[Music] Scott County providing safe healthy and livable [Music] communities now we will move on to item eight on our agenda which is a Scot County delivers topic and the topic today is early learning and literacy Chris Harter please get us started welcome morning you are all very aware that we have spent a lot of time talking about education over the last six months um perhaps most notably in a project with shaki School District to support uh Early Childhood screenings and consistent attendance as strategies for proving overall uh educational outcomes um so this morning we have a group of folks that you don't typically see in the course of those conversations these um many of these are new faces and new voices for you um and our Focus today is really on how to make sure that children and families have access to the resources they need to support education and also how do we align those resources so that we're using our investments most productively um and and having the biggest impact on the kids and families in our County um I think it's important as we talk to remember that there is a network of services that all support Early Learning and early literacy and we have some great Representatives today I think it's also important to remember that ultimately what we hope is that this contributes to long-term success educationally socially um from an employment standpoint and also that we remember that success in schools is linked to some of that um important connections to caring adults teachers coaches other school staff that kids have access to when they get into school and and have opportunity to engage with um education professionals so all of that speaks to the wealth of impact this group has on kids and families going forward so with that what I'd like to do is have the folks on my side of the table um introduce themselves and then um Nikki if you would start we'll have the folks on the panel introduce themselves and and where they um what their role is in the educational app system um and then we'll get started good morning my name is Vanessa strong I'm the Water Resources supervisor for Scott County dannyel ly's Office of Management and budget Cindy committee Services I'm Nikki halberg Community prevention response supervisor and I help oversee the um St David's work with our educational neglect prevention and diversion program hi I'm Mary bartusek I am from new pra Area School District I'm the supervisor for the early learning programs I'm Lauren spranger I am a member of the library Advisory Board a former member of the PAC with the f frc's um and a parent in Scott County Ali Addison I work for Scott County Libraries and learning and Outreach and Terry Ferman I'm a public health nurse with um the family health teams and I'm Mary K Stevens with Scott County Public Health supervisor in the family health areas ready all right um so don't mean to start off with a downer of a question but so just looking it's very early in the packet on page eight um as a percent of third grade students achieving reading standards and um County over since 2015 shows a decline the state of Minnesota since 2015 shows a decline so kind have two questions of this one um how do we compare with national standards on reading and then two any ideas on what is happening with reading levels at third grade for since 2015 and kind of this area well I'll jump in as an educator um uh Co happened um that is actually a real we're we're seeing that in the school district that affected things tremendously for our families um just even the you know family the world shut down so these children are at home with their parents their parents are going through stressful times which I resoled stress on children and you know Learning and Development I mean I think we saw you know we talk about the development of the older children being impacted but those little ones were very much impacted because the parents were focused on the older ones or their own just capabilities of being able to work and all of those things that were happening um so I think that is I mean that that's not all of it but uh and we're seeing families that are different family structures are very different which they're not good or bad they're just different so trying to support those families and the importance of you know early literacy and what we need to do uh I also feel strongly that uh social media has impacted greatly our parents are on phones they're not engaging their their children and that is impacting the way they are learning could I ask a follow question to ask um so when I was looking at these and I was glad that Danny uh brought that up that question up and I appreciate your answer where so when I was looking at this and I kind of looked at some national Trends I mean this is very consistent across States y but there are some states that have made a very conscious decision to say we're not going to let these kids go through we're just not going to pass them through if they're not achieving this Milestone that we think is extremely important for success we're going to hold them back we're going to try to figure out each of these kids' deficiencies what what is going on with them and we're going to create some materials to help them have be successful have we thought thought about that within our school district I'm a grandma and when my kids come over my my kids are gone I make them those grandkids sit and read to me and they're like Grandma gosh I want to be on my phone but I'm like nope while I'm making dinner you're going to read but in schools when they are not achieving success in our school districts do they continue to just pass them through and they continue to have some difficulties as they progress to their their academic future I'll address that again um I I believe that the emphasis a lot of times was on the social emotional development of the child and there was research done on the impact of holding holding kids back and so that research you see waves in education all the time I mean you see it all the time whole language no phonics you know all all these different things that go back and forth and that emphasis on they they felt you know self-esteem of children and fitting in you know that social emotional piece I think over roote that so there's pressure to move them on you know oh we need to move them on now as you see um the state of Minnesota has passed the read act which all Educators in the state are going to be going through specific training on the science of reading because there's no research you know there's more research coming out about the science of reading and that balance of exactly what we need um so thank you appreciate that and to add one more thing I think this will be an interesting indicator to keep an eye on because as you see 2020 2021 a lot of the third grade students that are being measured on this bar already had foundational reading experience and the kindergarteners the preschoolers the first graders that missed that in person learning opportunity in 2020 that's going to be a trailing indicator and we'll have to see how long that lasts in that chart Trend with so oh we want to go to page nine I have another question maybe but won't be for you married than so this is the percentage kindergarteners screen at age three and I just wanted to highlight you know um Jordan Bel plane new pra all showed overall pretty significant increases in the number of children screen at H I realized new PR 2022 is a down year but I'll just attribute that to co when anything else goes bad um what what did we do what happened with those communities and is it replicable with other communities out there I realize they're smaller maybe easier to get to but can you tell