The Florida Children’s Forum was recently awarded the Florida Partnership for School Readiness contract to provide training and technical assistance to the School Readiness Coalitions to enhance school readiness program quality.  In this role, FCF will support the advancement of the Florida HUR Goals and the integration of HUR into a statewide coordinated network for professional development in the early childhood community.  Future plans for Florida HeadsUp! Reading include:

• Continued development of a coordinated system for training of facilitators as well as providing technical assistance to the Coalitions and Public/Private partners to provide hosting packages that will include facilitatior stipends, student books, training materials, and other support resources.
• Continued development of “facilitator” and “trainer or trainer” qualifications and evaluation procedures.
• Continued support for articulation agreements with State Universities, Community Colleges, Technology Schools, and private colleges as well as the application of HUR hours toward CDA, CEU, District Inservice Credit, state clock hours for licensing requirements and the Parents as Teachers (PAT) certification.
• Participation in the national HUR data tracking systems to include state-wide data on HUR facilitators, students, and child outcomes as well as the development of a state-wide evaluation system to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of the Florida HUR initiative.
• Development of a Florida HUR website linking to the Florida Partnership for School Readiness website.
• Continued dialog and direction from the Florida HUR Advisory Board.
• Ongoing communication with HUR facilitators and Advisory Board members via the Florida HUR listserv as well as the Network of Florida School Readiness Coalitions.
• Inclusion of additional distance learning family literacy resources for parents such as “Winning Teams – Guiding Behaviors”, another RISE Learning Solutions’ productions available through the HeadsUp! Network.
• Ongoing communication and coordination with the Department of Education’s Telestar satellite system, the Florida Knowledge Network, to support the free transmission of HUR broadcast to all 11 state universities, 28 community colleges and 4 research schools.