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CELEBRATING THE JOY AND MAGIC OF YOUNG CHILDREN

This week we celebrate the Week of the Young Child. In early childhood policy, it seems we often dwell on the adverse situations that undermine the development of very young children. But this week is a time to focus on the joy that young children bring to life, both for their parents and those who support their development in early care and learning programs. To watch a baby or young child, to whom the whole world is brand new, make discoveries at once small and monumental is literally to see magic happen. Using the themes set out for this week by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), we offer our insights on how each theme contributes to this magic, provide some resources, and highlight the policy connections to bring more joy into the lives of all babies and their families.

Music Monday: Making Beautiful Music Together!

When you tire of endless renditions of The Wheels on the Bus, think of this: music can be the spark that ignites all areas of development—intellectual, motor skills, language and overall literacy. Singing together also can help promote social-emotional development. When parents or caregivers and babies make beautiful music together, they can build powerful connections with each other. The mutual joy experienced during shared musical moments strengthens relationships. The bonds created with parents will be a child’s model for close relationships throughout life—including the relationships with other caregivers and teachers, creating the trust needed for learning. The powerful emotions music evokes can help keep children in military families connected to a deployed parent through a video- or audiotape of the parent singing a treasured goodnight lullaby.

Music is also a unique and powerful way for children to connect to their roots or learn about the roots of others. An African-American spiritual, a Yiddish or Irish lullaby, a Mexican folk song… all introduce baby to their family’s heritage in a way that goes beyond words or pictures. And connecting to roots is another way to make a child feel safer and more secure. Learn more.

Policy connection: Paid Family Leave gives parents and babies more time to become attuned to each other, including sharing musical moments. Early care and learning programs such as Early Head Start and high quality child care programs can use music as a dimension of quality, offering opportunities to engage in music making as an exploratory and creative activity as well as incorporating song and movement into classroom routines. The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program funds home visitors who can help parents see how to use music in their interactions with their children and foster strong connections.

TACO Tuesday: Good early nutrition builds strong brains and bodies.

Why do toddlers nibble dubiously at new foods several times before embracing them? Understanding the answer to this and other questions can help parents and caregivers struggling to build healthy eating habits in their babies and toddlers. Nutrition provides fuel for the growing mind and body, so it’s important to get these habits off to a good start. Research shows that early childhood feeding influences later school performance, adult intelligence, bone strength, and the risk of obesity. Understanding how to use natural developmental stages and windows of opportunity can help. Some instincts were ingrained deep in human history. So why are toddlers so cautious about those new foods? Because long ago, toddlers of hunter-gatherers learned to be suspicious of edible things found in the wild—that unfamiliar plant might be ok, but then again it might be poisonous. Better to try a tiny bite a few times to make sure. While modern parents and caregivers are unlikely to serve young children dangerous foods, it’s good to know that this behavior is actually one of self-preservation! Our Parent Portal has more resources on nutrition.

Policy Connection: Some of the most important federal children’s programs help attack food insecurity and boost nutrition. Families and child care programs on a tight budget are challenged to offer children a nutritious array of foods. And too many babies and toddlers face food insecurity. The Child and Adult Care Food Program helps early childhood programs provide nutritious foods and promotes quality. Young children whose families receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) are less likely to be underweight or at risk for developmental delays. Mothers who participate in the supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) are 44% less likely to have low-birthweight babies and also experience fewer preterm births.

Work Together Wednesday: Babies and caregivers build strong bonds and brains together!

Wherever babies and toddlers are, at home or in a child care setting, is a major brain construction site. They build relationships and learn from their experiences about who they are, how they are valued, and how the world works. They become explorers and scientists, using the power of play to learn to problem solve and understand people. In the process, their brains build important neural connections, the foundational architecture on which to scaffold all later learning. How should caregivers and parents best support this earliest learning? It turns out that babies have their own agendas that a skillful “teacher” facilitates but doesn’t actually teach. In a ZERO TO THREE podcast, Alison Gopnik talks about how showing a child how a toy works actually narrows the possibilities for discovery open to a child left to his own devices. She says, “If you see…a wonderful preschool teacher, you’d see that they…intuitively get a sense of when to let children explore and figure things out for themselves, and when to just give them the right hint at the right moment rather than having an agenda that you want the children to accomplish.” Learn more about how to encourage young children’s learning with the School Readiness Interactive Birth to 3.

Policy Connection: Caring for infants and toddlers in a manner that supports their rapidly unfolding early development is highly skilled work that calls for professionals who are well-trained and appropriately compensated. Federal and state early childhood policies should support professional development focused on competencies needed to care for infants and toddlers and on higher levels of compensation. Ultimately, as a recent Institute of Medicine report called for, the field needs to work toward a level of professionalization and education for the workforce that recognizes the level of sophisticated knowledge and competencies indicated by the science of early childhood development.

Artsy Thursday: The joy of creating art taps into the magic of imagination.

You might see those first scribblings as the first step to writing a child’s 12th grade term paper, but they are actually a whole lot more. Creativity is a bridge to learning. Being creative and curious helps children come up with answers to the problems they encounter. Most importantly, creative expression lets children tap into the magic of their own imaginations—which is what being a child is all about. One of the most satisfying ways of being creative is with crayons and paper. For very young children, art and early writing skills are one and the same. At first, it’s all about just figuring out what these cool things called crayons can do. Then the child discovers the link between her hand holding the crayon and the line she made on the page: Presto! She experiences the power of cause-and-effect. This leap in thinking skills is helped along by her new ability to hold things in her hands and fingers. The growing control the child has over the muscles in her hands lets her move a marker or paintbrush with purpose and with a goal in mind.

From scribbles to the recognition that drawing lines and curves conveys meaning, art experiences help children develop independence within limits, and give them the opportunity to represent their ideas on paper or in other formats. Once a child has begun to purposefully draw images, she has mastered symbolic thinking. She begins to understand the difference between pictures and writing. And don’t forget to put that picture or missive up on the classroom wall or home refrigerator—that way, the child knows her work is valued and important. Find more tips on early art and writing here.

Policy Connection: For early care and learning programs, incorporating a variety of age-appropriate art activities as an integral part of classroom activities to promote early development is a component of quality. Home visiting policy promotes early childhood development that is enriched when home visitors help parents offer their children opportunities for creativity and understand the developmental stages.

Family Friday: Engaging families to partner in their children’s development.

Our first and most important connection in life is with our families. As parents go to work or seek early learning opportunities for their young children, other caregivers play key roles in promoting the emotional well-being of children. These caregivers can partner with parents to best encourage the child’s positive development, creating a mutual support system. Many barriers can exist to developing this relationship, including overburdened staff and overstressed parents who may view each other warily. But working through these barriers is worth it. Families need and want a partner, someone who sees them as an equal, and who will collaborate with them to problem-solve whatever challenges may arise, versus telling them what to do. As Jerlean Daniel, former NAEYC Executive Director, put it in a ZERO TO THREE podcast, when “the parent and the caregiver have open two-way communication…that there’s nothing too large or small to talk about, even if each party feels a little uncomfortable with it, they’ve built a relationship...[and when the parent sees] a caregiver who is curious and anxious to know your child—really know who your child is… that will make a relationship soar.”

Putting families in the child care picture—in other words, creating parent and family engagement—is more than just family pizza night. Parents need to be engaged using every touchpoint with families as an opportunity to connect, support and inform. It is these everyday moments that make the difference—staff showing parents that they feel their pain, and are there to support and partner with them, not to judge or blame. This is the glue that bonds parents to programs and leads to greater participation and thus impact on the child. To learn more, read ZERO TO THREE’s comments on family engagement.

Policy Connection: Family engagement is built into programs like Early Head Start and Head Start, as well as home visiting. Child care programs should see it as an integral part of their work and receive the resources to achieve that. The quality set-asides in the Child Care and Development Block Grant are one source of support.

Celebrate the magic and joy of early childhood every day by visiting our Parent Portal and our Policy Center page.

#woyc16 #ECE Rally4Babies

What Can We Do About Babies? Putting Infants and Toddlers in the Policy Picture

The past two decades have seen great progress in getting the message to policymakers about the importance of the first three years of life and the gaps that can start opening in infancy—only to be met by shrugs of doubt that anyone knows “what to do about babies.” As advocates, we know this is not the case. An array of proven interventions such as parental leave, home visiting, high quality child care, and Early Head Start can help families get their babies off to a good start in life. Yet, we also understand that putting together the various pieces of the infant-toddler policy puzzle is not simple. To help policymakers solve the riddle, ZERO TO THREE recently updated an important resource, Infants and Toddlers in the Policy Picture: A Self-Assessment Toolkit for States, to guide states through examining and improving their policies for the youngest children.

The first three years of life are a period of incredible growth in all areas of a baby’s development. These areas are inextricably related. One cannot be emphasized at the expense of the others: physical health and social and emotional growth are integral to cognitive development. And all of this development unfolds in the context of close relationships with trusted adults, both within families and in caregiving settings.

In policy terms, these interrelated areas mean that all babies need good health, strong families, and positive early learning experiences. When families lack access to key ingredients for healthy, positive development, a child’s early years can become a time of vulnerability rather than promise. Research shows that vulnerable babies start falling behind in infancy, long before they cross the threshold of a prekindergarten program.

Public policy can help ensure that babies and toddlers living in high-risk environments receive the additional supports needed to promote their healthy growth and development. But while the question we usually ask about older preschoolers is fairly simple—“How do we provide the opportunity for all children to access quality prekindergarten services?”—the question for babies and toddlers is more complex--“How do we reach the most vulnerable children and families wherever they are and support their early development?”

Infants and Toddlers in the Policy Picture: A Self-Assessment Toolkit for States helps states think holistically about what babies need and assemble the components for a strong, comprehensive system of services and supports to ensure all babies have a chance to thrive. The toolkit guides states in assessing their progress in promoting what all babies need—good health, strong families, and positive early learning experience—and the systems and collaboration needed to give their families access to quality services.

For each area, the user-friendly toolkit prompts states to first collect data on how their infants and toddlers are doing and then to examine whether the state has recommended policies and funding in place. The toolkit is organized so that states can easily access data from national sources and see how they compare to other states. The toolkit also gives states access to stakeholder survey questions that can be used to gather input on how services are delivered in their own communities. Parties interested in consulting with someone at ZERO TO THREE about how best to use the toolkit in their states may contact Barbara Gebhard at [email protected].

