Migration Policy Institute

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) seeks to improve immigration and integration policies through authoritative research, learning opportunities, and new ideas to address complex policy questions.

For over 10 years its National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy (NCIIP) has provided technical support to community and early childhood system leaders who seek to engage with and more equitably and effectively serve immigrant and Dual Language Learner (DLL) children ages 0-8 and their families.

State allies can call on MPI to:

Provide targeted data and policy analyses related to young DLLs, English Learners (ELs), and Limited English Proficient (LEP) parents and caregivers.

This can improve improve understanding of challenges state and local early childhood systems face in serving immigrant-background families, as well as opportunities to create funding and program designs that more equitably and responsively address their needs.

Share knowledge and strategies related to home visiting policy, funding, and program designs.

This knowledge is emerging from NCIIP’s network of community stakeholders and system actors who are working to address immigrant-background families’ under-participation in home visiting programs overall and to expand the evidence base of program efficacy for immigrant families.

Champion identification, data inclusion, and quality programming for DLL children.

Most state systems do not identify DLLs until kindergarten entry at earliest, rendering these children and their language learning and related needs invisible. NCIIP supports state partners in advancing policy improvements that result in collection and sharing of comprehensive information about DLLs, and in their efforts to ensure more equitable and effective ECEC services for DLL families.

Share knowledge and strategies to uplift family, friend and neighbor (FFN) care.

Immigrant-background children are disproportionately served via FFN care—providers who are largely excluded from mainstream child care funding and improvement efforts. NCIIP’s research, convenings, and other work with state partners and field networks aims to support policies that provide resources and training for FFN providers, and other steps to avoid deepening equity gaps in the current bifurcated system.

Inform efforts to remove language barriers that undermine access, quality and participation.

Many early childhood programs fail to provide access in a language parents can understand across their program service designs, including in languages other than Spanish. When they do, such efforts often poorly designed and inconsistently executed. NCIIP experts can share strategies to build policy and program capacities that meet or exceed federal and state language access requirements.

Additional Alliance-funded Support for state advocacy includes:

Ending the Invisibility of Dual Language Learners in Early Childhood Systems: A Framework for DLL Identification (Park, Pompa; May 2021)

Taking Stock of Dual Language Learner Identification and Strengthening Procedures and Policies (Lazarín, Park; May 2021)

Leveraging the Potential of Home Visiting Programs to Serve Immigrant and Dual Language Learner Families (Park, Katsiaficas; August 2019)