April’s Weekly Memos
“Alone we can do so little;
together we can do so much.”
Week of April 6
Active Supervision
Ensure staff are following posted Active Supervision Plan and update if there have been any staffing changes.
Purchasing
Diana is working on revising the SCOE GO Monthly Order Form. Please send her any feedback no later than 4/17/26
Here is a copy of the current SCOE Purchasing Guidelines. If you are unsure why the items you picked cannot be ordered, this document will shed some light
The deadline to submit purchase requisitions in Incident IQ is April 30, 2026. To ensure that this deadline is met, carts should be sent to Jennifer Sandoval, our buyer, by April 10, 2026. Be sure to maximize your site supply budgets by this deadline. Please note that items purchased with state funds must be received by June 30, 2026 and items purchased with Head Start funds must be received by July 30, 2026.
Sites may need items beyond what can be purchased using their supply budgets. Some examples of needs include replacing furniture that is old and/or in poor condition, replacing books and sensory items. If your sites have such needs, please have our buyer, Jennifer create a quote and submit the request by placing the quote in this folder no later than April 15, 2026. Requested items must be reasonable and allowable expenses.
Unannounced Monitoring
Head Start programs in California are experiencing unannounced Federal Monitoring Events. We are due for a Focus Area Two Monitoring Review this program year and have not yet been given a date. SCOE is ready for any federal monitoring review, announced or unannounced. Here is an explanation of the content of a Focus Area Two Review
Forms & Policies Updates
The following policies/forms have been added/updated on Incident IQ
HSP/EHS ERSEA Policy 26-27
F01-Collaboration with Special Education
HR101 Selecting Employees
CFS Form E-25 has been updated and posted to Incident IQ - “Preschool” was removed and now the form is just titled “Toileting Plan”
CFS Policy I-01 was updated and is awaiting Policy Council approval (Selection and Background Checks for Staff, Substitutes, Consultants, and Contractors).
CFS Policy A-03 has been updated and is awaiting Policy Council approval (2026-2027 HSP/EHS/CCP ERSEA Policy).
Classroom Risk Assessment has been entered into COPA as a Staff Assessment. PIM is currently working on the COPA Data Entry procedure.
Child Care Subsidy Sessions
Participants will learn more about Stanislaus County child care subsidy programs. Programs presenting include Child Care Resource & Referral, Emergency Bridge, CA Alternative Payment Program, CalWORKs Stages 1, 2 & 3, State Programs (Migrant, General Child Care & State preschool) & Head Start (Head Start Preschool, Early Head Start & Homebased). Child Care Subsidy Information Sessions
Safe Space
The CFS Mental Health & Wellness Team is offering an opportunity to enhance classroom safe spaces. If your classroom is interested in their support and you have not already submitted a request for these items, please complete this form: Safe Space/Calm Corner Request. Responses will be accepted until April 17, 2026. The form will ask you to upload a photo of your current safe space/calm corner.
Creative Curriculum Training
A Creative Curriculum overview for new staff will be held on Tuesday 4/21, sign up through COPA. If you are interested in attending, work with your supervisor to get coverage.
Licensing Reminders
Here are some reminders from an recent meeting held with Community Care Licensing:
Ensure hand sanitizer out of reach if in use
Provide drinking water inside and out
Keep licensing visit reports posted for 30 days
Ensure that screws on the toilets are capped
Ensure items in sensory bins have age-appropriate items and are supervised and covered when not in use
Be sure that environments are free of trip hazards including unused umbrella bases
Ensure ceiling tiles are in good shape
KSEP
· Form packets are available in COPA eDocs (“Agency” section) with pre-populated and blank forms included. Please ensure assessments are completed during the final two weeks before children transition to Kindergarten and are entered into COPA by June 1. For full details, refer to the KSEP flyer memorandum.
Webinar Announcement: Classroom Assessment Scoring System Support Series Virtual Event
Providing Feedback to Educators After CLASS Observations Home | California Department of Education (CDE) Achieving Success in Positive Interactions, Relationships, and Environments (ASPIRE) Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS?) Support Series Event (bizzabo.com) April2026
New CDSS Spanish Translations:
Creating Equitable Early Learning Environments for Young Boys of Color: Disrupting Disproportionate Outcomes, Responsive Early Education for Young Children and Families Experiencing Homeless, The Powerful Role of Play in Early Education
Updates for Family Staff
Eligibility & Enrollment Appreciation Event We are excited to be able to hold once again the Eligibility and Enrollment Appreciation Event. The event will be held on April 23, 2026 at the Martin Petersen Event Center from 9:00-12:30pm. If attending staff must RSVP by April 8. See the flyer for registration information.