We know from the science that the earliest years are a window of both opportunity and vulnerability. We know that proven interventions can help their families support early development so babies and toddlers are on the right track for success in school and in life. And we know how to roll up our sleeves and assemble the right policy picture for the youngest children. In short, we most certainly know what we can and should do for babies—and it’s time to get started.

To Find the Roots of School Readiness, Look Back to the Beginning

It’s that time of year again: Back to School. For children entering kindergarten, there is frequently a “look back”—if not formally by the school system, then certainly by their parents—at how ready they are for the challenges of “Big School.” Did their preschool experience prepare them for what lies ahead? Recently, other issues also have spurred look backs at what happens in preschool. Discussions of challenging behaviors, preschool expulsion and suspension, and bullying often see the preschool years as the time when these issues take root. But the look back stops there.

What we’re really talking about in all these cases is children’s development of social and emotional skills. And most of the time we are not looking back far enough. To find the roots of all these things, you have to go back to the beginning. Most parents watch proudly as their 5-year-old grabs her backpack and heads out the door to her first day of kindergarten—her “official” start into the world of education and learning. Few might imagine that their child has actually been preparing for this day since she first opened her eyes.

What makes a school-ready child? School-readiness and school success are more than just having acquired a set of facts and skills. They require a “secret ingredient”—social-emotional skills. More than 20 years ago, ZERO TO THREE’s seminal publication Heart Start: The Emotional Foundations of School Readiness identified the essential characteristics a child needs to take on the world of formal education: confidence, curiosity, intentionality, self-control, relatedness (being able to engage with others based on a sense of understanding), capacity to communicate, and cooperativeness. Often these attributes are called “soft skills,” although they are anything but mushy. In reality, social-emotional development goes hand in hand with cognitive development as the bricks and mortar of early brain architecture.

Young children develop these skills and attributes through relationships. Starting from birth, babies are learning who they are by how they are treated. This is how they come to know the world and their place in it. Loving relationships provide young children a sense of comfort, safety, and confidence, and they offer a buffer against stressful times. They teach young children how to form friendships, experience and communicate emotions, and to deal with challenges—to develop social-emotional wellness. Strong, positive relationships also help children develop trust, empathy, compassion, generosity and a sense of right and wrong. They also give children the confidence to explore their world, to become curious, eager learners.

The good news for parents and caregivers: fostering positive social-emotional development isn’t an add-on to nurturing very young children; it’s the heart of the matter and unfolds in the everyday moments of life.

Just as babies are wired to learn, so are they wired for feeling. They are extremely sensitive to the feelings and emotions of the adults to whom they are attached. Because infants and young children develop in the context of close, consistent relationships, their own emotional well-being is directly tied to the emotional functioning of their caregivers and families. And their ability to cope with stressful situations and their own tidal wave of emotions also depends on how their caregivers respond.

To be sure, helping young children develop in a positive way isn’t easy. Many parents and caregivers may not fully understand what behavior is typical or within the normal range for an age group. As anyone who has ever coped with a toddler having a meltdown in the grocery store knows, normal behavior can still be challenging. In a Little Kids, Big Questions podcast, ZERO TO THREE Board Member Dr. Ross Thompson notes that the area of the brain responsible for self-regulation is one of the latest to develop. But he offers many insights and thoughtful advice for parents coping in the meantime.

Sometimes children don’t have the supportive relationships and care that help them develop in a healthy way. Parents’ own mental health issues, such as maternal depression, can make them less responsive to their babies, which in turn is reflected in how their babies respond to the world. And sometimes children’s environments create high levels of stress that find their outlet in challenging behaviors. This was the case in a Baltimore child development center in the heart of the neighborhood torn by riots following Freddie Gray’s death. (Learn more about their response here.)

Which brings us to challenging behaviors, preschool expulsion, and bullying. While these behaviors most often come to a head in the preschool or early elementary years, what’s behind them didn’t develop overnight and, left without support or access to effective treatment, children will not “grow out” of social-emotional difficulties. It is likely that there are undetected or untreated issues at play among many of these children, their parents, or in the child-parent relationship. They may be defined as social, emotional, mental; whatever the term used, they are contributing factors to and results of the problems if left unaddressed. The point is that these issues are what must be addressed, whether within or outside of an early childhood program. And the earlier, the better. (For more on this topic, including videos from our June 2015 briefing, visit our NEW web portal on Preventing Expulsion from Preschool and Child Care.)

The new Child Trends study, To Prevent Bullying, Focus on Early Childhood, found connections between harsh discipline techniques and exposure to domestic violence and higher levels of bullying behavior. When parents are more positively engaged, through interactions such as playing and reading together, that let their children know they are valued—in short, when positive social-emotional development is nurtured—this helps guard against such behavior.

High expulsion rates and bullying incidents are an indicator that we are not helping parents and caregivers, starting from birth, to support the positive social and emotional development that is the foundation for all learning, future relationships, and school readiness.

The Administration and Congress have taken important steps to highlight issues related to challenging behaviors and expulsion/suspension both in legislation and policy. However, we cannot pay attention to social-emotional development only when it has run off the tracks, with disastrous consequences for the young children whose feelings are hurting. It must be a point of emphasis infused into in policies that support early development and strong families, from paid family leave, to home visiting, to child care, to preschool. It is imperative to develop the capacity to support parents and early care and learning professionals in nurturing children—in laying the foundations of school readiness—before unhealthy and destructive habits and behaviors are ever formed or before children have been bypassed by the skills that will give them the best shot at success in school and in life.

#BacktoSchool ECE ECMental Health

Baby Facts Plus Messaging Toolkit = Baby Policy Story

As infant-toddler advocates, we always seem to be searching for the best way to tell the story of what babies, toddlers, and their families need policymakers to do. How do we describe the need? What statistics are useful? What is our main message? What are the solutions? What’s the take away? ZERO TO THREE has two recent products, State Baby Facts and the Infant and Toddler Messaging Guide, that can help you weave these elements together and tell the story—if you take the time to craft your message based on your own knowledge of what works in your community.

The first step in telling your story is to identify your policy topic. As an example, we’ll use the topic of child care, as it is enjoying a recent resurgence of attention, as the media plays up work and family issues and states grapple with the implementation of the new Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) law.

The next step is to begin to build your case. Why is change needed? The newest version of Baby Facts provides us with some compelling stats on child care: 62% of mothers with infants are in the workforce; the cost of infant child care takes a big bite out of paychecks (37% of a single mother’s wages); one in seven families report having employment affected by child care issues. Add to these facts what we know about the quality of infant-toddler care (that it is often of poor to middling quality) and that one in four young children are at moderate to high risk for developmental delays, and we have begun to set the stage for why we need a policy solution to the need for high quality child care.

That solution usually is increased support for early care and learning programs such as the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). We know CCDBG is an important source of support for working families with very young children, because nationally a little more than a fourth of children receiving subsidies are infants or toddlers. But how do you show that CCDBG isn’t sufficiently meeting the need already and that we need an increase in CCDBG funding? Because Baby Facts must cover a broad range of topics and indicators related to the overall well-being of infants and toddlers, we don’t dive deep into specific issues. So we look to our sister organizations who also work on these issues. From the Center for Law and Social Policy, we know that CCDBG has lost the capacity to serve 315,000 children over the past 10 years (they include data for individual states). Recent changes to CCDBG requirements will cost states money to implement—money that will have to come from subsidies if Congress and/or the states don’t step up with funding. From the National Women’s Law Center and CLASP, we also know just how far your state has to go to meet these new requirements. For additional resources from our partner organizations, be sure to download the Baby Facts toolkit.

So, we’ve assembled our data and the stage is set. How do we now package our story so that policymakers understand the need to act and feel compelled to do so—and know what they should do? The Infant-Toddler Messaging Guide, created by Advocacy & Communications Solutions, LLC (ACS) with ZERO TO THREE, offers tips for successful messaging specifically for infant-toddler advocates, along with examples from a national scan of how the early childhood community has been talking about our issues. Some important ones: present the issue, problem, and the solution; highlight outcomes for children and the broader effect on society; use your data to back up claims, but be strategic and don’t overwhelm with stats; embed a value or belief; use concrete examples; and paint a believable picture—a narrative for your entire community. There’s a handy checklist on page 18 to see if you’ve gone astray.

Now, let’s put this knowledge – our statistics - and knowhow – our messaging savvy - together for a child care pitch. For the most part, we’ve used national data, but check Baby Facts and other sources we’ve noted for your state for additional context.

Working families are the key to our nation’s prosperity now and in the future, as they prepare the next generation of workers. For families with young children, child care is the critical link that enables them to work and be productive. It also affects their children’s learning, ability to build relationships, and their start toward reaching their potential. More than three of every five mothers with infants are in the labor force. In our community, agencies that help parents find care say that more than half of all requests they receive are for infant or toddler care. Yet, care for babies is scarce, and the cost can eat up more than a third of a single mother’s paycheck in our state.

As a nation, we invest in families’ work efforts through the Child Care and Development Block Grant, or CCDBG. But this key cog in our productivity machinery has lost ground and serves 315,000 fewer children than it did a decade ago. Recently Congress took some big steps toward improving the safety and quality of care for children, but our state has a ways to go if we are to do more monitoring and background checks as required. Our state has tried to increase quality care for babies by offering higher reimbursements to providers who provide high quality care for infants and toddlers. Increasing funding for CCDBG would help states like ours ensure that parents can continue earning and their children’s development can flourish.

ACS advises that the context in your state and community should shape your ultimate message. Tying your issue to areas of emphasis in your community can grab immediate interest. Knowing your audience can help avoid pitfalls such early childhood “insider talk” to try and sway those with no experience in the area. In other words, keep your radar on to learn how others across the nation are telling the story of babies and public policy, but stay grounded in how best to tell that story at home!

