Provider Resources
Strengthening Families™ is a research-informed approach to increase family strengths, enhance child development and reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. It is based on engaging families, programs and communities in building five protective factors that have been shown to make positive outcomes more likely for young children and their families, as well as reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect:
Learn more about what each factor means >
When families and providers in organizations who work with them are on the same page about the protective factors that they are trying to achieve, they are better able to work together to accomplish these goals. Below are some key resources on this approach for providers who work with, for, and on behalf of children and families:
This framework has been adopted by the United Way of San Antonio and The Bexar County’s Children’s Issue Council’s participating agencies in their home visiting programs, nutrition classes, Play and Learn groups, fatherhood programs, site-based parenting classes, and model classroom activities working with childcare centers and homes. ReadyKidSA partner organizations are encouraged to use this approach in their work, along with other existing evidence- and asset-based practices.
In addition, the Nurturing Parenting Programs ® framework provides a similar set of protective factors whose programs help build in families. When the 6 protective factors in this framework are established in a family, the likelihood of child abuse and neglect diminishes.
As parents and caregivers, we often want to know what progress our children are making in their early learning and preschool programs. Different programs and service providers use a variety of tools and assessments to measure the progress and early development of children in their programs. The list below includes some of the most commonly used assessments that early learning and preschool providers in Bexar County use to track the progress of their students to help them to successfully reach key steps in their development.
Battelle Developmental Inventory
Helps measure a child’s progress along this developmental continuum by both global domains and discrete skill sets. BDI-2 is aligned to the three OSEP Early Childhood Outcomes, as well as the Head Start Child Outcomes. It can be used to meet the federal reporting requirements across Part C, Part B/619, and Head Start programs.
Assessing Parenting is an online application that scores and records inventory assessments of participants. Agencies can then access profile and program data for reporting and intervention.
Teaching Strategies provides a wide array of assessments for children in any early childhood program.
An ongoing assessment to measure development in children ages 36 months to 72 months of age across 7 developmental domains – Language, Cognitive, Pre-Writing, Fine Motor, Gross Motor, Adaptive (Self-Help), and Personal/Social.
A system for various assessment tasks, including outcomes and data for Head Start and other government-funded programs.
Offers many enhancements to a vocabulary assessment that has been well respected for 50 years. This latest edition has been co-normed with the Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition (EVT™-2), allowing you to make direct comparisons between receptive and expressive vocabulary performance.
The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR™)
The STAAR program includes scheduled annual assessments in specific subjects for students. Students will take their first of these assessments in 3rd grade and will take their last while in high school.
The AAPI-2 is an inventory designed to assess the parenting and child rearing attitudes of adolescents and adult parent and pre-parent populations. Based on the known parenting and child rearing behaviors of abusive parents, responses to the inventory provide an index of risk for practicing behaviors known to be attributable to child abuse and neglect.
Parent-completed developmental and social-emotional screeners to pinpoint delays in children as early as possible. Other tools such as the ASQ:SE-2 and ASQ-3 can also be found here.
Helps early childhood educators more effectively meet the needs of young learners—so each child is better prepared for school.
Measures teacher-child interactions and helps providers target areas for improvement. This tool assesses factors directly tied to student learning – including positive and negative classroom climate, teacher sensitivity, language modeling, and behavior management.
These scales evaluate items such as: physical environment, basic care, curriculum, interaction, schedule and program structure, and parent and staff education. These scales are designed to assess process quality in an early childhood or school age care group.
Early Development Instrument
All Early Development Instrument (EDI) content (text, illustrations, graphics, designs, etc.) created by and for the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County including any EDI data and maps are property of the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County and require written permission for replication or reproduction in any form. To submit questions or to request permission to use any and/or all content of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) data contact Kasi Cox at kcox@unitedwaysatx.org.
The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is an assessment completed by teacher in kindergarten to measure their students’ kindergarten readiness in 6 key areas. These are usually administered in the fall or early spring of a child’s kindergarten school year and reported back to the school the following fall.
The following school districts are currently participating in EDI data collection and use:
To receive more information, contact us (link to contact page).
These local foundations offer grants at various times throughout the year. Check back for an updated list of specific, available grants. If you’d like to be notified of new grants, sign up for our newsletter (link).
Genevieve and Ward Orsinger Foundation
The Gordon Hartman Family Foundation
United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County
These corporations occasionally offer funding for early childhood services. Please check back for an updated list of specific, available grants. If you’d like to be notified of new grants, sign up for our newsletter (link).
