Child Care and Early Education Legislative Network E-Update
October, 2006
In This Update
Prekindergarten Leadership Institute: Building Bright Futures
The Child Care and Early Education Project conducted Prekindergarten Leadership Institute: Building Bright Futures, on June 4-6, 2006, in Denver, Colorado. Nearly 60 legislators attended the three-day Institute, representing 24 states. Topics presented and discussed by national and state speakers ranged from financing and expanding preschool programs to key components of quality and accountability. A panel of legislators discussed the political, program and financing challenges that the legislators have faced and how they met those challenges in their states. Click on the link above to access a meeting summary, including speaker presentations and biographies. For more information, contact Julie Poppe at (303) 364-7700.
NCSL's 2006 Annual Meeting was held in Nashville, Tennessee, August 15-18. The Child Care and Early Education Project sponsored a concurrent session on the topic of school readiness, and during Human Services committee time there was a presentation on Family, Friend, and Neighbor Care. In collaboration with the NCSL/Annie E. Casey Partnership on Family Economic Success, we also presented a breakfast session that featured George Kaiser as the keynote speaker. Visit our website and click on “more news” to view session summaries, powerpoints, and speaker biographies.
Supporting Parents’ Choices: Improving Family Child Care
Family child care, particularly informal care arrangements, represents a significant amount of the child care that parents choose for their children under the age of five. This session covered how states are developing new ways to improve the safety and quality of family, friend and neighbor care to promote healthy child development and school readiness.
Speakers: Toni Porter, Institute for the Child Care Continuum, Bank Street College of Education
Nina Sazer O’Donnell, Director, United Way National Strategies Success by Six
Moderator: Representative Dave Hogue, Utah
Bridging the Readiness Gap at Kindergarten
Research shows the achievement gap is present as early as the start of kindergarten—and many children never make up the difference. Attendees heard about the latest research on school readiness and how states are implementing preschool policies to reduce the achievement gap and improve school performance.
This concurrent was possible due to a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Speakers: Katherine Magnuson, Institute for Research on Poverty
Rolf Grafwallner, Division of Early Childhood Development, Maryland State Department of Education
Assemblyman Craig Stanley, New Jersey
Moderator: Representative Rae Ann Kelsch, North Dakota
A Businessman's Perspective: Early Childhood Education Is Both a Moral Imperative and a Sound Investment
Leading Oklahoma businessman, George Kaiser, shared his belief that early childhood education is important for two reasons- the first is that the purest form of charity is one which intervenes in the cycle of poverty at the earliest possible stages. The second premise is that early childhood education is a key component to ensuring that all children have an equal opportunity for success. Instead of just treating the symptoms of poverty, it is important to identify and modify its causes, otherwise each generation starts out where the last one did.
Speaker: George Kaiser, President, Kaiser-Francis Oil Company and Chairman, BOK Financial Corporation
Introductions: NCSL President, Representative Leticia Van de Putte, Texas
Moderator: Representative Melvin Neufeld, Kansas
NCSL provided testimony to two states recently- Idaho and Vermont- both states that convened legislative study committees to consider early education. Idaho's Early Education Task Force, appointed over the summer, convened its first hearing in late August. NCSL was invited to testify about state approaches to early education with particular emphasis on prekindergarten. The hearing included a number of speakers covering major state agencies and organizations involved in early learning. Two legislators co-chair the task force, Senator Tom Gannon and Representative Jack Barraclough. Next the committee will appoint a subcommittee to develop recommendations for consideration by the full task force.
Vermont legislators also contacted NCSL to participate in a hearing of the Prekindergarten Study Committee. We provided testimony to the committee by phone, sharing some of the major issues in pre-K and best practices in states that currently operate pre-K programs. Both the chair and vice chair of the committee, Representative Duncan Kilmartin and Senator Jim Condos as well as Representative Denise Barnard attended NCSL’s prekindergarten leadership institute, held in Denver in June. The committee also planned an October statewide teleconference hearing to gather public input with participants in 13 sites throughout the state.
NCSL provides a wide range of technical assistance services to state legislatures. Please email Steffanie Clothier for more information or call (303) 856-1416.
Child Care and Early Education Legislation Highlights 2005
In 2005, at least 31 states enacted significant child care and early childhood education legislation. Click on the link below for highlights of child care and early education legislation enacted in 2005, including summaries of significant bills.
Low-Income Children in the United States: National and State Trend Data, 1995-2005
This data book by the National Center for Children in Poverty provides national and 50-state trend data on the characteristics of low-income children over the past decade: parental education, parental employment, marital status, family structure, race and ethnicity, age distribution, parental nativity, home ownership, residential mobility, type of residential area, and region of residence.
Pre-K and Latinos: The Foundation for America's Future
This Pre-K Now report shows that, by providing Latino children with culturally and linguistically appropriate services in high-quality, pre-k-for-all programs, educators and policymakers can help close the achievement gap and make a major contribution to realizing this growing population's remarkable potential.
Starting Off Right: Promoting Child Development From Birth in State Early Care and Education Initiatives
This report from the Center for Law and Social Policy describes a menu of state strategies to improve early care and education for infants and toddlers, and supports to their families, including: examples of specific policies to promote child development birth to 3, as well as ideas for state funding and governance structures that provide attention and resources for all children birth to age 5.
State Child Care Assistance Policies 2006: Gaps Remain, With New Challenges
A recent report by the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) surveyed state child care administrators from all fifty states to examine child care subsidy policies for low-income families. NWLC’s 50-state analysis compares 2006 child care assistance policies in four policy areas: child care provider reimbursement rates; income eligibility; waiting lists for assistance; and co-payment requirements. The report found that the number of states that adequately reimburse child care providers that serve low-income children dropped from 22 in 2001, to nine in 2006. In the three other policy areas – income eligibility, waiting lists, and co-payments – the report shows a more mixed picture.
Please note that this distribution list is limited to state legislators and legislative staff.
 Child Care and Early Education Legislative Network E-Update
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