The United States is going through rapid demographic, economic, and social change, a combustible stew that has sometimes fed into national division and discord. Part of the shift is generational and racial: an older and whiter electorate is disconnected from a younger and more diverse America. Early childhood advocates are often on the cutting edge of these fault-lines and can be critical players in crafting a broader understanding of our common fate. How does such alliance-building happen? What lessons can state advocates and policymakers learn from metropolitan areas forging new understandings between groups, geographies, and generations? How can we bubble up those lessons to craft a broader consensus that equity and inclusion, particularly of the young, is key to the prosperity and economic stability of states and our nation?

Resources:

• Opening Plenary PPT

Breakout Sessions

Continuing the Conversation - Looking Forward: A Changing America and the Context for Early Childhood Advocacy - Board Room 1
Join us for a peer-to-peer discussion on how the themes and ideas from Dr. Pastor’s remarks apply to our work as early childhood advocates and as Americans.

• Lisa Klein, Alliance for Early Success

Getting to Root Causes of Suspensions and Expulsions - Board Room 4
Ameshia Cross, National Black Child Development Institute
Carey McCann, The BUILD Initiative
Multiple states passed bills last session to address expulsions and suspensions of young children from early learning programs, in part because of the evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in expulsion/suspension rates. Elected officials are reaching for quick fixes, like legislation that prevents these disciplinary practices, but the greater challenge is to address the underlying conditions that lead to expulsions/suspensions. NBCDI and BUILD will share how they are working in states to assess and identify policies that address racial bias, support teachers, and promote trauma-informed care.

Resources:

• Summary of Research on the Dimensions Contributing to Expulsion and Suspension in Early Childhood Settings
• Building a Comprehensive State Policy Strategy to Prevent Expulsion from Early Learning Settings
• Reframing School Discipline: A Strategic Communications Playbook
• Overview of Reducing and Preventing Expulsion from Early Learning
• Components to Consider When Developing a State Strategy to Reduce Expulsion

Leveraging the Local: A Means to Build Credibility and Expertise - Board Room 2
Dana Hepper, Children’s Institute (OR)
Amy O’Leary, Strategies for Children (MA)
Becky Veak, First Five Nebraska
Early childhood advocates are engaging more deeply at the local level to strengthen their state policy and advocacy efforts. Understanding community landscapes allow advocates to go beyond state-level aggregate data and bring issues closer to home for decision-makers. It also helps advocates use local results to inform policy development. This session focuses on ways advocates are building stronger cases, creating more effective and efficient policies, and informing state officials by using local data, cultivating relationships with local elected officials, and identifying local “movers and shakers.” Advocates in Nebraska, Massachusetts, and Oregon are making the issues REAL and building trust, credibility, and expertise through their local work. Come hear about strategies for leveraging the local to yield better outcomes for young children.

Resources:

• Children’s Institute (OR)
• First Five Nebraska
• Strategies for Children (MA)

Momentum Building for Paid Family Leave - Board Room 3
Leanne Barrett, Rhode Island KIDS COUNT
Ellen Bravo, Family Values @ Work
Washington State, New York, and Washington DC have joined California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island to implement paid family leave, doubling the number of states that provide this benefit. Are more wins on the horizon, paving the way for a national paid leave program? What does paid leave look like? How much is enough? And how do we pay for it? Learn how states are taking different approaches to answering these questions.

Resources:

• Paid Family Leave & Child Care Policy in Rhode Island
• Overview of Paid Leave Policies
• Benefits of Paid Leave and Child Well-Being
• The Impact of Our Wins
• Value All Care. Value Every Family

Breakout Sessions

Assessing Assessments: A Florida Case Study - Board Room 4
Brittany Birken, Florida Children’s Council
Karen Ortiz, Helios Foundation
Last year, the Florida legislature initiated the creation of The Committee for Early Grade Success. The committee’s charge is to create a road map for a coordinate child assessment system for (1) the child care subsidy program, (2) the voluntary state pre-k program, and (3) the mandatory kindergarten readiness assessment. Come hear a national perspective on what we’ve learned about assessment in the past few years, as well as how Florida is tackling both the technical and political challenges to coordinating multiple assessments in the state.

Resources:

• Florida HB 1229: Creating a Committee on Early Grades Success
• Early Childhood Assessment Policies and Practices in the Age of Accountability: Core Considerations for System Development
• Child Trends’ Presentation to Florida’s Committee for Early Grade Success

Early Childhood Across the Aisle - Board Room 3
Stephanie Monroe, Wrenwood Group
Linda Smith, Bipartisan Policy Center
The current political and policy environment is increasingly polarized. But there is good news. Data from past and recent polls shows that early childhood is a bi-partisan issue. A new report on early childhood was recently released by the Bipartisan Policy Center. Linda Smith, formerly the deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is now director of BPC’s Early Childhood Development Initiative. Stephanie Monroe, President and founder of The Wrenwood Group, has deep early childhood knowledge from serving as Assistant Secretary of Education and working on the Child Care and Development Block Grant, the Head Start Act, and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Family Act among others during her 25 years on Capitol Hill. Join the conversation as Linda and Stephanie share perspectives on different ways to frame and message early childhood.