A draft calendar of the HSP/EHS/EHS-CCP Community of Learners is available in the FCE Google Drive. Dates are there for planning and the final calendar will be added once training topics have been finalized.
Four parents representing Family Promise, Empire, SCOE GO, and Community Rep participated in HS Advocacy Day in Sacramento, where they had the opportunity to meet Assembly Member Juan Alanis and share their personal stories. A day filled with empowerment that left them feeling confident, heard, and proud.
Our last in-person Policy Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 28th. As a friendly reminder, please check in with your representatives and alternates to ensure attendance so that we can meet quorum and conduct our meeting as planned, and confirm whether any attendees will require childcare.
Information for Staff & Families
Head Start Recruitment Event: CFS is hosting a staff recruitment event April 27th, please share with anyone you think may be interested in a career with SCOE CFS or it’s delegates/partners.
IEEEP Newsletter: Here is this month’s IEEEP (Inclusion) Newsletter. Share with staff and families. If you need paper copies for your site, let me Oscar and we will get them out to you as soon as our time permits. This month Hermila Flores was the author of the newsletter and talks to educators and families about “Positive Descriptive Acknowledgement (PDA)” Here is the link to a google shared folder, where you may find copies of all previous published IEEEP newsletters.
Community Advisory Committee: The Stanislaus SELPA is hosing a series called Community Advisory Committee. The Community Advisory Committee (CAC) is open to parents, caregivers, guardians, grandparents, family members with children in general and special education, educators and representatives of local agencies who are interested in quality education for children with special needs
Seeds of Partnership: Seeds of Partnership is a technical assistance project funded by the California Department of Education Special Education Division through Sacramento County Office of Education. They provide parent and professional training, learning and support tools and resources in the areas of family engagement and more. Please see their flyer for more information
Community Baby Shower (English/Spanish) All HSP/EHS/EHS-CCP families are invited to attend the SCOE Community Baby Shower and Health Fair on May 8 at the Martin Petersen Event Center from 9am-3pm. Flyers are located in the documents folder.
Breakfast with Rufus—An Event for families of children living with Type 1 Diabetes
Help is available when you need it:
Access support from CFS Mental Health & Wellness team at cfs-mentalhealth@stancoe.org
SCOE’s Employee Assistance Program—In the moment counseling support is available by phone 24/7 at 800-295-8323.
CalHOPE: Call or text the CalHOPE Warm Line: (833) 317-HOPE (4673) The CalHOPE warm line connects callers to people who have persevered through struggles with stress, anxiety, depression—emotions triggered by circumstances and events in everyday life. The peer counselors listen with compassion, provide non-judgmental support, and guide you to additional resources that can give hope and help you cope.
Stanislaus County Warm Line—available by phone 24/7. Call 209-558-4600 Stanislaus Co residents can call when they are having a hard time making it through the day but not in crisis, need a caring listener to provide effective feedback to help explore options, or want support, assistance and resources toward recovery.
Stanislaus Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (STAN BHRS) Access Line: 1-888-376-6246
CA state hotline 833-544-2374 that people — particularly older, isolated Californians — can call for local non-medical services, such as food delivery and mental health care.
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline—available by phone 24/7. No holds and no busy signals Dial 988
Your health insurance. Call the phone number on your card to access a provider who accepts your insurance. You can access a professional at just the cost of a co-pay
Anthem Total Health, Total You-created to help you take care of your health, work on lifestyle changes and connect with specialized health professionals. Services include 24/7 Nurseline, Behavioral Health Resource, Case Management, Emotional Well-Being Resources & Inclusive Care
Carelon Wellbeing provides support with counseling, work-live support, legal services and financial services
Kaiser-Mental Health and Addiction Care Services
Week of April 13
SCOE GO Calendars
Thank you to the Program Quality Team for your work preparing site calendars and identifying non-child days, early-closure days, and slow-start days. Feedback on slow-start days was mixed and raised concerns about equity between full-day and extended-day programs.
To have the full picture, Extended Day families were surveyed last week regarding their preferences related to slow start. Parents feedback is as follows:
First week: 50% of families prefer that children attend regular hours. 24% prefer four (4) hours and only 25% prefer a two (2)-hour schedule
Second week: 70% of families prefer children attend a full day, 26 prefer children attend four (4) hours and only 4% prefer the two (2)-hour schedule
Third week: 93% of families prefer children attend regular hours & 7% prefer a four (4)-hour schedule
Week following winter break: 78% of families prefer children attend regular hours and 22% prefer children attend the four (4)-hour schedule.