a story around that I'm in charge scre I'm in charge of Early Childhood screening so it's on that's um I work directly with screening I actually do I I do screen children um you know the emphasis of course is on trying to screen at three so that we catch you know something so that the intervention is sooner um parents sometimes the idea they're scared so trying to get the information out about like this is a no reflection of your parenting this is just you know development we are here to support I think sometimes parents will wait because they I and actually in my marketing I've actually put down the words waiting longer doesn't mean they'll do better because it's all developmentally appropriate to what they're doing so those those stats I mean our actually our school district I'm going to to I'm going to to School District because it was part of our um world's best Workforce goal was to have uh over like 95% of the children screened who were entering kindergarten screened and last year we had 99% so we got them you know so we're seeing that you know and trying to do that earlier intervention so SC county has also implemented a couple of incentive programs to get um parents into the screenings a little bit earlier so with Family Resource Centers and the tablet giveaways um there's been some marketing around that so families that may not have heard of the need for screening otherwise are seeing that there also um have been some programs at the library recently to introduce families and kiddos to the experience of a screening right so you know here's a a ruler on the wall you'll have to measure how tall you are um here are some different toys you'll have to play with in a little activity so I think there are exercises being taken um to remove the scariness or the fear around it um in certain communities as well yeah we designed that the county has really worked on messaging towards and has promotional materials towards screening um and trying to promote it so we promote it within our early literacy classes in the libraries um what Lauren was talking about was one of our story stations which is more of a drop in and it provides the same early literacy techniques but you it's not a formal class so allows more people who may not have attended a program to see what a library is like so we actually set up a screening station um which is doing a vision test measuring your height um and just you know like testing audio testing which is just like some of those major components but might seem a little scary um we find if kids have the ability to play and explore within their own like as a play experience it makes them L much less um scared of a new experience and it also removes some of that intimidation that parents may feel as well I think two there's barriers that need to be worked on to to remove I mean I just know for Staffing purposes we'll try to do Saturday screenings because of course parents can't take off during the week they don't want to take off um also multilanguage you need to have screeners or interpreters coming in I mean those are some of the I mean I think of hey why you know what are the what are the hard Parts those are the hard hard parts to it and people it does I mean they just don't know what it seems like you know a baby's born and they don't know like okay three years later you should do this I don't it's not from my experience it's not coming from my regular checkups at the doctor's office right that would be the touch point I would have expected to hear of it sure um I was talking with a couple of my um colleagues yesterday about this panel and they said why would you screen a kindergartner at age three right and so I think they even people who have um older kiddos who are already in school have already kind of forgotten the the need of that early catch for certain situations well I think the understanding of what it exactly is is just you know in early end what what it really means because people will say oh they can go to kindergarten now it's like well that's not really what it's about trying to explain that so I I will say libraries are very near and dear to my heart and so I was really really impressed by all of the different programs that funnel through the library in addition to all the amazing programs we offer here and through the county and through our Partnerships um of all those wonderful programs which one do you feel is the most challenging for people to have access to at the library and and why do you think that is oh I feel like all of us would have a slightly different answer who work um within learning and Outreach um I feel we had so much momentum in our early literacy classes um prior to co like if even if you look at the statistics our numbers were huge and we're slowly redeveloping that we have Staffing hours but trying to catch everyone with a library program um that is designed to provide early literacy tips to the parents and Caregivers for them to continue on that's ultimately the goal of an early literacy class and making it age appropriate um right now Prior Lake Library I give them complete Credit in props they are doing baby classes they're doing toddler classes and they're doing classes specifically for um like three to fives um and we do a lot of family classes at our other locations um but that being able to break it down and have a space for parent not only for kids who are kind of developmentally all at the same level but it provides parents a connection to other parents who are going going through the same thing and those different age classes I think that's our biggest challenge is being able to provide that at all of our locations um and to provide it at times when families are able to attend caregivers and their children are able to attend and so that's always I feel like been a struggle like how do we make it accessible because the messages are so important um this is partially why we started read and play it's been a five-year passion project of ours is to bring those early literacy classes to inhome child care providers um because they may not have transportation getting six kids to one location at the library at 10:30 I H I know one provider who does it and she is amazing and but I've talked to her and she goes some days it's a struggle and we're coming in a little late um but to be able to provide those resources to people who are connected with kids on a daily basis um and then also their caregivers to be able to continue those early literacy practices that we really promoted in our classes so like just how do we expand that audience how do we make it age appropriate um using similar materials how do we expand our classes that way I would say that is probably our biggest challenge and I feel like Lisa and Jen might feel it's a little bit different but I feel just with the years that we've spent working on this that is our biggest challenge that we constantly face Ellie can I ask another um just access question so on page 21 yes um this looks at the visits um to youth centered programs and one of the high points in this packet I thought was the increase in the number of kids who are getting to the read mobile yes can you talk about what is the long-term plan for maximizing the use of that because looking at EXP Banning read mobile access has been a topic of interest for a long time so what's the plan for that going forward absolutely um so one thing that changed is Last Summer the REM mobile took over the off-site summer reading program which connects with um School District kids company child care providers during the summer and also some of the summer schools uh summer learning adventures and using the read mobile we actually bring and let kids build a classroom collection