The Elizabeth Celotto Child Care Center (NAEYC accredited) will improve the school readiness of 32 young children of teenage parents by providing daily quality early childhood education and care and by providing developmental assessments that identify children who need special services. The program will also support the teenage parents’ parenting skills by helping 32 teenage parents remain in and complete high school and by providing parent education, support and counseling to the teenage parents.

A free, statewide telephone number that connects people with important community services and volunteers opportunities. Connecticut residents call 2-1-1 for many different types of help. Professional call specialists help callers with such complex issues as substance abuse, gambling, domestic violence programs, suicide prevention, financial problems, and much more. By dialing 2-1-1, a caller is connected with an 2-1-1 call specialist who helps the caller assess their situation and find the community services in their area that can assist them.

The Council is proposing a program to enhance the language and literacy focus in center-based and licensed family childcare settings, targeting programs that serve infants and toddles with family incomes less than 185% of the federal poverty level. Central to this new program is the promotion of language among infants and toddlers, by increasing the oral language of infant and toddler caregivers and the number of books each child hears.

The Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative will redefine Kindergarten readiness standards, develop health and social development metrics, and track each student through assessments three times a year. The KRC will design student action plans based on these assessments to coordinate collaboration between staff, parents, and outside organizations. Finally, the KRC will create a new parent curriculum to increase involvement and knowledge of developmental goals. This curriculum will be supported by a new website and temporary behavior, language and nutritional consultants.

The program is designed to increase parents' knowledge of important developmental milestones of children by inviting parents to attend meetings hosted by private and public school members of the E.H.E.C.C. There will be a series of six meetings for parents (the program expects 50 families —75 adults and 50 children) that will help parents effectively recognize and address their child's developmental milestones. Topics will address literacy, health and intellectual skills.