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Starting Off Right: Promoting Child Development from Birth in State Early Care and Education Initiatives
This July 2006 policy paper from the Center on Law and Social Policy (CLASP) gives examples of state strategies used to promote early childhood development for children ages birth to three.
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Making Dollars Follow Sense: Financing Early Childhood Mental Health Services to Promote Healthy Social and Emotional Development in Young Children
Published by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), as part of their Promoting the Emotional Well-Being of Children and Families series, and entitled “Making Dollars Follow Sense: Financing Early Childhood Mental Health Services to Promote Healthy Social and Emotional Development in Young Children.” The 32-page document highlights innovating approaches that a variety of states and communities are using to finance early childhood mental health services, and explores new possibilities as well (32 pages, 190k)
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Spending Smarter: A Funding Guide for Policymakers and Advocates to Promote Social and Emotional Health and School Readiness
Spending Smarter describes effective programs, highlights policy opportunities, and offers fiscal strategies to promote the emotional health
of young children and their families. The analyses in this series will help state officials, community leaders, and advocates take action to ensure the healthy development of children and their families. Spending Smarter focuses on strategies to maximize existing funding streams by building on federal
programs.
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Promoting Childrens Social and Emotional Development Through Preschool
Unfortunately, kindergarten teachers report that many of their students are not socially or emotionally prepared for the challenges of the new environment. This policy brief describes the importance of social and emotional development for children in their earliest years and as they grow older, reviews the evidence that high-quality preschool programs can promote
social and emotional development, and describes the characteristics of those preschool programs that are most likely to benefit children.
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From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half
Recognizing the importance of child care assistance for many American families, the Center for American Progress's recently released Task Force on Poverty report recommended increased federal support.
Implementing these recommendations would help low-income parents work and increase children's readiness for school. High quality early education experiences can improve outcomes for children. For example, participation in Early Head Start--a government program that provides poor children from birth to age three with education and health and social services--increases children's performance on measures of cognitive, language, and socio-economic development.
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50-State Report on Child Care Policies
NWLC's 2006 annual update on states' child care assistance policies
reveals that states continue to woefully under fund programs that help
low-income families pay for child care. This problem is likely to get
significantly worse as new and more stringent welfare work requirements
imposed by Congress this year will increase the demand for child care
assistance.
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NACCRRA Report - Rankings of State Child Care Center Standards and Oversight
The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) presents research on state-by-state child care center comparisons (7 pages).
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Family Child Care in the United States
Taryn Morrissey at Cornell provides an in-depth literature review focusing on home-based childcare. Of note: Quality of care is not associated with provider age or experience, but increases with training and education. (28 pages, 700k)
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Economic Impact of ECE - Fact Sheets for 27 Ohio Counties
Provided by BUILD, this document contains fact sheets for 27 of Ohio's counties, including basic demographics and ECE-specific information (54 pages, 1.1 MB)
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From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half
Published by the Center for American Progress (http://www.americanprogress.org/), this document explores the various social costs associated with poverty, and outlines a strategy to greatly reduce poverty in the United States. Note: executive summary only; large file (8 pages, 3.9 MB). Full report available at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/04/poverty_report.html.
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Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank: Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return
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Making Ends Meet: Basic Family Budgets in Ohio
A new report by Policy Matters Ohio which highlights the high cost of good child care. Using 2004 data, the Economic Policy Institute's Sylvia Allegretto calculated the cost of seven basic budget items in 439 communities for working families with small children. She found that in Ohio, 22.3 percent of the families studied did not earn enough to cover the cost of their basic family budget. Current poverty measures do not begin to address the economic challenges facing working parents struggling to make ends meet; unexpected events like illness or job loss can expose such families to serious or critical economic hardships.
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Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return
This paper argues that in the future any proposed economic development list should have early childhood development at the top. The return on investment
from early childhood development is extraordinary, resulting in better working public schools, more educated workers and less crime. Investment in human capital breeds economic success not only for those being educated, but also for the overall economy.
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Pre-K Now: An Economic Analysis of Pre-K in Arkansas
Pre-K now presents a report on pre-k efforts in Arkansas, noting that the expected payoff ratio for investment in Pre-K is about 2.32:1, meaning that every dollar invested in pre-k in the state of Arkansas should return about $2.32 to the state in the long-run.
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Enriching Children, Enriching the Nation: Public Investment in High-Quality Pre-Kindergarten
This Executive Summary by Robert G. Lynch of the Economic Policy Institute provides an analysis of the positive outcomes of investment in high-quality pre-kindergarten programs. Of note: by 2050, annual budgetary, earnings, and crime benefits would total $315 billion. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader (4 pages, 84k).