of books that they can borrow throughout the summer they each get a pick a title then we add a few extras because you know everyone's going no no you don't you already have one in here so but we could put a couple of really popular titles we put different various levels um to try and connect more with kids we've changed our programming Model A little bit so during the school year we're often visiting sites where children are whether it's after school meeting kids as they get off the bus um a lot of times we see kindergarten through like third fourth grade which is really our that target audience for trying to provide positive literacy experiences um we realized during the summer when we visit those communities we aren't seeing the kids as much because they're in child care or they're staying home or they're told to stay at home and you know not quite as Freer range children as there were in the past um so what we're doing is we're building buing collections for those sites so they'll have books that they can go and visit the office and borrow um the read mobile is expanding to include more visits to offsite summer reading programs that was a request we had and this is a large quantity of kids this is hundreds of kids in each district that we see thousands by the end it's like 30 2100 I believe we see in the summer and the more visits we can make the more impact we can make so for our larger sites we're doing that are there all summer we are doing visits three times as opposed to twice last year we didn't figure out how to staff it um we couldn't figure out how to get the vehicle out that often and also partner with masasa summer camp and um continue doing public visits to try and connect people like here's a fun way to visit the library here's also what your library has to offer and build that physical connection between a great place to visit connect with families usually our summer visits are at a park um going forward I think the future is we examine every year and to see how the program works what's working what isn't how can we be out there more this year we have a couple of part-time staff who will be joining us just to provide coverage at Mikasa to provide we are out like four days a week most times during the summer we are just finishing up the schedule and then that's visiting Summer Schools visiting in Jordan we go to the community ad Rec Center during their TT time and connect with families there um just really we promote screening kids borrow books they get snacks they get an activity to take with them um and we all say this is something you can do at their Library we also promote Open Access a lot especially when we're in Jordan especially when we're in bplan because it is such a great resource I can't wait to start promoting in Savage as well soon um okay thanks yeah I'm wondering from a board perspective is there a Target or a strategy because that is a resource that we are like really want to maximize the use of right yeah um I think that there are specifics still to be worked out um one of the things I was going to mention was from a visibility perspective getting out to those community events like a touch a truck I remember my kidos running in between the school bus and the RV and the re mobile right like those are the things and then jumping into a police car fire truck or something like that um I as a member of the friends of the library as well um was recently asked to help fund some additional material for the readed mobile to um support some of these added activities that they've been discussing so um the site visits will now have leave behind books for every kiddo in those programs um in the cities of savage Prior Lake and I believe a handful of others so we're we're lightly touching on the metrics um I don't know Jen did you have anything else yeah Chris okay um okay do you want one good morning Jennifer Schultz Scott County Library director um I was just gonna add to um what Ally and Lauren have already addressed that one of the initiatives we're working on starting with our board um and will extend into the community over the next um probably 6 to 9 to 12 months is a community engagement project where want to get out have conversations with the community to see additional things that the library could be offering so I believe that will give us some really rich information to continue to plan for the Reed mobile um as Ally indicated summer obviously is our really high time um but I think doing some um additional planning for how we cover the entire year and what that might look like um moving forward so I'm really excited about the community engagement project and to really get that information from from our community members um like Library users as well as non- Library users um that can help um help us um for the direction that we're moving forward thanks John so in again all of those lovely wonderful programs you guys are running I noticed you have a newer program the newborn talk program which was looked very exciting to me um could you tell me a little bit more about like how that one is going since it's a newer program and what kind of surprised you about this program um well it's been a it was a actually a passion project of mine for before Co I actually I I didn't come up with the whole con we didn't come up with the whole concept Northfield actually does that so why reinvent a wheel right so we um reached out to Scott County Public Health and they've been absolutely fabulous partners with this so uh the program runs it's every Wednesday we try to make it as easy as possible for everybody to remember when it is and remove all the barriers behind it so there's no registration it's at4 to 11: it is every Wednesday except we be clo for a holiday well how many holidays are on a Wednesday there's not many but we also provide free child care during it so families moms and baby new babies can attend and it's program goes from like birth to about 12 or 16 weeks we do a rotation of topics each week and the great part about it is the community involvement it has been really truly fabulous I I can't they breaking down silos of different they were so excited when we approached different areas like for instance some of our topics we have you know crying fussing and coping a topic and we have a chiropractor who comes in you know talks about just that type of health and then also I should pre say too it is structured by a parent and family educator from the new PR School School District so she's one like our employee all right parent or family Ed and then Terry Terry actually comes and she is the public health nurse so every single Wednesday they come these babies come in they get weighed right you check in on them and make sure everything is going well and there's you know little just check-ins topics of you know just immediate needs and then it'll go into these topics and like I said it's completely free um and the topics yeah like chiropractor we have capable kids involved with tummy time and physical development we have a doula who comes in and she you know focuses on that perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and just all those mental health things that can happen when you have a baby and after um and we have illness in babies and prepping for first cold we have a pediatrician from you know we're male down there so you know we have a male doctor who comes in and we we have attachment and social emotional development which is our early childhood special education program helps with that as well self-care woman OBGYN who comes in as well we have just our own programming returning to work playing is learning talking about the importance of that and then all these Wick is involved on feeding