federal funding when it comes down to the state. So I just wanted to give you some additional information on what's to come in a few panels. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Commissioner, and also thank you, Sean Perkins, for your testimony. We'll still stay put for questions. Now, we're going to hear from Dr. Jill Bowen who is the Commissioner for the Department of Behavioral Health. Commissioner, please state your name for the record and then proceed with your testimony.
Dr. Jill Bowen, Commissioner of Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services, DBHIDS. Good afternoon, Committee Chair Phillips, Committee Vice-Chair Thomas and members of the Committee. I am Dr. Jill Bowen, Commissioner. Joining me today are Laura DeRiggi, Senior Director of Clinical Consultation through CBH, Community Behavioral Health, and Jeanette Newman, Associate Director Philadelphia Infant Toddler Early Intervention through Intellectual Disabilities Services, IDS. I am happy to provide testimony on Councilmember Johnson's Resolution No. 230627, to evaluate existing support services for early childhood education, ECE, and Pre-K centers and providers. DBHIDS oversees a large network of providers who are responsible for serving the most vulnerable in our City, inclusive of children and youth with behavioral health challenges and/or intellectual disabilities. With approximately 100,000 children between the ages of 0 and living in the City of Philadelphia, it is crucial that DBHIDS makes every effort to ensure access to treatment, supports and services, especially in light of the many challenges the City is facing, including prolonged systemic and intergenerational trauma, the gun violence and substance use crises and the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. Today I will briefly outline the specific treatment services provided by DBHIDS, including those provided through Community Behavioral Health for children and youth. Care coordination is at the core of these services, as many children, youth and families are involved in multiple systems of care, including early intervention education, child welfare and behavioral health services. To start, CBH provides behavioral health assessments and evaluations for children and youth as well as specialized outpatient services. These include specific evidence-based practices such as Parent Child Interaction Trauma known as PCIT; Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, TF-CBT; Echosystemic Structural Family Therapy, ESFT; and Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention, CFTSI. CBH also has Intensive Behavioral Health Services, IBHS, to provide treatment and support to children in the homeschool and community. These services are available to children attending traditional day care and can support staff and teachers in behavioral plan implementation. There are 27 individual IBHS providers and 41 IBHS applied behavioral analysis providers that work with children and youth up to age 21, including those between the ages of 0 and 5 in settings where they need the support. Every school has an assigned regionalized IBHS provider. These services are available to children living with behavioral health challenges as well as those living with intellectual disabilities. In the home, CBH provides family-based services that include individual and family therapy, case management and 24/7 crisis support. There are specialized teams available for Spanish-speaking persons, persons experiencing sexual trauma, medically complex individuals, individuals living with developmental disabilities and individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired. There are also early childhood treatment programs, 12-month programs that work with children and families to address behavioral challenges that have impacted success in preschool programs. These programs provide a therapeutic milieu in addition to individual and family therapy in the program, home and in community settings. There are several programs, Parents and Children Together or PACT, which assist young children with serious behavioral emotional challenges with developing more appropriate behavior and coping strategies so that they can be successful in traditional kindergarten or community school settings. 5 through 5 with significant behavioral challenges. 5 to 5 years old who are exhibiting significant emotional behavioral challenges which could adversely affect their success in preschool or day care settings.
Services are designed to be developmentally appropriate and individualized to each child. DBHIDS also has developed a broad continuum of crisis supports for children who are early childhood education, ECE, or Pre-K age. This includes a children's mobile crisis team, children's mobile intervention services, same day urgent behavioral health center and the Philadelphia Children Crisis Response Center. These resources can provide a plethora of services, including therapeutic stabilization, admission into our onsite crisis stabilization unit, referral to appropriate levels of care and crisis aftercare planning. Additionally, DBHIDS supports the Philadelphia Alliance of Child Trauma Services, PACTS, a network of child services systems and organizations that provide evidence- based practices to traumatized youth and their families. Its mission is to increase the number of children and families who receive the most effective trauma-specific care in Philadelphia. PACTS serves youth in Philadelphia who've experienced potentially traumatic events and are living with traumatic stress. Finally, DBHIDS facilitates Clinical Transition and Stabilization Services, a short-term program that addresses the mental health and stabilization needs of children transitioning into or out of foster care. As far as care coordination, in addition to our own services, DBHIDS collaborates with departments across the City to ensure comprehensive and coordinated care for children between the ages of 0 and 5. Through the Division of Intellectual Disability Services, IDS, DBHIDS provides Infant Toddler Early Intervention, an entitlement for infants and toddlers between the ages of birth and 3 years of age who have or are at risk for having a developmental delay. In Fiscal Years '22 to '23, Infant Toddler Early Intervention served over 8,000 infants and toddlers and their families. DBHIDS coordinates this program in Philadelphia County. Infant Toddler Early Intervention uses highly effective evidence-based interventions to help families and early learning center staff address the needs of their infants and toddlers. Since 2020, we have collaborated with the Philadelphia Office of Children and Families to implement direct support to PHLpreK early learning staff for 3- and 4-year-olds who are having social, emotional, behavioral and trauma concerns. This pilot project enhanced the nationally recognized evidence-based model of early childhood mental health consultation to support early learning staff and families to help children who are experiencing these challenges. The project also provided family navigation to support families in making referrals and accessing preschool early intervention, behavioral health and other needed resources. Annually, an average of 95 families use family navigation to help them connect with preschool early intervention, behavioral health and other community resources. The project received very positive reviews from early learning center staff and families. We continue to work closely with OCF to create and scale a responsive and effective model that addresses the immediate needs of children in early learning centers who are experiencing social, emotional, behavioral and trauma concerns, and to support early learning staff and center staff and families to access preschool early intervention and behavioral health supports, if needed. Our department's recent award of the 4 year System of Care Grant includes funding for enhanced early childhood mental health consultation and will be integrated into the model that we are collaborating with OCF to create. Also, the Crisis Access Link model or CALM was developed in collaboration with the Managing Director's Health and Human Services cluster, DHS, DBHIDS and CBH to work with children 3 years of age up to 18 who are newly placed in out-of-home care or are transitioning from one home to another.
The service includes stabilization, psychoeducation, assessment of resiliency and strength, developing a coping and wellness plan, care coordination and post-discharge follow-up. Additionally, CBH staff are colocated at DHS, Family Court and Community Umbrella Agencies or CUAs. This coordination and collaboration effort helps reduce the number of unnecessary placement, diverts placements from home or to other higher levels of placement and provides immediate access to behavioral health services regardless of placement. The blueprint is reflective of the relationship between DHS and DBHIDS, CBH, which includes a colocation of staff to better share information and to jointly plan for services needed. Colocation expanded to also include the CUAs when they were developed. While DBHIDS works tirelessly to ensure that all children seeking behavioral health interventions are treated to the greatest possible extent, we know there are still gaps in the system. DBHIDS was recently awarded a new federal System of Care grant known as Philadelphia Healthy and Home, to enhance and expand the behavioral health service continuum for use in families at risk for serious emotional disturbance. The funding provides expansion for specific evidence-based supports related to infant and toddler early intervention, including Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up or ABC therapy for families in early childhood mental health consultation or ECMHC in preschools. Furthermore, the grant provides funding to enhance intensive care coordination models like high fidelity wraparound and focus as well as system navigation for parents through Philadelphia Family Voices. As part of transitioning from EI programs, individual family service plans are replaced by individual education plans or IEP to identify the unique needs of children so they are best supported as they prepare for kindergarten. Here is an opportunity to develop a transition model. It also includes early identification of children transitioning from EI and with appropriate consent, identifying all parties involved supporting the child and family to ensure that in addition to school supports, behavioral health services are identified and secured as well. And finally, we are working to communicate the updated Crisis Hotline No. 988 to early childhood learning centers and to provide guidance to early learning staff to know when to call 988 for children 0 to 5. Just to conclude, we appreciate the ongoing support of Council in all our efforts, especially those to provide trauma- informed care and supports for those most vulnerable, including early childhood education and Pre-K-aged children. DBHIDS is committed to working with our City partners, community stakeholders and provider network to safeguard the health and well-being of these children in Philadelphia. We look forward to continuing to work with these stakeholders as well as with City Council to advocate the resources to support these individuals. My staff and I welcome the opportunity to meet with Councilmembers at their convenience who engage in further discussions regarding the content I am presenting before you today. And my colleagues and I are happy to respond to questions at this time. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any questions from colleagues for Dr. Jill Bowen? I see there is one. I recognize Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson.
Thank you very much. Always good to see you, Dr. Jill Bowen. Thank you for participating in my many roundtable discussions around addressing the trauma as it relates to gun violence here in the City of Philadelphia. Thank you for your service. I have a couple of questions I just want to ask. One beginning with particularly around the issue of early childhood education, providing the support that we provide for them. What's the most common behavioral health issue that your agencies have been addressing as it relates to this population of individuals? And then also, do you have a number when it comes to services provided to this population of individuals as well that you can account to?
And that number is the population that we're supporting. Because I didn't even know, to be honest with you, until we started actually working with our providers to put this hearing together, my sole purpose was only around financial resources. And they said, well, hold up, there's a whole different other area that we need support around, behavioral health. And that's how we came to this particular topic for this hearing.