Access the complete report at (http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/book_enriching).
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The Economic Impact of the ECE Industry in Ohio
This report analyzes the significance of the early care and education industry to the economy.
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The Effects of Investing in ECE on Economic Growth
Economists have long believed that investments in education, or human capital, are an important source of economic growth. In this paper we develop a model that is flexible enough to allow a wide range of assumptions about the role of education in promoting economic growth. The model is particularly elaborate in its treatment of the breakdown of the population into different cohorts and in determining the amount of education people in different cohorts receive. This treatment allows us to develop a realistic estimate of the timing of the growth effects of a program that will take many years to have its full impact.
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American Business Leaders Views On Publicly-funded Pre-Kindergarten and the Advantages to the Economy
American business leaders overwhelmingly favor publicly-supported prekindergarten programs, with more than four-in-five agreeing with all of the following statements:
* Investments in effective preschool programs for children are important if the U.S. is to remain competitive in the global economy
* Investments in effective preschool programs for children are important for the long-term success of the U.S. economy
* Voluntary pre-kindergarten for all children would improve the workforce
* Public funding of voluntary pre-K for all children would improve Americas
workforce
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Governor Ted Strickland's Commitment to Early Care and Education
Informational document released by Governor Ted Strickland's office, detailing the governor's commitment to early care and education initiatives.
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ECS Report on Full-Day Kindergarten
This report provides a state policy overview of full-day kindergarten in the United States. It is intended, however, to accomplish more than simply describing current policies. Based on an Education Commission of the States(ECS) review, the report identifies four key areas where states need to strengthen their full-day kindergarten policies.
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groundWork: Giving Ohio's Children a Fair Chance to Succeed
Report on groundWork's first four years.
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Help Me Grow Fact Sheet
Provided by Voices for Ohio's Children, this two-page document summarizes what Help Me Grow is, what it does, how it is funded, and ways to support it in the future.
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Oral Health and Access to Dental Care for Ohioans, 2007
Ohio falls short of national objectives for children’s oral health. This brief describes findings from four recent surveys.
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Reauthorizing SCHIP: Opportunities for Promoting Effective Health Coverage and High-Quality Care for Children and Adolescents
This report presents a framework for promoting effective health coverage and achieving high quality in SCHIP and Medicaid through 7 innovative strategies.
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Center for Children and Families SCHIP Report
The Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University reports on key issues that need to be addressed through SCHIP reauthorization.
From their website: "During SCHIP reauthorization, Congress must work to ensure that SCHIP has funding needed to cover more children, eliminate barriers to child health coverage, and address quality and accountability of child health coverage, according to the report, Too Close to Turn Back: Covering America's Children."
[http://ccf.georgetown.edu/]
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A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy
This report combines knowledge from neuroscience, behavioral and developmental science, economics, and 40 years of early childhood program evaluation, to provide an informed, nonpartisan, pragmatic framework to guide policymakers toward science-based policies that improve the lives of young children and benefit society as a whole.
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7 Things Legislators Need to Know
This toolkit organizes the information that policy makers need to know both to make the case for investments in school readiness, and to develop the programs, practices, and policies to achieve school readiness. It organizes the wealth of evidence under seven key points about school readiness.
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Early Care and Education: A Summary of Research
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Early Learning Left Out 2005
The report first examines public investment in the education and development
of children by child age. It next identifies the known gaps between what is currently invested and what could be invested, based upon research of effective
early learning and development programs. The level of public investment in early learning, particularly in the critical birth to three years, pales in comparison with public investments in school-aged and college-aged youth. The current level of investment in strategies proven to be effective in improving child growth and development in the early years is small in comparison with the need and opportunity.
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Pre-K Now: Fiscal Year 2007 Legislative Report
"Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K." Fiscal Year 2007
Released October, 2006
http://www.preknow.org/resource/votescount/index.cfm
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Pre-Kindergarten in the South: The Region's Comparative Advantage in Education
Published by the Southern Education Foundation, this report explores Pre-Kindergarten in Southern states, particularly focusing on comparative performance with other states. Note: large file (36 pages, 2.3 MB)
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Effects of a School-Based, Early Childhood Intervention on Adult Health and Well-being
A University of Minnesota report found that low-income children who attended a top-quality preschool were less likely to land in prison, get depressed, lack health insurance and more likely to work, finish high school and go to college. These findings provide evidence that early education programs can have enduring effects on general well-being into adulthood.
