Source: Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation, Foresight Law+Policy

On February 11, 2021, Foresight Law+Policy and Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation hosted a webinar to discuss Improving a Child’s Education Journey: A Conversation about K-12 Policy & Early Learning in CA. Dr. Carla Bryant, Executive Director at the Center for District Innovation and Leadership in Early Education (DIAL EE), Patricia Lozano, Executive Director at Early Edge California and Sarah Neville-Morgan, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction at the California Department of Education, joined as early learning experts to provide their insights.

The webinar also introduced the newly released research report Building a Coherent P-12 Education System in California, by Elliot Regenstein, Partner at Foresight Law+Policy and Advisor to DIAL EE. This report provided recommendations for how California can improve the integration of K-12 with early learning.

Highlights of the webinar included:

• Aligning statewide assessment to identify and address inequities, and improve educational outcomes.
• Aligning teacher pipeline and professional development from P-12.
• Providing better compensation for the early learning workforce.
• Building and integrating P-12 from a lens of equity and using the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to do things differently moving forward.
• Increasing accessibility to child care and early learning systems for parents and caregivers.
• Looking at parent and family engagement as a partnership between families, providers, and schools.