Florida

Project Description:

Governor Lawton Chiles and the Florida legislature have made several important commitments to young children and their families in the past five years. To help develop coherent plans for long-term policy and program development, a state coordinating council works with state and local initiatives. It makes recommendations for innovative financing strategies, including public-private partnerships, and encourages program integration on a statewide basis. In 1994, the Florida legislature increased funding for preventive children's services by nearly $240 million, including significant increases for child care, preschool programs, family support, and a Healthy Start program for pregnant women, infants, and toddlers. Even in such a short time, neonatal and infant mortality rates have declined dramatically, and the immunization rates of young children have improved. Florida is also regarded as a national leader in its commitment to quality child care, having raised standards for programs that receive public funds and promoted better professional development and higher compensation for the child care workforce.

The state is now developing a comprehensive plan to sustain support for meeting the goals of Starting Points and to measure progress effectively. To deepen the understanding of business leaders, the media, and the general public of the importance of prevention programs, the Florida project team will undertake a statewide public education and social indicators project. The project will conduct surveys of public opinion on children's issues, train representatives of child advocacy organizations in media and communications skills, and convene seminars on child health, child care, and family support policies in areas of the state where young children's needs are greatest. A social indicators project based on an adaptation of the 1995 Kids Count Data Book will create benchmarks for meeting young children's needs and will disseminate information to policymakers and the news media on the state's progress toward these benchmarks.

To assist the growing number of working parents who need high-quality child care, the project will sponsor a conference for leading employers to expand child care services and other family friendly policies, and expand parent involvement on child care programs statewide.

The Center for Educational Enhancement and Development at Florida State University manages the initiative. Two other nationally recognized organizations, the Florida Center for Children and Youth and the Florida Children's Forum, will oversee the public education and child care work. Both internal and external communications about Florida's Starting Points initiatives will be enhanced through technology used to implement an e-mail and bulletin board capacity and multimedia presentation. Funds from the A. L. Mailman Family Foundation and state grants match Carnegie's support.

Major Program Components:

• Public Education Strategies
• Improving and Expanding High-Quality Child Care
• Community Mobilization and Strengthening Local Capacity
• Creation of Statewide Benchmarks to Assess Progress

Contact:

Dorothy Routh
Director, Center for Educational Enhancement and Development (CEED)
Florida State University
1151 Pensacola Street
Suite 3512, Mail Stop 2010
Tallahassee, FL 32306-2010
Tel: 904/644-4369, Fax: 904/644-4613
E-mail: routhdk@aol.com