#childcare #earlylearning #Rally4Babies

Preschool Expulsion: A Child’s Perspective

Claire Lerner, LCSW, ZERO TO THREE

Preschool expulsions have reached epidemic proportions, when you consider the overwhelming impact they have on the short- and long-term development of young children. Preschool provides young children the chance to learn to work collaboratively and get along with others, to develop self-control, and to learn important school-readiness skills. A national survey found that 1 in 10 preschool teachers have expelled at least one child and that young children in child care are expelled at much higher rates, more than five times the rate of children in grades K-12 (Gilliam, 2005). Not surprisingly, the children who need preschool the most are the most likely to be expelled. Also not surprising is that a teacher’s perception of the challenging behaviors and ability to handle them effectively can determine whether a child gets expelled; whether he suffers a terrible rejection and loss of a safe and structured learning environment, or whether he has a chance to learn to be successful in a group environment.

Let’s take a closer look at what it feels like to be expelled through the eyes of the child, and to see the significant difference a teacher’s approach can make.

Take 1: Charlie and Ms. Tina

My name is Charlie. I just turned 3 and I am on my way to preschool. My mommy is really stressed out. There is so much to do, and my daddy leaves for work super early, so my mommy has to do it all by herself—get my brother and sister ready to make their bus in time, and then get me to school so she can go to her daytime job. That’s right—mommy has to work 2 jobs—one at night and one during the day, so we can keep our apartment and not have to move in with Aunt Theresa. Our car ride is super tense—mommy wasn’t happy with me because I dilly-dallied. I have a really hard time getting organized in the morning and I wasn’t ready in time. Not feeling too good about myself right now.

When we get to school, I don’t want mommy to leave. It’s hard to say goodbye when we’ve had a bad morning. I start to cry and won’t let her go. My teacher, Ms. Tina, makes mommy leave and tells me that I need to find something to do, but I am so upset I can’t think straight. I just stand there, frozen. So Ms. Tina takes my arm and brings me to the block area. But I’m not ready to play and I don’t want to do blocks, so I just knock them all down. Ms. Tina asks what in the world I am thinking and makes me go sit in the time-out chair.

Then it’s circle time, which I love—but it’s very hard for me to sit still. I feel all jumpy inside. My brain is telling me not to move, but my body just wants to keep going. I get this idea to hop up and down like the frog in the book we’re reading. The other kids start to get up and jump just like me. But in her angry voice, Ms. Tina tells everyone to sit right back down. Then she says that since I can’t control my body, I have to go sit at a table away from the group. I am always getting into trouble.

Later on the playground, a bunch of kids are playing a chasing game and I try to join in, but Layla says I can’t. I am so mad that I kick her. She starts crying and Ms. Tina comes over and shouts, “Charlie, you can’t play with your friends if you’re just going to hurt them. You need to use your words. Tell Layla you’re sorry and go have a seat by that tree.” I didn’t mean to hurt Layla. I’m just not so good with words yet, or with controlling my really big feelings. Now I’m even angrier. I pick up a whole handful of mulch and throw it. Ms. Tina says, “OK, Charlie, you’re done. Time to call mom to pick you up.”

Mommy arrives and is fuming—like in the cartoons when fire comes out of people’s ears. Ms. Tina tells her, as if I’m not even there, “Charlie has no self-control and is putting other kids in danger. He can’t come to school if he can’t behave. ” My mommy starts to cry. She asks how is she supposed to work if she can’t take me anywhere? I am ruining her life! And if I can’t go back to school, I won’t get to learn how to be a good friend—which I want so badly. And I won’t get to learn all that cool stuff Ms. Tina shares with us at circle time, or make those fun projects, or be the line leader or be the snack helper. Now I just feel bad, and rejected, and alone, and even more out of control than I did before.

Children like Charlie are not purposefully misbehaving or making trouble. They struggle more than other children with self-regulation—managing their emotions and their bodily impulses. This leads to more intense reactions and more impulsive and disorganized behaviors. This dysregulation can be caused by a child’s temperament or neurological makeup, and also by living in highly stressful and chaotic environments. When children feel out of control on the inside, they act out of control on the outside. The fact is that even without challenges to their sensory systems, or significant stress in their worlds, children under 3 have very little self-control. They need support from parents and other caregivers to learn to manage their strong emotions and impulses, not shaming and punishment for behaviors they cannot control. Punitive, harsh approaches erode children’s self-esteem, decrease their ability to self-regulate, and lead to an increase, versus reduction, in maladaptive behaviors.

Further, when children are expelled, they lose critical opportunities to learn to function effectively in a group and to engage in dynamic learning experiences. Parents lose what should be a source of support—a teacher who helps them understand their child and provides crucial support and guidance. When children are expelled, this naturally increases parents’ stress, further taxing their patience and ability to engage in positive parenting practices to the child’s further detriment.

Take 2: Charlie and Ms. Patty

My name is Charlie. I just turned 3 and I am on my way to preschool. You already know we had a really stressful morning; that my mommy is mad about my dilly-dallying; and that I had a really hard time separating from her at school because we were in a bad place. But this time Ms. Patty is in charge. She comes over with the warmest smile and says to my mommy: “Tough morning, huh? Don’t I know about those!” Wow—my mommy relaxes a little. Then Ms. Patty crouches down to my eye level and says: “Charlie—we are so glad to see you! I know it’s hard to say goodbye to mom sometimes, but she needs to go do her job; and guess what, you also have an important job—that’s right--feeding the fish!” I see my mommy give a big smile to Ms. Patty. Then she gives me a hug and tells me that she knows I’m going to be a great helper and have a great day. I am so proud and excited to help Ms. Patty that I don’t even watch my mommy go out the door.

Then it’s circle time. Ms. Patty knows how hard it is for me to sit still, so she gives me a squishy ball to squeeze so I can move my body without disturbing the group. Ms. Patty really gets me. And then when I start to hop up and down like the frog in the book, instead of getting mad at me, she suggests that we all get up and act out the story. She turns my idea into something that makes everyone happy!

Later on the playground, a bunch of kids are playing a chasing game that looks like so much fun! I join in but Layla tells me I can’t play. I am so mad that I kick her and run away. Ms. Patty comes to me, holds me tightly, but warmly, and says, “Charlie, I know you were mad when Layla said you couldn’t play. And when your feelings are really big, you show it with your body. But kicking is not okay. It hurts. Let’s help you say sorry to Layla and tell her what you are feeling with your words.” She is so smart! She knows I don’t want to hurt other people—that’s not going to help me make friends. It’s just that when I’m upset, my mind and body get out of control and she is going to help me with that. Won’t that be awesome!

Now it’s time to go home. When mommy picks me up, Ms. Patty tells her that I love school—which I do—and that I am full of passion. That sounds really good to me. She also tells mommy that sometimes I have a hard time when I am mad or frustrated, and that we are working together on helping me learn ways to control my body and my feelings, and how proud she is of me for trying so hard—because it is really hard work. Mommy looks so happy and she gives me a big hug! Yay! Ms. Patty also says she would like to hear about mommy and daddy’s questions and ideas, and wants to plan a time to get together with them. Mommy loves this idea—she wants to learn ways to help me at home, so we can have less anger and more love. I’m all for that!

What a difference a teacher can make. How did Ms. Patty learn to remain loving, patient, respectful, and supportive in the face of Charlie’s challenging behaviors? For several reasons:

1) She had specific training in early childhood development and in understanding the root causes of challenging behaviors.

2) She has benefitted from the support of a mental health consultant who comes into the classroom and models how to remain empathic and loving, while also setting appropriate limits. This provides children the tools they need to cope and adapt in a group setting—skills they will need to succeed and thrive in the outside world. In fact, research shows that when teachers have access to consultation on managing challenging behaviors, there is a reduction in children’s oppositional, hyperactive and externalizing behaviors, an increase in pro-social peer interactions, and a decrease in expulsions.

3) Patty’s program sees parents as partners. They don’t blame or judge, which only alienates families; they seek to understand the family’s culture, beliefs and values and to provide guidance based on their goals for their child, meeting parents where they are at. Indeed, as one national expert notes, he has NEVER seen a child expelled in a situation where the parent and teacher had a solid, trusting relationship.

Working with young children and families is incredibly joyful and rewarding, but also intense and stressful. Understanding and sensitively responding to the unique needs of both children and families is very complex work. It is an art that takes a lot of training, practice, and mentorship. It is too hard a job to do alone, without support from skilled supervisors and behavioral consultants. If we want today’s young children to be our future innovators and thinkers, we must ensure that they get off to the best start possible. We can do this by supporting positive social and emotional development in young children via the following strategies:

Help parents nurture their children’s social and emotional development with parenting supports through pediatricians, home visitors, and parenting groups;

Prevent, identify, and treat maternal depression;

Improve child care quality with funding adequate to lower child-to-staff ratios and group sizes for younger children; increase workforce professional development around supporting early social-emotional development; and increase compensation and other work supports to lower stress among providers;

Infuse support for children’s mental health into early care and learning programs, including increasing the capacity for mental health training and consultation;

Increase access and quality of Infant-Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) services by:

increasing the supply of IECMH professionals; and

expanding Medicaid reimbursement for relationship-based mental health services.

Listen to Claire's presentation:

Meet Charlie: A Young Child Expelled in Preschool

40 Miles Between Baltimore and the Budget

Like the rest of the nation last week, the tragic events in Baltimore surrounding the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody riveted many here in Washington. Only 40 miles separate the two cities, so many Washingtonians have benefited from downtown Baltimore’s redevelopment. It’s easy to overlook other areas of the city, beset with decay and deep poverty, glimpsed from the highway flyovers leading to the Inner Harbor. The recent tragedy brought these areas into focus, striking many chords in the process—police practices, racial bias, neighborhoods where lack of equity of opportunity is writ large.

As we observe Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, the spotlight on children living in a constantly stressful and sometimes violent environment is particularly striking. News reports highlighted the impact of the events on older children. But a dispatch from our colleagues at the Maryland Family Network (MFN) underscored their impact on the youngest. At the most intense point in the protests, children and staff took shelter at the Little Flowers Early Childhood and Development Center until the danger had passed. Crystal Flowers, the director and founder, emphasized that following these events the staff had to make children feel safe and give them a sense of normalcy. “They have to go outside and play, and skip, and run,” Ms. Flowers says. “It’s ok. It’s safe. We’re here with you.”

