Building knowledge and sharing resources by and for local early childhood systems builders.
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Nothing About Us Without Us |
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More than 600 young children are attending free preschool in Multnomah County, Oregon this fall, thanks in large part to a determined group of parents who demanded change and persuaded government officials and voters to support it.
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Pictured: Members of the Early Learning Multnomah Parent Accountability Council |
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The PAC is comprised of 12 parents from six culturally-specific organizations that represent communities facing significant disparities in wealth and income, education, health, and other indicators of wellbeing. The PAC is the governing council that guides the work of Early Learning Multnomah, the state-funded early childhood convener for Portland and neighboring communities.
“We want to share power with parents” says Lai-Lani Ovalles, who provides staff support to the PAC as Early Learning Multnomah Senior Manager. “If we have access to resources and we’re talking about engaging their families and their children in programs, parents absolutely have to have a voice in how dollars are distributed, the type of programs that we fund, and the type of preschools that are created.”
Preschool for All was an early idea of the PAC when it started eight years ago. It’s funded by a progressive income tax on the county’s highest earners. Getting it to implementation meant first convincing the Multnomah County government to put it on the ballot and then convincing voters to approve it, which they did by a 64-36 margin in November 2020.
Parents don’t just want access to preschool, they want to ensure the preschool is high quality and culturally relevant with staff that looks like the students, speaks their language, and is well paid. They also want to ensure the three- and four-year-olds enrolled won’t be suspended or expelled. All of that has been written into the legislation at the insistence of parents who were sitting at the table.
“It gives you an opportunity to hold people accountable that have positions in power, and it also gives you a sense of belonging to show up in these spaces,” according to Gray-Holifield. “You voted to put them in office so why not have them work for you and do what they said they would do.”
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Pictured: A Guilford County Parent Leader Network Community Event |
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As it is in Multnomah County, parent leadership is at the center of all effective early childhood systems. Sanaa Sharrieff got involved in a parent network in Guilford County, North Carolina and now serves on the staff of Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) as a parent liaison.
“We build the bridges, and we walk parents across them into leadership and equity,” Sharrieff says of her work mentoring and supporting other parent leaders. She says Ready Ready is intentional about ensuring parents are part of all advisory and decision-making bodies.
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“How can you make an informed decision if you don’t know my current situation, if you’re not meeting me where I am?” Sharrieff asks. “How can you meet me where I am if we haven’t even had a conversation? Parent voice is extremely important.”
“It’s really long-term work, but the work is happening. If you have the lens that the work is happening and it’s getting better every day, it kind of drives your initiative to keep coming back.”
Both parent leaders are guided by the principle “Nothing about us, without us.”
“Sometimes if you step out of the way and allow others to do and to lead, you’ll learn something different,” Gray-Holifield shares. “As soon as people got out of the way and decided they would let parents lead and let parents be in the room, things started to change. We now have Preschool for All.”
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The COVID relief funding for child care provided an opportunity to observe how positive stakeholder engagement can lead to more equitable policy outcomes. The results of an in-depth look at the experiences in Michigan, North Carolina, and Mississippi demonstrate key lessons for effective stakeholder engagement.
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The full second season of CSSP’s limited-series podcast, The New Neighborhood, is now available. Listen to seven short episodes featuring innovative local strategies to reinforce a sense of community, support young children and families, and build equity within communities – available on most podcast apps and on our website.
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Featured Resources for System Building:
Data-Driven Policy Change
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There is a new resource to better understand the child care crisis and galvanize support for policies to address it. Child Care Aware of America is releasing a series of four reports this fall called Catalyzing Growth: Using Data to Change Child Care. The first report is the Annual Child Care Landscape Analysis, which is based on the most recent survey of Child Care Resource & Referral agencies. It analyzes nationwide data as well as state-specific trends. The other three reports focus on affordability, the perspectives of providers and families, and data-driven policy recommendations. New data is being released every month this fall.
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Newly-released data is providing an overview of the availability and funding for evidence-based home visiting services across the country. The National Home Visiting Resource Center released the 2022 Home Visiting Yearbook. Among the key findings: only 1.6 percent of families that could potentially benefit from home visiting – and only 3.3 percent of high-priority families – received services last year. Evidence-based programs are available in all states and more than half of U.S. counties. The report disaggregates maternal and child health data by race and ethnicity and highlights 12 new emerging home visiting models.
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Other Resources for Early Childhood Systems Builders |
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For professionals and advocates focused on family wellbeing: Income is used to calculate poverty levels, but that misses an important piece of a family’s overall financial situation. A new study from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy looks at the impact of family wealth – assets minus debts – on child wellbeing. It found net-worth poverty negatively impacts children’s learning and behavior. The study calls on policy makers to invest in programs that build family wealth – such as “baby bonds” to support education – rather than focusing solely on income.
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For state and county system builders focused on data: The 2022 Kids Count Data Book is out. The annual report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation looks at state trends in child poverty, education, health, and overall wellbeing. States also have their own reports, with a deeper dive into data at the county level.
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For early education professionals focused on equity: California’s Universal Transitional Kindergarten program expanded to include another 64,000 kids this year, but a new study found significant disparities in who is participating. Participation rates in the state-funded pre-K program are significantly lower for Black children than for Latinx children. The study authors say that jeopardizes the state’s efforts to close gaps in early education outcomes. White children are also under-enrolled, limiting diversity and integration in the program.
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For early childhood professionals, partners and policy advocates: The Early Childhood Matters podcast features national and state experts discussing early childhood policy and initiatives across the country. The Child Care Technical Assistance Network has produced more than 15 episodes so far. Topics include building a successful early childhood mental health system, how to help families transition across systems, and tools to connect and engage with families.
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About EC-LINC
EC-LINC is a network of partners with a shared goal—to support families and improve results for young children in communities across the country.
There is much to be learned about what it takes for early childhood systems to address population level outcomes at scale. There are a variety of funding streams, programs, and approaches—from multiple sectors—flowing into communities with the expectation that an integrated early childhood system be established.
Yet there is no central resource that brings together innovative local communities with state and national leaders to intentionally collect existing and new knowledge, develop resources, and test new ideas. That’s why the Early Childhood Learning and Innovation Network for Communities Initiative is here.
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Media Contact
Jessica Pika, Communications Director
Joshua Perrin, Communications Manager
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Center for the Study of Social Policy
1575 Eye Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005
202.371.1565
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