Spellings, Tenenbaum Headline Conference February 16

Columbia College is U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and South Carolina Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum for a talk called "Staying Competitive: National and South Carolina Perspectives" on Thursday February 16 a 7 p.m. in the Bellsouth Auditorium on Huger Street. SC First Steps is being allowed to include 100 people. OFS has asked that the Boards of Trustees from SC First Steps, Lexington County First Steps and Richland County First Steps be invited. A formal invitation is on the way to each LCFS Board member. We hope to see you there on the 16th.

LCFS Board Member Heads State Early Childhood Group

Lexington County First Steps Board Member Crystal Campbell has been elected the new president of the South Carolina Early Childhood Association. The SCECA is an advocate for early childhood programs, teachers and is the sponsor of many workshops and conferences around the state. Congratulations to Crystal for this great honor.

LCFS Board Meeting Tuesday February 7

The Lexington County First Steps Board will meet Tuesday February 7 at 6 p.m. in the academic center conference room at Midlands Technical College Airport Campus. Board members should look for more details via email soon.

First Steps Reauthorization Passes Senate

The Senate this morning passed the Joint Resolution that will reauthorize First Steps through 2013! This is great news. The House of Representatives must next take action on the legislation.

First Steps Reauthorization Legislation Has Strong Support

This is an important year for the First Steps effort. The 1999 legislation that created First Steps is set to expire unless the General Assembly takes action to let it continue.

Fortunately, there is strong bipartisan support to do just that. Senate Bill 947/House Bill 4406 would extend First Steps through 2013. Already, more than half of the General Assembly has has signed onto this legislation as co-sponsors, including Lexington Sens. John Courson, Nikki Setzler and Jake Knotts. On the House side, Lexington Reps. Marion Frye, Ken Clark, Nathan Ballentine, Nikki Haley and E. H. "Ted" Pitts are co-sponsors.

Please consider contacting your local representative to ask that they support this important measure or to thank them if they are already backing this effort. The legislation will allow us to continue our work helping prepare South Carolina's youngest children for lifelong learning. We will keep you up to date as the legislation moves forward.

Here is the text of the Joint Resolution:

Whereas, South Carolina's economic future depends upon a well educated workforce; and

Whereas, the General Assembly created in 1999 the South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Initiative as a "comprehensive, results-oriented initiative for improving early childhood development by providing, through county partnerships, public and private funds and support for high quality early childhood development and education services for children by providing support for their families' efforts toward enabling their children to reach school ready to learn"; and

Whereas, school readiness will play a decisive role in South Carolina's successful attainment of the "No Child Left Behind" requirement that all United States children attain a level of academic proficiency by the year 2013; and

Whereas, First Steps serves a unique role as the only entity solely focused on the determinants of school readiness at both state and local levels; and

Whereas, First Steps was created to ensure collaboration and coordination between all agencies serving children, and to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of all related federal, state, and local programs and funding streams; and

Whereas, the First Steps initiative is designed to empower individual communities to identify and fill county-specific school readiness service gaps; and

Whereas, First Steps has successfully developed a statewide infrastructure to convene partners within the education, business, faith, government, and health communities in the interest of delivering high quality services to children up to age five and their families; and

Whereas, First Steps is a mechanism by which the coordination of early childhood systems and pooling of resources is routinely demonstrated to benefit South Carolina taxpayers; and

Whereas, First Steps partnerships have developed rapport with, and provided extensive support to private early education and care providers in an effort to leverage and expand upon their own substantial efforts to promote quality and ensure the optimal development of South Carolina's children; and

Whereas, First Steps has implemented the "Blueprint for South Carolina's Children", its agency improvement plan, focusing the statewide initiative upon five lines of work with quality, accountability, collaboration, and leadership as its agency-wide guiding principles and school readiness priorities; and

Whereas, the First Steps initiative has achieved substantial national attention for its innovative enabling legislation and its implementation of "Countdown to Kindergarten", a school transition strategy designed with partners to connect high-risk families with the elementary schools that their children will attend; and

Whereas, local First Steps partnerships serve as "laboratories for change", funding research-based strategies that provide models of best practices for use across the State and nation; and

Whereas, First Steps has brought attention and resources to the need for increased, integrated systems coordination and outcomes tracking among child-serving agencies; and

Whereas, First Steps has contributed to the increased school readiness of almost three hundred forty thousand children up to age five years with an average annual investment of less than one-third of one percent of the state's annual budget; and

Whereas, First Steps was the first state agency to assist in extending state funded prekindergarten from half-day to full-day experiences for children, and has overseen the state's first public-private 4k partnerships; and

Whereas, First Steps has leveraged more than thirty million dollars in resources for other child-serving agencies and has leveraged its own state allocated resources by approximately thirty percent annually; and

Whereas, First Steps operates with the highest standards of fiscal accountability and program-based fund tracking; and

Whereas, First Steps provides parents with tools they can use to help their children prepare for school success through a myriad of choices; and

Whereas, First Steps plays a statewide role in the dissemination of public information to communities about school readiness and early learning. Now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Act 99 of 1999, South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Act, is reauthorized until July 1, 2013.
SECTION 2. This joint resolution takes effect upon approval by the Governor.