And we appreciate the opportunity to highlight those services. There are so many. And I try hard not to make this as long as it was in testimony, but I enumerated a number of services and this is for that population between 0 and 5, which we divide up between 0 to 3 and 3 to 5. And I have the experts here with me today. They can speak to those two populations in terms of numbers served, thousands of kids. I just want to say something because, you know, and I appreciate the comment about trauma because we are currently engaged in the experience of trauma across the City and little kids are not immune to the experiences that are affecting the City as a whole. So trauma is a significant impact. Some of the children continue to struggle from some of the disconnect, some of the social experiences that were interfered with and some of the experience that their families are struggling with as well that are related to trauma. And of course, you know that we're talking about multiple layers of trauma, including gun violence, substance crisis and other issues that are plaguing our City. So I'm going to turn it over to Jeanette Newman who is the expert on the Early Intervention programs and also to Laura DeRiggi who is the expert on all things Pre-K and early childhood.
Good afternoon. I'm Jeanette Newman and I'd like to speak to the question about what kinds of concerns, what social, emotional, behavioral and trauma concerns are; are we hearing from the early learning center staff and families that are particularly difficult when children are and years old. So they can range -- it can be kind of externalizing so it can be biting, kicking, hitting, pushing furniture in kind of aggressive ways. And as you know, these kids are getting bigger. And so, you know if they would have kind of kicked or bit when they were a year, it's all -- it starts and feel and looks very different when they are 3 and 4 years old as they are getting bigger and it becomes -- the other piece that I think is particularly important about early learning centers that they don't often pay enough attention to is that often times because of all of these compounding effects, certainly this all happened before the pandemic, but it's been exacerbated by the pandemic as well as the compounding effects of poverty and adversity, that in early learning centers it's not like in a family where it's typically the one 3-year- old. You know, maybe there's other children, but it's the one -- but in early learning centers with the ratios, they could have three or four different children who are showing these concerns. And so, that kind of multiple or effect can be very, very challenging for the early learning centers to manage. Just to give a sense of the scale, so in this project that we have been working on with PHLpreK, so if we just say maybe of the 4500 slots, we had annually -- over recent history we had annually about 95 children that were flagged that, you know, early learning center staff reached out and said we need help with these folks. So that just gives you a small sense of a proportion.
Just -- and that's a great response. Can you elaborate on that in terms of let's say out of that 95, right, and again back to my original question, from your perspective what is the most common behavioral issue out of that 95? Like you might see tantrums, another kid may seem depressed. I just want to get an idea.
It's the externalizing. It's the biting, the kicking, the hitting that causes a great deal of concern. So children that are withdrawn are absolutely of concern to us, but they're not necessarily going to be flagged as quickly. And so, it's those kids that are, you know, whatever term you want to use, acting out. They're --
-- affecting the other kids and the adults in the room. That causes a great deal of concern.
No, keep going, Councilmember Johnson. I was going to recognize Councilmember Jones after you.
And, Dr. Jill Bowen, I had another question. In terms of efficiency, right, and I know you talked about a gap or bridging a gap or something along the lines of a gap within your testimony and working with some of the providers, some of their concerns were, one, looking at how can we be more efficient in terms of the providing of services, right, particularly sometimes family needing services in a delayed response. And then also how do we look at making sure that we have coordinated services where individual agencies aren't working in silos, right. The left hand knowing what the right hand is doing when it comes to being a service provider. Can you just give us an overview from your perspective on how those two particular topics are being addressed?
Yeah. So silos create gaps as you know, so silos are not helpful. And the other place I would say is natural gaps that we need to make sure or close our transition periods so transitions from one level to the next or, you know, these are whole people that are developmentally growing and yet we have these programs that go from here to here. As if, you know, when I hit 3, I'm quite different when I'm 3 years and 1 day old. So I'm going to turn that to Laura DeRiggi to see if she can expand on that further. MS. DeRIGGI: Hi, everyone. It's my pleasure today. I just want to go back, Councilmember Johnson, on the question that you had and piggyback on Dr. Newman. The luxury of my role is I get to not only support the CBH side, but I also do home visits and work with CUAs and DHS. I think some of the behaviors you see a lot have to do with transition within families, have to do with the context of family life. And some of these behaviors are related to, say, trauma responses. A lot of kids that I do lots of home visits for DHS on the front end and I'm doing the CUA process as well, and these are children that belong to families who've had multi- generational involvement in a lot of different systems of care, so we have history and context related to how do we get here now with this 3-year-old, 4-year-old, 5-year-old. I think our care coordination -- we developed the blueprint to integrate way back in 2000 because we share -- all of our systems share the same families. And when we did that, we then expanded it to Family Court and to DHS and the CUAs. One of the things we can do with the consent is see who is all attached to a child and a family and then, A, connect with those people that are attached --
Good. MS. DeRIGGI: -- B, the bigger piece is and, Dr. Bowen, knows I always pontificate about this, does everybody have the same sense of the context of the child and family's life, because silos also prevent people from really stepping back and doing a coordinated look at oh, well, this is why this child is acting out. It has nothing to do with giving them a diagnosis formally, but he was just removed from his parents and put in a home with people he doesn't know. That's when you see in the testimony that Dr. Bowen gave around the CALM project, we're trying to figure out how can we hurry up and stabilize that child once they're placed, but let's reconnect to figure out what do we need to do with the family. And lastly, and I hope I'm not pontificating that -- lastly is how do we help the parents build capacity, because what you're also going to see are parents with their own limitations, whether -- and I also work for our IDS system. We have parents that are cognitively limited, parents that have their own health issues and families that have multiple eligibilities for different waivers that bring in different supports but not really have the ability or have the people to understand how to bring them all together to support them in a family way as opposed to what we're talking about, the silo way.
So I think you're hearing -- if I can just jump in for a second. I think you're hearing from the way Laura describes the work that she does where all the desiloing has happened. The Office of Children and Families and DHS is an intensive partner. It's not a casual collaboration. It's an integrated collaboration. And all of the different systems and services that Laura mentioned where she moves, even she moves seamlessly through that, we have established the ability to do that because the needs of the kids are naturally going to touch on all of those different systems. And if we are not naturally also connecting around those systems, then we will not be serving the kids and the families in a way that is most useful.
Thank you. For the sake of time, we're going to move to Councilmember Curtis Jones' inquiry.
Yes. I think you're onto something, Mr. Chairman and Member Johnson. When you say silos, the first question I -- before we go to silos, is there a bill of rights that these young people have as for parents and other providers to know what the baseline of what they should be given? Where does that exist and what is its name? What law, what reg? So a child with these types of issues, is there some kind of guideline that we're held to, all of us, to be able to provide services that meet their needs?
So, Jeanette, maybe you can step in here. There's certainly a lot of education around this. If you can speak to anything further in terms of regulations or what we provide.
Sure. So Infant Toddler Early Intervention and Preschool Early Intervention is special education. We're all familiar with special education, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. What has happened --
Yes, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. That is the federal law that was initially authorized in the 1970s and most recently was authorized, I believe, in 2011 or it might be 2014. And then the states have their own set of regulations to be in compliance with these federal regulations. So --
Would it be a great imposition for you to provide that to the Chair so that all of us on this hearing, on this Committee can have it?
I would be happy to. I can provide the site for the federal and the relevant state regulations.
The challenge -- yeah, the challenge is that this has been applied to the space but it is not sufficient. So I'll give you a very concrete example. So all children and families have the right to be evaluated for Infant Toddler Early Intervention and Preschool Early Intervention. In Infant Toddler, we have legally 45 days from the time the child is referred to conduct the evaluation. On the Preschool Early Intervention side, they have longer. It can be up to 90 days to evaluate, so that's how the system is constructed and built. A family or early learning center who is working with a child, 90 days can seem like an eternity when they are really very much in need. So that's a system that has been relied upon, but it is absolutely not sufficient to address the need.
So I ask these questions because most recently my office has been made aware of a case similar. And so, I know your space is preschool and toddler and when we come to silos -- is there a warm hand-off of a child when they enter grade school?
I just want to be clear that in Philadelphia we don't administer preschool early intervention. That is done by Elwyn, which is a nonprofit organization. But I do know broadly they are absolutely required to do transition planning for children who are receiving -- who have an IEP who are and years old who plan for the transition, but I can't speak to more than that.
Who would the Chairman reach out to so that we could get specific information for that?
I would be happy to give you contact information if you'd like for Elwyn for preschool early intervention.
And my last question, Mr. Chairman, that ruling guide that you mentioned on the federal level that translates into state law, is that applicable when a child goes to public school?
Now, 19 who -- so other than going to a 20 private attorney when a parent feels 21 that their child has not received those services, what is their redress? What they can do by way of recourse?
There may be other folks that can contribute, but there's the Education Law Center that is in Pennsylvania and has local offices here in Philadelphia as well.
And I'm a parent and just to answer some of your questions, the answer to that is it's the Office of Dispute Resolution. And what parents have, their rights are procedural safeguards and they are distributed by the Office of Dispute Resolution, which is in itself its own system within special education. They are responsible for both Elwyn all the way up to years 21 old and every parent has the same procedural safeguards. And if you have a discrepancy or disagreement with whatever's being provided or feel that your child is not getting the services that they need, what you are then expected to do is follow the process within due process, which is seek out mediation, seek out facilitation. There's an entire process that parents have to exhaust. They cannot even go to a court with an attorney until they exhaust all of that process completely. And that is the Office of Dispute Resolution.
Can you provide those series of steps that have to be taken to the Chair so that respective offices -- I kid you not, not more than a couple of weeks ago, a case came to my attention. And for us it is a problem. For them it is a crisis. A crisis that when a public school calls and says come get your kid because your child bit someone, you have to make a decision as a parent on what to do and how that impacts your livelihood. And so, it comes upon a parent to quickly elevate to a crisis. And so, knowing these steps so our offices can provide this kind of information is very, very helpful. So thank you. And thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So I just want to say Ms. Suarez I believe is a parent, and the Department of Behavioral Health will reach out, Ms. Suarez, so we can provide to the Chair so we'll make the connection there for the purpose of making sure that you have that information.
