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Early Care and Education Policies

Effective early learning occurs in multiple settings from birth through age 8. These policies influence the quality of interactions and environments that children experience, starting at birth and through the early elementary years, because gains are made and sustained from this strong foundation. 

Young children learn wherever they are, and the early relationships and environments they experience create a foundation for school success. These policies influence the quality of children’s learning experiences, from birth through the early elementary years. 

BEST BET POLICIES 

Expand access to high quality early learning programs. 

    • Expand access to high quality child care, Early/Head Start and full day pre-K in a variety of settings (i.e., homes, centers, and schools). 
    • Support access to high quality full-day kindergarten and grades 1-3. 
    • Ensure high-quality programs are accessible for full days, during non-traditional hours, before and after school, and over the summer. 
    • Encourage play to help develop social, emotional, and executive function skills. 
    • Implement developmentally and culturally appropriate early learning standards that reflect approaches to learning, social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language development; and build foundational skills in literacy, math, science, social studies, and the arts. 
    • Align curriculum, standards, and assessments starting in pre-K through grade three. 

Build a high quality early childhood workforce, birth through grade 3. 

    • Adopt training and professional development strategies that ensure the workforce is culturally and linguistically diverse and responsive to the needs of children and families being served. 
    • Establish research-based teacher competencies that address child development; protective factors; social, emotional, and behavior management; and cultural and linguistic appropriateness. 
    • Support training and coaching for teachers working with special populations including dual language learners and children with disabilities. 
    • Support home-based care providers in enhancing learning opportunities for children in their care. 
    • Establish a coordinated professional development system to reflect the principles and indicators of NAEYC’s Blueprint for State Early Childhood Professional Development Systems. 
    • Implement strategies to improve salaries, benefits, and working conditions for early childhood educators, and support compensation parity across early learning programs (child care, Pre-K and K-3 classrooms). 
    • Ensure program directors and school principals have the capacity to provide instructional leadership that supports effective teaching. 
    • Promote transition planning from early care, to preschool, to K-12 learning environments. 

Set goals and monitor progress. 

    • Set goals and track outcomes in ways that engage families in their children’s learning. 
    • Ensure child assessment tools are developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate. 
    • Require Kindergarten entry assessments to guide instruction. 
    • Assess the quality of learning environments, teacher-child interaction, teaching strategies, and children’s progress, and use the data for continuous improvement. 
    • Implement early warning system to identify problems, such as chronic absence, to allow for timely intervention. 

Outcome: Children arrive at Kindergarten with the skills and abilities to meet developmental milestones, read on grade level, and reach achievement goals in K and grades 1, 2, and 3. 

Use the buttons on the right to navigate the four key components of the framework.