Rockford Day Nursery

Programs: Please see schedule o. Rockford day nursery early learning center has been providing care for children in the rockford, illinois area since 1916. We have been licensed with the department of children and family services since 1941. Our organization was recognized on november 1, 1944 under section 501(c) (3) of the internal revenue code. The 61104 zip code, in which the center is located, encompasses one of the most ethnically diverse and impoverished neighborhoods in the united states, according to a marketing study that was done prior to moving to this location in 2005. Organized as a not-for-profit corporation, the nursery is governed by a volunteer board of directors from the community. The board is very knowledgeable about the day-to-day operations of the center and actively volunteers in the areas of administration, parent education and involvement, building and grounds projects, and special social events for our families, such as preschool graduation and our annual christmas party. Board members serve three-year terms and can serve three consecutive terms if they choose. About one third of our board turns over each year and new members are sought through referrals from present board members, from our clients, and from volunteer referral organizations. The finance committee meets regularly to discuss our fiscal status, which has been good enough to provide moderate salaries and benefits for our twenty-four full-time staff members. Our mission is to provide quality care for young children between the ages of 6 weeks and twelve years, whose parents are employed or involved in work related training. Approximately eighty-eight percent of our children are eligible for child care assistance because their parents work in low income jobs, are involved in training, or are in foster care or protective services. We currently enroll a total of 127 children; 52% are hispanic, 25% are african american, 22% are caucasian and less that 1% are arabic; about 10% have been diagnosed with special needs. Rosalind reis, our executive director, has been managing our organization for the past 31 years. She has a b. S. In human resource management from northern illinois university. Ms. Reis is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the center, under the direction of the board of directors. All other staff report to ms. Reis, including teachers, teacher's assistants, cook and cook's helper. Our staff turnover has been low, and a great deal of effort has gone into staff development. We use creative curriculum as the basis for our educational programming and for evaluation of students and program. We also use second step, a violence prevention curriculum and talking about touching with preschoolers, a program to help make students and their parents aware of personal safety issues. A music specialist comes to the center weekly to work with the preschool classes. School-age children receive help with their homework each day and the summer program includes activities to enhance and maintain the skills they need to succeed in school. Two of our pre-school rooms are bi-lingual head start collaboration classrooms for 3 and 4 year old students. Three of our infant/toddler/twos classrooms are early head start/child care collaboration classrooms. The needs of children cannot be fully served without also being concerned about the needs of the family and community in which they live. One of our main focuses is to help parents become independent, responsible members of society through work and/or training so that the family can become more financially stable and the children will see examples of success through work and education. We also work with other organizations to provide a continuum of care so that the progress of the family will continue and the parents will have the support they need to be good parents and productive members of our community. Wednesday is music day at our center and mrs. Barb, our music specialist spends 45 minutes to an hour with each of our three preschool classes. Forty-six preschoolers and six classroom teachers participate each week. We started our music classes a few years back when we noticed that children with social-emotional needs responded very positively to music. Since then we have noticed that children who do not speak english and special needs children often are reached first through music and then move on to develop other ways of relating with their teachers and peers. Recent research has proven the positive benefits of music in developing the neural connections in the brain needed to reach a child's full potential and there is a positive correlation between musical aptitude and mathematical aptitude. Having the classroom teachers participate with the music specialist each week encourages them to take back what they learn and use it in the classroom during the rest of the week.