What Ms. Flowers knows is that even the youngest children, far from being unaware of traumatic events, can be affected by what they see and sense from the adults around them. Babies and toddlers may not understand what they are experiencing, but they remember what they have been through. Since young children mostly are not able to talk about their feelings, they act them out through behaviors like whining, trouble sleeping, or more kicking or biting. Because their trusted adults are their security, young children are very sensitive to their caregiving environments. How their parents and caregivers are in the midst of such events will affect how they are. That is why Ms. Flowers and her staff are presenting a calm front and watching for the subtle cues, particularly from the youngest children, that signal the need for help. They are ready with comfort, patience, and understanding.

The bigger picture is that the young children in this area of Baltimore, and many others around the nation, are not strangers to stress and even violence in their neighborhoods. Residents have talked to the news media about the lack of jobs and basic services such as grocery stores. Underlying all is poverty. In Maryland as a whole, one in seven young children lives in poverty. In Baltimore City one in five lives—not just in poverty—but in deep poverty. For a family of three, that means $10,045 a year or $9 a day for each family member. For very young children, living in an environment of such economic distress can undermine their emotional, cognitive, and physical development. The chronic, unrelenting stress they experience can release hormones toxic to the developing brain and affect immune and other physiological systems.

These young children need strong relationships with trusted adults—both parents and other caregivers—to buffer the effects of their stressful environments. Crystal Flowers was well aware of the challenges her young charges face on a daily basis, so was prepared for last week’s events, as she is for addressing the mental health needs of the children every day. To ensure a holistic approach, she has taken trainings on the social and emotional foundations of learning and working with children experiencing trauma. In the MFN dispatch, she put the need this way:

“If they don’t have that outlet [of being able to talk with adults about their feelings and confusion], I think what we saw on Monday are the long-term effects. If we don’t do something when they’re two, three, four, and five, then they’re not going to know how to vent that anger later,” Crystal says. “They have to learn to live in their community and know that when justice is not served, that there are constructive ways to handle it. We can teach them that now.”

Unquestionably, the issues facing Baltimore and other communities across the country are complex and do not lend themselves to easy solutions. Job creation and economic investment must be tackled. Healing relationships between police and community is critical, as is the need to confront racial biases that sometimes underlie—not just police actions toward young black men—but the greater likelihood that young black children, and particularly boys, will be expelled from preschool.

Any comprehensive strategy must include as a central element supporting early development, starting even before birth, to give the youngest children the opportunity to reach their potential. Approaches such as home visiting, Early Head Start, and high-quality comprehensive child care reach both parents and children with support that can be critical to overcoming environments that can jeopardize family well-being. And an understanding of social-emotional development and addressing mental health needs must permeate all of these approaches.

The needs are immense and require bold vision and action on a grand scale. Where could that come from? As it happens, while the media focus on Baltimore was exposing the intense problems its residents are experiencing, 40 miles down I-95, Congress was cobbling together a far-reaching document that potentially could start a conversation on these fundamental problems as well as lay out actions on a grand scale. Yet, the budget plan adopted by both House and Senate (no Presidential signature is required), far from taking note of these problems, envisions reducing the deficit over the next 10 years disproportionately by cutting programs for low and moderate income individuals and families. If the budget plan is implemented, it could reduce even further spending on programs like Head Start/Early Head Start and child care, already depressed by the on-going sequester that limits discretionary spending. Medicaid and nutrition programs also would be cut under the guise of state flexibility. These programs recognize that families’ access to medical care and food is a matter of basic survival, especially when their income is half or less of the federal poverty line, not an impediment to solving their communities' overwhelming problems.

For another indicator that the gap between Baltimore—and the rest of the nation—and Washington seems greater than 40 miles, consider this: at about this same time, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the estate tax that affects the estates of about two-tenths of one percent of Americans who die each year. Just 6 months of revenue from that tax would more than double federal spending on early care and learning for infants and toddlers who live in families that are poor or near poor—that’s 48 percent of all babies in America. With that type of investment, we could let a thousand flowers bloom.

President’s Budget Checks Off Boxes in Baby Policy Growth Chart

President Obama’s ambitious FY 2016 budget plan checks off many of the boxes in an essential baby policy growth chart. By adding several family-oriented pieces to the Preschool-for-All agenda laid out previously, the President now has an extensive array of children and family proposals. New this year is a bold plan for substantial investments in child care—one of the missing links in earlier proposals.

One of the most important aspects of the budget isn’t directed specifically at babies, but would make a huge difference for programs that support their healthy development. To make room for these investments, the President would throw off the yoke of austerity that has exacerbated the erosion of funding for families and children over the past few years. The budget would repeal the sequester and raise domestic spending beyond the current severe cap. These changes would be funded largely through tax reforms.

To see how the President's proposals measure up for babies, we checked them against some of the major elements of ZERO TO THREE’s baby policy agenda—essentially a growth chart of policies that help support families as they support their children’s earliest development.

Help parents support their children’s early development (Paid Family Leave and Home Visiting):

The budget checks off these key supports that recognize the powerful role parents play from the start in promoting strong early development. It would:

Provide $2 billion to encourage states to develop Paid Family Leave (PFL) programs. We believe a national approach, such as that in the FAMILY Act, would be more efficient and equitable, but appreciate that the President is supporting PFL in a major way.

Extend and expand the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, as in previous budgets, proposing to invest $15 billion over 10 years.

The President also has endorsed legislation providing paid sick days for workers and urged Congress to provide PFL for federal workers.

Expand comprehensive early development and learning opportunities (Early Head Start and child care):

The budget’s biggest—and most welcome—surprise was a dramatic proposed increase for child care for low-income working families. This new piece is the missing link in the President’s early childhood education agenda and is critical for infants and toddlers. 6 million children under age three spend a good portion of their day in the care of someone other than their parents. Good quality child care is expensive and scarce, out of reach of many families whose children could benefit. The budget would:

Invest steadily in child care for low-income families by pumping $82 billion over 10 years in mandatory funding through the Child Care Development Fund CCDF). By 2025, all families with young children and an income at or below 200% of poverty would have access to child care subsidies. Additional discretionary funds would help pay for implementation of the recent Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) reauthorization and provide grants to improve child care for parents who work non-traditional hours.

Triple the value of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to $3,000 per child for families with children under age five and expand it so that most middle-income families could use it to the fullest. However, the tax credit remains non-refundable, meaning families without tax liability could not take advantage of it (making the CCDF investment that much more important).

Increase funds for expanding Early Head Start (EHS), including through the EHS-Child Care Partnerships, to $650 million from $500 million annually, to improve access to quality programs for families living below the poverty line.

Reiterate the Preschool-for-All proposal, investing $75 billion over 10 years to provide access to quality PreK for all 4 year-olds living at or below 200% of poverty; and provide funding to expand Head Start programs to full-day, full school-year.

Better identify and address developmental needs from the start (Part C/Early Intervention):

Reaching the goal of school readiness for all children means ensuring that developmental delays and disabilities are identified and addressed as early as possible. Previous budgets have included only small increases or none at all for programs that fund early intervention for infants and toddlers and preschool programs for children with disabilities. That changed somewhat this year, as the budget proposed to:

Increase funds for infants and toddlers under Part C of IDEA by $65 million. $15 million of these funds could be used for “Pay for Success” grants (i.e., social impact bonds) for projects that expand screening and services for at-risk infants and toddlers who do not otherwise meet the eligibility criteria for Part C services as set by the states. Under this model, private investors provide the capital necessary to expand or create promising programs in exchange for performance-based payments tied to the achievement of targeted outcomes.

Increase funds for preschool grants for children with disabilities by $50 million.

One part of our baby agenda is more widespread developmental screening to ensure the earliest detection of delays or disabilities. While not a focus of the budget, the Department of Health and Human Services promotes such screening through its Birth to Five, Watch Me Thrive initiative. In addition, the new CCDBG reauthorization requires states to provide information to parents on developmental screening and how to access it.

While not huge increases, it is good to see these underfunded programs receive more attention. We believe there are many children who do not meet state Part C eligibility criteria who could benefit from early intervention services, and have seen encouraging results from projects with this objective. However, in the absence of a comprehensive plan for meeting the needs of all children with developmental delays or disabilities, the Pay for Success proposal raises concerns about using Part C funds for this purpose.

Instill a developmental approach to child welfare:

Infants and toddlers are the most vulnerable to abuse and neglect and comprise the largest group of children entering foster care. Maltreatment and the multiple risk factors that often accompany it increase the likelihood of developmental harm. ZERO TO THREE advocates using a developmental approach to supporting infants, toddlers, and their caregivers within child welfare. The budget contains proposals that could assist in creating this developmental lens by:

Spending $586 million in mandatory funds over 10 years to prevent a child from entering or re-entering foster care.

Reauthorizing and rewriting the Abandoned Infants Assistance Program, created several decades ago to respond to the boarder baby crisis, to become the Protecting Abandoned and At Risk Infants and Toddlers program to better respond to families’ needs and recognize the importance of this population.

Taken as a whole, the budget's proposals provide a comprehensive vision of improving the likelihood that young children can reach their potential. Checking off boxes on our baby policy growth chart is one thing; making these ambitious proposals a reality is another. Certainly, the President’s budget is not being embraced whole-heartedly on Capitol Hill. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t areas where there might be some agreement, starting with the child care tax credit for middle-income families. The key is to take individual pieces and find champions who will help turn a policy growth chart into a real boost for meeting early development milestones.

New Year, New Congress!

The New Year brings with it a new Congress—the 114th—and a more sharply divided government. The Republican party now controls both Houses of Congress, while the Executive branch remains under Democratic control as President Obama’s term winds down. Where do babies stand in the policymaking agenda? They may not be at the top, but nevertheless they will figure in potential legislative and administrative actions on a variety of issues. These actions will provide advocates with ample opportunities to underscore the importance of getting all babies off to a good start. And who knows? Perhaps coming together around addressing young children's needs, as they did in the last Congress around child care, could be a way to bridge the divide.

Opportunities to discuss a baby agenda will arise because key programs for children and families must be revisited periodically as they are reauthorized—or because a major reauthorization must now be implemented. Legislation also will be introduced on other critical issues, perhaps with less chance of enactment in the near future, but creating a big opening for advocating for broad, cohesive policies that promote positive early development.

Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG): Sure, we just worked with Congress to pass the long-overdue reauthorization. Now comes the less glamorous, but infinitely important task of rolling up our sleeves and ensuring the law is well implemented in the states. In late January, the Department of Health and Human Services will propose an outline, or preprint, states must follow in developing their plans, giving 30 days for public comment. Once the preprint is finalized, states will have a limited time to prepare their plans, which will have to incorporate new features in the law. A key part of this process is an opportunity for the public to comment. Infant-toddler advocates should become informed about their state’s process and be prepared to provide input to ensure that state plans work toward quality care for infants and toddlers.

Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV): We last left MIECHV after working hard to secure a 6-month extension of its authorization in the “Doc fix” or SGR bill. It’s been almost long enough to forget what SGR stands for (it’s Sustainable Growth Rate for Medicare payments), so it must be time for the authorization to expire once again. In fact, we have until March 31 to secure another MIECHV extension. Advocating for this extension, possibly once again using SGR as a legislative vehicle, will be ZERO TO THREE’s top federal policy priority for the next few months.

Head Start/Early Head Start (EHS) Reauthorization: This centerpiece of federal early childhood education policy is at the end of its authorization, although it will continue as long as there are appropriated funds for it. The Committees that oversee it do not expect to take up legislation to extend the program this year, but certainly will soon begin gathering input and ideas for any changes to it. Advocates should already be thinking about issues that need addressing and communicating those to lawmakers and other advocates. Some food for thought: the implications of initiatives such as the EHS-Child Care Partnerships and expanded pre-K for the future mission and formulation of Head Start/Early Head Start; preserving EHS focus on reaching families during the prenatal period and supporting vulnerable families regardless of the parents’ work status; continuing efforts to ensure quality; and the possibilities of innovation.

Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA): CAPTA is a small funding source with a big vision. Again, action on its reauthorization likely is not imminent, but now is the time to think about how the programs under the Act are working and changes that are needed. For example, the requirement that infants and toddlers with substantiated instances of abuse or neglect be screened for referral to early intervention services under Part C of IDEA—how has that worked and what challenges have states encountered?

Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Speaking of Part C, which funds early intervention services for infants and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities, it is overdue for reauthorization. Detecting and addressing delays and disabilities early should be seen as a key to policymakers’ goal of more school-ready children, but it always seems to be an afterthought. As advocates, we need to inform policymakers about this program’s importance and come together around policy changes that will reach more infants and toddlers when services could really make a difference.

Paid Family Leave: Legislation such as the FAMILY Act likely will be reintroduced to expand the ability of families to take time off with a newborn or newly adopted child as well as for their own extended illness or that of a family member by ensuring some wage replacement. As successful as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has been in guaranteeing job protection for these purposes, too many families have not been able to use it because they are not covered or because they cannot afford to take unpaid leave. Most disturbing are the disparities in access: black and Latino working parents are the least likely to be able to access leave because they either are not covered by FMLA or they cannot afford unpaid time off. Infant-toddler advocates need to become a potent force in advocating for all parents to be able to spend time with their babies. As they build relationships with their young children, fostering the bonding and attachment that are the roots of positive development, parents are actually the front line of preparing our future workers and citizens. Shouldn’t they be assured of the unhurried time to start this important task?

These issues and others (such as child nutrition, infant-early childhood mental health, developmental approaches in child welfare) make it clear that babies have their own agenda, whether recognized as such by policymakers or not. ZERO TO THREE will be articulating this baby agenda in our new federal policy priorities, out soon, and will explore issues and upcoming actions in more depth. In the meantime, advocates should be thinking about how they can show their Members of Congress that babies need to be "on the program" if we are to address national problems ranging from achieving success in school to competing in a global economy.

President Signs Child Care and Development Block Grant Act into Law

Offers Access to High-Quality, Affordable Child Care for Children and Families

Today, President Obama signed the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014 (CCDBG) into law, reauthorizing the program for the first time since 1996. For the first time, the new law establishes in statute a set-aside specifically targeted to improve the quality of care for infants and toddlers. The following is a statement from Matthew Melmed, Executive Director of ZERO TO THREE®:

“It is heartening to see that one of the new law’s main principles is to affirm the importance of quality infant-toddler care, signaling a growing recognition of the importance of the first three years in preparing children for success in school and life. This law bolsters quality care for babies by including a requirement long promoted by ZERO TO THREE that sets aside 3% of both discretionary and mandatory funds to improve the quality of infant-toddler care at the state level.

But this work cannot be done on the cheap. We must now make sure that states have adequate funding to improve the quality of experiences for children, while ensuring access for the millions of infants and toddlers in need of care. This must be one of our top priorities." More Facts At a Glance:

6 million infants and toddlers are spending a significant portion of their day –and therefore time when development is being influenced—in child care.

27% of children receiving child care subsidies funded by CCDBG are infants and toddlers. CCDBG, however, is able to serve only one in six eligible children.

63 % of mothers with infants are in the labor force.

For single mothers, the cost of infant child care varies anywhere from 25 % to 69 % of the mother’s median income.

Babies Celebrate as Child Care Bill Toddles Toward President’s Desk

The Senate has voted overwhelmingly by a vote of 88-1 to approve the reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) for the first time in almost 20 years. Congress returned to work last week after a mid-term election that shook up the balance of power in Washington. It is heartening to see that one of its first acts was final passage of a bipartisan bill reaffirming the primary statement of federal child care policy—including a big pronouncement about the importance of quality infant-toddler care. The House approved the bill prior to the election. The bill (S. 1086) now goes to the President to be signed into law—the first time in its twenty-four year history that CCDBG has had its own stand-alone bill to be signed.

The bill’s major focus is ensuring health and safety. Important provisions also promote access to care for families and improve quality. Babies have reason to celebrate: the bill includes a requirement long promoted by ZERO TO THREE that states set aside 3% of both discretionary and mandatory funds to improve the quality of infant-toddler care. The bill raises the authorized discretionary funding levels over time, from $2.36 billion in FY 2015 to $2.75 billion in 2020.

Child Care as a Brain Construction Site: While the bill does not set quality standards, it does include noteworthy signals about the role of child care—which some policymakers think of as merely a work support—in supporting early development. As Congress deliberated, ZERO TO THREE promoted the central message that babies’ brains don’t know what adults label the settings where they spend time. Their learning happens from whatever experiences come their way. With about half of all infants and toddlers spending time in child care, a lot of early brain construction happens in these varied settings.

The final bill does include some recognition of this fact. For example, states are required to have early learning guidelines. Most of them already do, but including this requirement in a child care bill makes a key connection between the two. Suggested uses of quality funds include training in promoting social-emotional, cognitive, and physical development and in the science of brain development. Provisions added in the final agreement would help providers address challenging behaviors, again with an emphasis on prevention through positive support for social-emotional health.

Health and Safety: States will have to substantially bulk up their activities in these areas. Background checks must be performed for all staff in programs receiving CCDBG funds. States also must step up licensing inspections for regulated or licensed programs, conducting one before a program gets a license and visiting all programs unannounced every year. Eventually, license-exempt providers will receive annual visits for a health and safety check. The state has to make sure there are enough inspectors to get the job done, and the results will be made public.

Information for Parents and Providers: States must make available a range of consumer information for parents. Some information is about providers, including the diversity of settings available, the quality of individual providers (if available in the state), and the requirements for licensing and background checks. Other information concerns research and best practices in early childhood development and policies to address “the social-emotional behavioral health” as well as expulsion of children from early childhood programs. Information on developmental screenings and how families or providers can access services also must be provided.

Improved Access to Care: Several provisions help families with stability of care, even when a parent loses a job and must look for another. In those cases, child care assistance must continue for at least 3 months. The bill establishes an initial eligibility period of a year, so families can be assured their care arrangements won't be disrupted. These practices are particularly important for babies, who need continuity of relationships to support positive development. Other provisions require states to describe how they will increase the supply and quality of care for several special groups, including infants and toddlers, and children with disabilities.

Improving Child Care Quality: The existing 4% set-aside for quality improvement activities will be increased over time, to 9% in the fifth and final year of the authorization. Unlike existing law, the new authorization includes a list of recommended activities for the quality funds, such as tiered quality rating systems, provider training and professional development, and engaging families in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways.

Of course, the big news for babies is the set-aside designed specifically to improve the quality of infant-toddler care, often at the lower rungs of the quality ladder. Suggested uses include:

Establishing or expanding high-quality child development centers;

Community or neighborhood-based family child care networks;

Promoting providers’ ability to provide developmentally appropriate services for infants and toddlers through training and professional development; infant-toddler specialist networks; and improved coordination with early intervention specialists.

Infant-toddler components within QRIS, licensing regulations, or early learning and development guidelines;

Improving parents’ ability to access information about high-quality care; and

Other activities that evidence suggests will improve infant-toddler health and safety, development, or wellbeing.

Although the reaffirmation of federal child care policy is reason to celebrate, concerns remain. Requirements for monitoring and background checks, as important as they are to ensure safety, incur a cost that must be covered. If overall CCDBG funding is not increased, states will likely have to cut further into funding that helps families access care. Erosion of child care funding has resulted in a reduction of over 300,000 children served by the program since 2006, according to a CLASP analysis. Expanding funding for child care, at once a critical work support and a major influence on early development and learning, has to be the top early childhood funding priority. Watch for coming alerts to find out how you can help urge Congress to increase CCDBG funding so that child care can be strengthened and families and children can continue to benefit.