Target Early Childhood Reading Grants
While typically through large proposal requests, these federal entities offer grants at various times throughout the year. Please check back for an updated list of specific, available grants. If you’d like to be notified of new grants, sign up for our newsletter (link).
Maternal and Child Health Grants (Health Resources and Services Administration)
Data plays an important role in helping us understand the landscape of early childhood in Bexar County. We can identify areas where we can celebrate progress, and identify areas where we need to allocate additional resources.
The State of Children in San Antonio Needs Assessment
CI:Now Presentation for Children’s Agenda Kickoff – October 17, 2016
Children’s Issue Council Dashboard
The United Way’s Children’s Issue Council collects data on early childhood progress in Bexar County, including:
SA2020 Data Dashboard
SA2020 collects data on all 57 indicators identified in the SA2020 Vision to measure progress toward that vision. Related indicators to early childhood can be found in the following SA2020 issue areas:
San Antonio & Bexar County Health & Demographic Statistics
Early Development Instrument
All Early Development Instrument (EDI) content (text, illustrations, graphics, designs, etc.) created by and for the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County including any EDI data and maps are property of the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County and require written permission for replication or reproduction in any form. To submit questions or to request permission to use any and/or all content of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) data contact Kasi Cox at kcox@unitedwaysatx.org.
The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a population measure of how young children are developing in communities in the United States. The EDI measures five areas of early childhood development:
The United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County is collecting EDI data in partnership with the following Bexar County independent school districts: Northeast ISD, Northside ISD, Southwest ISD, SAISD, Edgewood ISD, and Harlandale ISD.
To find out how you can access and use current local EDI data, please contact Kasi Cox at United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County.
Interactive Web Data Book Provided by Child Protective Services
KidsCount
Texas Education Agency
The DataBank delivers continuously updated trend data, in plain language, with the latest national estimates for all indicators, along with accessible color graphics and tables. DataBank estimates come from reliable sources including federal reports and websites.
National Center for Education Statistics
The primary purpose of the Fast Facts website is to provide users with concise information on a range of educational issues, from early childhood to adult learning.
This includes general demographics, employment, education, income searchable by city, county, state or national.
The following organizations provide a variety of trainings and workshops to early childhood professionals. Some also provide trainings tailored to your organization’s needs and are open to site-based partnerships.
Early Learning
Health & Nutrition
Mental Health Basics Speakers Bureau
Family Support
Tools for Teachers or Professionals
All Early Development Instrument (EDI) content (text, illustrations, graphics, designs, etc.) created by and for the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County including any EDI data and maps are property of the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County and require written permission for replication or reproduction in any form. To submit questions or to request permission to use any and/or all content of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) data contact Kasi Cox at kcox@unitedwaysatx.org.
The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is part of a national initiative called Transforming Early Childhood Community Systems (TECCS), developed to help match proven school readiness solutions with unique needs faced by communities. TECCS represents a partnership between the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities and United Way Worldwide.
EDI Developmental Area – Year 5 Chart
San Antonio Map Year 5, Part One
San Antonio Map Year 5, Part Two
San Antonio Map Year 5, Part Three
San Antonio Map Year 5, Part Four
San Antonio Map Year 5, Part Five
San Antonio Map Year 5, Part Six
San Antonio Map Year 5, Part Seven
San Antonio Map Year 5, Part Eight
San Antonio Map Year 5, Part Nine
EDI Developmental Area – year 4 chart
San Antonio Map Book Year 4 data
EDI Developmental Area – year 3 chart
EDI Snapshot 2014 – San Antonio
San Antonio Map Book Year 3 data
EDI Snapshot 2013 – San Antonio
EDI Community Profile 2013 – San Antonio
Instruction Sheet for EDI Teacher Portal
Parent Letter English 2018 IRB-approved
Parent Letter Spanish 2018 IRB-approved
October 4 Coalition Meeting
October 17 Stakeholders Meeting
October 25 Coalition Meeting
November 1 Coalition Meeting:
November 8 Coalition Meeting
November 29 Coalition Meeting
December 6, 2016
December 13, 2016
December 19, 2016
January 24, 2017
February 2017 Stakeholder Meetings – Bexar County Children’s Agenda
February 8 3:00 – 5:00 pm – Present Work to Date: Endorsement
February 10 1:00 – 3:00 pm – repeat
February 13 9:00 – 11:00 am – repeat
February 21, 2017
February 28, 2017
March 7, 2017
March 14, 2017
March 21, 2017
March 28, 2017
April 4, 2017
April 11, 2017
April 17, 2017
