Every seven minutes, a baby or toddler is removed from their family due to alleged maltreatment or neglect and when this happens, children are often placed in a child welfare system that has not developed policies and practices with the needs of infants and toddlers in mind. In Georgia, early childhood advocates had long sought a solution for this problem—namely, the implementation of an evidence-based court team approach.
And to make it happen, advocates called in reinforcements.
Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS) is a Georgia early childhood advocacy organization that receives a core operating grant from the Alliance for Early Success, which comes with access to the Alliance’s Responsive Support network. The network is a bank of policy and strategy advisors who can provide deep support tailored to a state’s specific needs. State advocacy grantees make the request, and the Alliance funds the collaboration.
In 2023, GEEARS reached out for Alliance responsive support from ZERO TO THREE, a national authority on child welfare policy as it relates to infants and toddlers. GEEARS wanted to bring in ZERO TO THREE’s expertise as it worked with the state on a pilot to establish infant toddler courts, an evidence-based preventive program that addresses the unique needs of very young children and their families. The state—through Georgia State’s Center of Excellence in Children’s Behavioral Health—had just won an Infant Toddler Court Team grant from the federal government and GEEARS knew the support from ZERO TO THREE could prove invaluable in getting the program implemented and making it sustainable.
GEEARS and ZERO TO THREE got to work.
ZERO TO THREE has an established court team program called Safe Babies that helps states connect very young children and their families with needed community support and services, with a goal of advancing health and well-being. While the state’s intant toddler court program (called THRIVe) engaged ZERO TO THREE’s Safe Babies team to help with the federal grant implementation, the Alliance funded ZERO TO THREE to work responsively with GEEARS as GEEARS championed the work and its importance.
GEEARS and ZERO TO THREE designed a series of webinars that included an overview of the Safe Babies approach and outcomes, an assessment of the state’s capacity for sustainability, strategic policy planning, and deep dive discussions on economic supports, housing, kinship care, and substance use disorders. ZERO TO THREE customized these policy planning sessions with GEEARS and their partners based specifically on Georgia’s needs.
And when GEEARS secured an opportunity to present to the state legislative Foster Care and Adoption Study Committee on Safe Babies, ZERO TO THREE staff assisted with the development of the meeting materials, including policy examples from southeastern states comparable to Georgia politically. ZERO TO THREE reviewed key data and context related to Safe Babies and early childhood systems with staff from GEEARS and their state partners who were planning to speak. GEEARS and the Georgia THRIVe team presented on the needs of very young children and families involved in child welfare and emphasized the need to expand access to infant and early childhood mental health workforce development and direct services.
ZERO TO THREE even helped GEEARS create a “legislative ask” (a projected budget) that would sustain the state-level Safe Babies team and training on infant and early childhood mental health.
After the presentation, the final legislative Study Committee report cited Safe Babies research outcomes and the federally funded pilot of three infant toddler court sites. The study committee’s final recommendations included the expansion of infant toddler courts in Georgia.
“The State of Georgia has taken a powerful step toward addressing the early adversity families face and toward preventing the removal of infants and toddlers,” says Callan Wells, GEEARS’ senior health policy manager. “GEEARS is here to continually advocate for that work. And our Alliance-funded responsive support from ZERO TO THREE and other leading national advisors will likely continue to play a big role in that.”
Thinking about advocating for similar change in your state? ZERO TO THREE offers these considerations:
