Rapid Response Team (RRT) Implementation Mini Grant

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Background

A grassroots and collaborative approach has emerged in several Pennsylvania communities to provide a cross-sector Rapid Response Team (RRT) deployed to early childhood education (ECE) programs when an early care and education program is struggling with the challenging behavior of a child who is at immediate risk of expulsion. Because of the interest in many other regions to do the same, OCDEL has invested Preschool Development Grant funds to support the expansion regional Rapid Response Teams to pilot and evaluate over the lifetime of the grant award (through December 2025*). Full scale implementation in 18 of 19 of the Regional Early Learning Resource Centers began August 1, 2024. A grantee in ELRC Region 7 will begin a 6-month planning phase, with implementation beginning February 2025.

Increasing access to RRTs locally supports the following goals of OCDEL and the Preschool Development Grant strategic plan:

Provision of trauma sensitive, human-centered, collaborative short-term support in ECE programs struggling to support a child(ren) with challenging behavior at risk for expulsion.

Facilitate quick referrals to additional supports, not limited to Early Intervention (EI 0-3, 3-5), Family Support Programming, Home Visiting, IECMH consultation, and/or behavioral health services.

*dependent on availability of federal funds

In general, the role of RRT’s is to:

Respond within 48 business hours to any ECE program.

Facilitate the development of a case based collaborative plan of action.

Provide short term support to the ECE workforce and families.

Provide efficient warm handoffs to additional community supports as necessary.

The Rapid Response Team approach is guided by the Rapid Response Team (RTT) Toolkit and Training Approach, a resource whose development was supported by the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) to provide a framework for additional Pennsylvania communities to explore collaborative capacity to implement a similar approach within existing early learning and cross-sector partnerships and funding streams.

The focus of this funding opportunity is to support development and/or expansion of early childhood focused Rapid Response Team approaches to meet Pennsylvania’s early childhood workforce needs by supporting programs struggling with the challenging behavior of a child(ren), providing short term support to the program’s staff, child, and child’s family, and utilizing community and regional partnerships to provide warm handoffs to additional community supports as necessary. An approved grantee must design and implement an approach that:

responds to requests for support for a child(ren) at high risk of expulsion/suspension within 48 business hours to any ECE program,

facilitates the development of a collaborative plan of action,

provide short term support to the ECE workforce and families that prioritizes/incorporates:

principles of early relational health,

social-emotional development of young children, and

builds the capacities of adults to utilize positive approaches to addressing behavioral challenges and family engagement/relationships.

provide warm handoffs to additional community supports as necessary, and

participate in data collection to support the cross-site evaluation.

Contacts

Regional ELRC and Grantee	Online	Email	Phone
ELRC 1: Northwest Institute of Research, Inc. Erie	Rapid Response Teams (RRT) (nwirelrc.org) Rapid Response Team Aims to Reduce Expulsion, Childcare Center (barberinstitute.org)	rrt@nwirelrc.org	(814) 823-5366
ELRC 2: Clearfield County League on Social Services Hyde
ELRC 3: Early Learning Connections Butler
ELRC 4: Engage Kidz LLC. Murrysville	Engage Kidz Rapid Response Team (engagekidz.com)	rrt@engagekidz.com	412-514-6025
ELRC 5: Trying Together Pittsburgh	Allegheny County Rapid Response Team (elrc5.alleghenycounty.us) Rapid Response Team (tryingtogether.org)	rapidresponse@tryingtogether.org
ELRC 6: Center for Community Action Everett		Kim Hengst khengst@ccaofpa.org	(412) 522-0825
ELRC 7 TBD
ELRC 8: Child Development and Family Council of Centre County, Inc. State College		Kim Alloway Rapid Response Coordinator kalloway@cccforpa.org
ELRC 9: Capital Area Intermediate Unit Enola	Expulsion & Suspension (caiu.org)	Irene Reedy, Ed.D. Program Supervisor ireedy@caiu.org	(717) 732-8400 Ext. 8543
ELRC 10: Community Connections for Children, Inc. York		Kim Alloway Rapid Response Coordinator kalloway@cccforpa.org
ELRC 11: Community Services for Children, Inc. Allentown
ELRC 12: Community Services for Children, Inc. Allentown
ELRC 13: Community Services for Children, Inc. Allentown
ELRC 14: Community Services for Children, Inc. Allentown
ELRC 15: The Education Institute for Early Intervention Lansdowne
ELRC 16: Community Services for Children, Inc. Allentown
ELRC 17: Montgomery County Intermediate Unit Norristown	MCIU Rapid Response Team (mciu.org)	RRT@mciu.org	(484) 685-1811
ELRC 18: Public Health Management Corp. Philadelphia
ELRC 19: YMCA of Greater Brandywine West Chester	Early Learning Center Rapid Response Request (ymcagbw.org)

Read full announcement about awardees from January 2023.

This project was made possible by grant number 90TP0096. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

Contact

Lisa Unrath
PDG Manager
lisunr@pakeys.org