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President’s budget: Young children don’t count
February 4 began a new budget process, the last of President Bush’s presidency. Every Administration uses the budget to send a signal about its priorities for the coming year. In this period of economic downturn, when our most vulnerable children and families need access to comprehensive supports, the message of this budget is simple and stark: children in low-income working families don’t matter. The President proposes flat funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant that will cause 200,000 children to lose access to child care assistance by 2009. This loss is in addition to thousands of children who may already have lost services due to years of flat funding.
The Administration also acknowledges that fewer children will be served in Head Start under their proposal. While the budget provides for a small increase, the amount is barely enough to cover inflation, let alone the costs needed to implement changes in the program required by the recent Head Start reauthorization, including provisions to expand access to Head Start, strengthen and expand Early Head Start, and important quality improvements.
For an analysis of the President’s budget proposal’s impact on child care and early education programs, see
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Reauthorization of Head Start: Key changes in the new law
The federal Head Start program was reauthorized in December 2007. The new legislation made substantial changes to the program, including provisions to expand access to Head Start programs, strengthen and expand Early Head Start, increase the quality of the program, and improve collaboration between early childhood programs at the state and local levels. This PowerPoint presentation from CLASP, presented at the 2008 Head Start Johnson & Johnson Advanced Management Institute, provides an overview of key changes in the new law.
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The Timing and Quality of Early Experiences Combine to Shape Brain Architecture
Dr. Shonkoff and his colleagues from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child argue that a primary focus on elementary and secondary education to the exclusion of preschool education is a move that is not based on scientific evidence and is not a good investment in public education.
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We can't wait a decade
Every day researchers, policymakers, providers and parents look for the policies and practices that will finally level the playing field, close the achievement gap, and improve the odds for at-risk children. Progress is being made. Yet, there is still a ways to go, particularly when looking at differences in child well-being by race, ethnicity and income. Fortunately, we have many of the solutions; we just need the will to invest in the right policies now.
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NIEER Debunking the myths: benefits of preschool
Prepared by the National Institute for Early Education Research addresses many of the points of misinformation raised by opponents to pre-k for all.
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A Review of the Reason Foundation's Report on Preschool and Kindergarten
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Preschool is school, sometimes...
Robert C. Pianta, a professor at the University of Virginia, presents a wealth of information on Pre-K.
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NCES - Condition of Education 2006
The National Center for Education Statistics presents information on prekindergarten enrollment in the US, including a present snapshot and a recent trend analysis.
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Education Week's "Quality Counts 2007" Report
Published by Education Week, with work from the EPE Research Center and the Pew Center on the States.
Includes a variety of state-by-state comparisons.
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NIEER Report - January, 2007 - Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) Program
Highlights: students who participated in the Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) Program showed significant improvements over non-participants in areas of reading, mathematics, and understanding of print concepts. 16 Pages.
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NIEER State of Preschool Yearbook 2006
The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) provides statistics on preschool programs across the United States for 2006, including some state-by-state rankings and national trends (NOTE: Only includes National and Executive Summaries; complete report available at http://nieer.org/yearbook/).
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Leadership Matters: Governors' Pre-K Proposals, Fiscal Year 2008
Published by Pre-K Now, Leadership Matters (April 2007) provides Governors' proposals relating to early care and education for all 50 states and Mayoral proposals in Washington, D.C. (450 k, 24 pages)
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Benefits of Pre-K for Middle Income Children
This policy report examines the importance of improving the school readiness of middle-income children and the role high-quality prekindergarten can play in helping ensure that more of these children enter kindergarten with the cognitive, social, and emotional skills they need.
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High-quality Pre-Kindergarten: The Key to Crime Prevention and School Success in Ohio
This report concludes that the time for reasonable doubt about the value of quality prekindergarten programs is past. Long-term studies show that at-risk children who attend quality pre-kindergarten and educational child care programs are far less likely to become criminals than those denied access to such programs.
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The Universal vs. Targeted Debate: Should the United States Have Preschool for All?
Most public support for preschool programs today is for targeted programs but calls for universal programs have increased and several states seek to provide preschool for all 4-year-olds.
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The Effects of Pre-K Programs on Young Children's School Readiness in Five States
This study estimated the effects of five state- funded preschool programs on entering kindergartners academic skills using a rigorous research design.
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What Does Readiness Really Mean?
This brief examines key issues for public policy related to school readiness, including the differing definitions of readiness, the relationship between school readiness and other factors in young childrens lives, and challenges in readying children for kindergarten.
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