A report to our citizens, state fiscal year 2013

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
A Report to Our Citizens, State Fiscal Year 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Commissioner's Message.........1 - 2 Our Focus ........................................2 Our Programs & Services ..............3 Performance Measures ................4 Finances ....................................5 - 6 FY 2013 Accomplishments ...........7 FY 2014 Strategic Themes ............8

A MESSAGE FROM COMMISSIONER BOBBY CAGLE
As Commissioner for Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), it is my honor to share with you this Annual Report to Our Citizens for State Fiscal Year 2013. DECAL is one of only three state agencies in the nation dedicated exclusively to the health, safety, and quality education of our youngest learners, birth to 5 years old.
FY2013 was a very productive year for our agency. This Annual Report is designed to highlight our programs and services, accomplishments, and financial performance. But I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a few of these accomplishments as they relate to our Strategic Themes of Health and Safety, Quality, and Organizational Excellence:

MISSION
We are committed to nurturing Georgia's youngest children, keeping them safe and healthy, and to enriching their lives.

Health and Safety
The headline here is our successful efforts in working with Governor Nathan Deal and the State Legislature to create a new law requiring all employees of Georgia's child care programs to undergo a National Fingerprint-based Background Check. This law also applies to DECAL's more than 250 employees and all temporary employees and contractors working on behalf of our agency in child care facilities. I personally see this as the most significant legislation protecting the safety of Georgia's children in more than 20 years. My heartfelt appreciation to Governor Deal, the Legislature, and our providers, parents, and child care advocates.

Quality
Some 84,000 four year olds began their educational journeys through Georgia's Pre-K Program, returning to a full 180-day instructional calendar. In this same year, we issued the first phase of a Pre-K Longitudinal Study, requested by the State Legislature, supporting the benefits of Georgia's Pre-K Program in language, math, and behavioral skills. The second year of the study utilized a unique sampling technique to measure the impact for a group of children who attended the program against a similar group of children who did not attend. The third year will sample a group of children who will be followed to third grade.

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In FY2013, we formally launched a parent awareness campaign for Quality Rated, Georgia's voluntary system to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early care and education programs. We also launched www.gelds.decal.gov supporting Georgia's Early Learning and Development Standards (GELDS), standards developed by Georgians for Georgians.
Organizational Excellence In FY2013, DECAL created an unprecedented 45-member Task Force, facilitate by a national expert, to review operations, policies, and procedures of Georgia's Child and Parent Services (CAPS) Program. We also created a new Office of Audits and Compliance to ensure strong stewardship and accountability not only with CAPS, but all agency funds. As you review the information contained in this report, I hope you will join me in thanking our DECAL Board and the more than 250 DECAL employees who make this work possible. If you should have any questions, please contact me at bobby.cagle@decal.ga.gov.
Thank you for your interest in DECAL and Georgia's youngest learners.
Bobby D. Cagle, MSW Commissioner

OUR FOCUS: EARLY CARE & LEARNING

In 2004, Georgia's leaders made a significant investment in the state's most valuable commodity; its' children. That year,

the Georgia General Assembly created Bright from the Start: Georgia

Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) by merging several state

entities that served young children and their families, including the Office of

School Readiness, units from the Department of Education, the Department of

Human Resources, and the Georgia Child Care Council. This new department

was one of the first in the nation that was solely dedicated to meeting both the

early childhood education and the child care needs of the state's youngest

citizens.

Early education is valuable and important because a child's most significant

brain development occurs in the first five years, forming the basis for future

learning. DECAL's goal is to lay a solid foundation on which the academic success of Georgia's future leaders and workforce can be built. Investing in Georgia's children and families will pay in dividends for decades to come;

Georgia's Pre-K Program increases school success in later years.

through the state's long-term economic growth, and by producing citizens

equipped to deal with the challenges of the 21st century.

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
"We believe investing in our youngest learners is critical to the long-term economic growth and potential of Georgia."