Thank you so much, Chairman -- Councilmember Curtis Jones. Now, we're going to move on. Seeing there's no further questions for our panelists from colleagues -- oh, we do have a question. Sorry. Councilmember Isaiah Thomas has a question for our panelists.
Good morning, Mr. Chair. Good morning, colleagues. Good morning to this particular panel. I was listening to some of the testimony around IEPs for some of our young people between the ages of 3 and 5, and that kind of stuck a little thorn in me. I'm wondering what do the numbers look like as it relates to young people under the age of 5 that has an IEP and why do they have an IEP? Are we dealing with language barrier issues? You know, I'm a former teacher and that's a very, very young age to provide IEPs for students. It's actually not a normal practice, so I was hoping that somebody could elaborate on that specific component of the testimony. I definitely appreciate the mental health support and other resources that we've been providing, but I was hoping somebody could elaborate specifically on IEPs and understanding what's going on with our young people that this is such a common thing?
So I don't know that that -- Laura, can you clarify that? MS. DeRIGGI: I don't know.
Yeah, I'm not sure that it is a common thing. I think we said it moves over from an ECE plan to an IEP, so we can just clarify that for you.
I am. If no one had the answer to that question, I just wanted to let you guys know I could answer that.
I mean, Sean might know the answer to that question from Vanessa, and it's part of this panel.
Councilmember Phillips, I'm fine with that question being --
No. I mean I'll wait, Councilmember Phillips. I'm here for the long haul. So if you want to read it to the later part of the hearing for that particular question to be answered so we can stay in order, I'm fine with it. I just wanted to put a pin in that particular part, and I don't know if I heard wrong or not. But just the idea of IEPs for young people under the age of 5 and looking at that being a common practice, I'm wondering -- again, if it's ESL students, that definitely makes sense. If it's a particular common practice -- I see Melissa saying no. So I'll wait until later in the hearing to see, to examine what's going on there and why that's a common practice. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks. Melissa, you'll have time to wait and speak later on that particular topic. Thank you, Vice-Chair Thomas. Is there anyone else that would also like to make a comment from either the Deputy Mayor's Office or DBHIDS, you can speak?
Yeah. I just want to say that in the testimony that I read it was not that I said that IEPs were common. I said that there's a transition from individualized family service plans that are in the EI programs into the IEPs when they get older and transition. So I just wanted to clarify that in case that was what was initiating the question. But if Sean can clarify --
And just so I have clarity, Jill, are you talking about transitioning into IEPs for students that are ages 5 and 6?
Yes. As they get older and move through the system, if they have an IFSP or an individualized family service plan, then transitioning that as they get older into an IEP might be a -- is helpful if they continue to have issues that now have to be at a different level, you know, in the school system. So, Sean, you --
That's what I thought I heard and that was what prompted me to ask the question. I don't understand the correlation between the two. When I hear IEP, I'm thinking individual education plan which is something that provides specific support system in classrooms for young people that have issues with learning. I don't know why we would see a correlation between young people who might need support systems at home and things of that capacity and automatically assume that impacts their ability to essentially learn and impacts how they learn. So that's why my antennas went up when I heard that and that's why I was hoping for a little bit of clarity.
Okay. So let's get you that little bit of clarity because it's really only in the event it could support or provide information. So, Sean?
Yeah. The only other thing I want to weigh in and say is that Local Education Agencies, LEAs, are responsible for this work and that's what we're talking about, that transition work. And Elwyn is the LEA that's responsible. So I would very much rely on Elwyn to give you that exact, what their state federal obligations are for transitions. And largely, those are done by teams. It's not just a certain individual. It's usually done with a caregiver, parent or guardian or caregiver that is responsible and they develop those transition opportunities. But Elwyn as the LEA is responsible for that and does work with the other LEAs, being largely the School District, Charter schools or wherever the child may transition into kindergarten or elementary school. But again, I would rely on the LEA for that type of exact information and the data that's associated with that as well, like how many are we talking about.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll hold that question to get a little more clarity a little later in our conversation then. Thank you everybody.
Thank you, Vice-Chair Thomas. Are there any other colleagues who have questions before we move to our next panel? (No response.)
Thank you so much panelists. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley. Thank you, Chief of Early Childhood Education Sean Perkins. And thank you, Commissioner Dr. Jill Bowen from the Department of Behavioral Health. So thank y'all so much. Now, I'm going to move on to Panel No. 2. Can our panelists get themselves prepared. All right. Clerk, will you please call the second panel of witnesses to testify this afternoon on Resolution No. 8 230637.
Sharon Neilson will be reading testimony provided by Unis Bey and Damaris Alvarado- Rodriguez.
Thank you. Are you connected and ready to proceed, Chairman Neilson -- Sharon, Neilson, excuse me, Sharon Neilson? (No Response.)
She is having some technology issues. She is trying to work that out right now.
Okay. Okay. So then we'll probably have to move onto the next panel if there is no -- if Sharon is still not available. (No response.)
Yes, let's move on to our next panel unless someone can read for her or can testify on her behalf? (No response.)
All right. So we're going to proceed with the next panel. Clerk, will you please call the third panel of witnesses to testify this afternoon on Resolution 14 No. 230637.
Melissa Suarez, Regina Brown, Shakia Gaines and Angela Murray.
Thank you so much, Clerk. Is everyone connected and ready to proceed? (Nodded head.)
Okay. Can we have our first parent Melissa Suarez. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony. Thereafter we will have Regina Brown, Shakia Gaines and Angela Murray.
Hi. Good morning. My name is Melissa Suarez. I am here as a parent. Thank you so much for inviting me and thank you for the opportunity to speak about my experience. I would like to share with you a difficult journey that our family has endured in part because of a broken system, and what I'm asking for is your help to fix that system. I'm a mother of three boys, one set of twins who are 11 now and a son who's 7. We live in the Northeast section of Philadelphia. I've lived here my entire life and my children their entire lives. I was raised by a grandmother who had an 8th grade education and a grandfather who was a firefighter for our great city. Some of the frustrations that I had to experience as part of being a parent to three children all with their own levels of individualized services needs and supports started in our first experience with navigating these resources and special needs with Pre-K. My twins started Pre-K when the schools first opened the Pre-K, and it was such a great thing because we really could not afford to put them in any schooling otherwise. Within the first two months, their teacher suggested that they be evaluated by Elwyn or Early Intervention for special education services and extended community and home supports. She also suggested that we seek out supports from CBH or the County Behavioral Health for Philadelphia. I wasn't really sure why we needed both. But later on I was very grateful for that suggestion. What we later would understand was that the waitlist for services in both systems were excessive. We were fortunate that our one child took six months, the other took four months and this was just for their evaluations. This did not include the 60 days following this evaluation where the report was generated and later discussed. Our third child had to be evaluated at Drexel because of insurance barriers, waitlists and his behaviors that were escalating were not -- were escalating way beyond the pace for how we could get him services. In one year all three of my children had diagnosis of autism and other learning challenges. And again, we were made to wait for providers to be available to provide the services that they were eligible at this time. The services were poor, if they happened at all. The quality of the providers was more than just disappointing. In one instance I was accused of making my son autistic and was threatened that they would call DHS to report Munchausen by proxy because I was making him autistic, and this type of insult happened frequently. During the pandemic, I would joke about having received a promotion. And by now being responsible for providing OT, speech, PT, their education, behavioral services, or ADA, developing their program, create, laminate pictures, program needs, I also became the services coordinator, educator nd also the person who provided all three of my children, so times three, these services around the clock. I cried a lot. I felt abandoned with no support, no break, no time to recoup. It was constant and intense and I thought I was failing them. And the weight of that failure through me and them sent me into my own depression. My youngest later started having self-injurious behaviors. He was punching himself in the face as a result of his disability. And none of his early intervention team as far as his behavioral team was there to support us. The depth of defeat and fear that runs through your core when you watch your child harm themselves and not know how or when it will end is the most painful experience that I have endured. When I eventually pulled him out of Pre-K because we couldn't trust Elwyn or Medicaid to be able to support him appropriately, we later found ourselves being referred between the two systems because they would not collaborate or communicate. Elwyn did not communicate with CBH. CBH would not communicate with Elwyn because these systems were still very new to me. We would frequently get them mixed up.
We would have to retrace who we were talking to, what agency they were from and it was an all time- consuming task. But suddenly I was being asked to fulfill all of these roles simultaneously without support and without training. That was my (inaudible). I had to master the complexity of special education, early intervention, transitions, autism, learning disabilities, sign language and ADA if anything at all went wrong, and it did. It would take more considerable time away from my family which was already scarce. This meant that I had to compromise other needed areas of my life or put aside one child's needs for another. We were always trying to balance ourselves to keep from crisis and staying afloat. I didn't realize that the period between 0 and 5 years old is a critical, critical window that has set the stage for our children. I only became aware of this because at years old, my youngest son wasn't 3 talking yet. Our trust in the system to help our child had let me down and let down our family. Educators and providers need to do better together. We have to be partners in order for this to work. We need more robust child find systems. We need greater supports of availability, those supports early before our window of opportunity closes. As Philadelphia embraces new leadership, I urge City Council to work with the Administration to make sure that all early intervention care work collaboratively. We need leaders working together who are committed to creating systems that support us. It cannot be more systems that make us feel like we are in constant combat with them. And this must come from collaboration between all stakeholders. Yes, this would include parents. I urge City Council and the new Administration to conduct an official comprehensive assessment of the early intervention system so that we can have a system that not only offers a child a greater future but allow parents to rest at ease in faith of what these systems can offer us. Thank you very much.
