In this blog, Amanda Stein, director of research and evaluation, discusses new research with Start Early, NORC at the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. Read the full report.

Current Opportunities

Coming off the heels of the pandemic, the massive influx of federal spending on early childhood care and education (ECCE) offers systems, district and program leaders an opportunity to intentionally design and implement equity-focused policies and practices that ensure families and children — especially young children living in marginalized, under-served or otherwise vulnerable communities — have access and are engaged in high quality early learning experiences.

Young children, their families, and our broader society are unable to reap the benefits of quality ECCE programs if children and families are not able to access them. Existing research evidence shows that differential access is an important contributing factor to inequities in enrollment. There is an enormous body of work about the long-term benefits associated with quality care and education in a child’s earliest years, including the recent research evidence coming out of Boston, that makes disparities in access to programming particularly concerning.

Prior Research Findings

Our previous work in Chicago found that after major policy changes focused on reallocating pre-K classrooms to specific schools and neighborhoods throughout the city and increasing the overall number of full-day, pre-K classrooms — both access and enrollment improved for high-priority student groups (students of color, students speaking a language other than English and students living in neighborhoods with lower income and higher unemployment). Furthermore, we found a persistent link between access to and enrollment in full-day, school-based pre-K. In other words, living closer to a school with full-day pre-K increased a child’s likelihood of enrolling, especially for high-priority student groups.  Learn more about our earlier research findings.

Newest Research Findings: Evidence of Improved Student Outcomes Linked to Policies Focused on Equity in Preschool Access
Recent research from Start Early with NORC at the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research examines if and how these pre-K policy changes intended to increase access and enrollment to full-day pre-K are related to later student outcomes. We found that these equity-centered policies at the pre-K level in Chicago created a pathway to higher test scores and grades in second grade. Specifically, these policy shifts were related to higher kindergarten entry skills and ultimately better academic outcomes in second grade, particularly for high-priority students. Reading test scores in second grade also increased among Black students and students in the lowest income group. Importantly, the pathway from full-day pre-K to better second grade outcomes proved especially strong among Black students, students in the lowest-income group, and students living in mostly-Black neighborhoods.

Policy Implications and Directions for Future Research
Overall, the study provides evidence that the geographic placement of school-based, full-day pre-K classrooms is an important mechanism for advancing equity in pre-K access and enrollment and for improved academic achievement in early elementary school, especially for high-priority student groups. In particular the pathway from full-day pre-K to better second grade outcomes proved especially strong among Black students, students in the lowest-income group, and students living in mostly-Black neighborhoods.

Not unexpectedly, the long-term increases in outcomes following Chicago’s access-focused pre-K policy changes account for a relatively small portion of the overall disparities in academic outcomes between student groups. In other words, point-in-time policy changes at the pre-K grade level alone cannot fully address the effects of long-standing systemic inequities within and beyond the educational system. We must work toward building a comprehensive, equity-centered ECCE system that acknowledges the infrastructural role that early care and learning play in the overall economy.

Nonetheless, this research evidence demonstrates that access to full-day pre-K is an important policy strategy that ECCE systems and district leaders can leverage to advance more equitable access and improve academic outcomes in later years. Current ECCE systems and policy conditions are ripe with opportunity for cities and districts to expand full-day pre-K close to where historically underserved students live. It is also possible that the pandemic has led to changes in families’ needs and priorities for care and learning experiences for their children. Therefore, systems and district leaders should develop strategies to actively engage families about their needs, worries, and considerations in addition to location of full-day pre-k and to support families’ awareness and reduce barriers to enrollment in those options. And researchers should continue to study the effectiveness of those efforts. Other key policies beyond access to pre-K must be considered, including policies that support improved classroom quality and family engagement within pre-K settings, support preschool-to-3rd grade instructional alignment, and reduction of poverty and violence as multiple approaches that move us to a time and space where sociodemographic characteristics are not determinants of student outcomes.

In April 2021, Start Early merged with the Early Learning Lab (ELL) — a nonprofit with expertise in human-centered design, systems thinking and technology solutions — to drive stronger, more equitable solutions, programs and policies that are better informed by community voices to improve early childhood systems across the country.

