Table of Contents First Five After Eight

I have materials on the following topics:

Development of Marin County's First Five Strategic Plan - 2000

CCFC Trust Funds

Initiation of the First Five Commissions

Development of the First Five Association

Minimum County Funding Decision

Prenatal to Five

Births to County Residents

Initial Staff and Operational Funding by Counties
     
First Commissioners

Citizen Engagement in Strategic Planning

$8 billion and 8 million kids

Greetings!

After eight billion dollars, and 8 million children born in California during the past 16 years, it's time to revisit the results of Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Initiative of 1998 (First Five) Commissions.  Originally, as you will see from the title and previous posts on this blog, I was planning to conduct this review eight years ago.  The consensus among some I contacted was that it was too early in the life of First Five to hold it accountable for impacts of its actions.  We were also concerned that much critical evaluation might add fuel to the efforts of the tobacco industry to weaken its capabilities.  And then there was the movements by the Governor and the Legislature to transfer funds from its Trust Fund.

So we decided to wait a bit.  Now, as the Trust Fund has been diminished (you'll remember we established it so we could continue stable program funding while the sale and use of tobacco products was being reduced), we feel it time to examine the impact of the Initiative.

We'll use the questions I posed in the beginning, and the research conducted by First Five Commissions, to evaluate our performance.

Gregory Fearon
 

What did Proposition 10 Require?

In March of 1999, I emailed a memo to the California activists whom I had identified were going to be implementing Proposition 10 in their counties. For months, I had been asked by many of them to provide some interim set of responsibilities. With only the law to direct us, the answer seemed to be to determine the key questions which its requirements would have evaluators asking long after our work was done.

Here are the questions which I sent to those early pioneers.

On Strategic Plans

Does it facilitate the creation of a seamless system of integrated and comprehensive programs and services?

Does it establish community-based programs to provide parental education and family support services relevant to effective childhood development? These services shall include education and skills training in nurturing, and in avoidance of tobacco, drugs, and alcohol during pregnancy. Emphasis will be on services not provided by existing programs, and on the consolidation of existing programs and new services provided pursuant to this act into an integrated system from the consumer's perspective.

Does it educate the public, using mass media, on the importance and the benefits of nurturing, health care, family support, and child care; and inform involved professionals and the general public about programs that focus on early childhood development?

Does it educate the public, using mass media, on the dangers caused by smoking and other tobacco use by pregnant women to themselves and to infants and young children, and the dangers of secondhand smoke to all children?

Does it encourage pregnant women and parents of young children to quit smoking?

Does it promote, support, and improve the early development of children from the prenantal stage to five years of age? These purposes shall be accomplished through the establishment, institution, and coordination of appropriate standards, resources, and integrated and comprehensive programs emphasizing community awareness, education, nurturing, child care, social services, health care, and research.

Does it create and implement an integrated, comprehensive, and collaborative system of information and services to enhance optimal early childhood development? This system should function as a network that promotes accessibility to all information and services from any entry point into the system.

Does it emphasize local decision-making, provide for greater local flexibility in designing delivery systems, and eliminate duplicate administrative systems?

Does it use outcome-based accountability to determine future expenditures?

State Commission

Has it disseminated statewide public information and educational materials to members of the general public and to professionals for the purpose of developing appropriate awareness and knowledge regarding the promotion, support, and improvement of early childhood development?

Has it undertaken an integrated and comprehensive statewide program of promoting, supporting, and improving early childhood development that enhances the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development of children in California?

Do the California Commission guidelines, at a minimum, address the following matters:

Parental education and support services in all areas required for, and relevent to, informed and healthy parenting? Examples of parental education shall include, but are not limited to, prenatal and postnatal infant and maternal nutrition, education and training of newborn and infant care and nurturing for optimal early childhood development,parenting and other necessary skills, child abuse prevention, and avoidance of tobacco, drugs and alcohol during pregnancy. Examples of parental support services shall include, but are not limited to, family support centers offering an integrated system of services required for the development and maintenance of self-sufficiency, domestic violence prevention and treatment, tobacco and other substance abuse control and treatment, voluntary intervention for families at risk, and such other prevention and family services and counseling critical to successful early childhood development.

The availability and provision of high quality, accessible, and affordable child care, both in-home and at child care facilities, that emphasizes education, training and qualification of care providers, increased availability and access to child care facilities, resource and referral services, technical assistance to ensure appropriate child care for all households?

The provision of child health care services that emphasizes prevention, diagnostic screenings, and treatment not covered by other programs; and the provision of prenatal and postnatal maternal health care services that emphasize prevention, immunizations, nutrition, treatment of tobacco and other substance abuse, general health screenings, and treatment services not covered by other programs?

Do the California Commission guidelines define the results to be acheived, and collect and analyze data to measure progress toward attaining such results?

Has the California Commission provided for independent research, including the evaluation of any relevant programs, identified the best standards and practices for optimal early childhood development, and established and monitored demonstration projects?

Has the California Commission established one or more advisory committees to provide technical and professional expertise and support for any purposes that has been beneficial in accomplishing the purposes of this act? Has each advisory committee met, and made recommendations and reports deemed necessary and appropriate?

