Early Childhood

Supporting access to voluntary professional services and support for mothers and families with young children.

Early childhood home visiting programs provide voluntary, in-home services to expectant mothers and families with infants and young children. Nurses, social workers, early childhood education specialists, or other trained paraprofessionals, meet with families in their homes to advise them on the health and development their children and connect them to community services and supports. Evidence-based home visitation services produce such measurable outcomes for children and families, as improved health, school readiness, academic achievement, parental involvement and economic self-sufficiency, and reduced child maltreatment, injuries, and juvenile delinquency.

The Affordable Care Act established a federal funding stream for voluntary evidence-based home visiting programs in 2010; however, due to a lack of funding, only a limited number of children and families are able to benefit from the program. CDF supports expanding investments in quality home visiting to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families.

Supporting increased access to, and quality in, comprehensive federal early childhood programs for infants and toddlers and young children.

Head Start and Early Head Start are federally funded, locally administered programs that provide quality, comprehensive early childhood development and learning services to preschool aged children, infants, and toddlers. Head Start supports development of the whole child, promoting school readiness by providing educational, health, nutritional and social services to enrolled children — while also supporting their families. Despite serving over a million low-income children, fewer than half of eligible children are able to benefit from Head Start and less than 5 percent participate in Early Head Start.

CDF supports Head Start’s mission of providing comprehensive, quality early childhood services to children and their families, and advocates for increased funding for the program so more eligible children and families can benefit.

Head Start has proven results. Children who participate are school ready, less likely to need special education, and more likely to graduate high school and go on to college.

Ensuring working families and their children have access to safe, affordable and high-quality child care

Working families need access to high-quality, affordable child care that meets their children’s developmental needs; however the high-cost of care creates a barrier to access for many families. While the federal government provides supports to families to help defray the cost of care, both through the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) and the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), these supports are not sufficient to meet the needs of all the families they are designed to serve. Fewer than 1 in 4 eligible children under 5 benefit from CCDBG and the non-refundable CDCTC provides no benefit to the families that most need help and minimal support to middle-income families who still struggle to pay for quality care. Additionally, a well-trained and competitively compensated workforce is necessary to provide the quality of care children and parents deserve, but child care workers are paid less than parking lot attendants in 30 states. CDF is committed to working with our partners to ensure that all children have access to affordable, high-quality child care that supports their early development and their parents’ abilities to work.

Promoting access to high-quality preschool opportunities for low-income 3-and 4-year-olds and others with special needs.

High-quality preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds improve school readiness and facilitate a range of positive outcomes in both school and life. These programs are especially beneficial for low-income children and other vulnerable children, including those who are homeless, in foster care, are learning English as a second language, or have disabilities. Unfortunately, access to preschool is often determined by parental income, and the lottery of geography and quality varies widely. While some states, such as Oklahoma, New Jersey, and Georgia have prioritized access to high-quality preschool, many other states serve fewer children with weaker quality standards. CDF is committed to working to ensure all children, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, have access to quality preschool programs that prepare them for school and life.

Ensuring that children receive the opportunity to attend full-day kindergarten before entering first grade.

Full-day kindergarten boosts children’s cognitive learning, creative problem solving, and social competence, and helps sustain gains made in early childhood programs. Access to full-day kindergarten is not guaranteed for all 5-year-old children in the country. Only 11 states and D.C. require that their districts offer full-day kindergarten and five do not require any offering of kindergarten at all. In poor economic times, these programs not protected by statute can be targeted by districts for cuts to save money, particularly in states that do not fund full-day kindergarten at the same level as first grade. As momentum for investments in young children continues to build across the country; states and districts must ensure that they have full-day kindergarten in statute as part of their quality continuum of early childhood services so children do not miss the critical step between preschool and first grade.

• American Academy of Pediatrics
• Community Catalyst
• First Focus
• Children’s Dental Health Project
• Georgetown Center for Children and Families
• March of Dimes
• Children’s Hospital Association
• Family Voices
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• Families USA