The merger uniquely positions Start Early to develop new ways of working that draw upon the collective experience of both organizations in elevating parent voice, systems change, and knowledge transfer and network building.

The Early Learning Lab was founded in 2015 to bring new methods and tools from the social innovation sector to the early childhood field to catalyze the design, implementation and scaling of high-impact products and programs.

Now, the Early Learning Lab is a new division within Start Early. The Lab will continue its work to lift up family and community voices and advance smart technology solutions in early childhood programs and systems.

With the recent massive influx of federal spending on early learning and care, we face a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create an early learning and care system that prioritizes families and supports them when they need it most: during a child’s critical first five years.

Washington, D.C. has issued a clarion call to boldly rethink and improve our early learning and care programs. The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) represents one of the most significant investments in young children in decades, which will funnel over $40 billion to states for early learning. States and communities are already beginning to plan for how to spend these dollars and are looking for guidance and expertise from the early childhood field. The American Families Plan dreams even bigger, proposing $450 billion in early childhood care and education funding that would provide quality preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds in our nation, support quality child care, expand the Child Tax Credit and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, and ensure twelve weeks of paid family leave.

Rising to this unprecedented opportunity will require coordinated, coherent and collaborative action. The capacity needed to get this moment right is more than any one organization can do alone, and it’s on all of us to get it right for our youngest learners.

It’s on state advocates and system leaders to successfully plan for and spend this unprecedented federal investment in early childhood systems. To dream big and lay a foundation for a more equitable early childhood system, particularly for families of color, all while facing quick timelines and no promise that this level of federal funding will continue. This is a bipartisan issue, and we’re already supporting both Democratic and Republican governors in 17 states to effectively use the funds to repair and redesign early childhood systems and supports to be more equitable, to increase access for families of color, to reach more children with disabilities and to target funding to build capacity of under-resourced communities.

It’s on philanthropic institutions and private support to continue funding the innovative quality programs and systems at the community level, so they can be scaled with public funding. Quality early learning and care is a proven solution to closing the opportunity gap and breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty, but only if it is quality. More than ever, private support behind public investments will be essential to ensuring every child has access to equitable learning experiences needed to reach their full potential.

This is our moment. Together, we can transform our early childhood system so that every parent has access to quality programs and services that meet their unique needs. We can create a nation where every option available for families provides the supportive environment, ambitious instruction, effective leaders, collaborate teachers and involved families we know are essential to transforming the lives of children. We’re ready to answer this call and hope you will join us.

Infant and early childhood mental health (I/ECMH) has long been part of Illinois’ infrastructure and continues to play an integral role in our early childhood systems. In fact, in 2003, the state passed the Children’s Mental Health Act, creating the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership (ICMHP). Additionally, in 2014, the Irving Harris Foundation convened hundreds of public and private partners to create the Illinois Action Plan to Integrate Early Childhood Mental Health into Child- and Family-Serving Systems, Prenatal through Age Five, an effort to sufficiently support the mental health needs of Illinois’ children.

There are a variety of strategies across the continuum of promotion/prevention, intervention and treatment to address I/ECMH, such as tiered systems of support within programs (e.g., Illinois’ Pyramid Model framework), parent/child interaction guidance, developmental screenings, parental mental health screenings, crisis intervention and dyadic therapies.

One strategy that is of huge focus in Illinois is I/ECMH Consultation (I/ECMHC). This multi-level, proactive approach partners multi-disciplinary I/ECMH consultants with those who work with young children and their families to support and enhance children’s social emotional development, health and well-being and to build the capacity of early childhood program staff.

In 2015, the I/ECMHC Initiative was created under the leadership of the ICMHP to pilot the Illinois Model of I/ECMHC in three types of early childhood settings in four communities in Illinois. Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago recently released research on the Model, which shows that early childhood providers improved their reflective capacity and classroom climate, and home visitors engaged in more responsive behaviors. The Initiative, now under the leadership of the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development in partnership with the IL Network of Childcare Resource and Referral Agencies, aims to promote sustainable professional development, an I/ECMHC database and public awareness.

National research also demonstrates that I/ECMHC reduces expulsions and staff burnout and turnover.

