The Alliance for Early Success is a 50-state resource for early-childhood advocates as they pursue the big, sustained impact that will ensure every child in every state, birth through age eight, has an equal chance to grow, learn, and succeed.
Missouri’s governor has announced the formation of the Office of Childhood, and advocates around the state celebrated the move as a monumental step towards creating a comprehensive vision and program alignment of Missouri’s early childhood system.
Join us for a National Issues>State Action webinar to discuss the findings of the Rapid Assessment of Pandemic Impact on Development-Early Childhood (RAPID-EC) project to date with University of Oregon Psychologist Dr. Phil Fisher, the project’s director, and Dr. Joan Lombardi, who chairs the National Advisory Group for the project and is former deputy secretary for Early Childhood Development at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Oregon voters delivered big wins for early childhood issues on ballot measures in the 2020 election — including a a tax increase on tobacco that will provide the last piece in the puzzle in fully funding the expansion of Medicaid eligibility. Both of these victories highlight the power of creating a broad coalition for developing and campaigning for policies that benefit children.
“Racial inequity is a problem of bad policy, not bad people,” says best-selling author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. On the heels of the election, we’ll hear about racist and antiracist policy, and will get answers to questions posed by state early childhood advocates about state policy.
The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) has released an updated set of Early Childhood State Policy Profiles that provides a two-generation view of current policies affecting children birth through age eight. The profiles give crucial visibility into each state’s progress in early care and education, health, and parenting and family economic supports.
This Alliance for Early Success National Issues>State Action featured dynamic presentations by Allison Blake, CEO of Child and Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut and former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Children and Families and Jeremy Kohomban, President and CEO of The Children’s Village and President of Harlem Dowling. Both are leading figures in child welfare practice and policy.
In a keynote presentation and then in a smaller discussion group with state early childhood advocates, nationally recognized birth-equity voice Dr. Joia Crear-Perry spoke powerfully on structural racism as a key driver of high rates of Black infant and maternal mortality.
In an informative presentation from national and state child care and child welfare experts, Alliance allies heard about the current trends in child care and state child welfare policy, including the importance of child care for birth and foster parents, the provisions of the Child Care and Development Block Grant that can be used to provide child care services for dependent children involved in child welfare systems, and innovative child care/child welfare partnerships in Florida.
From 2012-2016, Missouri was the only state in the country to ban quality rating systems for early childhood providers. Alliance partner Kids Win Missouri catalogs the two years of progress since the state legislature lifted the ban — and how the state is finally righting the course in early childhood policy.
Oregon early childhood advocates are celebrating passage of the Student Success Act (HB 3427) — a historic investment of $1 billion per year with 20 percent of the budget, or $200 million per year, dedicated for early childhood programs. The Children’s Institute reports on the breakdown, and the state’s five major funding victories for early childhood.
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