Has the California Commission provided technical assistance to county commissions in adopting and implementing county strategic plans for early childhood development?

On or before October 15 of each year, did the California Commission and each county commission conduct an audit of, and issue a written report on the implementation and performance of, their respective functions during the preceding fiscal year, including, at a minimum, the manner in which funds were expended, the progress toward, and the achievement of, program goals and objectives, and the measurement of specific outcomes through appropriate relaible indicators?

Did the California Commission make copies of each of its annual audits and reports available to members of the general public on request and at no cost?

Did the California Commission furnish each county commission with copies of those documents in a number sufficient for local distribution by the county commission to members of the general public on request and at no cost?

Did the California Commission review and consider the annual audits and reports transmitted by the county commissions and, following a public hearing, adopt a written report that consolidated, summarized, analyzed, and commented on those annual audits and reports?

On or before January 31 of each year, did the California Commission prepare a written report that consolidated, summarized, analyzed, and commented on the annual audits and reports submitted by all of the county commissions for the preceding fiscal year?

Was this report by the California Commission transmitted to the Governor, the Legislature, and each county commission?

Did the California Commission apply for gifts, grants, donations, or contributions of money, property, facilities, or services from any person, corporation, foundation, or other entity, or from the state or any agency or political subdivision thereof, or from the federal government or any agency or instrumentality thereof, in furtherance of a statewide program of early childhood development?

Did the California Commission enter into such contracts as necessary or appropriate to carry out the provisions and purposes of this act?

Did the California Commission make recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature for changes in state laws, regulations, and services necessary or appropriate to carry out an integrated and comprehensive program or early childhood development in an efffective and cost-efficient manner?

Local Commissions

Did the local commission adopt an adequate and complete county strategic plan for the support and improvement of early childhood development within the county?

Was the county strategic plan consistent with, and in furtherance of the purposes of, this act and any guidelines adopted by the state commission that are in effect at the time the plan was adopted?

Does the County strategic plan include the foillowing: 1) a descrition of the goals and objectives proposed to be attained; 2) a description of the programs, services, and projects proposed to be provided, sponsored, or facilitated; 3) a description of how measurable outcomes of such programs, services, and projects will be determined by the county commission using appropriate reliable indicators?

Does the county strategic plan describe how programs, services, and projects relating to early childhood development within the county will be integrated into a consumer-oriented and easily accessible system?

Has the local commission established one or more advisory committees to provide technical and professional expertise and support for any purposes that are beneficial in accomplishing the purposes of this act?

Has the local commission, on at least an annual basis, periodically reviewed its county strategic plan, and revised the plan as necessary or appropriate?

Did the local commission conduct at least one public hearing on its proposed county strategic plan before the plan was adopted?

Did the local commission conduct at least one public hearing on its periodic review of the county strategic plan before any revisions to the plan were adopted?

Did the local commission submit its adopted county strategic plan, and any subsequent revisions thereof, to the state commission?

On or before October 15 of each year, did the local commission conduct an audit of, and issue a written report on the implementation and performance of, their functions during the preceding fiscal year, including, at a minimum, the manner in which funds were expended, the progress toward, and the achievement of, program goals and objectives, and the measurement of specific outcomes through appropriate reliable outcomes?

Did the local commission prepare and adopt an annual audit and report?

Did the local commission conduct at least one public hearing prior to adopting any annual audit and report?

Were the audits and reports of the local commission transmitted to the state commission?

Did the local commission make copies of its annual audits and reports available to members of the general public on request and at no cost?

Did the local commission conduct at least one public hearing on each annual report?

Were funds made available to county commissions expended to provide, sponsor, or facilitate any programs, services, or projectss for early childhood development prior to the doption by the local county commission of an adequate and complete county strategic plan?

Pioneering Prop 10

Shortly after the passage of Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Initiative, I started an email group for those in each county who were going to be implementing the new law. The group struggled together during the first two years of the implementation to raise and resolve many questions we faced.

I kept those emails and addresses, and I will be mining them in the next week for topics to review after eight years, and for names and contact information from those who were involved.

How has the child grown up?

Greetings!

Shortly after the November 8th, 1998 General Election, I asked my supervisor at the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services if I could work on Marin County's implmentation of the California Children and Families Initiative. Commonly referred to as Proposition 10, it had passed Marin County with the highest percentage support in the state. For the next two and a half years, I and others around California carried to reality the dreams of the parents, childcare providers, and other citizens who brought the Initiative to the ballot.

By the summer of 2001, local commissions established by the Initiative had hired their own staff, and many of the original county workers returned to other duties. Those commissions and their staff have continued the work on behalf of California's children which was authorized by the voters in the fall of 1998. Since its beginning, the program now known as First Five of California has utilized $7 billion in tobacco taxes to assist children under five years of age to be "in good health, able and ready to learn, and emotionally well-developed".

My recent retirement now affords me the time to do some undertake a project which I have long thought about. What if I were able to get a group of those who were active in the birth of First Five - to host a review of its performance over the past eight years? Having kept the emails which circulated during the first two years of its implementation, my first step will be to locate the many colleagues which I had during that period, and see if they would be interested in particpating.