To ensure we continue meeting Head Start requirements, maintain our state contracts, promote equitable scheduling, and remain responsive to family needs, we are adjusting our Slow Start schedule. Before finalizing these changes, we are inviting additional staff input. Please complete the staff survey regarding slow-start and early-closure days by April 17. https://forms.gle/bEC61z2v3iD8ToMT6
Upcoming Events for Parents
Here are two flyers for upcoming events:
Fatherhood Engagement Workshop (This event is specifically for father figures and their child (ages 3–5). At this time, it is open to all programs, as long as participants attend with their child. A snack will be provided during the workshop.)
Please distribute both flyers. These are great opportunities for families, and both events are free of charge. They support our ongoing efforts in promoting social-emotional development and healthy attachment.
ADA Requirements
Please be advised that effective April 24, 2026, SCOE’s web content (pages, links, and posted documents), need to comply with the federal rules outlined here: https://www.ada.gov/resources/2024-03-08-web-rule/ While SCOE, including the CFS team is working hard to update everything on our website to reach compliance by the deadline, it is likely that there will be a period of time that items that are currently posted will go offline until they can be updated. We will do our best to ensure that you have access to the documents you need to need to do your work.
Help is available when you need it:
Access support from CFS Mental Health & Wellness team at cfs-mentalhealth@stancoe.org
SCOE’s Employee Assistance Program—In the moment counseling support is available by phone 24/7 at 800-295-8323.
CalHOPE: Call or text the CalHOPE Warm Line: (833) 317-HOPE (4673) The CalHOPE warm line connects callers to people who have persevered through struggles with stress, anxiety, depression—emotions triggered by circumstances and events in everyday life. The peer counselors listen with compassion, provide non-judgmental support, and guide you to additional resources that can give hope and help you cope.
Stanislaus County Warm Line—available by phone 24/7. Call 209-558-4600 Stanislaus Co residents can call when they are having a hard time making it through the day but not in crisis, need a caring listener to provide effective feedback to help explore options, or want support, assistance and resources toward recovery.
Stanislaus Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (STAN BHRS) Access Line: 1-888-376-6246
CA state hotline 833-544-2374 that people — particularly older, isolated Californians — can call for local non-medical services, such as food delivery and mental health care.
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline—available by phone 24/7. No holds and no busy signals Dial 988
Your health insurance. Call the phone number on your card to access a provider who accepts your insurance. You can access a professional at just the cost of a co-pay
Anthem Total Health, Total You-created to help you take care of your health, work on lifestyle changes and connect with specialized health professionals. Services include 24/7 Nurseline, Behavioral Health Resource, Case Management, Emotional Well-Being Resources & Inclusive Care
Carelon Wellbeing provides support with counseling, work-live support, legal services and financial services
Kaiser-Mental Health and Addiction Care Services
Week of April 20
Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting
SCOE GO Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting this Wednesday, April 29, 2026. Please encourage families to attend the virtual meeting! Remind families as you greet them and point out flyer posted in the classroom. I appreciate your support.
Family Fun Finale
WE NEED YOUR HELP!! As we approach the end of a wonderful school year, we want to celebrate our amazing students and their families! Please SIGN UP to volunteer for an evening of play, connection, and community at our Head Start Family Fun Night. We need up to 25-30 volunteers. Use SIGN UP Google Form to sign up. We appreciate the support!!
This event is designed for the whole family to enjoy:
For the Kids: A variety of fun games, activities, and prizes!
For the Parents: Meet with local Community Resource Agencies to learn about helpful services and programs available in our area.
Event Details (please see attached flyer)-English/Spanish
When: May 18th, 2026
Time: 5:30 – 8pm (families) 5 – 9pm (volunteers)
Where: Martin Petersen Event Center- 720 12th Street, Modesto, CA 95354
SIGN UP LINK: https://forms.gle/hVvrNbCSKScjeNhXA
Help is available when you need it:
Access support from CFS Mental Health & Wellness team at cfs-mentalhealth@stancoe.org
SCOE’s Employee Assistance Program—In the moment counseling support is available by phone 24/7 at 800-295-8323.
CalHOPE: Call or text the CalHOPE Warm Line: (833) 317-HOPE (4673) The CalHOPE warm line connects callers to people who have persevered through struggles with stress, anxiety, depression—emotions triggered by circumstances and events in everyday life. The peer counselors listen with compassion, provide non-judgmental support, and guide you to additional resources that can give hope and help you cope.
Stanislaus County Warm Line—available by phone 24/7. Call 209-558-4600 Stanislaus Co residents can call when they are having a hard time making it through the day but not in crisis, need a caring listener to provide effective feedback to help explore options, or want support, assistance and resources toward recovery.
Stanislaus Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (STAN BHRS) Access Line: 1-888-376-6246
CA state hotline 833-544-2374 that people — particularly older, isolated Californians — can call for local non-medical services, such as food delivery and mental health care.