and nutrition um car seat safety we have a law enforcement who comes in as well so you know gives that face so we have this did I miss any but it is it is really truly it's I know early childhood stuff makes me excited but this is like it's just really exciting to see these families come in who are supported and the feedback we've received is just just phenomenal so through the you know more people involved in it spreads the word more and then you know more people are invested in it and you know we did a public uh the paper come and wanted to do an article and he's like well how much does this cost to run and I'm like well that's really hard I mean we have all these professionals who are volunteering their time and they are committed to it so it's just this wonderful thing that's happening we have um financial investments by the duck cup Memorial from new pra mental health um we have uh Mayo we have the Smith Foundation southern Minnesota initiative foundation and of course Scott County and and ship has helped us out too so it's it's really been great we've had 20 wait 34 babies we just started in September and we've had 34 babies that have graduated from class because they do a she makes a little she's just Crystal who runs it she is absolutely fabulous I mean she's an exceptional parent and family educator she knows the importance of building relationships with families making it safe making it you know good and we've already had like were talking about a really good success story that just happened and you know just just those wonderful things that happen because you know you're making a difference and I'm guessing that since she's connected to the school system she helps remind them about the screening yep absolutely yep we do all of that and what's great is you know many people's their first experience with school is not good so having it there we try to you know we're we're we're at the Early Childhood Center which is actually the district offices though and the community center the pool is also there so we're all in this big building so even just getting to know that the facility itself you know making it not a scary place to be making sure that your first interactions with teachers and and public health is it is a good is a good experience so that that lasts so yeah thanks Mary yeah Cindy you had some fellow up questions for public health I think I did uh so actually on this slide unbelievable the amount of additional visits that could be accomplished throughout this period of time in a very short order and I saw on page 18 as well some of the benchmarks that were achieved when you went and to see these kids my question is more on what are the findings of the kids that aren't achieving these are we tracking them how have we do you have any statistics that say we've gotten so many of these kids that haven't met some threshold we WRA services around them and we're tracking them we're tracking them from these visits they get into the schools they understand maybe some of the challenges they have and that those teachers and the educational system is prepared to help take them through and maybe Design Services and programs around them educationally as well so I just an amazing amount of visits you guys have done and kudos to you but what can you tell me about the kid that have not been achieving these benchmarks and how do you follow them through the trajectory of success sure I can address that um we're we're at the beginning U part of the reason you see the numbers increase is because we've made some changes in programming and expanded some of the models that allow us to serve more families so we're just beginning to really deep dive into the data around that and um taking a look at at all the uh implications of that I would say for kids that aren't achieving those things I mean our Focus working with them is really about laying the foundation of those uh healthy relationships that help them be ready to be good Learners they've had exposure to to learning opportunities and those kinds of things um if we were to dig specifically into where we where we don't have as much information about families it's probably those that are most stressed that sort of fall off or um some families uh it's a good thing they're having um opportunities to for self-sufficiency and they're finding housing in other counties so they're like moving out of the program we don't have as much information about that along the way but while we're working with them we are most certainly identifying um any concerns that that might be assessed by the Home visitor or that the parent expresses and connecting them to all kinds of supports and connections so that long after they're a part of our programs they know where they can be supported and connected in the schools whether it's baby talk groups or ECF or a referral to help me grow to be assess and served by the school district for some delays that that we know or if it's a parent that's um struggling with substance use disorders and getting them connected to supports so they're able to be an available parent and investing those interactions into kids so that they come as ready Learners kind of a similar question Nikki are what are we learning from the folks at St David's that are doing some of the prevention work about like those sort of common challenges that are getting in the way of kids attending school or parents getting their kids to school I guess yeah I think we're um you know we're learning that certainly like mental health and anxiety has been a a really um strong indicator of why kids aren't attending school um I think that the the St David's program is um certainly equipped to work with families on some of those issues and some of that movement is slow you know like getting a kid on the bus sometimes is like the most difficult part of getting them to school um the one thing I think that's starting to come out is the relationship between between St Davids and the schools um typically when when educational neglect would come to um Scott County I think there was like kind of a handoff between the school district and tus Scott County and now that they're really kind of more of a partnership um working together to maintain that relationship with kids and families um and figuring out how we can how we can get kids to school and I think the prevention piece for St David's has been huge for school districts where they can make that referral earlier on um to kind of to get to the problem sooner so that it hasn't been two weeks before kids have attended school and now it's a lot harder um to re acclimate into school and what have you missed learning and all of that where if it's two absences St Davids can work with a family on how do we get kids back into school and you see that as as a collaborative more than the handoff that we have traditionally seen in child protection correct like I think school district have said okay now it's in the County's hands and they're going to do with with it what they do and I think with St David's being a community organization working together with families um it's not that handoff it's like okay now how do we how do we work together to get these kids back into school thank you okay I'm gonna ask a hard one on uh Pages seven and eight uh it looks like uh High School graduation rates are steadily increasing uh however you know we notice that the thir uh perc of third graders achieving reading standards are steadily decreasing I'm guessing some folks just look at that high school graduation right and say they're still graduating they're doing better so what's the deal um I'm betting there's a story behind that disconnect between those two slides and maybe somebody might help