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OUR PROGRAMS & SERVICES
DECAL leads the state's efforts to serve children and families by administering services in the following four main areas: Our nationally recognized Georgia's Pre-K Program is a lottery-funded educational program that helps prepare four-year-olds for success in school. Child Care Services licenses and monitors child care programs to ensure that they provide safe, healthy, and nurturing environments. The Quality Initiatives Division partners with internal and external resources to improve the quality of early care and education for children birth to school-age, and Nutrition Services provides nutritious meals for children and adults. DECAL oversees a wide range of responsibilities focused primarily on children ages birth to school age and their families. DECAL's responsibilities include the following:
Administering the nationally recognized Georgia's Pre-K Program
Licensing and monitoring center-based and home-based child care facilities
Overseeing the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program to provide nutritious meals to Georgians
Housing the Head Start State Collaboration Office
Administering the federal Child Care and Development Fund and state matching funds to increase the affordability and quality of early care and education by providing subsidized child care and other quality initiatives
Administering Quality Rated: A systemic approach to assess, improve and communicate the level of quality in early education and school-age care programs
Funding All Georgia Kids to provide free information and referrals for families seeking quality early care and education
Providing technical assistance and professional development to early childhood educators and programs through the child care resource and referral agencies
Offering support to families and early care and education programs who care for children with special needs
Collaborating with Head Start , Family Connection Partnership, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Public Health, and Smart Start Georgia to blend federal, state and private dollars to enhance early care and education
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PERFORMANCE MEASURES

DECAL Performance Measures Child Care Services (Increase Compliance)

FY2010 Actual

Percentage of child care learning centers, group day care homes, and family 81% day care homes that are compliant with licensing rules

Number of licensing, monitoring, technical assistance, and complaint investigation visits to child care learning centers, group day care homes, and family day care homes each fiscal year to increase compliance and raise quality

14,667

Pre-K (Increase Access and Quality Learning)

Number of four year olds enrolled in Georgia's Pre-K Program

81,068

FY2011 Actual 88% 19,019
82,608

FY2012 Actual

FY2013 Actual

92%

88%*

13,045 11,800**

82,868

81,863

Percentage of classrooms implementing the Work Sampling System online to monitor and report student progress
Quality Initiatives (Improve Program Quality & Professional Development)
Number and percentage of licensed, compliant early care and education programs participating in the quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) to improve quality Percentage of INCENTIVES Program participants who increased their education level from the initial credential/degree earned for which an INCENTIVES payment was awarded

9.6% n/a 10%

27%

53.3%

82.8%

n/a

12%

17%

9.26%

10.2%

10.7%

Nutrition (Increase Access and Meals)

Number of meals served per year by providers in the Child and Adult Care 86,001,243 85,200,000 80,667,591 82,819,267 Food Program (CACFP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)

Number of feeding sites per fiscal year for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), which increased as a result of focused outreach and training efforts

5,956

6,310

6,280

6,036

*Data reflects changes in compliance measurements. **Data reflects fewer child care programs now operating in Georgia.

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
"We are a transparent, timely and reliable resource to those connected to the care, safety and education of our youngest children."

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OUR FINANCES
Services to citizens are provided through four major programs that form the structure of our financial accounting. Programs operate within their appropriated budgets and identified funding sources. Budgeted amounts must be adequate to provide legal authorization to spend funds and revenues must be sufficiently available to cover allowable expenses charged to each funding source. Excess state funds are returned to the state treasury at year end and excess federal funds are carried forward according to the requirements of each unique federal grant.
Two significant financial changes occurred in state fiscal year 2013 increasing the overall agency budget by 48%.
First was the transfer of the Child and Parent Services (CAPS) program to Bright from the Start from the Department of Human Services (DHS). This program provides funding to subsidize the cost for child care allowing qualified parents to maintain employment. The CAPS program is the major component of the federal multiyear Child Care Development Funds (CCDF) grant.
Second, state lottery funds were increased for the Georgia Pre-K program. Ten days were restored to the Pre-K schedule bringing the total to 170 days of instruction. Class sizes remain at 22 students per class.
Additionally 2013 marked the end of two federal grants: (1) the federal Title 1, Part B, Subpart 3 Even Start Family Literacy program of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) ended with final expenses recorded as of the end of the Federal fiscal year, September 30, 2012; (2) the federal State Advisory Council three year grant ended effective March 31, 2013 with some financial activity to carry forward into the 2014 state fiscal year.

