Family Support Policies

Parents and extended family members are their children’s first and best teachers. These policies give families the knowledge, skills, stability, and basic resources they need to enhance their children’s development and learning, while respecting families’ home languages and cultures. 

BEST BET POLICIES 

Support strategies that foster responsive caregiving. 

• • Ensure programs draw upon the language and culture of families and their communities. 
  • Direct supports to the parents with the least supports, such as teen parents, foster parents, grandparents raising grandchildren, parents who have experienced abuse and neglect, and parents of children with special needs. 
  • Promote family support programs that offer activities and materials while creating opportunities for modeling, peer support, and networking among parents. 

Align policies and practices that support stable, economically secure families. 

• • Change the culture of eligibility determination and case management from a focus on rule compliance, to a focus on adult-, child-, and family outcomes. 
  • Revise eligibility and work requirements for low-income families that disrupt continuity of care for children and work against children’s developmental and educational needs. 
  • Invest in networks of parent navigators/promoters to build social capital and connect families to supports. 
  • Increase access to public benefits and tax credits that provide income or other supports to help families meet basic needs and maintain stable housing and employment.