enlighten me on that one didn't say it was a hard one it's it is um so I bet there's a lot to it I I would say to fully understand the picture if we look at our current reading rate these are the kids are going to be graduating in 10 years so we're it's so we need to go back to like the 20 13 2014 these are the kids that are graduating now um and the reading levels were higher whether they're caught up I I don't have the answer to that but looking at this now it will be interesting to see yeah the numbers you know it's like a 10year story and really it's screening it's a it's an 18e story for these kids so you have to look back grad um the numbers were steadily climbing at this rate so I can see why the graduation rates did climb it doesn't tell us what's going to happen in the future um and I'll I'm mildly disheartened but also optimistic about Mary yeah I would agree it's I think it's it's hard because it is a very long you're right I like how you it's a long story it's a long years and so you don't know these those outcomes for a while you don't know the impacts of what has all happened um and you're seeing research I'm going back to that social media if you any pay any attention to mental health and social media I mean you're seeing that direct response now are we going to start to see direct responses and graduation you know I it's it's going to be interesting to see how that all pans out um well it'll be interesting to see what can be put in place and what has been put in place from third grade until graduate ation to help catch kids up that may not be meeting those standards in third grade well and school districts well are they're stressed they're they're budget cutting you know our interventionalists I mean that's the that's another reality um know that it's not good I mean I'm not all here to give you all the good news but it's it's hard they're stressed it's um you know the financial stress on on districts can be really challenging then to make that effect for every every kid I do know speaking from the education point of view you know teachers care they care a lot and I mean sometimes it's almost too much get too too emotionally involved and really want to make that impact but um you know they're trying the best that they can do with the resources they have as well I say that about parents parents do the best that they can do with the resources they have we're also doing the best we can do with the resources we have so Chris uh commissioner wol would like to ask a question if you could thank you this gradu is this all just Public School graduation rate on here or is this everybody or what I'll just because there are private schools out there and does I think they're graduating Almost 100% you know but those people are on a different Cate because it's you know it's Mom and Dad are paying some money and we're going to get our kids educated they're going to graduate and so they're closer to Triple figures percentage for graduation in my opinion right so right is that added in here do you think or my guess would be not I A lot of times when I'm looking at graphs and different things but I don't know for sure where the I don't know Mar my guess given the source would be that they are included oh they are okay sorry they are okay sorry from Minnesota Compass if that's allinclusive but if they are that would imply that the public rates are lower than this right right if if private is averaged in here that would imply that the public rates are are significantly huh that's a good observation yeah thank you commissioner we're going to double check on that just to make sure that we have a clear understanding on that data that's a great question and I had one other thing is there are some efforts in place or have been for a while about looking at some longitudinal data um some data sharing opportunities to to be checking in on overtime between third grade or earlier and graduation what else what other things might be making a difference or what other contexts have been there so that's some work that's happening as well well cohort trends almost yeah to some degree with the working through the the data sharing at this point yeah modeling after some other counties yeah so I wanted to shift a little bit to the educational neglect side of this um so looking at page 13 we have educational neglect assessments from 2019 to 2023 um we see the decline in the numbers of uh assessments completed just the explanation for why we have that decline so um I will say that like some of that natural decline um recently has been I mean certainly I think there was some covid decline we we took some of those educational neglect assessments as child welfare um our PF worker parent support outreach program helped assess some of those um educational neglect reports during covid when schools closed down and some of those issues and then we have contracted with St David's um for our educational neglect prevention and diversion program so really we are trying to refer all of the families that we get to that St David's Community program in are only taking um the educational neglect reports that are also other child protection issues for assessments actually leads to my next series of questions so um we can go to page 14 and kind of the questions are the same for 14 and 15 um so I see for 2022 to 2023 we have complete data and we only answer February for 2 3 through 24 um but it looks like there's a pretty significant increase in the number of referrals near the end of that year um do we track when the referrals are coming during the course of the year and then try and adjust our program in an Outreach to try and Target hey these are critical times where we start to see an increase in um educational neglect or referrals um to make sure that there's more awareness or programming around there we do we've done a lot of Education work with um schools around like the program the St David's program you certainly see a rise around um the holiday time like before Christmas or holiday break um schools typically have a little bit higher reporting during that time before they go on break they want to get kids um into in a prevention program or diversion program to get those kids served and then we also see the springtime is typically a pretty high referral um for educational neglect April is typically our highest month for schools making reports I think the prevention piece of the program has fled that down a bit that schools can make those prevention referrals earlier um I do and I think this is where you know I wonder about the data from even last year where it's it's been on a decline is is that because schools have a little bit stronger partnership with families and they're doing some more of that work upfront um rather than making the referrals to the prevention program or the diversion program um because they they've seen I think some of that benefit of partnering with families before handing them off and making the report is April because of MCA April I think April is because after the the spring break period schools are starting to see the end of the school year and then they're wanting to make sure that they get children connected I thought maybe kids were afraid of the MCAS and didn't want to go to school stress you know all that no we haven't typically seen less um attendance during that time we've just seen a higher reporting period because I think schools have worked all along to try and get kids back into school and it maybe hasn't been successful so we might see reports in April for absences that happen in January and February and they just really haven't been able to engage families to come back in not necessarily like um less attendance during those times um