Early childhood leaders turn attention to very youngest

'Room for innovation and discovery'

Early Bird readers, hello again. Newcomers, welcome! If you were forwarded this email, you can sign up here to receive it every two weeks, and join our conversation on issues facing North Carolina’s young children and those who support them. If you’re already a subscriber, please help us reach more people by sharing this with your friends and co-workers interested in early childhood education.

For the next year, a new coalition of state early childhood experts will study how to expand Early Head Start, the comprehensive federally funded early learning program that serves children under the age of 3.

Through a $100,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the group will provide recommendations on how to increase equitable access to the program, which only serves 6% of eligible children in North Carolina. To be eligible, children have to live below the poverty line.

The creation of the group is the latest announcement among different efforts from advocacy organizations, policymakers, and state officials to find solutions to the instability of child care, particularly infant and toddler care.

It’s more expensive to provide care for infants and toddlers than preschool-aged children, leading to high prices for parents, a shortage of slots for children, and low wages for teachers.

“I think there’s a lot of room for innovation and discovery,” said Michele Rivest, senior campaign director for the NC Early Education Coalition, which will lead the work along with the NC Head Start Association. “… I think it’s time to rethink how we do this, but also to do it, and to do it really well, because babies need this kind of support.”

Gov. Roy Cooper’s proposal to spend federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds would include a dedicated stream in the state’s subsidy program for high-quality infant-toddler care. The state also awarded the Child Care Services Association funds from the Preschool Development Grant for Babies First NC, a project to enhance the quality of infant and toddler care and support teacher compensation in high-needs areas with the aim to scale up best practices across the state.

Go here for EducationNC Vice-Chair Ferrel Guillory’s piece on how North Carolina compares to other states in its support of babies and toddlers. The State of Babies Yearbook placed the state in the second out of four tiers.

“North Carolina had once earned a reputation as a national leader in addressing childhood issues — with such complementary and interlocking initiatives as Smart Start, NC Pre-K, child care subsidies, early intervention services, Head Start and Early Head Start, and a rating system that has driven up the quality of child care providers,” Guillory wrote in May. “At issue now is whether North Carolina will move ahead anew into the top tier.”

There are lots of moving pieces in early education news at the local, state, and federal levels. Have questions, story ideas, or want to share a challenge you face in serving children? Reply to this email, and let’s chat.