In response to these promising findings, Illinois advocates have advanced legislation, such as 2017’s Public Act 100-105, prohibiting early childhood expulsion and a recent bill spearheaded by the Black Caucus to establish the Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultations Act, encouraging the state to increase funding for (and the availability of) I/ECMHC services.

New legislation also requires behavioral health clinicians working with children under age 5 to use a developmentally-appropriate diagnostic assessment and billing system when a diagnosis is needed, including ZERO TO THREE’s Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC: 0-5^TM). All licensed child care providers, directors and staff are also required to participate in at least one training every three years that includes the topics of early childhood social emotional learning, infant and early childhood mental health, early childhood trauma or adverse childhood experiences.

There is still more work to be done to provide resources and funding that staff, families and communities need to address I/ECMH. No one agency or person can fill all the needs of families and children – therefore, it is critically important that across the community, systems are coordinated so that the broad range of factors, needs and contexts are addressed. The system must be comprehensive, coordinated and integrated and needs to offer supports that reflect the continuum of care needed, from education and prevention to intervention to treatment.

This blog post is last in a series about I/ECMH, published on the heels of Mental Health Awareness Month. 

The Illinois General Assembly approved the state’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget (FY 2022) plan over the holiday weekend. We expect Governor J.B. Pritzker will sign the package into law in the coming days.

We are disappointed that the final budget reduces state funding for some early childhood programs and maintains existing funding levels for others.

Earlier this year, the Illinois Commission on Equitable Funding for Early Childhood Education and Care released its comprehensive report on the future of early childhood in Illinois. The Commission urged the State to “seize this moment to reimagine and adequately invest” in our early care and education system. Specifically, the Commission found that a fully funded system will require an annual public investment of no less than $12.4 billion, of which current funding represents just 14%. The report made clear that state investments must match our belief that quality early care and education is critical to our state’s economy and future well-being of our children.

Cuts and level-funding will not get us to where we need to go. While the federal government has provided important short-term funding as a stopgap to deal with the pandemic and its aftermath, the state has a critical role to play to ensure the health and sustainability of our early care and education system. And current funding falls far short of what is needed to provide the early learning system we need to support communities, families, educators and providers.

State funding in the FY 2022 budget (SB2800) includes:

• Level-funding for the Early Childhood Block Grant at the Illinois State Board of Education
• Level-funding for evidence-based home visiting programs through Healthy Families and Parents Too Soon at the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS)
• A $7 million (6%) cut in state funding for the Early Intervention program at IDHS
• A $20 million (4.6%) cut in state funding for the Child Care Assistance Program at IDHS

While the budget includes an important increase of $350 million in state funding for schools, this is the first year since 2014 in which the General Assembly increased its K-12 investment without approving a related investment in its state early childhood program. This is also the first time since Fiscal Year 2013 that state funding to the Early Intervention program has been cut by the legislature.

Start Early and its partners have strongly advocated all year for the need to increase compensation for the early childhood professionals working for community-based organizations. There is more work to be done.

We are pleased, however, that the plan provides the administration the authority to spend significant short-term federal resources on the early care and education system. The General Assembly did increase the appropriation authority for several early childhood programs to allow for the spending of significant American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars:

• $1.3 billion in child care funding to be spent over the current and upcoming fiscal years. While we expect to see more details emerge in the coming weeks on the proposed use of these funds, there have been commitments made to increase provider reimbursement rates, to stabilize further the provider network during COVID-19 recovery, and to work to attract more families back into the program.
  • $110 million from federal child care dollars will be directed to the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), the Illinois Community College Board and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission to support a package of early childhood workforce items recommended by the IBHE Early Childhood Transformation Group, including financial supports to students.
• Increased appropriation authority for anticipated Early Intervention and Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting ARPA funds. More details on use of those funds are also expected.