Melissa, thank you so much for your testimony. We're going to hold questions from colleagues until the end of all of the parent testimonies. And, Melissa, again thank you and sorry to hear about some of the things that you went through as well, and that's why we're having this hearing today to do what we can do to address some of these concerns that you mentioned. We are now -- if we can have our next panelist to proceed. Regina Brown, are you ready?
Thank you. Please state your name for the record and then proceed with your testimony.
My name is Regina Brown. I live in West Philadelphia and I'm a parent to children. I'd 8 like to testify today on the 9 struggles that I've encountered as a 10 parent who's had to advocate for 11 early intervention services for my 12 children. Right now I'm working to 13 ensure that my 2-year-old who's been receiving early intervention services continues to get the same resources to support his needs as he transitions services from ChildLink to Elwyn. ChildLink is a program run by PHMC to coordinate early intervention services for infants and toddlers up to the age of 3. Because my son will be aging out of ChildLink services, I've been talking to his child care provider at Elwyn to make sure that the services he receives helps -- hold on, I'm sorry, that his services that he has received that has really benefited his development will continue. My son has autism. We were first connected to early intervention services through CHOP where we found out about the autism study that was being conducted by the Autism Institute. Through our participation in the autism study, my son was diagnosed with autism and a speech delay and was subsequently connected to different therapies to help with the development. He gets special instruction, occupational therapy and speech therapy. Because Elwyn is the main provider for early intervention services, after he turns 3 I've been trying to figure out how to make sure he continues to receive services that fit his needs. In my conversations with Elwyn, I know that Elwyn emphasizes educational attainment. They make sure kids are on track to excel when they enter school. However, my son is very bright. He knows his ABCs and 123s. He's great at picking up topics being taught at school. The support he needs is less about educational attainment and more about the behaviors associated with his diagnosis that are easily misunderstood and can get him in trouble if he is not supported and the teachers around him don't have the tools they need to do so. That's why I called Elwyn, gone to talk to Elwyn representatives so I can make sure that the support my son needs to succeed doesn't go away when he turns 3. I haven't been able to get a clear answer, and that's why I'm constantly worried. I'm scared that he won't be supported for behavioral issues, that when misconstrued could get him sent home from preschool and escalated through his K through schooling. That's what happened to my twins who are now 12 when they were 3 or 4. I would constantly get calls from the child care center asking me to pick them up. Every time they saw each other they would run around and this was way too much for the center to handle. I had to leave work to pick up my twins and drop them at my mom's or my sister's. The child care center said that if my children continued to run around, they would be asked to leave. The fact that I ran into problems with my child care center because I couldn't get support with my twins when they were younger makes me very worried that I could run into the same situation with my 2-year-old. I even talked to my current day care center to see if they could work with Elwyn so that they can continue working with my son. They said that they can't. Elwyn's pay rate is different from ChildLink and the group of providers is different from ChildLink and I feel like it's up to me to handle, and it's a lot for a parent to handle. I no longer make long-term plans about my career because I don't know what kind of support I'll need for my son. Will he do okay at school, will I have to pick him up because he's been acting up, how can I make sure he's getting the support he needs. All my worry amounts to a lot of lost income and longer term stability for my family. I just want my son to thrive. I want him to receive the supports he needs so that he can succeed in school. The different systems, providers and services are hard for a family to navigate.
And what me and my son need is transparency and consistency. That's why I'm calling on the City Council to work with the next Administration to appoint leaders at all the agencies related to early intervention, committed to working together so that the parents are not having to navigate alone. I also want to urge City Council to encourage the next Administration to conduct an assessment of the early intervention system to pinpoint the difficulty of getting services and to promote policies that better support kids like my son. Thank you for your time.
If we can move forward with Shakia Gaines. Are you prepared to speak?
Yes, I am. My name is Shakia Gaines. I'm a mother of one. My daughter is actually in a charter school and she do have special needs with cerebral palsy and autism. Earlier -- no, I'm sorry, late last year we had to move because technically my housing had kind of changed. My landlord had sold the properties and we had to move to a different area. Around that time the school did know that we was moving, that we did have a little issue about transitioning over to a different apartment. They was providing car fare for my daughter to go to school because a lot of her services is through the school. She do have services through Elwyn, speech, OT, PT, speech, behavior and special instructor that is a program to the school. When we -- this year, I'm sorry, this year when everything was supposed to be established of us going back to the school, nothing was being said about the car fare of us going there. I am on a fixed income so it is kind of hard for me to actually get car fare to go back and forth, especially if I have to spend more money on bills because we have transitioned over to a new place. When I had talked to the counselor at the school, they never said anything about none of this, about, oh, they're not going to help us with car fare or anything like this. So the main reason why I didn't move everything over to where I'm at now, one, is because a lot of her therapists once again is through the school. So if I have to transfer her to a different school, I would have to transfer all of her therapists as well. And the school is literally 15 minutes away where, you know, to catch a bus. When I had said something to her about this, about car fare, there was nothing being said. After a week of her being in school, that's when they said, oh, we can't provide anything, we can't do nothing. And I'm like, okay, well, something should have been said throughout the whole time frame before she started school so I could be able to transfer her over to another school. Not even that the school -- the classes that she's in is also a certain type of class for her because of her special needs, she has to be in a smaller class, she needs special attention and everything like this. I could not go and transfer everything over in the beginning of the school year if I didn't have leeway to do it. The problem with that whole situation was I didn't get help from them. I had to go to an outside source to get help, and something should have happened, established to me from the beginning so I won't have to worry about my daughter going back and forth to school. Because I know the one thing about that school, if my daughter miss too many days, I can get in trouble and I'm not trying to get in trouble because it's impossible for me to go back and forth to school. Even if I'm asking them for help, I still was not getting no help. And that's kind of a -- that really is a big concern when it comes to situations like that because when a parent is trying to do good for their child and trying to make sure that the child is doing what they have to do and they're not getting help, it's impossible, it's impossible. I will say with that particular situation if it was more understanding of what was happening before school had started because we did have, what's that, Back to School Night before it even had started and nothing was said. Everything was said when she actually got into the school. That's when everything had been said, which is kind of too late if you try to find a charter school at the last minute with also having to have different therapists and stuff to get transferred over. It's impossible. I think if it was more communication behind those situations it would have been a lot easier. Also, like I said when it comes to special needs children, it is very hard to find services. And then I didn't even know -- like I said, my daughter is in Elwyn. She do get services from Elwyn.
Even if I have to transfer OT or PT, it takes close to almost six months to get a new one because they don't have that many therapists in the program. So just imagine if I had to transfer every last one of these therapists over at the same time. My daughter wouldn't have the services that she needs and she needs her services. Something should be established with that when it comes to that particular thing, when it comes to kids with special needs because it seems like when I was saying stuff to them, they kind of didn't care. They were just like okay, well, it is what it is, we can't do nothing about that, you have to find another source to do it. And thank God, I have a good amount of people to help me out with this because they wasn't giving me no help when it came to that. Something should be done with that particular thing because that is the thing that also will make parents get caught up in situations that they don't need to get caught up in. And how we all know how the world is right now, we don't need extra stress that we can eliminate. Thank you.
Thank you so much. And the last person on the panel we have is Ms. Angie Murray who's representing as the supervisor of the Baring House, which is a crisis child care provider.
Good afternoon. I want to begin by talking about a situation that we had here in our crisis center. We had a parent from our program who had to sue the early intervention services for not following through with the educational support of one of her great-grandchildren because he did not receive his services. She has two great-grandchildren that have challenges. And even though we have to consider that some of the delay instead of delivery have to do with the inavailability of workers in the COVID period, it did not eliminate the idea that that child still needed the services. So additionally while she was dealing with that first child trying to ensure that he continued to receive the services that was owed to him from the Early Intervention Service Unit, she had another child that was also struggling with challenging behavior and had received close to almost 100 written behavior problem reports on that one child as they neglected to provide the needed support to this particular child. This led to involving the Educational Law Center, which took the first case and granted the education and left the child with a sizable settlement for educational support for the next five years. Can the system really afford to continue at this rate? Additionally, the same grandmom's challenges continued as she remained in constant communication with the preschool program regarding the second child with the behavioral challenges for months while trying to sustain that particular child in his particular classroom as well as the other child, maintaining that child in his appropriate classroom setting. As the situation came to my attention, I stepped in from the Baring Crisis Nursery to provide emergency respite care services to minimize the strength on the great- grandmom for the multiple requests from the school for short-notice pickup several times a week. The calls were overwhelming. The elderly caretaker of the children could not afford to miss her appointments and other meetings that occurred in her life almost daily. I had referred the family to a program called Family Voices. They stepped in to help the grandmom with both kids and provided the help of navigating the system to get her the needed support. These referrals are made for the kids because it forces them into (inaudible) environments that have to adapt short notice -- have to adapt short notice and do not have the standard classroom -- take them away from the standard classroom that they are used to being in. The funding and resources to accommodate the child's academic and social needs that are standard in these classrooms and provide the daily aren't always there. Not to mention how it makes the child have to adjust in a mixed- age group child care setting. Also, the ages of the children can vary from day-to-day when using an emergency care center. This type of program is geared towards short-term stay arrangement. But because of the lack of child care support in standard programs, we often get the kids that burn out regular providers and in time burn us out as well, but we try to stay the course knowing that parents can't afford to keep missing work, school and other commitments due to their children's behavior or lack of support. This pressure just adds to strain on a program that is already understaffed, underfunded and with workers who are overworked. The professionals who are trained to support the children with these behaviors in age-appropriate learning spaces are limited in their ability to help on this level. We serve many of the children who are under the radar and, therefore, greater collaboration, funding and help is needed to effectively serve the support our children need. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your testimony. We now have a question from one of my colleagues. That is Councilman Curtis Jones. You are recognized.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for your patience with all of us and all of the testimony today. But I think you heard it clearly just like we all did. The level of disconnect between the continuum of service, between the silos that are of service and the disservice that sometimes is done to those young people and the parents because there's not that connectivity. I asked the question earlier, Mr. Chairman, about warm hand-offs to charter and public schools as that preschool service expires and is supposed to be bled into the services of the school district and other charter schools. We have our work cut out for us because it is our job to not just listen to the expert articulation of the problem. Our job is to hear those problems and figure out the next Administration's solutions. That's the business we are in. And I just want to thank each one of those parents that just testified for not giving up. It would be so easy to disconnect, zone out, say oh, well, it's not my fault, but it is all of our responsibility. And I'm not preaching. But what I heard from you is a resilience in love of your children that you should be proud of and I am proud of as well. So I don't know all of the answers, but I'm hearing these questions and the stenographer that's taking down these notes needs to help us to codify some of the areas that we need to address, Mr. Chairman. And thank you again for your patience. And I look forward -- this is not my wheelhouse. This is your wheelhouse, Mr. Chairman. But I am volunteering my time and energy to help solve it, so I'm all in.
