February 2012
2 posts
Babies and the Budget: Promise and Challenges in...
President Obama’s proposed 2013 budget, released yesterday, holds promise as well as some challenges for programs that benefit young children. The promise comes in the form of resources for improving the quality of early care and learning programs. But the challenges posed by the budget reflect the era of austerity in which we now find ourselves. On the other side of the ledger are proposed deep...
Do You Know Your State's Baby Facts?
While data can serve as an incredible resource, it is often difficult to find the facts we are looking for. This is particularly true when it comes to specific data on the youngest children across the country. For those of us working to advocate for infants, toddlers, and their families, having access to a data profile about babies in our state can be a powerful tool. We at ZERO TO THREE put...
Baby Champion on Morning Joe
Amidst the chatter last Thursday on the MSNBC program Morning Joe, Howard Dean once again emerged as a voice for babies in the debate on how to improve education in America. Dean pointed out that our focus on education needs to hone in, not just on early childhood in general, but specifically on children from birth to age three. However, much like the last time he brought up this point, babies...
January 2012
3 posts
The America Within Our Reach
In his State of the Union speech tonight before a joint session of Congress, President Obama challenged the country to “Think about the America within our reach,” one that leads in education, creates high-tech and high paying jobs, and has greater energy security. The optimistic speech laid out a “blueprint for an economy that’s built to last”, starting with bringing back manufacturing jobs.
Later...
Does Congress Have a New Year’s Resolution for...
Happy New Year from the Baby Policy Blog! As you may remember, last year ended with Congress completing the Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations process, resulting in an increase for Head Start/Early Head Start, CCDBG, and other programs vital to the healthy development of infants and toddlers. As calendar year 2012 (and the second session of the 112th Congress) begins, we are looking ahead to… you...
December 2011
14 posts
Babies and the Budget, FY 2012
Babies in Early Head Start (EHS) can sleep more soundly at naptime as the Congress has reached agreement on Fiscal Year 2012 spending that will sustain the expansion of EHS and Head Start that began with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Final passage came on Saturday, averting a government shutdown. Overall, early care and learning was clearly a priority in the portion of the...
Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge Grants...
A tone of excitement and encouragement filled the room at the White House event this morning, as early learning experts gathered to hear Arne Duncan and Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretaries of Education and Health and Human Services, respectively, announce the recipients of the Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge grants. The nine winning states - California, Delaware, Maryland,...
Blogging NTI: The Last Round-Up, Part II
So many sessions, so little space and time! Here are a few more summaries from our enthusiastic reporters at ZERO TO THREE’s National Training Institute, which concluded last Sunday.
Two of our correspondents sent back reports on sessions about quality in home visiting programs:
The Essence of High-Quality Home Visiting Practices
Is it possible there could be three women with more...
Blogging NTI: The Last Round-Up, Part I
ZERO TO THREE’s 26th National Training Institute (NTI) came to a close Sunday as conference attendees regretfully headed out from the Gaylord Conference Center to return home. Once again, NTI proved to be a special gathering of a multi-disciplinary group of infant-toddler professionals whose appetite for research to support their practices and information about “how to’s” from others conducting...
Blogging NTI: Saturday’s Question of the Day
Our NTI Policy Question of the Day for Saturday invited our attendees to play off a favorite Sunday morning ritual in Washington, watching the Chris Matthews Show. At the end of the show, Matthews always asks his panel of reporters and pundits to “Tell me something I don’t know” and provide an insight to the future. We asked folks who stopped by the Policy Booth to play the pundit and tell us...
Research Plenary: Dr. Charles Zeanah Presents...
The NTI recommenced Saturday morning with a research plenary by Dr. Charles Zeanah of Tulane University in New Orleans. The plenary would focus on the effects of early experiences – in this case, deprivation – on brain development. Despite the early hour, the ballroom was packed with coffee-toting participants: sitting on the floor and standing in the back.
Dr Zeanah discussed his Bucharest...
Blogging NTI: Friday Sessions on Evidence-Based...
Two sessions on the first full day of the National Training Institute (NTI) focused on evidence-based practice. Increasingly, policy making focuses on approaches that are evidence-based. But where is that taking us and what do policymakers and the rest of us need to understand? Both sessions argued for avoiding a one-dimensional approach to using research evidence to mold programs and losing the...