Helping Parents Move Beyond the Word Gap

As I pondered the blog post to accompany the launch of “Beyond the Word Gap,”I kept returning to what this all means for parents. Learning to parent is hard work and parents are constantly faced with new information, new science, and new strategies to do it “better.” It reminds me of when I brought my first-born child home from the hospital, put him down, and turned to my mother (my main source of parenting support), and said, “Now what do I do?” That seems to me to be the question parents might ask when they learn that the language their children hear as babies can affect their academic success later on. So I asked our amazing ZERO TO THREE parenting experts, Claire Lerner and Rebecca Parlakian, to write about the Word Gap from the perspective of parents. Patty Cole, Director of Government Relations, ZERO TO THREE

The “Word Gap” has come to symbolize the gulf that can separate very young children who have rich, regular opportunities for positive early experiences with language from those who do not. Science tells us that early language and literacy skills are some of the most important predictors of later success in school, and that as a group, children in families with lower socioeconomic means know far fewer words than their more privileged peers. So how do we close the word gap? By helping parents understand that the development of early language and literacy skills starts at birth, with babies’ innate drive to communicate—to let the trusted adults in their lives know what they need, think and feel. Babies communicate from day one through sounds (crying, cooing, squealing), facial expressions (eye contact, smiling, grimacing) and actions (moving legs in excitement or distress, and later, gestures like pointing.) When the trusted adults in their lives respond to these signals, they are letting babies know they are loved and understood, which motivates them to keep on communicating. That is the foundation of what leads to strong language and literacy skills. Developing language and literacy skills is not an academic exercise that involves saying a certain number of words to children each day. A robust body of research shows that strong language and literacy skills develop when, starting in the first days and months of life, parents and other trusted caregivers engage babies in back-and-forth communication, both verbally and non-verbally, as they play together and go through their daily routines. This helps children understand language in the context of their experience, which gives words meaning. It is the quality of the child’s exposure to language, not just the quantity of words children hear, that makes a difference. What does this look like on the ground? A mother shows her 4-month-old a squeaky toy. She talks about the noise it makes and how she is moving it closer and then farther away. At first, baby kicks his arms and legs happily, and reaches out to grasp the toy. Mom brings it close enough for him to grab and says, “Here you go! You want to check it out. How does it feel? What sounds does it make?” The baby looks at mom and smiles, and then explores the toy. But after a few minutes, the baby turns away and begins to fuss. Mom says, “I think you’re telling me you are all done with Mr. Squeaky. Let’s put him away and have a cuddle.” Or, a 15-month-old points at a tree as she takes a walk with her dad. Dad says, “You see the squirrel running so fast up that tree. He’s a speedy squirrel! Run, squirrel, run!” The toddler looks at her dad, smiles, looks back at the squirrel and says, “Skerl.” Dad responds, “That’s right, it’s a squirrel.” Parents today are stressed enough. For some parents, the worry is about having enough food on the table and adequate care for their children while they work. Others are highly anxious about giving their child a leg-up in the race to have the smartest kid who gets into the best preschool and the most prestigious college. Parents from all walks of life tell us that the pressures of parenting often outweigh the joy. So let’s not burden parents with the added worry that they aren’t saying enough words to their children every day. Instead, let’s focus on what really matters: tuning in to children; reading and responding sensitively to their cues—both verbal and non-verbal; engaging in reciprocal back-and-forth play and interaction; and incorporating lots of rich language into everyday moments. That’s what connecting—and communicating—is all about. To learn more, visit www.beyondthewordgap.org. Claire Lerner, Director of Strategic Initiatives, ZERO TO THREE

Rebecca Parlakian, Director, Parenting Resources, ZERO TO THREE

Creating Equity of Opportunity Through Early Learning Policies

September, the month when we observed the importance of Hispanic Heritage, also saw a breakthrough in early care and learning policy. House and Senate early education leaders forged a bipartisan deal on the reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). The confluence of these two events started us thinking: Young children of Hispanic heritage are forming an increasingly large proportion of the infant-toddler population. Their importance to the U.S. now and as future workers gives us a useful lens for examining the child care bill (S. 1086). More opportunities for high-quality early care and learning experiences for this growing population could significantly influence the ability of young Latino children to reach their potential and contribute to our economy in the future. So shaping and implementing early learning policy could be a good way to create equity of opportunity.

Young Latinos are accounting for an increasing share of the overall child population—24% now and projected to increase to almost 36% by 2050. About a quarter of all infants and toddlers are Latino, and there are more than 5,000,000 Latino children under age 6—the primary customers for CCDBG. Many are considered at risk. About a third of these children live in poverty (although this rate has dropped from 38% as more Latino parents are able to find work). Latino parents are most likely to express concerns about risk factors for developmental problems in their infants and toddlers.

What this adds up to is a lot of parents who want the best opportunities for their children—and children who need early care and learning services that are not only high quality, but also culturally attuned and linguistically appropriate for dual language learners. Nationally, one in five children receiving federal child care services is Latino. But in 11 states, more than one in four children receiving subsidies is Latino, with Texas and Arizona hovering just under 50% and California and New Mexico surpassing 60%.

Given this lens, how does the new child care bill (expected to be passed by the Senate after the election) address the diversity of young children in America and what aspects should we keep an eye on? Overall, the bill pays some attention to the diversity of children and parents, but not the workforce providing child care.

Three areas jump out as having implications for Latino families and providers: consumer information to parents; annual inspections of licensed providers and at some point, of license-exempt providers; and training and professional development systems for providers.

Information for Parents and Providers: States will be required to make available a range of information for the consumers of care, i.e., parents. Some information is about providers, including the diversity of settings available, the quality of individual providers (if available in the state), and the requirements for licensing and background checks. The state must also make available information about research and best practices in early childhood development and policies to address “the social-emotional behavioral health” as well as expulsion of children from early childhood programs. Finally, the state must provide information on the availability of developmental screenings and how families or providers can access services. Some of these areas need careful explanations. For example, the idea of developmental screenings can make parents anxious, so information about how they help identify areas in which children need developmental support is important for accessing screenings and, even more important, following through with referrals.

It is critical that all of this information be available in forms that are accessible to Spanish-speaking parents and providers. To be sure, the list of activities for which the quality set-aside may be used includes providing training and outreach for engaging parents and families in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways. States should allocate some of their quality funds for this purpose—and for reaching diverse providers as well.

Inspections and Monitoring: Within two years, states will have to conduct pre-licensure and annual inspections of licensed child care providers. At some point (the bill leaves it to the state), they also will have to annually inspect license-exempt providers for compliance with fire, health, and safety requirements. While there are requirements that inspectors are qualified to assess compliance with regulations, there is no suggestion that they either reflect the diversity of providers or have any type of cultural competence to interact with providers of diverse racial or ethnic background. Now, it is true that the early childhood workforce is not as diverse as the children for whom they care, but diversity is increasing. Nationally, a little less than 20% of early childhood workers are Hispanic. But many more may be providing family, friend and neighbor care. In fact, Hispanic children are much more likely to be in informal relative care and much less likely to be in center-based programs. So in some states, cultural and linguistic attunement of inspectors could be a significant need.

Training and Professional Development: One of the most encouraging parts of the bill would require states to have training and professional development systems. These systems must provide for a progression of professional development that reflects research and best practices related to the skills necessary to promote the positive development of young children and helps improve the quality and stability within the workforce. The training and professional development is supposed to be, to the extent practicable, appropriate for a population of children that includes (among others) English learners (who are inherently dual-language learners). But there is no requirement that training be linguistically and culturally appropriate for a diverse group of providers or that they receive training that is conducive to cultural competence.

After enactment, any implementing regulations or other guidance should recognize that the adult population connected to children receiving child care services is also diverse. In shaping their own policies, states—especially those with many Latino children as well as children from other racial or ethnic backgrounds receiving subsidies—should be mindful of both the diversity of the current workforce and the need to encourage more providers who reflect the diversity of the children served to enter the field. It will be up to advocates in the states to make sure that early childhood policy is informed not just by research, but by demographics and a sense of equity.

What the Poverty Numbers Say About Our Future

Today’s Census Bureau report on poverty levels in 2013 brought some good news about the state of young children in our country: fewer of them are living in poverty. Economic recovery is finally reaching more families. But the 2 percentage point drop should not obscure a fact that is often overlooked. Young children are the age group most likely to be poor. And as welcome as the decline is, the proportion of children starting out life already at risk for falling behind remains staggering and unacceptable.

Politicians often say that children are so important because they represent our future. Well, the Census Bureau report shows that a significant portion of that future is at risk because close to half of all young children (45%) live in families with income insufficient to make ends meet, that is, below 200% of poverty. (The poverty threshold for a family of four with two children is $23,834 per year, or $5,958 per family member.)

More than a fifth of that future—almost 23% of infants and toddlers—is spending its early years in outright poverty. Not only do we worry about the economic consequences of this number. But when we look behind it to see the much higher rates for very young children from racial and ethnic minorities, it offends our sense of justice as well. 44% of black babies and toddlers and 34% of Hispanic babies and toddlers live in poverty. Clearly, many young children in America do not start out with an equal opportunity to reach their potential.

Too often our political discourse brings children into the mix only in talking about the kind of world they will inherit, as if how we prepare them for that world is irrelevant to its ultimate shape. So we find ourselves asking the perennial question: What does it mean that almost one in four babies and toddlers in America live below the federal poverty line? And that almost another quarter live between that line of demarcation and 200% of poverty—the point below which economists find that families’ income can’t cover the necessities of life?

These young children are spending the most vulnerable years developmentally in circumstances rife with situations that place them at risk. They may lack access to adequate nutrition, live in unstable housing, divert critical body energy shivering in winter because there isn’t enough money to pay the heating bill. They are less likely to have access to enriching early learning experiences. Their parents may be stressed to the limit with the challenges of looking for or holding a job, finding and affording child care, and organizing their lives’ complicated logistics. This stress can affect the parent-child relationship that can buffer young children from the consequences of adverse experiences.

The thread of stress woven throughout their lives is important, because chronic stress is a prime mechanism through which early experiences can undermine brain development. It is often described as “toxic stress.” In chronically stressed children, the hormones stress unleashes constantly bathe the brain, weakening its architecture. Early chronic stress has biological effects as it becomes embedded, not just in neurological development, but in the physical systems also developing rapidly in the early years, affecting immune systems. Poverty literally gets under the skin.

Children who start out in poverty are more likely to fall behind in their language development, lag behind in later reading proficiency, and experience learning disabilities and developmental delays. The effects of poverty and related adverse experiences can follow children into adulthood. Timing matters. Poverty early in life can have a particularly pernicious effect, reducing earnings capacity and hours worked and increasing the likelihood of obesity and other poor health outcomes.

Back to that future we’re trying to save for our children. Today’s infants and toddlers will be part of the core workforce at mid-century. And Hispanics—a third of whom are now being born into poverty—are projected to account for 80% of the growth in the workforce by that time, doubling their share of the total workforce. That workforce will need to be highly skilled to enable us to compete in the global economy. Children need to get a strong foundation now to make a full contribution later, when it is most needed. What today’s Census Bureau report is really telling us is that almost half of this workforce is starting life with at least some level of risk that they will not reach their potential.