I really want to say thank you for joining us on this Committee hearing and volunteering your time on this because the reality is that each of you have mentioned some of the obstacles that are going on in these centers of learning. And for us, it's really important for us to make recommendations as well as provide any particular policy and initiatives that we can do on our end to make sure that something happens in this regard. So I really want to thank Councilman Johnson for bringing this resolution. We're going to move forward with no other questions from colleagues to our next panel. So, Clerk, can you please call on our next panelists. And also, Sharon Neilson, you're available now?
Yes, I think my computer issues are gone. Can you guys hear me?
-- and Sharon Neilson is going to provide her testimony.
If you don't mind, just a brief remark. Real brief because I know you are doing an excellent job in keeping us moving --
-- I just want to acknowledge Sharon Neilson and there's another young lady named Laverne Cheeseboro. These two have been the two foremost advocates around this issue that really brought it to my attention and said, we need to prioritize this as a City. And so, Sharon, I just want to thank you for your leadership. I know we went to Harrisburg several years ago when I was a State Rep to speak truth to power to make sure to bring back state funding to support our early childhood educational centers. So I just want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule and your leadership in helping us put this hearing together. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Councilmember Johnson. And, Ms. Neilson, if you can state your name for the record and then proceed with your testimony. Thank you.
Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Sharon Neilson. I'm the Voice of ECE member, and I want to thank Councilmember Phillips for attending the ECE Town Hall meeting earlier this year on this very issue and I also want to thank Councilman Johnson for assisting in this hearing today. I will be reading the testimony of my colleagues and Voice of ECE members, Damaris Alevarado Rodriguez and Unis Bey. Good afternoon. I would like to thank Councilmember Anthony Phillips, Chair of the Children and Youth Committee and its members, including Councilmember Johnson for his assistance with this important hearing. Thank you for affording me the opportunity to testify in today's hearing regarding how the lack of services to remedy challenging behaviors affect teachers, recruitment and retention. My name is Damaris Alvarado Rodriguez and I am the Executive Director and CEO of the Children's Playhouse Early Learning Center. In the realm of early childhood education, challenging behaviors and staffing shortages have been persistent issues for quite some time now. However, with the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, it has been nearly impossible to handle challenging behaviors effectively amidst all the requirements enforced by DHS, IDEA laws and the financial burdens placed on providers striving to recruit and sustain high quality teachers. Regrettably, many of our assisting teachers lack a solid background in early intervention or dealing with challenging behaviors that are often encountered in their daily interactions with children under their care. While we endeavor to provide them with professional development opportunity and coaching supports to enhance their skills, they receive minimal assistance from A to Z, responsible for quick child referral intake process, a process which has proven time-consuming instead. Consequently, numerous families and children grapple relentlessly just trying to obtain much-needed services, thereby leaving our dedicated teachers feeling helpless and ultimately burning out and deciding to leave the field all together. These issues with burn-out and teachers leaving the field are causing many child care programs to either close their classrooms due to staffing shortages or force programs to close all together, leaving many families and children without child care services. Continuum of care for children is crucial as they build relationships with their teacher, a process that forms a solid foundation for success, kindergarten -- a successful kindergarten transition. However, the staffing shortage (inaudible) --
Ms. Sharon, you just went back on mute. Something must have tapped the button by mistake.
However, the staffing shortages are not allowing us to support our early learners adequately and are impacting their development in significant ways. The lack of specialized attention hindered their progress and compromised their overall educational experience at this crucial stage of growth, with every interaction matters deeply in shaping long-life learners. The situation at hand demands urgent attention as it not only undermines teachers' morals -- morale, sorry, but also perpetrates a cycle wherein talented educators may be deterred from entering or remaining within this field, a field that is essential for forcing optimal growth and development among young learners. Thank you. This was the testimony from Damaris Alvarado Rodriguez. I'm going to now read the testimony from Unis Bey: Good afternoon, Committee Chair Anthony Phillips and other members of the Committee on Children and Youth, including Kenyatta Johnson for sponsoring this Bill No. 230637. My name is Unis Bey, a member of the Voice of ECE, an advocacy organization partnering with ECE stakeholders and CEO, Executive Director of Grays Ferry Early Learning Academy. Thank you for the opportunity to present my testimony on the topic of providing challenges with navigating City and state programs that support children with challenging behaviors. As early childhood educators and caregivers, we understand the importance of creating a positive and nurturing environment for young people children to thrive. Educators have implemented strategies in the classroom such as establishing clear expectations and classroom routines. By setting consistent expectations and routines, children feel secure and understand what is expected of them. In spite of this, the early childhood sector is seen and increased in young children experiencing challenging behaviors that are disrupting their learning process. It is reported that to 7 percent of all preschool children 8 show challenging behaviors, and 30 9 percent of children who live in 10 poverty exhibit challenging 11 behaviors. Early childhood education 12 providers and families finding it 13 difficult to navigate the complex 14 system of behavioral or early 15 intervention supports at both the 16 City and state levels when trying to 17 get the necessary help for children 18 who is displaying some form of 19 challenging behavior in the classroom 20 because they are separate systems. 21 A child may exhibit challenging behaviors but may not qualify for early intervention because they do not have a developmental delay. However, the child may be referred to Community Behavioral Health, CBH, but may not qualify for supports because they don't have Medicaid. Another scenario is the child who qualified for early intervention supports because they have a speech delay and as a result display challenging behaviors due to their inability to express their wants or fear. Which agency can support the whole child if there is an agency that exists. Our teachers are not special education teachers. They are early childhood educators. To effectively support children and teachers during these challenging times, there are a few recommendations that we, the Voice of ECE, propose in our town hall that we convene around this topic earlier this year which are as follows: Addressing challenging behaviors in the early childhood setting is a critical endeavor that demands our utmost attention and dedication. These challenging behaviors which can manifest in various forms such as elopement, physical or verbal aggression of self-injurious behaviors, pose significant barriers to the optimal development of young children. It is imperative to recognize that these behaviors are not merely isolated, but rather complex issues deeply rooted in individual circumstances and environments. However, it is disheartening to witness how these issues are often treated within silos, different agencies and organizations.
The absence of a unified approach is not only hindering progress but also perpetuate staff in understanding and support for educators and families alike, especially for our most vulnerable population, our young children. It is the time we establish an early childhood education oversight committee composed of experts from diverse fields who can collaborate on addressing this complex issues comprehensively. , CHOP Policy Lab, psychologists, pediatrics, social workers, families and other relevant professionals, we can create evidence-based strategies tailored to the unique needs of each child. With such a passionate commitment towards addressing these challenges collectively, we can create a system or share support to ensure every child thrives without limitations or barriers hindering their growth during these critical early learning years and become productive members of society, and teachers will have the resources to support them. We are asking this Committee to help us, the Voice of ECE, one, remove barriers to access the behavioral health services and provide adequate support for children in the classroom; two, establish ongoing training and one-on-one coaching for staff; three, explain the delivery of behavioral health supports and services; four, collaborate with agencies to gather data on the prevalence and impact of challenging behaviors in the Commonwealth early learning education field; five, ECE sector needs funding and support for providers to effectively support children experiencing challenging behaviors; six, make sure support is available -- make sure support is behavioral -- sorry, make sure support is, behavioral support is -- I'm sorry. I think it's a typo, so make sure the behavioral support is accessible for all families with children who are experiencing challenging behaviors, including children without insurance and/or do not qualify for Medicaid. Challenging behaviors in young children causes nearly half of beginning teachers to leave the teaching profession within the first five years of the job. This cannot continue to happen. Our children deserve better and we know it takes a village. In conclusion, across the state there's a lack of resources to support children experiencing challenging behaviors. Consequently, we are asking for multi-regional oversight committee to be formed to develop effective strategies and support positive behavior development in young children. The proposed committee will be responsible for researching behavioral health issues affecting young children and providing training and professional developmental programs for teachers. It is critical that adequate funding are allocated to reduce challenging behaviors in young children. Thank you.
Thank you so much for providing your testimony. I would like to commend you for your work and your efforts to kind of push this needle forward. If I can now ask if there's anyone on the panel that has any questions, any colleagues that have any questions for the panelists?
Just real quick, Mr. Chairman. I want to get a copy of that last testimony because it talked about solutions and recommendations. And can you put -- if she can provide that to you and you can make that available to us, I think that's a beginning working document.
We can absolutely do that. We'd love to get a copy to you, over to you as well.
Any other questions or comments from colleagues? (No response.)
Also for the record, I want to note that Councilman Jim Harrity is present.
