In the past year, Virginia Governor Northam signed legislation to create the Virginia Unified Early Childhood System, which is designed to support children’s school readiness regardless of economic, cultural, or ethnic background. Research indicates that when young children have access to high-quality early learning opportunities, they do well in school and life. The new system affords children at risk the opportunity to enter kindergarten primed to achieve their maximum potential. 
Over the next three years, the Virginia Department of Education will develop and scale the system to ensure quality in all publicly funded early childhood programs.
The objectives of the system are:

• Build relationships to foster rich cross-sector and cross-systems partnerships (such as family support, social services, health, and mental health).
• Increase access to high-quality experiences for children in programs that meet their family needs.
• Strengthen support for an effective early childhood workforce to provide high-quality early childhood experiences for children.
• Partner with families through clear communication and engagement in the design and implementation of the system.

The Preschool Development Grant Birth-Five (PDG B-5) – a collaboration between the Virginia Department of Education, Virginia Early Childhood Foundation, University of Virginia, and communities across the state (including Fairfax County) – provides funding for the design and implementation of the system. Participating communities represent Virginia’s diversity and will demonstrate models of effective local implementation. 

As a result, the Commonwealth will unify quality standards, establish a unified rating and improvement system, and realign funding to support children’s equitable opportunity for success.

System Components

A major component of the Unified Early Childhood System is the unified measurement and improvement system that will infuse quality into all publicly funded infant, toddler, and preschool programs. These include the Virginia Preschool Initiative, Early Childhood Special Education, Title 1 Preschools, Head Start and Early Head Start, and early childhood programs, centers and family child care homes that participate in the child care subsidy program.
A second component, coordinated enrollment, will ensure that all programs offer referrals of available program options. It also creates a streamlined application process with one point of entry for online and print applications. And, it establishes mechanisms for a waitlist to take family preferences into account when matching children to available slots. 
The third component is Virginia’s Early Learning & Development Standards, which will be required in all publicly funded early childhood programs. These are aligned with the kindergarten Standards of Learning and the Head Start Outcomes Framework. They are focused on equity as it relates to race, ethnicity, geography, educator, language, and socioeconomics.

System Outcomes

The outcomes of the Unified Early Childhood System will focus on the family and child. For families, it aims to ensure they are part of a connected community; have the resources to support their children; and inform ongoing school readiness efforts. For children, it aims to ensure healthy births; cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development; and educational health and economic success.
For more information on the Unified Early Childhood System, visit doe.virginia.gov. 
The Office for Children is supporting early childhood programs, centers and family child care homes throughout Fairfax County to provide children with high quality experiences. Mentors and coaches are available to provide technical assistance and professional learning opportunities in areas of positive adult-child interactions, curriculum implementation, and the creation of engaging environments. Enrollment in Virginia Quality (VQ), the initiative that currently supports quality measurement and improvement, and PDG B-5 are options for programs to receive this support. For more information, please contact Judith.Yavit@fairfaxcounty.gov for VQ information and NCSOFCPDG@fairfaxcounty.gov for information about enrolling in PDG B-5.