Tonya Coston is the Executive Director of the Division of Early Childhood Services at the New Jersey Department of Education. Host Dr. Sherri Killins Stewart asks Tonya about how she collaborates across agencies and departments to involve other state leaders in the mission of increasing equity in early childhood systems for children and families in New Jersey.
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Special thanks to Dr. Aisha Ray, Michelle Stover Wright, The Equity Leaders Action Network (ELAN), and state leaders working in early childhood systems for their thought partnership.
Dr. Sherri Killins Stewart:
Welcome to Critical Connections: Leading for Equity, a podcast of the BUILD Initiative. I'm Dr. Sherri Killins Stewart. I am the Director of State Systems Alignment and Integration and Co-Director of State Services.
Killins Stewart: This series focuses on how state leaders have used their role, responsibilities and influence to intentionally increase opportunity and remove barriers for children and families. You will hear about tangible ways leaders are centering the perspectives of Black, Native American, Latino and Latina, and other populations marginalized by the programs and services within the early childhood system. Leaders are collaborating across state, regional and local departments and agencies to support the well-being of families and children. We don't present as experts, rather, participants on the journey with you. I hope you will come as a learner seeking to take action.
Killins Stewart: Today, we're talking to Tonya Coston. Tonya is the Executive Director of the Division of Early Childhood Services at the New Jersey Department of Education. Since June 2001, she has served as acting assistant commissioner. The division includes the Office of Preschool Education, Kindergarten to Third Grade Education, Head Start Collaboration and the Governor's Council for Young Children, and several inter-agency programs and partnerships centered around early learning and care for young children. As acting assistant commissioner, she helps inform policy and provides oversight to the division's early childhood services operations, including its objectives, formulating plans, accomplishing division work and participating on various internal cross-departmental and external stakeholder meetings and committees.
Killins Stewart: She earned her bachelor's degree of science from Penn State University and a master's of science degree in counselor education from Syracuse University. In addition to being a dedicated professional with extensive experience in state government, education and social services, she's active in community pursuits and her professional affiliations, including the National Association of State Leaders in Early Education.
Killins Stewart: Currently, she serves as president of Heart of Blue Foundation that supports Mercer County and the Trenton Princeton Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated. Most importantly, she's a proud parent of Xavier and Xander who started their educational career in New Jersey state-funded preschool program. Welcome Tonya.
Tonya Coston: Hello, Sherri. How are you?
Killins Stewart: Good. Good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us today to talk about the actions you're taking to support the well-being of young children and families. And, you know me. I always want to know why. Why is this work important to you? Your why is so much more important than what you do. So, before we dive in about your work in New Jersey, can you share why you are doing work to really increase opportunity for Black, Native American, Latino, Latina, or other marginal populations?
Coston: So, the first easy answer is because I'm one of those marginalized populations. My family is one of those marginalized populations. My ancestors are a part of that marginalized population. So, that's the easy answer. Many of the children who we're talking about in those communities look like me. They look like my children. They look like my grandparents. They look like my friends. So, that's what makes it important just at that human level, because they look like me.
Coston: On a more global level, it reminds me that we as a society need all of our children to be successful, to reach all the things that we want in life. We can't allow our Black and brown children to be left behind. We've always talked about, had we closed the educational gap decades ago, how much better off we would be as a society. And we have to keep that in mind, that we all need to succeed. We all need to do better because the reality is I worked in corrections at one point and we used to remind every committee, you're going to take care of people on one side or the other. In societies, if we invest more in education, the hope is that we will have to invest less in incarceration.
Killins Stewart: Powerful. So, what brought you into early care and education and what keeps you going? You just mentioned you started out in corrections.
Coston: So, it really was an opportunity for change. Working in corrections is very draining. I don't care what you're doing, why you're there. And, for me, to see day in and day out, Black and brown people locked up and I couldn't do anything about that. I was there doing work around HIV and AIDS at the time and community health and helping people transition. But too often, many of my clients who I was helping to transition out, in a couple months, I saw them back. It was just this revolving door and it just started to wear on me. And, I got an opportunity to come to the Department of Education, to use my education that my parents struggled to pay for to do something that I thought was really going to really change my life, enlighten my life, and just give me a different perspective on life and what I could do to make a difference.
Coston: So, it was really a leadership opportunity that led me to the Department of Education, but that leadership opportunity turned into a passion that challenged me to use my voice and my space to make change. And, then of course I gave birth to these two beautiful young Black men who I knew I needed to make this my life work and 24 years later, I'm still here doing that.
Killins Stewart: You're still here.