Yeah. Sharon, can you give us a better understanding between behavioral health resources and the broader conversation around financial resources for early childhood education centers and then also any behavioral health challenges support that strains the financial resources for providers?
Yes. So when we have children who are experiencing challenging behaviors in the classroom, at some time and most of the time it often requires one-on-one support. So the teacher who is generally in a ratio of 1:10 is now providing one-on-one support to a child who is experiencing challenging behavior. A lot of that behavior is the kicking, the screaming, the self- injury, the throwing of furniture or self-harm. And so, we're trying to keep that child safe as well as keep the other children safe. But also know that we are now also responsible for the 9 other children if it's a 1 in 10 ratio. We know that in the School District they receive additional funding for each student that has an IEP or needs some kind of support. And so, that will help us to get additional resources in the classroom, to hire additional staff in the classes to help us manage those children who are exhibiting challenging behaviors while they are either in the process of getting some support through the different agencies or even at the time in which they are getting support, the challenging behaviors do not just disappear. It's going to take some time to impact that challenging behavior.
Okay. Thank you very much, Sharon. And again, I just want to commend you and your team for just being on the forefront. I know last month you hosted a city-wide event and you had the soon-to-be 100th Mayor of the City of Philadelphia Cherelle Parker as the guest speaker, particularly around this topic. And so, hopefully -- not even hopefully to be quite frank with you, this should be a part of the agenda that's put forth in front of her regarding strategies and making sure that this is a priority and a continuation of us focusing on prioritizing children here in the City of Philadelphia. Again, when you talk about quality of life here in the City of Philadelphia, you talk about the issue of public safety as well as gun violence. It all starts with supporting our young people early on, right. And we want to make sure that as this next Administration unfolds their agenda, this is one of the key issues that's part of what's rolled out. But nevertheless, this body will make sure that this is on our agenda as we move forward and make sure we're supporting our early childhood education centers here in the City of Philadelphia. So again, thank you for your leadership. Keep up the good work. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Councilman Johnson. All right. So we're going to move -- Clerk, if we can call for our next panel before -- excuse me. Clerk, will you please call the third panel -- I believe it is now -- for Resolution No. 230637.
The fifth panel is Laverne Cheeseboro and Aliya Johnson-Roberts.
Oh, wait, wait. We're still on Panel No. 21 4. We went back so we got to do Tiffany Chavous --
Thank you. All right. Are we ready to proceed, Tiffany and Dr. Spina?
Excellent. Tiffany, if you can state your name for the record and then you can proceed with your testimony, and Dr. Spina afterwards.
Sure. Hello, everyone. Thank you for having me. My name is Tiffany Chavous and I am the Executive Director of Somerset Academy located at 719 West Girard Avenue. Between the ages of birth to 5, a child's brain develops faster than any other time. Providing a high quality child care program is critical for our youngest population to be prepared socially, emotionally and academically when entering kindergarten. If we are going to stop gun violence, addiction, generational poverty, it begins at this age. Quality is about making sure that our children, parents, teachers and the community are creating an environment for children to be successful. When our classrooms are closed due to a teacher shortage, it not only impacts the hundreds of children who are unable to attend in the learning process, it also impacts families and our communities. Although we have space here at Somerset for an additional 50 children, our classrooms are closed because we have a need for high quality staff to support the children and their families. We have a large special needs population and because we do not have teachers, we created a science room, a century room and hired a behavioral specialist to support the children. It is essential for our teachers to have the skills, preparation and ability to support what is needed. That cannot happen if we do not have the compensation required to offer the best to address trauma, violence, poverty, diversity, academics and much more. The children in this community deserve a quality education. Our children deserve the same quality of care that is afforded to the children in the surrounding Philadelphia counties. Unfortunately, this is not the case, but it should. We need to provide teachers with a higher rate of pay to retain quality staff and grow our program. We need to provide teachers with a higher rate of pay for our children to have consistency. Having more teachers allows more children to be educated. It allows parents to return to work. Having affordable, quality child care with staff who are adequately paid prevents high turnover in forcing parents to make a difficult choice between working and caring for young children. We are transforming lives and must demand what our students, parents and staff need which are higher wages for us to be successful. Thank you.
Thank you, Tiffany Chavous. Appreciate you for your testimony. Now, can we move forward. Dr. Leslie Spina.
Good afternoon. My name is Leslie Spina and I'm here representing the Voice of ECE and also Kinder Academy. I operate SSPA locations in Philadelphia, serving over 500 families and I've been doing this work for 29 years. So I'd like to thank this Committee for coming together and providing this opportunity to hear about this work. I'm here to speak specifically about the funding side of this, and funding's a multi-faceted topic with ingrained complexities. You have heard about many things in this industry that are very complex. And so, I think that this will require more than one conversation but we'll start here. I want to take you back to March of 2020, the pandemic start. It's three-and-a-half years ago now. No 7 one could have imagined the ways in which the world would change. This is especially true for the field of early childhood education, an industry at that time already on the brink of collapse. My organization had 100 employees. On February 21st, I used my house to secure a $2 million loan to expand to a new facility that would support families in an area with really very few high quality early childhood education programs. We would hire an additional 30 people right out of the gate. Our plan was that it would be a hub for ongoing credentialing and degree attainment for up-and-coming early childhood professionals. This was the dream. The risk would be worth the reward for sure. We were positive about this. Unfortunately, we all know what happened early in March. COVID- would dictate all of our next 7 moves. 100 exceptional hard-working 8 early childhood professionals would 9 be laid off with no plan for return. 10 As weeks passed, the world came to 11 understand that early childhood was 12 vital to the economy, also essential 13 to children and families. No one 14 could go to work without a plan for 15 their young children. 16 Early childhood had a moment 17 in the sun, everything could change. 18 And as a society, we would commit to 19 investing in early childhood. That is what I thought. The children and professionals involved in this work would finally have a moment where we recognized as a society that it was time to invest properly. I think that that is not how it actually happened. While the depth and breadth of the challenges to the field beyond the scope of -- is well beyond the scope of this hearing, I'm going to outline some of the core challenges that threaten to change the landscape of the industry permanently. Without intervention, the gap between high quality programming for young children will widen. It will continue to widen and widen. As a society, we'll pay this price. We will pay it for generations to come. So I challenge this Committee, the people here, our elected officials and each of the other elected officials in Philadelphia who are not here to consider early childhood in the impact of these following things. And again, this is all about funding but this is a complex diagram with funding at the center. These main points are staffing shortages, pay parity, challenging behaviors in the classrooms and insurance and discrete barriers that are bearing down on our industry right now. As I said, none of these exist in a silo. They are all this overlap, this feeding on one another in the worst possible way at the worst time. So when I think about the staffing shortages, there's things that I think you can't possibly imagine. There are nearly 4,000 reported vacancies for teachers in the early childhood system across the Commonwealth. There's evidence that there are many more unreported vacancies. This does not give us insight into how many of the spots are filled with people who do not have the knowledge or experience, the background to be in these positions. They don't have the background running classrooms with 20 children with as many as 60 percent of children with identified special needs and only staff. 2 This situation contributes to a revolving door of staff.
The work is challenging and without the appropriate skills, nearly impossible. Not to mention the impact on children who face challenges and do not have adults who understand how to manage their needs and those of the other children in 11 the room. What is the ask 12 contributing to this staff shortage? 13 It's not only money. It's a broad 14 spectrum of things. It's the overall 15 shortage of workers. 16 We recognize that all 17 industries are struggling to get 18 staff. It's the exceptionally 19 complex onboarding requirements. Typically it takes two to five weeks to have a new person start employment, long hours in less than ideal work conditions, demanding classroom environments, including these childhood behaviors but not limited to that, limited resources for in-classroom supports. There is a low opinion of the field as a profession. Don't forget our teachers are degreed professionals probably with loan debt that they're trying to pay off, very often limited or no benefits, low pay, the lowest pay scale of all professionals in any field exist here in early childhood education. We should be ashamed of ourselves. If we had a system on which we built a pipeline that help people considering the field access this more reasonably and in a more financially stable way, we would eliminate the constant tumultuous staffing turnover. There is a pathway and I'm positive it can be built. It's easy to point at the problems without saying that there are ways to fix this. I must emphasize that the staffing shortage is more than just teaching staff. There's a need for administrative staff and support staff as well. DBHIDS was here talking and they never mentioned it, but I know that they are also challenged by the staffing shortage. All of these staffing shortages create the perfect storm leading to further shortages. Teachers are not getting the help they need in the classroom because administrators are stepping in to cover teacher shortages and lack of substitute pools. They still have to manage their own work and other stability. The desperate situation has led leaders feeling they have no 18 options, opening the door to hiring people we would never have engaged in prior years. Not because they're not good people, but because they didn't have the funds of knowledge, the education, the experience, the hands- on time with children to make this work for children and families. This puts us at greater risk for noncompliance, sinking quality, higher turnover, increased staff dissatisfaction and so on. This is an excellent opportunity to remind you that our children live and learn here. Is this the message we want to send our children on their first educational experiences? This is not widget- making. This is helping families build strong children, helping our community thrive. Pay parity, I'm going to call it unfair pay. We should call it what it is. Teachers in early childhood education classrooms seek the same educational attainment as those in K-12. Same Bachelor's degree, same certification, but we do not currently see pay parity. The unfair pay contributes to the destabilization of the industry. It forces professionals in the field to either hop to other jobs or look outside the field for compensation that is more reasonable for their level of education. We can't blame them. We did see a temporary stabilization of wages with the COVID-19 relief funds. However, those dollars are a thing of the past. We cannot count on that money. We see a resurgence -- we will see a resurgence in the departure of people from the field. When I have to explain to my staff that they made more last year than they did this year because those COVID funds are gone, people will say I can't take another pay decrease, much less lack of an increase. Increase in wages is exceptionally difficult in an environment where we go more than a decade between subsidized rate increases.
