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Scaffolding: Refers to a method of teaching new concepts that typically involves leveraging skills and knowledge that children already have. An example might involve asking leading questions to allow a child to come to the correct conclusion or outcome on his/her own.
School Age Child Care: Child care that takes place outside of regular school hours for children over the age of 5.
School Based Child Care: Child care programs that occur in school facilities.
School Readiness: A term to describe the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to successfully transition to, and perform well in, the early school years. School readiness is typically determined based on children's developmental status and progress in the following five domains: language and literacy development, cognitive and general knowledge, approaches to learning, physical well-being and motor development, and social and emotional development.
Self Regulation: The ability to control one's emotions, behaviors, and thought processes in order to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. Examples in children include being able to wait a short time for something they want and calming oneself after being upset.
Separation Anxiety: Anxiety or distress experienced by a child when separated from a primary caregiver or attachment figure. Separation anxiety typically starts around 8-12 months when infants/toddlers develop an understanding of object permanence.
Sick/Ill Child Care: Non-medical child care services provided to children with mild, temporary illnesses, that prevent them from attending regular child care programming. Sick child care is sometimes referred to as "mildly ill child care".
Sliding Fee Scale: A formula for determining the child care fees or co-payments that families are required to pay their child care provider, usually based on family income. Families that are eligible for CCDF-subsidized child care pay fees according to an income-based sliding fee scale developed by the state, territory, or tribe.
Social Impact Bonds (SIB): An innovative financial tool, sometimes referred to as "Pay for Success" financing, that enables government agencies to pay for programs that deliver results. In a SIB agreement, the government sets a specific, measurable outcome that it wants achieved in a population and promises to pay an external organization/intermediary if, and only if, the organization accomplishes the desired outcome. Through SIBs, investors provide the working capital for the external organization to hire and manage social service providers. Then, if the deliverables are met, the government releases an agreed-upon sum of money to the external organization, which then repays its investors with a return for taking on the upfront risk.
Social-Emotional Development: Refers to the development process whereby children learn to identify and understand their own feelings, accurately read and comprehend emotional states in others, manage and express strong emotions in constructive manners, regulate their behavior, develop empathy for others, and establish and maintain relationships.
Special Education: Instruction that is designed to meet the unique needs of children who have identified learning differences or disabilities. To be eligible for special education services, the child's disability must adversely affect his or her educational performance and require specially designed instruction that cannot be addressed through general education classes alone, with or without individual accommodations. Per the IDEA, special education and related services are provided at no cost to families, and can include special instruction in the classroom, at home, in hospitals, or in other institutions or settings.
Special Needs: A term used to describe a child with an identified learning disability or physical or mental health condition requiring special education services, or other specialized services and supports.
State Advisory Councils on Early Childhood Education and Care (SACs): Federally funded state-level advisory councils charged with developing high quality, comprehensive early care and education systems and ensuring statewide coordination and collaboration with existing early childhood programs and services. SACs were authorized by the Improving Head Start Readiness Act of 2007, and funder through the ARRA of 2009.
Strength-based: An approach to equity in early childhood education that focuses on, and is responsive to, children's and families' unique strengths, diverse learning styles, interests, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, etc.
Structural Quality: Refers to the features of an early childhood setting that affect children's development, which can typically be regulated by licensing and regulatory agencies. Aspects of structural quality include adult-child ratios, group sizes, and staff education and training requirements.
Subsidized Child Care: Child care that is at least partially funded by public or charitable resources to decrease the cost to families.
Subsidy: Private or public assistance that reduces the cost of child care for families.
Subsidy Take-Up Rates: The rate at which eligible families use child care subsidies. Due to limited funding or waiting lists, not all eligible families may have access to subsidies.
Supply Building: Efforts to increase the quantity of child care programs in a particular local area.
School Age Child Care: Child care that takes place outside of regular school hours for children over the age of 5.
School Based Child Care: Child care programs that occur in school facilities.
School Readiness: A term to describe the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to successfully transition to, and perform well in, the early school years. School readiness is typically determined based on children's developmental status and progress in the following five domains: language and literacy development, cognitive and general knowledge, approaches to learning, physical well-being and motor development, and social and emotional development.
Self Regulation: The ability to control one's emotions, behaviors, and thought processes in order to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. Examples in children include being able to wait a short time for something they want and calming oneself after being upset.
Separation Anxiety: Anxiety or distress experienced by a child when separated from a primary caregiver or attachment figure. Separation anxiety typically starts around 8-12 months when infants/toddlers develop an understanding of object permanence.
Sick/Ill Child Care: Non-medical child care services provided to children with mild, temporary illnesses, that prevent them from attending regular child care programming. Sick child care is sometimes referred to as "mildly ill child care".
Sliding Fee Scale: A formula for determining the child care fees or co-payments that families are required to pay their child care provider, usually based on family income. Families that are eligible for CCDF-subsidized child care pay fees according to an income-based sliding fee scale developed by the state, territory, or tribe.
Social Impact Bonds (SIB): An innovative financial tool, sometimes referred to as "Pay for Success" financing, that enables government agencies to pay for programs that deliver results. In a SIB agreement, the government sets a specific, measurable outcome that it wants achieved in a population and promises to pay an external organization/intermediary if, and only if, the organization accomplishes the desired outcome. Through SIBs, investors provide the working capital for the external organization to hire and manage social service providers. Then, if the deliverables are met, the government releases an agreed-upon sum of money to the external organization, which then repays its investors with a return for taking on the upfront risk.
Social-Emotional Development: Refers to the development process whereby children learn to identify and understand their own feelings, accurately read and comprehend emotional states in others, manage and express strong emotions in constructive manners, regulate their behavior, develop empathy for others, and establish and maintain relationships.
Special Education: Instruction that is designed to meet the unique needs of children who have identified learning differences or disabilities. To be eligible for special education services, the child's disability must adversely affect his or her educational performance and require specially designed instruction that cannot be addressed through general education classes alone, with or without individual accommodations. Per the IDEA, special education and related services are provided at no cost to families, and can include special instruction in the classroom, at home, in hospitals, or in other institutions or settings.
Special Needs: A term used to describe a child with an identified learning disability or physical or mental health condition requiring special education services, or other specialized services and supports.
State Advisory Councils on Early Childhood Education and Care (SACs): Federally funded state-level advisory councils charged with developing high quality, comprehensive early care and education systems and ensuring statewide coordination and collaboration with existing early childhood programs and services. SACs were authorized by the Improving Head Start Readiness Act of 2007, and funder through the ARRA of 2009.
Strength-based: An approach to equity in early childhood education that focuses on, and is responsive to, children's and families' unique strengths, diverse learning styles, interests, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, etc.
Structural Quality: Refers to the features of an early childhood setting that affect children's development, which can typically be regulated by licensing and regulatory agencies. Aspects of structural quality include adult-child ratios, group sizes, and staff education and training requirements.
Subsidized Child Care: Child care that is at least partially funded by public or charitable resources to decrease the cost to families.
Subsidy: Private or public assistance that reduces the cost of child care for families.
Subsidy Take-Up Rates: The rate at which eligible families use child care subsidies. Due to limited funding or waiting lists, not all eligible families may have access to subsidies.
Supply Building: Efforts to increase the quantity of child care programs in a particular local area.