Programs & Funding Sources
Child Care Services Federal State Other Nutrition Federal Pre-Kindergarten Program Federal State-Lottery Other Quality Initiatives Federal Other Grand Total

Final Budget
149,042,221 53,795,820 13,759
122,123,781
194,327 299,232,510
-
25,013,341 196,440
$ 649,612,199

2013 Revenues
149,042,220 53,795,820 14,910
122,123,779
194,588 295,129,915
-
25,020,345 198,513
$ 645,520,089

Expenses
149,042,210 53,795,820 13,758
122,123,779
194,325 293,939,678
-
25,013,338 196,438
$ 644,319,347

Final Budget

2012 Revenues

Expenses

6,904,782 1,203,033
16,526

6,904,782 1,203,033
19,211

6,904,782 1,203,033
16,525

117,884,856 117,988,046 117,884,856

269,771 300,691,000
4,791

269,770 293,691,000
6,398

269,770 289,222,657
4,790

20,349,304 20,349,302 20,349,302

32,608

32,608

32,608

$ 447,356,671 $ 440,464,150 $ 435,888,323

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
"We support our teachers and providers. The quality work they do make them vital members of our team."
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Additional Collections on Behalf of the State Treasury
Collected license fees are designated to be submitted to the State Treasury along with penalty amounts collected from Child Care Providers violating core safety rules.

The following amounts were collected and submitted to the Office of the Treasury:

2013

2012

License Fees

$713,634

$730,733

Penalties

$108,173

$55,590

Results of Financial Audit
The state Department of Audits and Accounts (DOAA) conducts an annual audit of the financial records of Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning. State fiscal year 2013 marked eleven straight years that our agency has received a clean audit opinion from DOAA.
2013 Budget Comparison

State (including lottery)
Federal

$145,408,713

$301,894,033 $353,028,330
2012 2013
$296,373,670

$0
Agency Totals
Funding Source Federal
State (including lottery) Other

$100,000,000 $200,000,000 $300,000,000 $400,000,000

2013 (46%) 296,373,670 (54%) 353,028,330
210,199

2012 145,408,713 301,894,033 53,925

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FISCAL YEAR 2013 ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Worked with Governor Deal and the State Legislature to create new law requiring all employees of Georgia's 6,000 child care programs to undergo National Fingerprint Background Check. Law applies to DECAL employees and all temporary employees and contractors working on behalf of DECAL in child care facilities.
Issued first phase of Pre-K Longitudinal Study supporting the benefits of Georgia's Pre-K Program in language, math, and behavioral skills.
Created unprecedented 45-member Task Force, facilitated by a national expert, to review operations, policies, and procedures of Georgia's Child and Parent Services (CAPS) Program.
Created Office of Audits and Compliance to ensure stewardship and accountability with agency funds.
Moved CAPS investigative unit to DECAL.
Formally launched parent awareness campaign of Quality Rated, Georgia's voluntary system to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early care and education programs.
Initiated media campaign with five other state agencies and three partner organizations calling for parents and caregivers of children to have greater awareness of dangers leaving children unattended in vehicles.
Launched www.gelds.decal.ga.gov supporting Georgia's Early Learning and Development Standards (GELDS). Launched Online Library Learning Initiative (OLLI), a virtual warehouse of online learning modules and video podcasts for early childhood education. Achieved 11th consecutive year of clean financial audits. Accepted into BUILD, a national initiative building a coordinated system of programs, policies, and services for early learning. Hosted Summer Transition Program for rising kindergartners who either did not attend Georgia's Pre-K Program or Head Start, or attended and needed additional support. Celebrated 20th anniversary of Georgia Lottery, benefiting more than 1.2 million Georgia Pre-K students. Completed second year of Race to the Top early learning initiative.
Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
"We work to empower parents with relevant and accurate information so they can make the very best child care and early education decisions for their family."
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STRATEGIC THEMES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2014 Health & Safety
Promote safe and healthy early care and learning programs
Quality & Access
Improve quality of and access to early care and learning programs
Organizational Excellence
Foster organizational excellence through stakeholder engagement, enterprise solutions, and workforce development
CONTACT US
2 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, SE Suite 754, East Tower Atlanta, GA 30334 404-656-5957 888-442-7735 www.decal.ga.gov
www.twitter.com/gadeptearlycare www.facebook.com/brightfromthestart Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
"Our agency is dedicated to remaining flexible and nimble in order to keep us on the cutting edge of early education and improve upon our existing services."
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