Protecting the Youngest

The Role of Early Care and Education in Preventing and Responding to Child Maltreatment

September 2007

By Steve Christian and Julie Poppe

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Maltreatment of the nation’s youngest children is a tragedy that carries heavy long-term social and economic costs to society.  Policymakers, therefore, may be eager to identify evidence-based, costeffective ways to prevent the abuse and neglect of all children, particularly the most vulnerable.  Over the past several years, attention has focused on improving collaboration between child welfare agencies and courts, substance abuse service providers, K-12 education, cash assistance programs, and the domestic violence community. Given recent breakthroughs in our understanding of early childhood development, it is an opportune time to expand that focus to include early childhood care and education. With leadership from state legislators and other policy leaders, early care and education programs can become a valuable resource for supporting families and preventing maltreatment. Child welfare agencies, for their part, need to recognize the unique developmental needs of their youngest clients, the risks that maltreatment poses to such development, and the importance of early care and education in protecting against those risks.

Children from birth to age 3 are uniquely vulnerable to maltreatment and enter foster care in disproportionately high numbers.  This paper explores some policy options that legislators can consider to support early care and education programs in protecting the nation's youngest children from abuse and neglect.  These options include:

• promote child abuse prevention in state laws that govern licensing, training, professional development and reimbursement of early childhood providers and teachers.
• review existing strategic planning processes for opportunities to expand the mission of early childhood education to include more intensive parent support and prevention of maltreatment.
• include early childhood care and education in child welfare case planning
• ensure stability of enrollment in early care and education programs for children in the child welfare system.
• authorize information sharing between early childhood programs and child welfare agencies.
• authorize and fund collaborative pilot projects.

 Child Welfare