Blogging NTI: Notes from Sessions
Laughter, tears, sharing, listening, and song, in addition to a wealth of information, all were experienced in the rich array of sessions open to NTI attendees on Friday. The Baby Policy Blog could not be everywhere at once, so enlisted the aid of many correspondents to report back on what they learned—and what moved them—in these gatherings. We promised you the NTI experience, so here are...
Blogging NTI: Friday’s Question of the Day
To get some feedback from the infant-toddler professionals attending NTI about what is important for policymakers to know, we’re asking the “Question of the Day”. On Friday, the question was “If you could take your Congressional representative to one session at NTI, which one would it be and why?”
We anticipated a wide range of responses. After all, when we started marking sessions we wanted to...
Blogging NTI: Vincent Felitti Shows that Early...
The seeds of many of our most common and intractable public health problems are sown early in life through adverse experiences that surface years later as chronic disease, addiction, and destructive behavior, Dr. Vincent Felitti told a packed house at the NTI luncheon plenary. Dr. Felitti described the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, which looked at the early experiences of over 17,000...
Blogging NTI: The Virtual Policy Booth
The ZERO TO THREE Policy Center booth is always the center of activity at the National Training Institute (NTI)—well, maybe we’re a little biased. Conference attendees stop by to pick up materials, take part in our annual advocacy activity, and grab a piece of candy for a pick-me-up between sessions. Now you can visit the policy booth, too, and help yourself to its offering (except for the candy)....
Bryan Samuels Gives a Call to Action at the Policy...
At 8 o’clock this morning the Maryland Ballroom filled with 1,600 people to hear Bryan Samuels, Commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services speak about young children involved in America’s child welfare system. Mr. Samuels discussed his own experience leading the child welfare system in Illinois as well...
Blogging NTI: A Return to the Neighborhood (and...
The 26th National Training Institute (NTI) has begun! The opening plenary fittingly featured Dr. Deborah Phillips guiding us back to the neighborhood and the brain development that occurs there, last visited in the seminal work, From Neurons to Neighborhoods, which she co-edited in the year 2000 This work was the springboard for many of the policy achievements for infants and toddlers in the last...
Countdown to NTI
This Thursday, December 8, ZERO TO THREE will kick off its 26th National Training Institute (NTI) here in Washington, DC. This year’s theme is “Connecting Science, Policy, and Practice,” so its content will be particularly relevant to infant-toddler advocates. If you can’t be with us at NTI, the Policy Baby Blog will bring NTI to you. Throughout the conference, which lasts through December 11,...
November 2011
2 posts
Super Committee Deadline Approaches With No...
As we approach Thanksgiving Day—and the deadline for the Super Committee to come up with its deficit reduction plan—it seems that our Thanksgiving turkeys are not the only things that are “done”. Today is the day when the members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction need to have the finishing touches on their proposal so they can present it to their colleagues on Wednesday, November...
Early Childhood Transitions within the...
Recently Washington has seen two early childhood transitions; these have not involved young children moving from one developmental stage to another, but rather two adults who care deeply about implementing policies to support that positive growth. Within the past few weeks, the early childhood community has welcomed a more visible focus on early learning within the Department of Education while...
October 2011
2 posts
Baby Facts: What the Super Committee Should Know
The Super Committee (a.k.a., the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction) is getting down to specific proposals for reducing the deficit. These twelve Senators and Representatives are going to make recommendations that could affect the futures of many infants and toddlers. It stands to reason that they should understand the vulnerability of babies in their states and how programs they may be...
Babies on the Bus: 2012 Appropriations Start to...
With fiscal year 2012 a little more than a week old, the wheels have started to turn on funding decisions for many discretionary programs important to infants and toddlers. These programs fall mostly in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill. In the Senate, the Appropriations Committee approved a bill funding these programs on September 21. In the House,...
September 2011
3 posts
Infants and Toddlers in the Child Welfare System:...
Back in May, a group of concerned children’s organizations issued A Call to Action on Behalf of Maltreated Infants and Toddlers, urging policymakers and practitioners at all levels to adopt a developmental approach to caring for babies in the child welfare system. Last week, Congress answered the call. Both House and Senate passed and sent to the President the Child and Family Services Improvement...
The Quiet Crisis: One in Four Infants and Toddlers...
In the midst of the uproar over our nation’s deficit crisis and jobs crisis, Census Bureau data released yesterday paints a picture of a quiet crisis: more than one in four infants and toddlers in America lives in poverty – 3.2 million of them, to be exact, or 26% of all children under age 3. This poverty measurement means that, for example, a baby in a family with two parents and a sibling would...