I'm looking at two different slides one of them was on slide 11 which is your Scott County birth and you know there's been a decline in bir but then you know a couple years of decline goes back up but when I look following on page 19 which is your follow along program from 2019 there's been a straight decline so I would have thought that okay births are going down so the program and roles would go down as well but yet they're not can you talk to us a little bit about how births can still rise in 21 and and 22 and stay fairly stable but yet we still continue to see a the decline in the follow along program what are parents and our um are your enroles or are people who aren't enrolling do you have any idea why what is causing this [Music] difference can you hear me now um I can just talk a little bit about that um the birth rate has been going down uh significantly actually especially between like 2016 where we had almost 1900 births to more recently we're under, 1500 also at the same time Scott County population has increased so overall our County's population is aging um even though we are a younger County so we are getting less births per capita that we I would have expected um we also the birth rate is also strongly impacted um by the economy and we did see a decline during covid however um with that we would expect follow along enrollment to go down um because there's less babies a lot less babies particularly in 2023 and that's overall we get a lot of our follow along population is in the new bursts um with the births also and I'll turn it over to Ruth in a second we have in a positive way we have seen a much lower percentage of low birth weight babies than we have previously we've seen a a decline a huge decline thankfully in teen birth rates and an increase in adequate prenatal care during birth so those three things alone people will see a lot less have a lot less concerns also to another thing to remember is follow along is only one way that babies get screened um and this is really important to know so follow along has that zero to three um and they get assessed for developmental delay are they playing talking developing appropriately we also have our we're getting screen um being done by Family Home visiting and we've seen an increase in family home visiting as well so those kids are also getting assessed if they're playing and developing appropriately um as well as the newborn checks and pediatricians and a lot of the referrals from Help Me Grow whether they're in follow along or not are coming from public health and pediatricians so even though follow along numbers might be going down kids still have quite a few ways especially before that 3 and a half age where they're getting screened at the early childood screening there's multiple ways and we've been a lot more involved in ensuring that kids are getting um appropriately screened yeah thank you Lisa I just want to add one more thing I'm Ruth Highland I coordinate the follow along along program and so around 2019 um to 2020 we had some staff change over and we um actually kind of changed some things with how we were enrolling families in the follow along along program so specifically in our family home visiting program we used to enroll all of those families in the follow along program so that was counted in the data earlier on like 2016 2019 um and so we just found that a lot of that was duplicative because the home visitors were doing the questionnaires and then the followup so we um just because um time and trying to maximize our staff time and things um we stopped doing that so that does account for some of the drop which um that the graph doesn't state that but I also want to just draw your attention to the yellow bars um the referrals so as you can see those are higher than ever so those are so I feel really confident that we are connecting with the kids we need to connect with because those are early intervention referrals so we're connecting them to um you know through the help me girl system to the early intervention with the schools private OT PT speech therapy things like that and um we do a lot of um at really starting in the two-year mailings two and a half years to three when they graduate we do a lot of education on um Early Childhood screening how to locate your school district we can help um with a warm hand up and connecting them to those appointments especially with those kids that are frailing on the monitor to failing So yeah thank you um as a parent who has two kiddos in that program I would say that there is an opportunity to again communicate the value proposition of the program because it takes a decent amount of time to fill out those packets every month and they are not digital and you have to put them in the mail and like and for two kiddos who have been developing pretty on track um I would say the the feedback that I have personally received hasn't needed to jump into intervention so for me it's harder to justify the time it takes to fill it out but I can see where those referral incidents would be really beneficial to have that that connection yeah and I'll add to um in the next in the next couple years we should be getting more funding from the state and they're right now really um working on moving the program to online so it will be a lot easier to complete um by phone we'll always still offer paper for those that need it um but then we're really um really doing a lot of um work right now on just reaching all population so all cultures all languages things like that that we just haven't had the resources for so there's going to be I think a lot of growth and follow along really positive growth in the next few years so thank you I can just add to what Ruth and Lisa have said so we have all these opportunities really early if a child is at Birth identified with a condition that would put them at risk for developmental delays there should be an auto there would be an automatic referral for services or evaluation through again that Central intank Point that we have as a state to Help Me Grow that then trickles down to the um school districts to offer early intervention services or a medical or occupational therapy referral from the from the providers then we have the universal approach of inviting All Families born into the fallong program where parents opt in to fill out those um questionnaires and then there's been a lot of work in recent years around standardizing those assessments of kids with tools like the asq's and asq the social emotional and developmental screening tools so that everybody's using standardized practices to take a look at kids and when they might need addition Services whether like Lisa said it's at their well checks or it's US during home visiting it's required part of our models we we um as a public health department we we are a mandated partner in child find activity to be sure we're identifying kids early and getting them connected to help and supports um as early as possible early is always better so thank you and one last question before we turn it back to the Commissioners um one of our hopes in um pulling together these Scott County delivers conversations is that people in the course of preparing for them identify opportunities um to do things differently and so I'm just wondering if if there are one or two of you like did anybody learn anything in the course of talking to each other that identified a gap in Access or a place where we could make Services more accessible to kids did you learn anything from putting this together I can start really quickly the program that that you Mary was describing um I think would be a really great fit for the Family Resource Center um or something similar to it I think one