Coston: And, I am honored to still be here doing that work. So, I tell people all the time, I am proud of New Jersey's early childhood program because I was able to help build something that was good enough for my child, which means I believe in it. I poured my heart, soul and life into it. And, for every parent in New Jersey, they should know that it is good enough to change your child's life. Even if they're not in that marginalized population, they will be better for it. And, my children, sometimes that comes back to haunt me with my 14 year old.
Killins Stewart: Yes.
Coston: Who wants to use his extensive vocabulary to point out why mommy is wrong.
Killins Stewart: Yes. [inaudible 00:07:24]. That's the best example, when they give it back to you. Bu, that takes me to the first bucket, which is around root causes. We talk about using data and the numbers, and I hear quantitative data and the statistics in what you talk about, and then we talk about listening to families and their experience. So, what have you learned from families? What are you thinking about when you see Black, Native American or other families? And, can you give me an example of how you understand the needs and therefore you've tailored the services to better meet their needs?
Coston: I think a lot of times what we always think about... Or, no, I always think about is those families, when you take the time to listen, their values and what they want for their children are the same things that I want for my children. So, even though I stand with two degrees and a well-paying job, they want the same things for their children. They may not have the vocabulary. They might not know all the ins and out of the system to get their children what they think they need, what they think is best, but that's what they want when you give them the opportunity to really be heard. They want their children to have an opportunity to be great. They want their children to have options in life and that's what all of us want.
Coston: We want our children to be happy. We want them to be healthy. We want them to have options in life that lead them to be just okay being whoever they have decided to be. They don't want to look around and say, "Oh, if I was a better mother. Oh, if I didn't have to work two jobs. Oh, if I lived in a better neighborhood." They don't want that to be what they have to explain to their child. They want to know that they have done their very best and that was good enough and that their child is on a path to success.
Coston: And, I have to thank you Sherri for the work that you did with us under Project Hope because that gave us a firsthand opportunity to sit in two communities and really listen to people voice their frustrations at times around what they felt the state wasn't doing and for us to have a real conversation with them about what we were doing and also hear back.
Coston: Maybe what we thought was doing, it wasn't coming across, it wasn't exactly what they wanted, or better yet, we discovered many of them had no idea the vastness of the resources, opportunities, programs, and services that were actually available to them. Or, they thought because I'm not here legally that I can't have that for my child because I don't know all the ins. They told me like 10,000 pieces of paper, I needed to show up with it and I didn't know how to go get them, where to go get them, so, I just didn't do it.
Coston: So, and then for others, they just didn't know how to advocate for what they wanted. They told their story. They thought people were listening and they felt like it was just an ending loop. Go here, go there, go talk to this person, go bring back this piece of paper and everything will be fine.
Coston: So, sitting in those conversations with community people when we did Project Hope was just eye-opening. When there were two women of Hispanic descent who did not speak English, who had an interpreter and they were so engaged to tell their story and their story sounded like everybody else's story who was in that struggle. They were like, you go down to the big gray building and nobody is there to help you. And, if you say too many things to them, you ask too many questions, you get dismissed and never helped.
Killins Stewart: Yeah.
Coston: And, you have to come back 10,000 times and you still get no help. So, it was just eye-opening for that experience.
Killins Stewart: Your job is tough, though. So, two questions. You know, you're at the state level. You're working with districts and districts are working with multiple schools and communities. Have you found a way in your early childhood work to keep your ear to the ground so that you're continuing to listen to families? And, then have you helped them figure that they've got power and influence to respond to the families who give them feedback?
Coston: Yes. I think a lot of that work has come out of our collaboration. When we started Race To The Top, our early learning challenge grant... Because we basically created systems that like our central intake. We created county councils and other avenues for there to be voiced, to come up to us. We started to have real conversations with our vendors who we were asking to do work on our behalf. And, we've been lucky to have opportunities through Head Start and other federal initiatives and other grant opportunities to have to bring together stakeholders and really have some deep cross agency conversations.
Coston: And, it has kept us connected and it has kept us grounded at where we want to be, what we hope to accomplish and how we're going to get there and for us to continuously go back to the people we serve, go back to the vendor and agencies that do work on our behalf to give them an opportunity for us to hear from them so that we're able to make those adjustments, make those changes, and actually create a space and a table that people want to show up to and have conversations with us about.