Several other important early childhood bills have been approved by the legislature, including:

• HB158 (Lilly, Hunter) – known as the Health Care and Human Services Reform Act (PA 102-4), a new law that, among other provisions, expands the state Medicaid program to cover home visiting and doula services
• HB3308 (Jones, Harris) – a bill that preserves the use of telehealth services and authorizes full payment parity for services covered by private insurance, including those offered in the Early Intervention program
• HB2878 (Stuart, Pacione-Zayas) – a bill to authorize further articulation for Associate of Applied Science early childhood students and to improve access to associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees and certificates, Gateways credentials and other licensure endorsements
• HB3620 (Collins, Pacione-Zayas) – a bill that codifies into state law the current income eligibility threshold (200% FPL) for the Child Care Assistance Program
• SB267 (Villanueva, Guzzardi) – a bill that, through improved data collection, helps colleges and universities better understand student parents and how to help them
• SB820 (Lightford, Ammons) and SB2088 (Belt, Davis) – two bills that makes technical changes to the Education and Workforce Equity Act, including the establishment of a new effective date (January 2022) for the law allowing children turning 3-years-old over the summer to remain in the Early Intervention program until the next school year, as well as the updating of the membership of the KIDS Advisory Committee
• SB2017 (Harmon, Harris) – the FY 2022 Budget Implementation bill, which includes language that reduces the matching requirements for Early Childhood Construction Grant applicants based on the Evidence-based Funding tier area in which their programs are located.

The early childhood sector is celebrating unprecedented federal investments in our nation’s youngest learners, especially children and families from historically underserved populations. Rising to this unprecedented opportunity will require coordinated, coherent and collaborative action, and state, community and early childhood professionals know they must stay focused on quality and evidence-based decision making to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of this moment in time. Two new publications featuring Start Early research offer leaders information about research-practice partnerships (RPPs) and embedded workforce development that they can use to navigate change confidently and collaboratively.

First, the most recent and final issue of the “Future of Children” focuses on how RPPs can strengthen early education. In our chapter, researcher Maia Connors and colleagues illustrate Start Early’s approach to RPPs; one that partners program implementation and research teams within our single organization to build capacity for “research within practice” and “practice within research.” Our “embedded” RPPs have assisted with evidence-based policymaking, data-driven decision making, continuous quality improvement, innovation, and overtime, stronger early learning outcomes for children and their families.

The Future of Children chapter highlights the importance of building strong infrastructure to successfully organize, conduct and sustain RPPs. It highlights Start Early’s organizational culture that values research evidence, sound measurement, and continuous learning, along with interdisciplinary expertise and teaming. We draw key insights from our experience conducting research and evaluation as part of two of Start Early’s longest standing RPPs: one focused on improving and scaling The Essential Fellowship (formerly Lead Learn Excel), a professional development program for early childhood leaders, and a second focused on implementing and improving outcomes of Educare Chicago, Start Early’s innovative early learning school serving infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families on Chicago’s South Side.

Second, in a chapter in the forthcoming edited book from the Kenneth C. Griffin Applied Economics Incubator titled “The Scale-Up Effect in Early Childhood and Public Policy: Why Interventions Lose Impact at Scale and What We Can Do About It,” Start Early researcher Debra Pacchiano and colleagues discuss Start Early’s approach to professional development. This chapter examines how and why our approach equips early childhood leaders with a key antidote to the problem of declining impacts when interventions are implemented at scale. Specifically, it shares insights and evidence from the work of our embedded RPPs regarding innovative models and delivery of professional development for program leaders and supervisors, teachers and home visitors.

The challenges and realities of the early childhood workforce have compelled Start Early to reimagine workforce development as an emotionally supportive cycle of learning, embedded in the program and leader-facilitated, that nurtures staff well-being and results in staff commitment, persistence and skillfulness with evidence-based models and practices. In the Scale-Up Effect chapter, we define the key elements of embedded professional development and provide three case illustrations of how Start Early partners with leaders to use embedded professional development in their programs to achieve high levels of administration and implementation quality for their chosen evidence-based models and interventions.

These exciting new publications come at a pivotal time. Communities, states and early childhood programs across the country are seeking information and partnerships that empower them to navigate new opportunities and effectively lead change. Together these two publications provide actionable information on how:

• RPPs can strengthen evidence-informed decision making to build and sustain strong early childhood policies, systems and programs; and
• Leader-facilitated, embedded professional development can nurture staff well-being and capacity in the daily delivery of quality, high-impact early childhood experiences before kindergarten.

