State Department of Education expands at-home resources for families with young children
BATON ROUGE, La. (LDOE) — The Louisiana Department of Education today announced it has expanded its at-home care and learning supports for families who are home with young children as a result of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.
New support resources include:
Guidance for Early Learning at Home: A guidance document that walks families step-by-step through the process of creating a productive daily schedule, including tips and sample schedules, along with age-appropriate, play-based learning activities to enhance that schedule.
The guidance document also includes lists of academic resources for all students, including students with disabilities and English learners.
Noggin Cares: The department has partnered with Noggin, Nickelodeon’s learning service for children age 2 and above, to offer a free, three-month subscription to families. The app is loaded with read-aloud e-books, learning games, songs and other engaging content.
It also provides ideas for off-screen family activities, and it provides special content to help young children cope during this time.
“During this extraordinary time, Louisiana must support the hearts and minds of our youngest learners,” said Assistant Superintendent Jessica Baghian in a statement Tuesday. “Today, the department is thrilled to further expand families’ access to books, games, and play-based activities.”
The new supports announced today mark the latest efforts by the department to support the state’s youngest learners and their families.
Last month, for example, the department released a Continuous Education Toolkit for school systems that contains academic resources to support learning for all grade levels, including early childhood.
The early childhood resources include information on child development and lists of high-quality instructional materials and services that can be accessed online and through text messaging.
The same Continuous Education Toolkit also includes new early literacy support for families with children in grades Kindergarten through 2.
The information is designed to provide families a better understanding of how children learn to read and provides practical activities families can use each day at home.
In addition, the department partnered with Louisiana Public Broadcasting to launch an online hub of at-home learning supports for all ages, as well as to broadcast high-quality educational programming.
Finally, the department opened the Child Care Assistance Program to essential personnel who need reliable child care amid the public health crisis. At the same time, nonprofit advocacy organization Agenda for Children partnered with Care.com to provide three months of free service to those same workers to help them identify potential caregivers.
For more information and to access all resources, visit the Department’s of Education’s COVID-19 web page.