Almost all child care facilities in Philadelphia accept some kind of subsidy, whether it be Child Care Works which is ERC funding or other funding. Programs with high levels of private pay families, those paying the true cost of care find it easier to have regular pay increases. Annual increases seem reasonable. All of our expenses increase annually. Every person employed in the private world expects a yearly pay increase. It's the norm, not the exception. Unfortunately, the thought of this is different in programs that accept payment from the Commonwealth, those that serve the most needy families. Funding to early childhood has yet to have a champion. I am hoping someone here is the champion for that. Increases would not mean more money, but a reasonable way to keep even with the cost of living. I can't help -- I can't express enough that these very small increases don't cover the cost of our overhead costs just to keep the doors open, much less passing it onto staff as pay increases. It should not be acceptable for teachers in this industry with a Bachelor's degree or a Master's degree to make less than half of the salary of their kindergarten counterparts. We must contemplate using a system that considers the actual cost of care to underpin the industry, which leads to support for children and families and working professionals. This is commonsense. We cannot expect the cost of care continue to be supported by maintaining suppressed wages for those doing the work. We have to pay our mortgage so the mortgage gets paid and the teachers don't get more money. We must remember that many of those people in the field are degreed professionals with college debt, adult responsibilities while living a life in which the decision to stay in the field of choice means either they will not be able to support their children, they will have to get a second job or they have to leave the field to fill the hole. There is no 6 option. We need to consider what business could possibly compete or stay afloat without understanding the cost of care. There's no grocery store that charges you less for the supplies that they buy, the perishable or nonperishable. Since the pandemic, the general public expects to pay more for everything, more for food, more for gas, more for rent. Still people absolutely cannot seeing paying any amount more for early childhood education. This is true for families but also seemingly for legislative bodies. Raising the minimum wage is not the solution alone. Maintaining the status quo of compensating professional teachers at state- aligned minimum wages does not consider the investment they've made in their own education. We as citizens need to ensure that there's a professional pathway, including pay parity for early childhood teachers that is aligned with K-12 teachers. Our youngest students deserve hig quality, educated and experienced teachers. This is not a job of last resort. It is a career that contributes to the greater good of our Commonwealth, of our cities, of our communities and it should be treated as such. We've heard a lot of talk about challenging behaviors in the classroom. Following this outcry from the field, a group of early childhood leaders came together to compare stories, situations and discuss how we manage in this late phase of COVID-19. That's the Voice of ECE, Early Childhood Education. The topic returned again and again to challenging behaviors in the classroom and the lack of resources for children, but also for families and staff. It has reached epidemic proportions. I have no classrooms that are touched by this. Our classrooms have a minimum of percent. We expect between 4 9 and 8 children in every single 10 classroom to have an IEP. I wanted 11 to talk about that earlier when 12 people were talking. It is not 13 exceptional to have an IEP. It is 14 the standard that we see children 15 with IEPs in early childhood 16 classrooms and IFSPs in classrooms 0 17 to 3.
We need the essential tools to 18 manage this crisis. We don't have 19 them right now. 20 Teachers have climbed every mountain to stay in this field, but this may be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. We're seeing teachers reach a level of frustration that they cannot manage. It stems from the fact that they don't have the skills to support children. They're early childhood educators, not special education teachers. But when the percentage of children with special needs in excess of 30 percent and perhaps 60 percent, it becomes an impossible task. Without additional support staff, these teachers cannot manage the needs of children appropriately leading to classrooms in chaos and opportunities lost. I want to build on what Sharon said when she said that one teacher with those 10 children and now she's doing one-on- one with that one child who needs help. Well, what she didn't say is there's in that room. That leaves 20 the other teacher to manage the 19 children. Can you imagine having 19 children in your home and trying to manage that? Nineteen 3- and 4-year- olds in your room by yourself in your home, it would be impossible and no 1 one would think it would be appropriate. The folks at the Voice of ECE identified a trend, now to take our thoughts out to the field. No one was surprised to see that leaders were identifying this situation as untenable to the ongoing operations of their programs but also detrimental to the health and safety of the children and care. This puts them in a very dangerous situation. We convened a group of policymakers and early childhood leaders to outline the situation, identify areas of improvement and recommend short- and long-term solutions at all levels. The people doing this work are overwhelmed by classroom challenging behaviors and the pandemic -- and the problematic behaviors of adults. These adults have not been able to manage the mental health or developmental health system in a way that supports their children. It's extremely frustrating. We heard that from families earlier. Many have faced repeated expulsions from programs. The situation continues to spiral down for everyone involved. We want to reduce expulsion rates, lack of resources to support teachers and families. This is absolutely necessary if we hope to help children on their journey through the education system. We can't do that without these supports. We need the funding, the infrastructure. Perhaps not directly to child care centers, but a full rescoping of the infrastructure. Administrative staff indicate the following as contributing factors: Lack of support for new, unskilled and experienced staff. The disappearance of historical knowledge related to skills, appropriate expectations and trauma-informed practices, broad swaths of new staff with limited inventory skills for managing these behaviors and staff not experienced in relationship- building with families, because it's not just the children that we are here supporting. Low wage scales compound the situation. When wages remain relatively equivalent to those of six years ago, but the incidences of challenging behaviors and children that require do not have support services onsite increase the lack of support to manage this crisis, job satisfaction just falls. Additionally, we're facing these insurance industry barriers. That may be the final thing that closes the doors to child care centers. The other challenges faced by the industry outlined here had a seemingly more internal focus on operations where insurance seen something akin to a vendor issue. We're all surprised that this is written as a real formidable problem. We're hearing from our colleagues the insurance companies with little or no 4 reason are increasing rates beyond those reasonable to this type of industry. Many insurance companies are opting out of providing coverage for the industry at large.
We're seeing that in huge swaths. Indeed we want businesses of all kinds to operate with insurance. There's no question there. Child care centers are legally mandated to have general liability insurance. Operating without insurance is a nonstarter. We fear that private insurance companies will price up providers making it impossible for them to continue operations. The field of early childhood is complex and multi-faceted. I had the great joy and privilege of dedicating my life's work to this field. I am so happy to be here. My commitment is not only to the children and families but also to the dedicated professionals, primarily women who show up daily ensuring that our community's children have access to the best possible environment and experiences. The people who do this work have unparalleled dedication. It's my greatest hope that elected officials of Philadelphia, the people here and your colleagues, will step in and step up advocating for investment at all levels. The work is a common good and should be viewed as such. It is a part of the education system of our amazing city. Early childhood programs are a part of the fabric of America. This is how people go to work. Parents of young children can only go to work with reliable child care. The work is not babysitting. It's partnering with parents to invest in positive educational experiences from the onset. It all goes back to a system that is broken and the need for both re-alignment of services and reform for the funding structure of early child education. Building and funding infrastructure and a holistic system that explicitly addresses the needs of children, families and staff comparable to all other education systems is necessary. We're on the roof after the storm begging to be rescued. We will return and help our communities rebuild. This is what early childhood does. It does not matter the situation. Early childhood professionals step in first when it's time to rebuild. COVID-19 is the most recent example, but there are others. After every disaster we see women come forward to care for children. Our eyes always on the future. We are in peril of not being able to do this in the best way possible for our children.
Dr. Leslie, thank you so much for your riveting testimony. I certainly learned a lot about the obstacles that early childhood education centers are experiencing. One of them that really, really bothers me is the ongoing behavioral issues that we observe in these spaces, only because a lot of our students are not getting the attention that they deserve. I am more curious about how our state officials probably need to be more involved in this conversation than anything, but then it's also what else can we do around funding to support this because it's clear that these instructors need more support than ever. And I'm trying to think about the fact that how do we all collaborate even with the child care centers because there may be ways in which there can be some sort of collaboration between the centers so that we can help all the centers at once but who knows. With that being said, thank you. Are there any questions from my colleagues?
Can I say one thing? I'm so proud to be here in Philadelphia where we have created a tax that is supporting our children because that is not frequently seen across the United States and certainly not in the Commonwealth. We're the only city in the Commonwealth, but there are other states that have found a way to fully fund their early childhood programs and embed more resources for mental health supports, behavioral supports and so forth. So --
Yeah, that was actually one of my -- yeah, that was one of my questions. So I want to know are there any specific initiatives or models from other cities that you believe can serve as a successful example for Philadelphia to follow in promoting equality -- well, more so not equality, but quality early childhood education?
Yes. New Mexico has done a really great job and there are other small programs that have done really well. And like I said, the PHLpreK program really is doing a great job. But we are only funding 5200 children and there are 100,000 children in the City who are under age 5 so we have a ways to go with that. And I hope that we get to a place where all children are funded but the Commonwealth's program Pre-K Counts also is not fully funded. So while we are making strides, I think we need to look at what New Mexico did and their people voted to say, yes, we are going to pay taxes to make sure our children are in the best environments possible. And there are some small programs in Massachusetts and San Francisco throughout the state, so I'd be happy to share some resources on that and have further conversations about the unique things that they've done to get their communities invested in dropping money in the hat to make sure that our children are in the right place.
Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Any other questions from colleagues?
I just want to say, Mr. Chairman, thank you, Dr. Leslie Spina, for your very, very detailed and informative testimony.
Thank you, Councilmember Johnson. Clerk, will you please prepare to call out the next panelist for Panel No. 5 on the following Resolution No. 230637.