of the the issues that the Family Resource Center has generally had is getting out to the community um they've got a really good returning cycle but I think we're they have historically still struggled to to grab new folks and I think that would be an interesting program to connect with a certain population um I also think that there is value in the regular scheduled programming I think that that is something that I have personally struggled with trying to get into a class right the fact that you can see a schedule out in advance that um there's a plan and you can drop in I think that would be a really great fit so I think opportunity wise I'd love to see something like that thank you sh appreciate that just a nugget I was going to share earlier but we are also engaged in a similar newborn talk project with uh the Shaka District that's been going also since fall and we've had a request now from prior like shaky so the communities are asking for these things too and in addition to what you're saying I think we're seeing a growth across the community a little bit more accessible when it's out and about as well so we're excited about that I just want to share being in the program the program was only supposed to go through 12 weeks and it was the families that asked if they could keep going to run through the topics and to receive the support and connections yeah they asked for it because we yeah but that just shows you what the need like they find it so valuable thank you so much um Madam chair I will hand it back to you wonderful thank you um this since my time on the board this has been just a ever increasing um topic because we know and I think I talk with community members often who are like you're the Scott County Board you're supposed to plow roads why do you really care about babies through three-year-olds and and young children and young families and I think that it relates so much to all we do and I think it relates so much to I tell people all the time we want to work ourselves out of a job I'd love to have nobody in jail and nobody in child protection and nobody having mental health crisises because we could all save lives and save taxpayer money and we've learned research has shown This Is Where It Starts supporting young children and families so thank you just a reminder I think to all of us why why do we care about this again oh yeah it's it's probably the most important so I have some comments but I'll start with my other colleagues who would like to go first go ahead go commissioner Brandon I I just I agree um with that um this really feels like a part two to the um conversation that we had last month on child welfare um so it's good to see that things are happening um I had gone on a um outing with the um family um oh I know I can't visi home visiting there you go um and the amazing work that they're doing to get out information and still work with the families on their their issues that they need to deal with and um so I I appreciate that I I also want to point out that Lauren Lauren is here um as a parent and as a volunteer to our community um and I really appreciate the work that she's done on the library board and and um and and coming here and realizing that children are a great asset to our community so thank you Lauren than you thank you commissioner before I go to commissioner wolf I just want to add on to that I was saving it but since we're on the topic of Lauren I just the topic of Lauren I would like to give a very very public thank you to you for your years of service on the Scott County Library board you've been on since January of 2020 and you're leaving us and moving and even more impressive about her presence here today is she is like literally in the middle of moving and heading to Chicago soon for a house inspection so but yet she prioritized being here so thank you for your service your new community is going to be lucky to have you um doing the same thing there I'm sure so thank you very much okay okay yeah moving moving I was just gonna say ER is right down the hall applications and applications are available digitally but apparently I don't know if it's too late she'll be back okay all right I'll have more to say but I'll defer back thank you m chair I I just was going to say I think allly touched on it the most you're the library person I think the libraries are a great answer to a lot of this stuff I had four boys and I there's a couple other ladies in here with four boys and I could put my whistle and my striped shirt away and bring them to the library you know just everybody we're reading for an hour and I mean that helps and I can't remember how much it cost me to get in for each of them I think I had a season pass but I think it was free you know it's like it's all there for free and you know I've even uh talk that some of the libraries we have schools the high school the middle the you know uh early schools maybe if somehow we could open those up and make or make bigger libraries or something I see J I don't know but you know just where the public could go to those libraries you know we've got all these little libraries all over cities and look at Savage how many schools have they got in aage three seven seven schools and they've all got libraries you know so I don't know somewhere there's an answer but um Bo just there's lots of resources out there there's almost no excuse to not be able to in my opinion and I see and jenet Williams she was point she's here she was the former Library director at one point and uh I don't know if I see Jake here Jake's here so libraries you know I think there's a lot of answers that could be found there for reading and a lot of stuff so that's my comment thank you thank you well I think we know what he's going to do in his next chapter I did there volteer list for Library should be volunteering at library maybe maybe okay so one of my questions I always this is kind of a recurring theme um I one of my questions is always uh what are we on your page eight um the third grade reading level standard is that the gold standard have we arrived at that or is it a standard is it a barometer like is it the thing yeah it is yeah yes it is it is the thing the research behind it shows typically student successes which is yeah you know learning to read up to third grade you're reading to learn after third grade so commissioner we've heard that from new prag we've heard it from shaki we've heard it from Prior Lake the next time we're talking about this you will see a graph of 2021 grad rates with like 2011 third grade reading with 2006 screening percents and that's the thing we're missing I think that Mary was trying to hit on it's hard to see it here because it's over that 18year span and I think that's where you start to see the trends and we just we need to get that put into a diagram for you we've been struggling to get a little bit of a back in history but we will get there well and that that is super helpful because we I don't know if we're doubling down on it but we're definitely doubling down on it with some of our relationships with with the schools I know data sharing is sometimes an issue which I think was listed as a kind of a still work in progress but hopefully that's getting better maybe maybe not looking out at the so that we can get this information because if it's if it's just a barometer I mean I know you know there's all kind of lights and gauges on our dashboard but is this the thing that actually helps intervene when we can can I respond to that commissioner I think one of the things that we learned like through the conversation some of the some of the um conversations we've had with school district specifically shaki is that they do really hold that