Deficit Reduction Panel Gets Underway
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction created by the Budget Control Act (BCA) holds its first hearing tomorrow as it begins its work to erase some of the government’s red ink. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) co-chair the Committee, which must make recommendations by November 23 for at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions over 10 years. Congress...
August 2011
3 posts
ZERO TO THREE Toolkit Helps Infants and Toddlers...
The Obama Administration released the much-anticipated final application for the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) competition on Tuesday, August 23. The RTT-ELC offers states a new opportunity to increase the number of disadvantaged children, birth to five, in high-quality early childhood settings and to enhance state integrated early learning systems. RTT-ELC will provide a...
Triple Jeopardy for Babies: Deficit Reduction Deal...
The deficit reduction process laid out in the Budget Control Act (BCA), which finally allowed the nation the authority to borrow enough funds to pay its bills, places important infant-toddler programs in triple jeopardy for cuts at every step of the way. Potential cuts to programs with discretionary funding—such as Early Head Start, child care, and Part C—would mean decreased access to early care...
Will the Nation Default on its Responsibility to...
Over the weekend, the President and bipartisan congressional leaders reached an agreement to raise the federal debt limit and reduce deficits over the next ten years. The House is expected to vote on the bipartisan deal later this evening, and, assuming that the measure passes the House, a Senate vote will be held tomorrow. Although the passage of this deal would prevent the U.S. from defaulting...
July 2011
3 posts
Launch of National Movement for America’s Children
A group of child advocacy organizations, spearheaded by Prevent Child Abuse America, have launched a nationwide pledge, listening tour, and crowd-sourcing tool designed to develop a national strategy for the healthy growth and development of every child. The National Movement for America’s Children (The Movement) is founded on the basic principle that all of our children deserve nurturing...
Deficit Negotiations Crawl Toward Deadline
As the August 2nd deadline for raising the debt ceiling draws ever closer, the prospect of an agreement on a comprehensive deficit reduction package before the deadline becomes more dismal. The current debate continues to focus on significantly changing the structure of budgeting, so we must focus on the dire effect drastically restructuring the size and role of the federal government would have...
Draft Early Learning Challenge Guidance Hits the...
This morning, the Department of Education posted a draft executive summary of the Request for Proposals for the $500 million in Early Learning Challenge funds made available through Race to the Top. Depending on their size, states will be able to apply for between $50 and $100 million to increase access of high-needs children to high-quality early learning and development programs and build state...
June 2011
5 posts
When Babies Must Share the Burden
Deficit reduction negotiations are moving to a higher level this week. President Obama is getting more directly involved in hopes of securing an agreement that will permit passage of legislation to raise the debt ceiling and avert a U.S. default on its debt. There are efforts to put revenue increases into the mix of deficit reduction ingredients, and there may be some give on reducing defense...
Babies and the Budget: Spending Cuts in Reform’s...
Negotiations are intensifying to reach agreement on a deficit reduction plan that will pave the way to raising the debt ceiling. While the possibility of including revenue increases remains vague, spending cuts are a certainty, and entitlements are on the immediate agenda. At this point, we are reading the tea leaves of news reports about what negotiators are considering. Some lawmakers suggest...
Babies and the Budget: Changing the Structure of...
Much of the current debate over budget cuts and the debt ceiling relates not to cuts to individual programs, but to changing the structure of budgeting. The federal budget process is confusing enough, so what would these changes mean, and do infant-toddler advocates really need to be paying attention? In the current debate, structural changes mean creating automatic mechanisms to force major...
Babies and the Budget: Getting our Bearings on...
This is the second in a series of baby blog posts on what infant-toddler advocates need to know in the current debate over reducing the deficit and altering the federal budget process. Yesterday we looked at why raising the debt ceiling is relevant to infants and toddlers. Before launching into the intricacies of the deficit reduction debate, today we are getting our bearings about the size and...
Back to the Budget: New World, New Language
As we move into June, realization is dawning in Washington that the summer could be hotter than usual if negotiations over raising the debt ceiling aren’t successful. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said that by early August he will no longer be able to juggle federal funds to pay off U.S. loans coming due. Vice President Biden is still holding talks with Congressional leaders around meeting...
May 2011
3 posts
Early Learning Challenge Receives $500 Million
In a major step forward for young children, Arne Duncan and Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretaries of Education and Health and Human Services, announced today that they will dedicate $500 million to the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC). The funds are part of a $700 million boost for the Race to the Top fund provided in the final 2011 federal funding bill. Comments by speakers at the...