Thank you. Laverne and Aliya. For the record, this is our final panel by the way everyone. So thank you for continuing to stick with us during this very informative session. And if we can have both Laverne and Aliya. Starting with Laverne, please state your name for the record and then proceed with your testimony. Thanks for coming today.
Okay. Laverne Cheeseboro. Thank you, Committee Chairman Anthony Phillips. Thank you, Kenyatta Johnson, for bringing this hearing today. Good afternoon to everybody on the Council Committee of the Children and Youth. I'm the owner and director and lead teacher of Heavenly Made Creations Family Group Child Care Program in Southwest Philadelphia. In 2018 after graduating high school, my son became employed at my child care program as a teacher assistant starting at $10 an hour. In 2020 prior to the pandemic, I expanded my child care program enrollment of 6 children to family group enrollment at 12. With COVID happening and the ARPA funds we received, I was able to give my son an increase in his hourly wage, and I hired two additional assistants to stay in compliance with the OCDEL regulations. There are times that I do not pay myself to meet payroll for staff. Having a quality program, we encourage staff to get a minimum CDA. Associate's degree and Bachelor's, they can get that also as a benefit for free by the T.E.A.C.H. program. My son enrolled in the CDA program and as he planned his future, it required more money. He was offered a position at Walmart during the pandemic paying him $17 an hour. And in the same year they raised it (inaudible). This position only required an (inaudible) and he went to work for Walmart. I couldn't compete with that pay rate and he said it didn't make sense to stay in school, he was leaving the field. The other employees I had eventually they took the same route. One transitioning to nursing and another transitioning to the hair industry. While they love teaching children and working in the early childhood education field, they couldn't afford to stay. Without funding support, we cannot compete with these pay rates nor encourage high school graduates to get a CDA or go to college to work in the early childhood education field. One of the main barriers teachers face in getting credentialed stems from needing to work for more money to provide for their family in a time where inflation is at an all-time high and ECE is paying at an all-time low.
Thank you so much, Laverne, for your testimony. If we can now proceed with Aliya.
Good afternoon. I am Aliya Johnson- Roberts, and I want to send a heartfelt thank you to the Committee Chair Anthony Phillips and the Committee as a whole for the opportunity to testify today. I am Aliya Johnson-Roberts again, a second generation child care business owner located in Northeast Philadelphia employing 40 staff and educating 250 children while partnering with their families in the community. I personally come from a background deeply intertwined with the child care industry. I mentioned I'm a second generation child care business owner. My mother has been doing this work over 40 years and still dedicates herself to it, of which I am grateful because that is one less employee that I have to hire. I still vividly remember the consistent staff members that she employed for an average of 10 to 20 years literally. When I first entered the child care industry and began supporting her on the business side, I was struck by the realization that her staff were being paid $20 to $30 per hour without formal degrees, but they possessed the wealth of experience that spanned decades. Their pay had gradually increased over the years, a testament to their unwavering dedication to the children they cared for. However, it was this very dedication and the corresponding pay raise that eventually became one of the reasons my mother had to make the heartwrenching decision to close both her child care centers and her home programs. Their wages were simply unsustainable, particularly when viewed in the context of reimbursement rates, and the fact that her staff did not have the requisite credentials to qualify as what is considered to be a high quality child care program according to Keystone Stars, which supplements reimbursement rates. So today in my own child care facility, I'm fortunate to have three of her longtime employees who have been serving right alongside her for 15 to 23 years. My mother now 72, one of the women 48 and one 82 years old are still working in the program. So they are a testament to the passion and love that child care professionals bring to their work. We currently again have 40 staff that we employ, but they range now from $28,000 to $60,000 in salary. Now, that includes longtime experienced staff with Master's degrees. So again, my mother years ago was paying up to $30 per hour. Our max right now is $60,000 with a Master's degree and years of experience. Over the past year, 35 percent of my staff members who are also dedicated have approached me seeking a wage increase. Their reasons are profound, relatable and poignant. I heard them say this raise will prevent me from needing a second job or my husband isn't well and I have to find a way to supplemental income. I must admit that there's a constant fear that our amazing staff will leave the program or the field because of pay or frustration. These are not isolated cases but indicative of a broader problem. Our industry is rewarding but can be very demanding and grossly underfunded. The disparity in pay becomes even more apparent when we examine the differences in work schedules across various age groups within our program. We have infant, toddler and school-aged staff who work tirelessly year-round, eight to nine hours per day while our preschool counterparts tend to have a shorter day and have more closure days because we do have a school year-based preschool program, so they have the ability to take off during summers due to low enrollment. And so, it's only fair that our dedicated staff members somehow they seek to save throughout the year to sustain themselves during the summer months as no one can be expected to work continuously in this industry for 12 months without a break. Despite our best efforts and intentions, our pay disparities, they persist. Our salary scale which is well-intentioned, it often falls short of recognizing the experience and dedication of most of our teachers and staff.
We are teachers with high school diplomas and we are seeing a lot more of that as we continuously have turnover. This past year has been the most challenging in my years of 9 experience in the child care 10 industry. We witnessed an 11 unprecedented level of turnover, 12 averaging one to two employees per 13 quarter if we're lucky and around two 14 to three over the summer months, 15 where we used to have maybe one, maybe two per year, and most are leaving the industry all together. I must add that the need to balance ratios and classroom coverage with teacher call-out due to personal needs, their family needs and honestly days where they just can't make it, we see ourselves, administrative staff, in the classrooms, and we're supporting staff and children who may have challenging behaviors. Just last month we had a teaching team state if you guys don't do something, we cannot return tomorrow. So we had to have an emergency meeting to figure out how to support all parties so that we can continue to serve the 250 enrolled children. This exodus of qualified teachers poses a severe threat to our ability to meet the increasing demand for child care services where at full capacity necessitating full staffing. Plus, we personally have additional floaters and support staff to cater to the needs of the children. However, the staffing shortages have made it exceedingly difficult to recruit and retain infant and toddler staff members who rightfully seek a livable wage. To complicate matters further, most of our children in the infant and toddler space are subsidized resulting in income caps that are consistently lower than the actual cost of providing quality care. This issue makes it imperative for us to hire based on bare minimum staffing requirements or in cases of desperation, we have to offer a higher wage than initially budgeted for. We are a lucky program. We're partnered with the School District and Philly Pre-K so we do receive various funding. However, infant, toddlers nor school-aged receive the additional supports nor the additional funding, so we are still in the need of support around special needs and challenging behaviors, which for us is percent 20 of our program with only 2 percent of 21 staff with formal special education 22 degrees or experiences. 23 We for the first time was 24 told that we just made the 25 requirement to meet our staffing standards for STAR 4, high quality, where we typically easily do that, but it is difficult to find staff who have the education and experience. So we personally added in $75,000 per year for staff mental health support where we have a consultant visit our program weekly to meet with staff to help meet their personal needs to ensure their well-being in hopes of retaining our beloved staff. We literally created two positions, a special needs coordinator to manage the increasing IEPs that we have, and we have an education specialist to further support our staff, again in hopes of retaining them. However, we have to cut the budget somewhere. So in closing, I urge you to consider the heartfelt stories of those like my mother and all of our dedicated staff. We must address the wage disparities in the child care sector not just for the sake of the individuals but for the countless children and families who rely on the stability and quality of care they provide. We implore you to consider these challenges seriously and help us take steps to address the pay disparities and the needed supports in the child care sector. The children and families we serve depend on it and the future of early child education has an imbalance. Thank you for your time and attention.
I just want to say thank you, Aliya. You've given me some ideas now around this particular concern. I'm trying to think maybe with Councilmember, you know, Johnson who just introduced this resolution, different funding opportunities, but also what are some policies that we can do to have in place to avoid some of these issues that have gone on in our City. And I just want to have a teaching part. For me it's very challenging because we have a teaching shortage among our K to 4 schools and we're trying to figure 5 that out as well. And so, like you 6 said better pay, better support 7 systems as well as some ways in which 8 we can provide any particular love on 9 these teachers that might help 10 increase the recruitment for teachers 11 in our early childhood education 12 centers, so thank you. Councilmember Johnson.
Yeah. I just want to thank Ms. Johnson- Roberts for her testimony. I want to thank Laverne Cheeseboro who I've been at the day care center several different times and she's been advocating around this particular issue for a significant period of time and making sure we prioritize it. And so, I just want to thank them and everyone else who participated on this panel today, in this hearing today and we'll also review the testimony and take away what we need to as we focus on ways to strengthen this process for our young people. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Any other colleagues or comments that would like to be recognized? (No response.)
Okay. Thank you. So seeing there being no 18 further questions from members of the Committee and no other witnesses to testify, I will ask if there's anyone present in this hearing whose name we have failed to call and that wishes to offer testimony on any of the bills being considered today -- oh, wait a minute. I see Councilman Jim Harrity's hand before asking for a question or comment.
Yeah, it was just a comment. I just wanted to apologize for being late. I had some technical difficulties, but the Council Support staff finally got me online. Always when you got something to do, the computer goes down. But I apologize and thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership.
Thank you. Yeah, we recognized your presence earlier, so I want to say thanks a lot for managing to get through all of the technical difficulties and being online with us today. All right. So there being no 20 other witness testimonies, this concludes the business before the Committee on Children and Youth. Thank you all very much for your attention. God bless and let's continue to do the work of the Lord together, especially for the children of Philadelphia in these early childhood education centers. Thank you, Councilmember Johnson, for introducing this resolution. This is very important. And thank you for all of the witnesses who testified today. We look forward to doing the work. Please hold us accountable. We're going to do the best that we can because what you said means a lot to myself and my colleagues on City Council. Thank you and God bless. (Hearing concluded at 3:30 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. _____________________________ TANEHA CARROLL