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Sound Child Care Solutions 

Description

Sound Child Care Solutions prepares young children for school and life by providing high quality early childhood education in six Seattle child care centers.  Through our innovative consortium model, we’ve joined together to improve child outcomes and strengthen families by increasing centers’ organizational quality and capacity so more of each child care dollar is devoted to classrooms. Consequently, we can serve more low income children. Currently 11 of our 28 classrooms are dual language with Spanish, Vietnamese, or Somali and English. SCCS remains a nationally-recognized child care consortium with continually outstanding outcomes for children.

Mission Statement
Sound Child Care Solutions' mission is to educate children for life by deeply integrating child-centered, high quality, anti-biased, early childhood education with excellent business practices. Together, we are better!
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Sound Child Care Solutions
1225 S. Weller St 
Seattle 
WA
98144 
(206) 420-7165 

Diana Bender and Laura McAlister 
Co-Executive Directors 

Programs

Sound Child Care Solutions Programs

Children with great early education do better in school, graduate and attend college at higher rates, and are more likely to own their home. Sound Child Care Solutions is a young non-profit creating a new way to improve education for young children. Our centers have joined together to share the business and professional development side of child care while each keeping our own name and community identity. By sharing costs, we spend less money on administration and more on children, allowing us to improve educational quality and serve more low income kids. Weaving our gifts, we nurture teachers and directors so children can thrive.

Together, we gain:
  • Economic strength as a larger organization, enabling us greater stability to weather economic ebbs and flows.
  • An integrated approach to professional development so we can pay deeper attention to the teaching and learning process, beyond just meeting standards. Directors can focus on educational quality so we exceed national standards like those set by the National Association for Education of Young Children. We invest in teachers as the key to child success.
  • A substitute pool so that children have consistent teaching teams, critical to early learning which happens primarily through relationship.
  • Financial discounts from economies of scale in business functions like benefits and purchasing of goods and services.
  • Funders like to support our work because they know it will be sustainable.

We support children’s home language and culture, honoring and integrating families as children’s first and most important teacher. We actively work to identify and undo racism in our organization and to continually strengthen our culturally relevant, anti-bias practice in the classroom. All of our centers have received Eco-Healthy certification and many have food and gardening programs.

Recent Successes and Current Challenges

In the last school year, 94% of children at our centers reached or surpassed their developmental milestones. Among Pre-Kindergarten children, our results were even better: 97% had the motor, social/emotional, literacy and cognitive skills school districts say they need for kindergarten. When we began in 2007, our Consortium Pilot Project was a well-developed conceptual framework, ready to be tested. Today we have 6 centers fully integrated in our consortium, serving over 450 children with excellent educational outcomes.  After a careful process, SCCS is pleased to announce that a seventh center will join our consortium August 2013.

Our professional development system is in place, with a substitute pool, and structured support for and focus on the teaching and learning process. Center directors report feeling less isolated and are more focused on teachers and children rather than daily administrative tasks. Over 90% of staff reported being glad to be part of a consortium. Our audit reports continue to be outstanding. We have proven that the shared services approach saves money and improves the overall quality of childcare.

Our greatest challenge: we would love to serve even more low income children. We have long waiting lists. The need is great and the impact is significant. Your support will allow us to help even more children have the skills necessary to succeed in the elementary years.

Evaluation


Sound Child Care Solutions is a unique consortium of early learning centers. Currently six Seattle centers have joined the consortium to gain economies of scale and share best practices to ensure higher quality education for children and improved working conditions for staff. One center, Southwest Early Learning, serves over 89% low-income children and received the top score of over 100 classrooms evaluated by the City of Seattle.

Use of Best Practices
The consortium approach allows the six centers to share administrative support and best practices while preserving each center’s ability to react to community needs. While organizations around the country have adopted a variety of shared management services strategies, they are the first in the nation to come together and create a new entity for centralized non-profit management of child care with other centers. This model is being spread regionally through time-limited addition of centers intended to learn and replicate this approach, as well as nationally through advisors and workshops.

Collaboration
Sound Child Care Solutions has recently undergone its first successful joint audit and budget process. They have continued consortium wide training events as part of their comprehensive approach to professional development. Recently substitute teachers have been hired to provide bench support across all the centers.

Sustainability
Sound Child Care is currently raising funds to cover the legal cost having two additional centers join the consortium. At seven centers the cost of shared administrative support will be offset by the cost of traditional administrative support, making the consortium fiscally sustainable. The ultimate goal is to reach 10-15 centers. The financial benefit of additional centers allows them to bring more quality childcare to low-income families.

Leadership
Their Executive Directors and Board of Directors bring a high level of expertise and experience as well as strong reputations in the early learning field.

Grant History with The Seattle Foundation:

Grants Awarded through The Seattle Foundation Grantmaking Program:

DateAmountPurpose
6/10/2011 $10,000.00support general operating expenses.
6/26/2008 $25,000.00support general operating expenses.

Financials

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