as a significant marker that our question was are we paying attention to the right thing and the answer was unequivocally yes I think what we learned through the research that we did during that project was that two things early or reading at third grade and poverty are the two pieces that come together and so when we talk to really like those are the two things that are most predictive of academic success and so when we bring these conversations together having people who are part of um Meeting those basic needs the F frc's and the prevention teams like that's why they are really like integral to these conversations because it's those two markers that are going to tell you something about that predictive and if I could add um you know the research behind I I think about the reading and the science of reading and what the vocabulary children need to hear the engagement that they need to have with their parents or their child care you know whoever is caregiving them and I it's it's kind of scary because of screens because parents are engaged in this and they are not talking to their children and that I that is going to be impactful because we know that children here this many I can't remember the exact number of words you know their vocabulary building my Librarians help me you know that you know you need to hear this many words and then that will help this I mean there's even research behind Family Meal Time that families that sit down and have a meal together those are those those students or those children do better in school you know I'll go ahead and we know we know in poverty there's a lot of stress on the family yes and just like that service dog reduces stress and then you can engage when there's stress on the families to be able to be perceptive and see what the child needs and respond to that it makes it really hard and so it's not only the media it's that stress of poverty that impacts that early attachment by 12 months which is supportive social emotional development which is supportive of learning and cognitive skills do we talk about simple things um as family meals together is that something that we talk about and I know meals look differently but did you bring that up I mean that is that's a big deal yeah I was I was say that I think there should be campaigns against you remember in the Reagan years where you know here's your brain on I do you know the egg and the frying and you know I think that there should be like campaigns on like early reading and the and the impact you have on your child and the full development because the research is there people don't know it or they don't see it or they don't know they need to Beed again and again I'll I like to tie in just because we do a lot with early literacy um and so the reason why we emphas size picture books is they have three times as many rare words and that idea of repetition is so important like you need to hear a word over and over and over again in order to understand what it is so the more exposure you have one of so our early literacy practices is based on every child ready to read it's ready to read it's not every child reading because we don't want you reading at three um but it's to give you give parents the tools that they need and one of those skills which I think is so important is talking and we talk about striving for five back and forth interactions with kids because it helps develop when you speak and you learn how to listen you're using every single part of your brain and that takes development um we talk about this with everyone who goes through every child right to retraining so every child care provider that goes through our training they get to see brain models and MRI scans um but it takes like seconds for kids to hear a question process it and come up with a response and as they get that practice as they practice talking they get to develop those skills and I think that is one of those things that just one of the things the library emphasizes is not just reading playing singing and writing but also talking and just encouraging parents to talk to their kids whether it's at the table um at bedtime um at the grocer grocer store which is chaotic but wonderful it's the best place to ever talk to a child yeah but I think Teresa trying to tried to touch on it a bit too is that when when families are in poverty and they're worried about where they're going to sleep or how they're going to eat a meal it's more difficult to just talk to your child or to sit down and have that meal because there's there's so many other things swirling around in your mind that you can't really concentrate on that one thing we have a lot of efforts and tools like that I think that we all use to help families understand that or to um moments of joy that facilitate that connection those kind of things all so foundational to their future relationships their ability to learn that kind of a thing I do want to say because I know if I don't Lisa will jump up and say it but there have been some campaigns actually about the importance of things like family meals um we have talk tins if anybody sees a place that we could share talk tins they're just nice tins that have conversation starters for families and we share them out in the community and um all those things are important it's just not broadly known I think we often hear from families like what Lauren said was how do we not know about these things these Services these these activities are really great now why didn't we know I wish i' had have known especially if they weren't a parents own experiences there's always an opportunity then to for change commissioner any comments well um I applaud the County's efforts and I know that um education is not a primary responsibility of the county that we are support to all the educational system and these efforts you're making um I've been here a long time on this board and it seems like my entire time on the board we've been talking about reading levels at third grade um what I I feel like we got a table with some at least one leg missing maybe two legs missing and that is what are the school districts doing differently in regard to this this situation you know you know I would want to hear more you know what uh have you scoured the country or have you scoured other countries Innovative practices what's being done differently some school districts are doubling the amount of time they spend on reading I understand I I've dug a little deeper with some experts on that and they said if you just double exactly what you're doing you don't and you don't change and use that other half what you're doubling in a different way using different strategies it's probably not going to have a payoff and then some school districts are not advancing kids that you know because of the reading issue and then understand that the trauma of not being Advanced is pretty severe you know so I don't know the answers but I guess I I just I don't know if we can challenge the school districts you know in a conversation what Innovation what what are you doing dramatically different and I I haven't over the years I haven't really heard that and so I I app on our efforts but but I think there's another part of the equation that we have to really push on thank you for that well wonderful thank you all for the time today obviously a a passionate discussion thank you to the panel thank you to everybody but especially Lauren for your service Mary for your whole career dedicated to this and and coming here from New pre to share share what's going on so great glad to hear about the newborn talk success and it's I know it's in chak and and we're going to get that in more places so thank you have a great day thank you thank you