Cross-Cutting Policies

The realities of daily life for young children and families do not always lend themselves to neat categories. Policies that cut across health, family support and learning address the multiple factors that affect outcomes, and often have the best chance of success. The Framework therefore begins with a group of cross-cutting policy options. 

BEST BET POLICIES 

Foster healthy environments. 

• • Invest in places that build social capital, such as schools, libraries, community centers, and parks. 
  • Invest in safe, affordable housing. 
  • Support health and affordable food options in high-poverty neighborhoods. 
  • Incentivize economic development that brings living-wage jobs into neighborhoods where lack of opportunity brings all of the problems associated with unemployment and concentrated poverty. 

Focus on prevention. 

• • Direct funding to programs addressing adverse early experiences and sources of toxic stress. 
  • Invest in family engagement strategies that value parents as experts in their children’s development. 
  • Promote comprehensive screening and early detection of developmental delays and link to referral, care coordination, and intervention. 
  • Expand access to voluntary, effective home visiting programs and services for new and expectant parents that model relationship building, engage parents in their child’s learning, and refer for additional supports as needed. 
  • Adopt policies that support flexible work schedules for parents. 
  • Support paid family leave and work exemptions that foster nurturing relationships and responsive caregiving, build parental resilience, and provide security for children. 
  • Invest in strategies that address the behavioral and mental health of children and the adults who care for them. 
  • Co-locate or coordinate services
  • Reduce barriers to participation in public benefit programs (e.g., TANF, Head Start, child care subsidy, SNAP and WIC, Medicaid/CHIP, and the EITC) with universal on-line applications and aligned eligibility and enrollment policies. 
  • Employ navigators, centralize referral resources, and invest in hub strategies that integrate supports for parents and children in settings where families are. 
  • Connect education and job training opportunities for parents with access to high quality early learning for their children. 
  • Connect learning environments to health and family support networks. 
  • Coordinate income support programs to minimize “cliff effects” that occur when a small increase in wages leads to a substantial decrease in benefits. 

Promote accountability and continuous improvement. 

• • Develop a comprehensive, linked data system to inform planning, document progress, and ultimately improve the health, development, learning, and success of children and their parents. 
  • Centralize and track screening, referral, diagnosis, and treatment. 
  • Support training for parents, service providers, and policymakers to help them accurately interpret and use data.