Coston: So, we engage Labor. We've engaged the Department of Agriculture. So, with that, we've been able to really do lots of new things for New Jersey. Maybe not new to other states, but new for New Jersey and really say, how are we going to keep this as a focus? So, an example would be during the pandemic. Obviously, we recognize a lot of our kids who get free and reduced lunch. Well, they're getting a majority of their meals at school. What are we doing now that schools are closed? So, really working with schools to ensure that one, they were providing meals and they were providing free meals to every family. And, two, human services worked with education and agriculture to give families resources for their children being home because now you're home with your kids day in, day out. They're eating more but you are getting the same allotment of food stamps.
Coston: So, now they did extra for those families who had children who were on free and reduced lunch so that they were trying to ensure that there was food in those homes while those children were not at school, if they couldn't get to school. And, I think a lot of schools made huge efforts. I know in our own community, they made sure when kids came on Friday, they gave them bags that would get them through the weekends. So, people really changed their ideas and perspectives around what we need to do.
Coston: And, something more recently with the influx of plenty of COVID-related money that has come into the state, they're working with childcare centers and Head Start programs for them to be able to do renovations to their buildings for all those improvements that are needed, that you never have money for, but also just what they need to make high quality space for young children. One of the things they're making sure that they do is focus on providers that are serving subsidy kids. They're also making sure that none of their rules and regulations will exclude Head Start agencies from the pot. So, they're making sure that we're doing some priority for these communities that are going to serve those marginalized families so that their children are having opportunities to attend high quality programs and that they have high quality space as well.
Killins Stewart: Right. Space is such a huge issue. I mean, so powerful that you're identifying both the population you want to reach and then making sure that the rules and regulations don't unintentionally or intentionally kick out populations that you want to be able to include. And, that's the next conversation, which is about this isn't work you could do alone and you've mentioned unlikely partners and other partners. But, how do you and your work in New Jersey really lead with that, listening to families, because as you mentioned, they're not going to just talk about early care and education. They have food or employment. You mentioned labor. So, how are you building partnerships and collaboration? So many people think that's extra work or they don't have time or it's not what they're paid for. So, how do you make space for the collaboration? What are some of the challenges and how have you benefited from it?
Coston: I always tell people when they say that they don't have time for it, what you really don't have time for is the duplication... Duplication of giving out resources because there's never enough money to go around. What you don't have time for is to put out a program to find nobody's using it. Because, what happens is I have to give up services from one agency that's helping me to another agency. That's what we figured out. We didn't have time for that. When we looked around and people asked us, why should we continue to support this initiative or that initiative or this program when nobody's using it. And, then we realized we weren't serving our families and what we've discovered is once we came together and really started having conversations, we could reach so many more families because like you said, when we show up as the state, they want to tell you everything that's going on, good, bad, right, or wrong because you're the state and they expect that we talk to one another.
Coston: So, even though I say I'm from the Department of Education, you should know somebody at Labor who could address this issue for me so that I can put my child in school and I'd be able to go to work. And, that is their expectation. They don't want to hear that I don't know my colleagues at Labor. Why can't you help me over at the Department of Human Services? They want an answer.
Coston: So, for us, what we learned a lot about and we're very open about this. Our first Race To The Top go round didn't go well because we didn't know each other. We came to the table and we attempted to write a grant and what we discovered midway through writing a grant that wow, so you guys do that? Well, we've been trying to do that too. We started having all these conversation and from there we realized how much better off not only would our work be, but the actual families we said was at the center of our work.
Coston: So, what we realized is we all have connections and we started introducing each other to one another to say, "Hey, I have a really great colleague over at Education. You call them. They will help you out. You need a connection in another department of education, still talk to them. I know this has nothing to do with early childhood, but they'll help make the connection." So, right now we're working with the Department of Health around their dental screening for third graders. So, they reached out to us because they weren't getting a lot of feedback. They weren't getting districts to participate at the level they want. So, in passing conversation with our colleagues, Natasha Johnson, assistant commissioner over at human services said, "Have you talked to Tonya?" And, they're like, no. You should give her a call. And, here we are helping them to pull together this collaboration where we're like, "Hey, we're more than willing to sign a joint letter so when districts see it, it's not just the Department of Health is reaching out."
Killins Stewart: Right.
Coston: We introduce them and have them come to a meeting with our county superintendents who have daily ongoing contact with school districts to explain the program to them. So, when the districts get that letter and they have questions, they're not going to call the people in the Department of Health they don't know. They're going to call their county superintendent. Now that county superintendent has information and has a reason to encourage the district to participate because now they understand why the Department of Health needs the information and the value that it will bring to the school districts because now more resources can go into services that will benefit children and families that are in need in oral health and other dental healthcare.
