​The first Oakland Early Learning Symposium for the 2024-25 year, Baby Steps: Shifting to Care for Younger Children, focused on the changing early learning landscape in Oakland and the Bay as Universal PreK and Transitional Kindergarten roll out across the state. 

This spring’s online session of the Oakland Early Learning Symposium introduced the OSSS Resilient Oakland Communities and Kids (ROCK) Toolkit to over 90 early learning professionals. These Oakland-grown ROCK tools were developed in partnership with a range of early childhood educators and administrators, additional content experts and OSSS staff. At the Symposium, members of this collaborative team discussed how these hands-on tools can help create healing-centered and trauma-responsive early learning environments. 

We’ve just completed the fourth year of the Oakland Early Learning Symposium! This year, we focused on our core value of upholding justice and every form of necessary inclusion. November’s Symposium topic was  “Partnering with Families of Children with Special Needs.” With over 100 participants in attendance, we heard updates from Theresa Lozach, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Special Education and Ben Braun, Regional Center of the East Bay and learned how to connect families to services through First 5 Alameda County’s Help Me Grow program and BANANAS, Inc. Plus, participants had the opportunity to break into small groups with peer facilitators to discuss specific strategies to support children and families.