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline—available by phone 24/7. No holds and no busy signals Dial 988
Your health insurance. Call the phone number on your card to access a provider who accepts your insurance. You can access a professional at just the cost of a co-pay
Anthem Total Health, Total You-created to help you take care of your health, work on lifestyle changes and connect with specialized health professionals. Services include 24/7 Nurseline, Behavioral Health Resource, Case Management, Emotional Well-Being Resources & Inclusive Care
Carelon Wellbeing provides support with counseling, work-live support, legal services and financial services
Kaiser-Mental Health and Addiction Care Services
Week of April 27
Success Reports & Family Communication
Remember to enter observations in Learning Genie so you can continue to send your monthly success reports.
Office Supply Orders
Please utilize the new Office Supply Order button when submitting office supply orders. Please do not use this button for child supply orders.
Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting
SCOE GO Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) LAST MEETING of THE YEAR. This Wednesday, April 29, 2026. Please encourage families to attend the virtual meeting! Remind families as you greet them and point out flyer posted in the classroom. I appreciate your support.
Family Fun Finale
THANKS TO THOSE WHO HAVE SIGNED UP. WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP!! As we approach the end of a wonderful school year, we want to celebrate our amazing students and their families! Please SIGN UP to volunteer for an evening of play, connection, and community at our Head Start Family Fun Night. We need up to 25-30 volunteers. Use SIGN UP Google Form to sign up. We appreciate the support!!
This event is designed for the whole family to enjoy:
For the Kids: A variety of fun games, activities, and prizes!
For the Parents: Meet with local Community Resource Agencies to learn about helpful services and programs available in our area.
Event Details (please see attached flyer)-English/Spanish
When: May 18th, 2026
Time: 5:30 – 8pm (families) 5 – 9pm (volunteers)
Where: Martin Petersen Event Center- 720 12th Street, Modesto, CA 95354
SIGN UP LINK: https://forms.gle/hVvrNbCSKScjeNhXA
IEEEP Newsletter
Here is the May 2026 IEEEP Newsletter. Please share with staff and families.
Upcoming Family Events
Please share information with families regarding these upcoming events
Thrive Into Summer Event Saturday May 16th
Father Figure & Child Engagement Event Thursday, May 21st
Enhancing Cooking in the Preschool Classroom
Kits with the following items were purchased for all preschool classrooms.(Thank you Krishawn!) The Admin team is assembling these sets for our 17 preschool classrooms. Items were purchased with supplemental nutrition funds for Preschool classrooms with the idea of implementing and enhancing cooking activities in the classroom. Kits will include:
Blender
Electric Skillet
Electric Griddle
Juicer
Cutting Boards
Kid Safe Knives
Aprons
Bowls
Measuring Cups/Spoons
Cooking Utensils
And some other stuff too!
Home Based Garden Kits
Krishawn has purchased Garden Kits using Supplemental Nutrition Funds for Home Based families that will contain the following:
Soil
Garden Box (small and portable)
Kids gardening items
Help is available when you need it:
Access support from CFS Mental Health & Wellness team at cfs-mentalhealth@stancoe.org
SCOE’s Employee Assistance Program—In the moment counseling support is available by phone 24/7 at 800-295-8323.
CalHOPE: Call or text the CalHOPE Warm Line: (833) 317-HOPE (4673) The CalHOPE warm line connects callers to people who have persevered through struggles with stress, anxiety, depression—emotions triggered by circumstances and events in everyday life. The peer counselors listen with compassion, provide non-judgmental support, and guide you to additional resources that can give hope and help you cope.
Stanislaus County Warm Line—available by phone 24/7. Call 209-558-4600 Stanislaus Co residents can call when they are having a hard time making it through the day but not in crisis, need a caring listener to provide effective feedback to help explore options, or want support, assistance and resources toward recovery.
Stanislaus Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (STAN BHRS) Access Line: 1-888-376-6246
CA state hotline 833-544-2374 that people — particularly older, isolated Californians — can call for local non-medical services, such as food delivery and mental health care.
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline—available by phone 24/7. No holds and no busy signals Dial 988
Your health insurance. Call the phone number on your card to access a provider who accepts your insurance. You can access a professional at just the cost of a co-pay
Anthem Total Health, Total You-created to help you take care of your health, work on lifestyle changes and connect with specialized health professionals. Services include 24/7 Nurseline, Behavioral Health Resource, Case Management, Emotional Well-Being Resources & Inclusive Care
Carelon Wellbeing provides support with counseling, work-live support, legal services and financial services
Kaiser-Mental Health and Addiction Care Services
PDF Copy of 4-27-26 Memo