Coston: It also gave us an opportunity to basically bring them before our school district. So, we've been doing a lot of one hour meet and greet with a lot of different programs and components that come out of the department of health just so school districts know all of the resources that are available and now they have a name and a face to connect with so when they want to call for information because they have a family or they're having a family fair, they have somebody to go to to invite, to have more in depth conversations with families they feel they can't help.
Killins Stewart: Yeah. That's powerful. I mean, really finding that shared space and finding the right messenger, using your connections. All those things are so critical. How do you keep building your network? 24 years in state government feels like you might know everybody, but it's important to keep building your network. And, everybody's struggling with transition, so as soon as you get to know somebody, they're out. What's your personal strategy for adapting and building your network?
Coston: I always lead with trust and we are here. We're in this together. This is our work. It's not my work. This is our work. And, making sure that the space and the table that we built is one, when people show up that they see value in it so when they're making those transitions out, they make sure that the next person who's coming behind them know, "Hey, [inaudible 00:22:05] this inner department group that goes on? I want you to come to the next meeting so that I can introduce you to them." Or, even if I can't be there, we've had people reach out and say, "Hey, can you invite Sherri to the next meeting because she's going to be taking over for me because I'm transitioning out. Can you invite her? I've already talked to her about it so she is expecting the invite." And, then we bring new people in and that kind of keeps the transition down to a minimum.
Coston: But, that comes from people knowing there is value to being at the table. They're going to get something out of it. They get to bring something to it and we get to continue to grow the system. People have to come and feel that they're being heard, just like families have to show up and feel like they're being heard. If people come to the table and they're like, "Why am I here? I just wasted two hours listening to these people. I don't know what I'm supposed to do at this," they're not likely to come back or they're definitely not likely to tell other people. So, we're always conscious. We take time out. I think I have a meeting next week with the core group of our interagency planning group. We're going to sit down and really think about, okay, we've been doing this for a while. How should we restructure it? Is there anyone missing from the table? What do we need to do differently? What are some ongoing groups that maybe we could collapse into this process so that we all have one less meeting to go with?
Coston: Sometimes, transition has been good. New people show up to the table. They have new friends that we get to be introduced to and because they don't know what we've been doing when we share, sometimes they have a fresh perspective on an old idea. And, even though I've been around for a long time, when you're trying to explain something to somebody else, every so often people question you, like, so, just why can't that be differently?
Killins Stewart: Right. Right.
Coston: And, you have to step back and say, is it because it's my comfort and it's easy for me because I can do it in my sleep? Or, is there a rule, regulation that maybe now we need to consider and rethink? Is it still necessary or could we be doing something different?
Coston: I have to say I was really proud when the woman said, "I have learned so much about how the environment is like a third teacher and I'm honored to be doing this work with the department of human services to really improve childcare environments."
Killins Stewart: Right. It's so powerful, what you're saying. I mean, you started out saying that you got to start with making people know that this is our agenda, not my agenda. And, I've seen you do that to say, this is really our space. We can co-create this. But, then the second part about having the person leaving feel like they're getting so much from it that they've got to introduce the next leader. So, it's not just one more thing on the list, but it's actually covered by the transition person selecting somebody to stand in the stead.
Killins Stewart: What advice would you give a state leader beginning this work, especially the idea? And, you just ended with it, with am I doing this because I'm comfortable with it or is this in the best interest of the families that I'm trying to call in and make sure that they're included. So, some people call that equity, but if it's not about centering and making visible a specific population and increasing their opportunity, removing barriers, we're really not getting there. That requires that we distribute resources differently. So, if somebody's got that intellectually, they want to lean in and do this work, what advice do you have for them?
Coston: Always remember there are going to be days that are going to be harder than others. The work is challenging and it's never quick because the families that you work for have so many layers to them and once you show up for one thing, many times in that conversation, you discover three other things, so now you have to go back to those agencies or those programs and fold them into the conversation. And, once you do that and families believe that you are really here to make change, they're going to tell you all their other stuff. They start with the easy and see, let's see if we ever hear from them again. And, when you come back, when you make a change, when you do anything, they're going to take that as a sign that, oh, you really want to do the work. So, now they're going to share other things.
Coston: So, it tends to be a journey and you have to look at it that way. So, it's the slow and steady. It's the slow and steady. Not, ooh, I'm going to go here and I can jump to the top of the mountain. So, when you get to the top of the mountain, you can look back and see how far you have brought those families. That is what you are going to be able to do one day. And, that one day, I can't promise you. Is it going to be five years, 10 years?
Killins Stewart: Right.
