“Expanding early-childhood initiatives gives students a greater opportunity to learn and grow, giving them a brighter future in the classroom. If our children are well cared for, we know that our communities are strong and our future is bright.”
– Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell

• Take a virtual tour of OCDEL
• OCDEL Program Reach and County Risk Assessment (June 2007)
• Pennsylvania's FY 08-09 budget for Early Childhood Initiatives
• OCDEL Annual Report 2006-2007 (PDF)

In order to fulfill Governor Rendell’s vision for high quality early education for Pennsylvania’s children, the Office of Child Development was created by the Department of Public Welfare in September of 2004. The Office of Child Development supports an integrated approach to pre-Kindergarten, Early Intervention, Head Start, public and private schools, and early education programs and initiatives. Based on input from parents, providers, practitioners, and community members, the Pennsylvania Early Learning Keys to Quality were created to offer a unified access point to resources.

The mission of the Pennsylvania Early Learning Keys to Quality is to support a quality improvement system for programs and practitioners. This mission is accomplished by improving early education programs as well as increasing the levels of education, professional skill, and competence of practitioners. The Pennsylvania Early Learning Keys to Quality includes six Regional Keys and a state-level Pennsylvania Key located in Harrisburg. The Keys’ work is guided by principles that focus on the development and coordination of local and regional resources, promoting quality programs, and obtaining positive outcomes for children.

The Pennsylvania Key is located in Harrisburg and acts as a statewide hub for the Keys to Quality system as well as participating in the ongoing collaboration between the Office of Child Development and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The PA Key is involved in creating comprehensive statewide approaches, recommendations and strategies related to professional development in areas such as Pennsylvania’s Career Lattice, infant/toddler and school-age programs, and community engagement. The PA Key also supports the Environment Rating Scale (ERS) assessors, the Head Start State Collaboration Project and Pre-K Counts.

The Regional Keys take the lead in assuring that practitioners and administrators have access to high quality professional development opportunities, as well as promoting and administering the Keystone STARS program. They also contract with local Community Engagement Groups and lead inclusive regional planning and partnering efforts with institutions of higher education. Finally, each Regional Key develops and implements a regional quality improvement plan and funding for professional development, technical assistance, and resources for programs in their area to support Keystone STARS.

Keystone STARS is an important part of Pennsylvania’s early learning system. The program provides resources to assist in improving quality, recognizes quality early learning programs, establishes standards for performance, and provides financial incentives to programs. Keystone STARS provides parents with a framework for identifying early learning programs that are committed to improving child outcomes. Parents can “count the stars” towards quality in the areas of staff qualification and professional development, early learning program, partnerships with family and community, and leadership and management. As a program moves up in STARS, the Regional Key will designate it as meeting a STAR level, which range from Start with STARS to STAR 4.

Continued stakeholder participation from parents, providers, practitioners, and community members remains critical to the success of our system. Recently, based on the feedback of a diverse group of stakeholders from across the state, the Keystone STARS Performance Standards were improved to better reflect research-based best practices. Meetings were held across the state to introduce the improvements to the providers and practitioners who will be using the standards to continue providing high quality experiences for children. Also, the Pennsylvania Early Learning Keys to Quality continued its efforts toward an integrated early learning system by adding services to its existing professional development system. These services include an online professional development calendar and information about professional development opportunities.

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about Pennsylvania’s efforts to provide our children with the best possible early education. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your Regional Key.