New Early Childhood Initiative About to Launch
Federal departments are putting the finishing touches on plans to spend the fiscal year 2011 (FY 2011) funding provided in the final continuing resolution passed in April. Most exciting from the early care and education perspective is a planned announcement on Wednesday by the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services of a new competition in support of early learning. The Continuing...
Budget Fog: No Clearing in Sight
The topics of deficit reduction and the need to raise the debt ceiling hang over Washington like ground fog, seeping into every discussion of the budget and appropriations process for the upcoming fiscal year that starts in October. Some lawmakers are insisting that a plan for cutting the federal deficit be in place before they will vote to raise the limit on the amount the U.S. can borrow to pay...
April 2011
6 posts
Spring into Action! Tell Your Reps to Protect...
TAKE ACTION while your Representatives and Senators are on their spring recess from April 19th – April 29th and may be in the district or state. As discussions about long-term deficit reduction plans continue in Washington, this is an ideal opportunity to educate Congress on the importance at home of supporting the earliest years in a child’s life and the need for a long-term view to ensure our...
Budget Action Cascades Toward Deficit Reduction
Last week saw a cascade of budget-related events in Washington. On Wednesday, the President outlined his vision for getting the federal deficit under control. On Thursday, wrangling over fiscal year 2011 funding finally came to a close when the House and Senate approved the deal worked out the previous weekend. And Friday, the House approved a Budget Resolution, almost entirely along party lines,...
New Era of Austerity Has a Few Bright Spots for...
As Congress worked in a tough budget environment to finalize spending for 2011, children’s champions in the Administration and Congress helped give a lift to early care and education programs. This bright spot in an overall gloomy landscape is due in no small part to the tireless efforts and many voices of advocates for babies, toddlers, and young children. While the gains fall short of our goals,...
Federal Budget Battles: A Never-Ending Story
Don’t miss the latest on Babies and the Budget — subscribe to our RSS feed! 2011 Spending Finalized at Last: Late last Friday night, Congress narrowly averted a government shut-down, reaching agreement on total spending levels for 2011 literally at the eleventh hour. The President and House and Senate leaders agreed on cuts reportedly totaling $38.5 billion. Congress then passed a one...
Bring the Message on Budget Threats Home! Join...
Next week, the House of Representatives will vote on a 2012 Budget Resolution that, if adopted by both Houses of Congress, would radically alter the shape of government and threaten support for vulnerable infants, toddlers, older children and their families. State voices have never been so important. Advocates from all around the country are joining together to push for a more responsible approach...
The Path to Austerity: House Budget Chairman...
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan yesterday unveiled his map for the FY 2012 federal budget, titled “The Path to Prosperity.” The Committee is expected to approve this budget resolution today. While details are sparse, the journey to reach the smaller government envisioned by the proposal would be decidedly austere for Americans at the lower end of the economic spectrum—which includes...
March 2011
5 posts
Are We There Yet? 2011 Funding Debate Approaches...
Congress returns to Washington today with less than two weeks before the current stop-gap measure for funding the government runs out. Negotiations between staff of House and Senate leaders continued during last week’s recess, but had hit snags by week’s end. A major sticking point is the House’s desire to attach policy-related provisions dealing with funding for Planned Parenthood and...
It's Recess! Make Sure Your Senators and Reps Hear...
Before heading out to a week at home during the March 21st–25th recess, Congress passed yet another short-term funding bill that would keep the government funded through April 8th while cutting $6 billion more from 2010 levels. This latest continuing resolution (CR) does not contain any of the controversial policy changes that were in the long-term spending bill passed by the House (H.R. 1), but...
State Groups Organize Against Cuts
Efforts in Congress to reach agreement on final spending for 2011 continue to drag on. Last week the Senate rejected both the long-term House continuing resolution (H.R. 1) and the Senate alternative that would have boosted funding for Head Start/Early Head Start and child care. Talks are ongoing to agree on a final spending bill for the rest of FY 2011, but are not expected to conclude before...
The FY 2011 Chess Game: It's the Senate's Move
The chess game to reach agreement on final federal spending for FY 2011 continues, with the Senate voting this week on two funding bills. One is the House continuing resolution (H.R. 1) passed a few weeks ago that would cut $61.5 billion from 2010 levels. Click here to read our analysis of H.R. 1. The other continuing resolution is a Senate alternative, backed by the White House, that would avoid...