Creating a Baby Blanket of Care: The really good news is we know how to help improve the odds for the children behind today’s income and poverty statistics. Just as we know from the science about the importance of development in the earliest years, so we know from program evaluation research about effective strategies to improve the lives of at-risk children and their families. Strong, nurturing relationships can help buffer children from the chronic stress. Proven approaches—some beginning during the important prenatal period—can help diminish the gaps and promote stronger social-emotional foundations. Economists estimate that for every dollar invested in early childhood programs, savings of $3.78 to $17.07 can be expected in future public expenditures.

The key to changing the odds is creating a “baby blanket” of care, building systems that reach all vulnerable infants and toddlers where they are: at home with parents or relatives, in formal and informal child care settings, or in comprehensive settings such as Early Head Start. Central to success is supporting parents in understanding the amazing power they have to profoundly shape their children’s development and the people they will become.

Here are some essential elements of a comprehensive policy for infants, toddlers, young children, and their families. Throughout, we need to ensure approaches are culturally and linguistically attuned and that infant-toddler professionals reflect the diversity of the young children for whom they care. (Read more in our federal policy agenda and the Early Experiences Matter Policy Guide.)

Paid Family Leave: By giving parents and newborn or newly adopted babies the gift of time together, we promote the most essential ingredient to success later in life, a secure, nurturing relationship with the adults in a baby’s life who care most about her.

Early Head Start—Families at risk, from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, benefit from this comprehensive platform for reaching infants, toddlers, and parents together, through multiple settings. A rigorous evaluation found positive impacts on children’s cognitive and language development, more positive approaches to learning, and fewer behavior problems. Parents were more involved, provided more support for learning, and had reduced risk for depression. Thanks to the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships, this approach will reach more young children, but still less than 5% of eligible children will be served.

Evidence-Based Home Visiting—Home visitors reach children and families in familiar surroundings where they are most comfortable and at a time when parents also offer a window of opportunity for learning about supporting their children's development. Proven impacts have been found in child health, child development and school readiness, maternal health, reductions in child maltreatment, family economic self-sufficiency, positive parenting practices, and linkages and referrals. The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, which has enabled states to expand and embed this approach within “baby blanket” systems of care, is due to expire next March.

High-Quality Child Care—By not investing in quality care, we are losing a prime opportunity to boost the development of at-risk children who spend many hours in care while their parents work. Positive effects from high-quality care extend to areas of early learning, cognitive and language development, and school achievement, and can endure into the adult years. This level of quality is out of reach for the families whose children could benefit most. The reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant now moving through Congress will help improve health and safety as well as quality. But with the value of child care dollars eroding over the past decade, this sector of the early learning system needs a major infusion of resources to approach the quality children need.

Our national debate during and after this fall’s election doubtless will continue to be about war, reigning in federal spending even further, sequestration, and taxes—not children growing up in poverty. Federal funding for children is shrinking, a trend expected to continue for the next decade. Not every young children living in an economically disadvantaged family will fall behind. But we cannot afford to have so many children at risk if we want to ensure the vision of a strong national future comes true. When we fail to make sure one half of our future has the best possible start, the other half may find achieving a strong, competitive nation to be an elusive goal.

So will anything change? It is easy to become weary, because in truth, the proportion of infants and toddlers in poverty is similar to what we noted over 20 years ago. The understanding from the research about the importance of early development was summarized in the year 2000 in the seminal work, From Neurons to Neighborhoods, and has only deepened with advances since that time. And the policy prescriptions are similar as well, although we have made some heartening progress, including Early Head Start, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and MIECHV.

What feels different is that more people seem to be connecting the dots, as Nicholas Kristof did in his column last Sunday: that the prenatal period and experiences in the early years matter for a lifetime; that we need to look beyond simple one-shot panaceas to comprehensive strategies that value families and support the vital role parents play in nurturing children; that we cannot let up on quality from before a child is born until he or she heads off into the workforce; and that we actually know how to do these things if we can find the will to make the investment.

So, is this the time? Is this the time when we finally translate and scale-up what we know from the science into what we do through parenting, practice, and policy for young children and their families? Will we all come together and Rally for Babies?

School Readiness Begins Before the First Day of Class: Strong Bonds Yield Strong Learners

"Every child needs at least one person who is crazy about them." -Urie Bronfenbrenner It’s back to school time, when kindergartners and increasingly, prekindergartners all over the country are shouldering their backpacks and heading off to school. The first day of school is important and nervous parents wonder if their children are prepared for the challenges ahead. But the first day of learning—when that child began preparing for the first day in the classroom—happened much earlier, on the day she was born. During the first three years of life, brain development happens at lightning speeds as foundations are laid for important functions such as hearing, seeing, language, thinking and reasoning, and regulating emotions. Long before a child enters a formal school setting, formative experiences have significantly shaped not simply what a child knows, but most importantly how that child comes to acquire knowledge and make sense of the world around him. In my experience teaching preschool in Chicago community based organizations, conversations with parents largely centered on their concern for their child’s academic success. It was clear from these conversations that no parent wants his or her child to fail and shed light on how we can do more to help parents feel confident in making sure their children are prepared when they enter the preK door. Parents across a spectrum of backgrounds would ask me for specific, actionable strategies they could implement to support their child’s academic success and ask questions such as, ‘Which literacy app will teach my child how to read?’ and ‘What brand of math flash cards do you recommend?’ This interest heightened once preschoolers turned 4 and were on the cusp of a grueling kindergarten application process. I applaud parents for seeking out advice on how to support their child, but the truth is that there is no prescriptive list of developmentally appropriate math games or literacy apps that are guaranteed to help their child’s learning. While a parent’s focus on learning strategies is certainly key to supporting a child’s early learning, their most important role starts much earlier—and may not be as complicated or require as much specialized knowledge as they think. The content of what a child knows is positively impacted by the relationship that child has with learning itself. And her relationship with learning starts with the attachment she forms with her caretaker as an infant. As the noted developmental psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner stated: “Every child needs at least one person who is crazy about them.” It is within this relationship that early learning unfolds—and can become a source of joy. The best part for parents is that this early learning isn’t content-driven, but unfolds naturally during everyday moments. We acquire language when our caregivers talk about situations or objects encountered during the day; learn about colors when our caretakers describe favorite objects; and begin to understand counting while putting toys back in their box or totaling up socks in the wash. What we are really absorbing is how delightful it is to learn about what is around us. Put simply, attachment theory says that infants develop secure attachments when a stable, nurturing caregiver consistently responds to their needs. The baby learns he can count on that person to always be there and he feels emboldened to explore the world around him because he feels rest assured that he can return to his safe base. It is through this secure attachment that the infant develops and maintains a sense of curiosity, confidence, and safety that stays with him through his toddler years and right into the classroom. Early bonds shape learning behavior. Imagine a child who has a secure attachment with her parents, boldly going wherever her fancy takes her, and then imagine this same child at 3 years old navigating the preschool classroom. This strong foundation shapes how she engages with different areas of learning, such as: how she makes friends, resolves social problems, engages in creative concentration in the blocks area, or develops an ongoing scenario to act out and build upon in the dramatic play area. So when parents ask me what activities, games or exercises their child should be doing, or to what books they should be exposed to, I can’t give them a definitive answer. What I can suggest is that they respond to their child’s assertions of developing identity with acknowledgement and affirmation. When children know they don’t have to choose between a parent’s emotional support and the exciting opportunities to explore something new, they are more inclined to reach out to the world around them. And when they do this, they operate with a greater sense of autonomy and learn new skills, and become confident young learners. The question for the rest of us is how we can give all babies and toddlers the best start on a life-long journey of learning. That means advocating for public policies that that support parents and other caregivers as they give very young children the nurturing care and stimulation to become budding explorers and caring people. Here are a few: federal Paid Family Leave, to give parents and babies time to bond; home visiting for families who need parenting support; high quality child care, because that’s an important environment for relationships and learning as well; Early Head Start for families whose children face risks of falling behind; and early intervention for infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities to put them on the right track and minimize the need for special education later. The first day of school might become less anxious if parents have the support they need to promote their child’s development on the day learning starts. On September 10th, help us remind Congress of the importance of investing in early learning opportunities for young children and that learning happens from the start!

Learn more:

ZERO TO THREE School Readiness Tips and Tools

ZERO TO THREE’s policy agenda, Putting Infants and Toddlers on the Path to School Readiness

Fae Rabin is a Policy Fellow at ZERO TO THREE.

A Year After #Rally4Babies, Signs that Washington Increasingly Gets the Message

Congress returns to Washington today after the July 4th recess. The 2015 appropriations process for many programs serving infants and toddlers has hit the summer doldrums, with few prospects for speedy resolution. Still, with the first anniversary of the #Rally4Babies tomorrow (July 8), we should take stock of recent signs that Washington increasingly “gets it” that learning happens from the start—and so should our investments. Thinking about how that message has resonated should give us clues to how to keep the rally going.

Before the aforesaid appropriations process ground to a halt, the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education sent a clear signal that very young children were still very much on their minds—and their priority list. A proposed increase of $348 million for early learning included a $65 million bump-up (from $500 million in 2014) for Early Head Start (EHS)-Child Care Partnerships; an additional $100 million for child care; and an additional $100 million for preschool development grants. Consideration of the bill by the full Committee seems on long-term hold, and the House has yet to schedule any sessions on funding for these programs. While it looks like funding levels won’t be resolved until this fall or even after the election, we should take every opportunity to underscore the need to continue early learning funding momentum.

While this process plays out, we should celebrate two very real accomplishments regarding services for young children and families. One is the extension of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program for an additional 6 months with a full year of money ($400 million). The other will send a lot of real dollars—500 million of them—to improve early care and learning experiences for infants and toddlers flowing down to communities later this year through the EHS-Child Care Partnership grants. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the application details in June. (Check ZERO TO THREE’s webpage for resources.) Buzz from the field suggests real excitement about this opportunity to change the way we think about the various settings in which very young children spend their days. Fundamental to this change is the understanding that babies’ brain development is molded by the quality of whatever experiences come their way—not by labeling a program as “educational” or just a “work support.” With 6 million infants and toddlers in child care, some for many hours a week, a lot of brain construction is going on in that space.