Coston: But, that's how you move forward. And, you have to be willing to be open about what you feel you can accomplish, what you feel you can give. If you're not willing to admit that some of your policies and procedures are affecting people negatively, you can't address them. So, you have to address that and you're able then to work with your partners about who can do what. You know? If I can't do it, if our agency can't do it, but one of your sister agencies, or is that a contract you need to farm out so that that could be the focus? Those are the conversations you have to be open to have because without that, it's really hard and families see through that. They start to ask you questions and when you don't have answers or, "Well, you know, but the last people we talked to told us something different."
Killins Stewart: Right.
Coston: They recognize that. So, I mean, we try to be very transparent among us as agencies talking, sharing with one another, and that leads you to the opportunities because you got to open your purse strings at some point. You know? So, people have to have that relationship and belief that we are all working towards the same goal.
Coston: So, when we think about the Department of Labor, they decided after the conversations through Project Hope, they were going to do some additional work after that project over with their one stops. They wanted to continue the conversation because they found value in it. So, that was really important.
Coston: So, now that we're thinking about preschool expansion, they said, "Hey, we want to have some more conversations around with our one stops and the populations that we serve because we want to make sure they're aware, hey, this is an avenue where lots of resources are going into and lots of opportunity for training and education." So.
Killins Stewart: Right.
Coston: So, you're working in this space now and there's a path forward for you to make this a lifelong career.
Killins Stewart: Right. Now, you're making a different connection. That's powerful, right?
Coston: Yes.
Killins Stewart: So, just know that the work is not quick and that you've got to be open to the creation. It's not coming as an expert. You might know what you know, but be open that you're going to learn lots of things.
Killins Stewart: The last question is, what are you hopeful about? Thinking about the horizon, what do you see and what are you hopeful about as you think about work with families and communities?
Coston: My biggest hope for the overall early care and education system is that one day we're just going to talk about it the way we talk about K12. We're... That's what we're going to do and we're going to... When we fund, we're going to be funding in a way that we're talking about how do we educate these children their entire lives. So, from the time they arrive to the time they leave high school, whether they go into college or career workforce. That's what we're going to be looking and those are going to be the conversations that we do, because we want to help our children and their families be prepared for the option. So, what I might want for my child may not be the same thing that you want for your child, but we want them to be ready for the option and that's what I think is important. I mean, we have to remember that early care and education is the foundation that you can build greatness in every single child.
Coston: So, if we start talking about it the way we talk about K12, one day we won't be worried about, is there a universal preschool? It's going to be just what we do as a society to honor all the children. So, that's my hope one day that we won't be talking about, well, what did we do for marginalized populations because we'll be doing it and it will be just a part of the system where there are supports necessary for those families who need something different to arrive at the same place as any other child. So, whether the child has an IEP, whether the child is from a marginalized population, or whether the child is from a happy, healthy household that has more than enough, that all of them... We look around and all of them are on the platform leading their lives forward.
Killins Stewart: Supported. Right. Right.
Coston: You know? And, that's what my big dream and hope will be. And, then that way it honors all the families and it honors all the people like myself who spend their lives being great state servants who make a difference. And, I hope that when the new leaders start the work that they recognize the power that they have to make change, not only for their families, but in other states, because a lot of times, many of us talk and go look to see what our friends in other states have done and we're not starting from ground zero. We're able to take what they've learned, their challenges and their success, and start to build from a place of positivity and a place of already moving forward.
Killins Stewart: Your vision for the horizon is great. I mean, the idea that we wouldn't be talking about K to 12 or early childhood, but that the opportunity is there for each and every child and we're not thinking about who's included and who's excluded is quite powerful, especially in the context of it's not quick. And, then recognizing all the leaders that are working on this every day.
Killins Stewart: Thank you so much for being with us today and sharing your story about your community and about New Jersey and the work you're doing to make a difference for young children and families. And, thank all of you for joining us. If you gained an insight from today's episode, let us know, leave us a comment, give us a rating or share it with your colleagues.
Killins Stewart: Critical Connections: Leading for Equity is a podcast of the BUILD Initiative. It's produced by LWC Studios. The producers are Kandice Cole, Paulina Velasco. BUILD Initiative partners with state leaders to promote equitable high quality child and family serving systems that result in young children thriving and learning. To learn me about BUILD's work, visit our website at www.buildinitiative.org. I am Dr. Sherri Killins Stewart. Thank you for listening.
CITATION:
Killins Stewart, Sherri, host. “Collaborating Across State Agencies to Benefit Families in New Jersey” Critical Connections, BUILD Initiative, September 20, 2022, www.buildinitiative.org.