Within the basic concepts of infant and early childhood mental health (I/ECMH), it’s important to understand the immediate and potentially lifelong effects of exposure to trauma on children. Childhood trauma is defined by “the three Es.”

The experience of an event by a child that is emotionally painful or distressful, which results in mental and physical effects.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been linked to developmental and mental health concerns, risky health behaviors, chronic health conditions and early death. Research shows that 20-25% of children in the United States will experience some form of childhood trauma before adulthood. However, many children with high levels of ACEs and/or high distress symptoms do not receive clinical services.

Even very young children, from before birth, can experience trauma. During these first five years of life, children are more vulnerable because their brains are still developing, and they have not they yet acquired language skills to express what they are feeling.

Traumatic experiences can include natural disasters, a parent’s substance use disorder, being in an accident, being exposed to frequent, intense arguments or homelessness. Historical and/or intergenerational trauma can also be passed down through generations, such as experiences stemming from genocide. There is also systemically and institutionally imposed trauma, such as community violence and racism. Considering these factors, we must also recognize the impact of adult trauma, which can affect a caregiver’s ability to engage with or properly care for a child.

Learning how to understand, process and cope with difficulties – even tragedies – is a natural part of child development. But an intense, repeated or sustained experience may leave a child with an overwhelming sense of fear and loss, making them feel that they have no safety or control over their lives.

Children suffering from trauma can be less engaged and less ready to learn. According to Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, trauma can diminish concentration, memory and the organizational and language abilities needed to function; and can increase risk for delinquency due to a learned distrust for adults and rules. Trauma symptoms often manifest as challenging behaviors and can be misdiagnosed or misinterpreted.

Yet, adverse childhood experiences do not dictate the future of a child. A balance scale is a good way to visualize resilience—protective experiences and coping skills on one side counterbalance adversity on the other. Resilience is evident when a child’s health and development tip toward positive outcomes, even when a heavy load of factors is stacked on the negative outcome side.

In fact, resilience can be strengthened at any age. While stress can lead to poor mental health, not every child exposed to stress will suffer those consequences. Resilience is best seen as a response to a specific situation, not a constant trait. It is different for each child, is fluid and can change over time, and what works in one situation might not work in another. The single most common factor for children who develop resilience is at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver or other adult.

Thus, it is important for caregivers and staff to recognize, consider and respond to the effects of all types of trauma. Trauma-informed care emphasizes physical, psychological and emotional safety for both clients and providers. One simple way to think of a trauma-informed approach is to ask not “what’s wrong with this child?” but, “what happened to this child?” On May 25, and on all days, we must acknowledge the enormous and small burdens children and families are experiencing. By extending kindness to others and ourselves, we can develop positive relationships and find and experience hope.

This blog post is part of a series about I/ECMH, and in particular, is written in honor of Illinois Trauma-Informed Awareness Day, which has been declared thanks to the work of the Illinois ACES Response Collaborative and the Illinois General Assembly. 

With the recent passage of the American Rescue Plan, we are at a critical and unprecedented juncture for early childhood education. With nearly $40 billion in federal stimulus funding to invest in child care alone, the field is facing both an enormous opportunity and an enormous responsibility. This investment is the long overdue catalyst our country needs to expand and deepen our focus on early childhood professionals and their well-being.

During our most recent Building Resilience webinar – How to Cultivate Teacher Well-Being and Improve Child Outcomes in Turbulent Times – three early childhood leaders from across the country shared how they have been supporting the professional well-being of their staff amidst burnout, fatigue and discrimination, ongoing problems of practice that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the latest COVID-19 relief package, provides $1.9 trillion in funding and policy changes aimed at mitigating the impacts of the ongoing pandemic. In addition to the many provisions directly targeting support to the early care and learning system, the relief package also contains important supports for accessing healthcare and economic benefits, such as tax credits.

Start Early and the Shriver Center on Poverty Law are pleased to host a two-part webinar series for early care and learning professionals that will provide an overview of what is currently known about the healthcare and economic supports available through the ARPA and how to access them. The webinar series is intended to help early care and learning professionals understand these important supports so that they can access them for themselves and assist families they work with to access them as well.

Both webinars will be recorded and available for on-demand viewing.