The importance of child care to infant-toddler development has not been lost of some Members of Congress. The Strong Start for America’s Children Act (S. 1697, H.R. 3461), introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (IA) in the Senate and Representatives George Miller (CA), Richard Hanna (NY), and Michael Grimm (NY) in the House, included an authorization for the EHS-Child Care Partnerships as well as the option for states to set aside part of the big PreK funding stream for infants and toddlers. Senator Harkin went especially big for babies with a $4 billion funding target for the partnerships (compared to $1.4 billion in the House bill and the President’s proposal). The Senate also passed a reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant that created a 3% set-aside of funds to improve the quality of infant-toddler care, incorporating parts of Senator Al Franken’s Infant and Toddler Care Improvement Act (S. 1065).

In the past few months, two House Members have picked up the baton for babies. In May, newly-elected Representative Katherine Clark (MA) introduced as her first bill, companion legislation (H.R. 4680) to the Franken bill. In June, Representative Lois Frankel (FL) introduced H.R. 5000, which would provide $2 billion in mandatory child care funds to expand access to child care for infants and toddlers and authorize $500 million in discretionary funding for quality improvement activities. By singling out infants and toddlers, these bills show the message is getting through that quality child care matters when it comes to supporting the development of the youngest children.

So what have we learned since the #Rally4Babies? To be honest, we understand these are relatively small steps forward in light of the fact that almost half of all babies and toddlers live in distressed economic circumstances. But we also know we can make a difference. We need to celebrate the fact that early care and learning was a big priority in a tight budget year, and that a large portion of the increases went to programs serving infants and toddlers. This wouldn’t have happened without the thousands of signatures on the Baby Rally petition that generated almost 200,000 messages to the President and Congress or the phone calls to ask for cosponsors for various bills. Efforts to extend MIECHV on a “Doc fix” bill might have fulfilled the prophesy of mission impossible, but for these voices and the field's tireless efforts to educate legislators on what home visiting means for parents who want to do the right thing in nurturing their children’s early development. While PreK still gets the most attention in the overall early learning agenda, the voice for babies has gotten appreciably louder. As this agenda has evolved, it has become more pointedly birth-to-five, and child care is becoming a more recognized part of the mix.

What do we do next? More of the same. We can’t let our efforts, our energy, or our voices flag, even if immediate opportunities for moving forward don’t present themselves. Look for openings to contact Congressional offices. For example, ask your Members to cosponsor bills, identify legislative assistants who work on children’s issues and send information from your state about the importance of the first years for later success in school and life (stumped? try your state's Baby Facts) or attend town hall meetings and ask questions about what policymakers will do to ensure our future workforce is prepared. Watch for alerts on Strong Start for Children activities in which you can participate and highlight the fact that learning happens from the start.

The past year’s effort from the entire early childhood community has created a buzz about early learning that we can’t let diminish. We need to keep it up. Only then will advances in early care and learning policy move from being, in policymakers’ eyes, a nice thing we could do to being something we as a nation must do.

Rockefeller Bill Champions CHIP and Seeks Home Visiting Extension

Any parent of a new baby or a toddler knows they spend more time at the pediatrician’s office than at any other stage. For the youngest children, access to routine health care can spell the difference between a strong beginning and a fragile start. Today, Senator Jay Rockefeller (WV) introduced legislation to prevent some young children from losing critical access to health insurance next year by extending funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), now assured only through FY 2015. CHIP covers children in lower income families that don’t qualify for Medicaid. Thanks to Senator Rockefeller, continuing this lifeline for children who used to fall between the health care cracks is being put on Congress’ radar screen.

Ensuring children’s access to health insurance is one of the great public policy success stories. Between 1997 and 2012, Medicaid and CHIP have cut in half the percentage of children without health insurance, dropping it from 14% to 7%. Letting CHIP funding expire would mean millions of children would lose access to affordable health insurance or the quality services they access through CHIP.

The CHIP Extension Act of 2014 would extend funding for the program through September 30, 2019, the end of the period through which states are required to maintain their CHIP programs. Keeping CHIP going is important to give the state health insurance exchanges set up under the Affordable Care Act time to mature and iron out any issues with appropriate services for children.

The bill also includes a provision to extend the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. The so-called “Doc Fix” bill passed on March 31 of this year only extended MIECHV until March 31, 2015. By including a further extension in his bill, Senator Rockefeller is signaling that such an important program for children and families cannot be left to run on short-term deadlines.

In addition to extending CHIP funding, the bill would refine some of the current program requirements. A summary of the bill can be found here. Proposed changes that would particularly support early health and development of infants and toddlers include:

Enrolling newborns automatically, as Medicaid already does;

Improving access to preventive services, particularly immunizations and screenings not currently covered;

Making Express Lane Eligibility (which streamlines the eligibility process by relying on information from other designated programs) permanent to maximize enrollment for children and pregnant women;

Extending demonstration programs focusing on perinatal care coordination and childhood obesity;

Covering former foster kids to age 26, even if they move from state to state (important to babies, because many of these young adults will become parents, so their health has an impact on their children’s health); and of course,

Extending MIECHV.

In addition, the bill would provide important new baby-friendly options that states could choose, including more comprehensive coverage for pregnant women; improved dental services and oral care; raising eligibility to 300% of the Federal Poverty Level; increasing access to coverage for children with special health needs; and doing away with CHIP premiums.

By introducing this bill, Senator Rockefeller lets us and, more importantly, his Senate colleagues know that someone is keeping watch over programs important to young children. It also is a painful reminder that another great children’s champion is leaving Congress after this term. Along with Senator Tom Harkin (IA) and Representative George Miller (CA), who also are retiring, Senator Rockefeller brings decades of knowledge and experience to crafting and moving legislation to make sure our young children get a good start in life. Some stalwarts remain and new champions are arising, but these three will be keenly missed. Let’s hope legislation such as the CHIP Extension Act and the Strong Start for America’s Children Act will be enacted and become fitting bookends to their legacies.

For more information on policies supporting good physical health for infants and toddlers, read our policy brief Leading the Way to a Strong Beginning.

First Look: Application for EHS-Child Care Partnerships Hits the Street!

It’s been less than a year since we all joined together to #Rally4Babies and assert that learning happens from the start—and so should our investments. Yet, already we have a very tangible step forward for infants and toddlers. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just released the widely anticipated Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for grants to expand Early Head Start (EHS) or form Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships.

These grants came about because, in the wake of the President’s early learning initiative, the early care and education community advocated for the needs of infants and toddlers, and Congress responded with $500 million in total funding from Fiscal Year 2014 appropriations—a big win for babies in a tight budget year. These grants not only will expand resources for early care and learning for infants and toddlers. They also will provide an exciting opportunity for the field to engage in creative thinking and doing around high-quality services for vulnerable young children across settings. Applicants will have 75 days to digest the application requirements and get their proposals electronically to HHS. The Department has a centralized webpage for all things related to the grants, including how to apply and FAQ’s.

We’ll be going through the announcement and analyzing in greater detail, but here is a first look at some things to note:

High-Quality Services: All entities applying must provide high-quality, comprehensive, and continuous early care and education for infants and toddlers in centers and/or family child care homes. Eligible entities include public entities, such as states, and private non-profit or for-profit entities, including community- or faith-based organizations. Organizations that seek to build a birth-to-five continuum of services will receive priority. All applicants must describe transition plans for the children as they leave EHS programs.

Funding and Award Levels: While $500 million was appropriated, the FOA says HHS may fund up to $650 million. This level leaves room to draw on applications submitted through this current process should additional funding be provided for FY 2015, as requested by the Administration’s budget. The award ceiling for individual grants is slightly under $55 million, but the average award is expected to be $1.5 million.

Funding Allocations: The available funds will be allocated by formula among the states. These allocation levels are simply the total amount for grants to be awarded in individual states. They do NOT mean that the funds flow automatically to states. Even if a state agency is applying for funds, other eligible entities within the state should not hesitate to apply as well.

Ages of Children: The appropriations language specified that the grants can be used for serving children from birth through age 3. In practice, however, only family child care programs will be able to use these grant funds to serve 3-year-olds. Center-based programs can only apply to serve children from birth through age 2. Determining a simple way to incorporate 3-year-olds in center-based programs, where Head Start standards are very different from those governing EHS programs, proved elusive at this stage of the process.

Types of Proposals: Potential grantees can submit proposals for one of three different approaches to increase the number of children in spaces meeting EHS standards. The first is a pure partnership approach, in which all funded EHS slots would be offered through child care partnerships. The second would be a pure expansion of an existing EHS program or the creation of a new one. The third would be a mixture of the first two. Pure partnership applications get extra review points and top priority. Mixed approaches with at least 50 percent of children served through partnerships get a high priority, but no extra points.

Child Care Subsidies: Partnership applications must demonstrate that at least 25 percent of EHS-eligible children served in slots funded by the grant will have child care subsidies. Programs that can raise that proportion to 40 percent will get bonus points. HHS recommends, but does not require, that applicants propose providing at least 72 slots to adequately support staffing and infrastructure needs.

Priority Communities: Proposed programs in Promise Zones or high-poverty Zip codes will receive additional points.

Start-up Costs: Funds for activities such as facility renovations, classroom supply purchases, licensing, etc., to help programs get off the ground can be requested and would be separate from the base operational budget to serve children.

Matching Funds: Grantees must provide 20 percent of the total cost of the project, in accordance with Head Start requirements.

HHS emphasizes that right away potential applicants should take note of the procedures for submitting applications so they will do so correctly and on time and not get tripped up by seemingly simple tasks that can complicate submissions, especially for first time applicants for federal grants. The FOA includes resources to help develop proposals as well as a method by which to ask HHS questions. In addition, the ZERO TO THREE Policy Center has created a webpage of resources relevant to the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships. These resources will help programs, communities, and states consider how they can best structure and implement partnerships. A new fact sheet from the Policy Center on how partnerships can benefit young children and families is included. Explore these resources at www.zerotothree.org/ehs-ccpartnerships.

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