Resources:

• A Bipartisan Case for Early Childhood Development
• Video of BPC’s Panel on “Supporting Early Childhood Development”

Go Tell It On (this particular) Mountain - Board Room 2
Margie Newman, Intesa Communications Group
In this interactive communications workshop, you’ll learn about practical tips and tactics you can activate to create savvy, targeted, and memorable messages that advance your policy goals. Margie Newman is an award-winning, go-to communications strategist for civic leaders and early childhood development organizations across the country. Today, she’s focused on you.

Pathways to an Effective Early Learning Workforce: (Re)Calculating Route… - Board Room 1
Lauren Hogan, National Association for the Education of Young Children
Abbie Lieberman, New America
Ruth Schmidt, Wisconsin Early Childhood Association
Advocates and policymakers have long tried to develop a well-prepared, effective, diverse, and well-compensated early care and education workforce. States have implemented a variety of strategies, but thus far, advances have been slow or marginal. Are we putting our eggs in the right baskets, or too many baskets? Are we engaging the right stakeholders or pulling the most impactful policy levers? Are we confident that our strategies will bear fruit, or are we kind of muddling through? This session will use a policy scan that NAEYC and New America have conducted in states as part of the Power to the Profession project as a launching pad for discussing these questions. Participants from states will use portions of this tool to explore new questions, stakeholders, or policy levers that can enhance strategies to advance workforce policies related to educational attainment, professional licensure/credential, and leadership.

Resources:

• NAEYC/New America Policy and Regulatory Scan (excerpt)

Breakout Sessions

Early Childhood Advocacy Through an Equity Lens - Board Room 2
Jon Gould, Children’s Alliance (WA)
Jann Jackson, Annie E. Casey Foundation
Paola Maranan, Children’s Alliance (WA)
This session will discuss what applying an “equity lens” to our work means and how advocacy organizations that do this have (1) changed their staffing, governance, structures, or other internal operations to work towards their mission and (2) modified their advocacy process and goals to achieve more equitable outcomes. Advocates from Washington and other states will share strategies and tools that will help session participants identify potential ways in which applying an equity lens can change the way their organizations do business. Participants will also have the opportunity to do some self-examination with one of these tools and discuss lessons learned and next steps with peers.

Resources:

• Seven Steps to Being a Race Equity-Informed Organization
• Racial Equity Toolkit: An Opportunity to Operationalize Equity
• BUILD Initiative’s Equity Action Framework
• Racial Equity Impact Assessments for Economic Policies and Budgets
• KIDS COUNT in Washington’s Racial Equity Policy Tool
• Equity from the Inside Out
• Getting Started with the Seven Steps to Equity
• Children’s Alliance Racial Equity Theory of Change

The Opioid Crisis: Who is Speaking for the Children? - Board Room 3
Cory Curl, Pritchard Committee of Academic Excellence
Samantha Sittig Goldfarb, Florida State University College of Medicine
Meaghan Sprout, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children
States face a myriad of challenges from fiscal deficits to natural disasters, yet the opioid epidemic may be the most formidable. Six states have declared public health emergencies due to the overdoses from heroin and other opioids. Babies are born exposed, children are losing their parents to drug use or overdose, foster care caseloads are skyrocketing - these are a few of the devastating outcomes of opioid addiction. As decisions are made for how to confront and combat this epidemic, advocates need be at the table to ensure adequate supports are provided to children and families. Early childhood advocates can play a role in opioid addiction prevention and intervention decisions. Join advocates from Florida, Pennsylvania and Kentucky for a discussion on policy and advocacy considerations in the face of the opioid crisis.

Resources:

• Opioid Use and Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy
• Children and the Opioid Epidemic

Policy and Advocacy Lessons from Efforts to Promote Pre-K Compensation Parity - Board Room 1
Mindy Binderman, Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students
Caitlin McLean, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment
Sue Russell, T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood National Center
Efforts to improve early childhood educators’ compensation have been most successful with state pre-k teachers thus far. This session will feature a recent paper by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment and discuss a range of strategies that some states are implementing to promote more parity between the compensation of pre-k and K-12 teachers, and what it takes for advocates to make the case for such policies and investments. Participants will also discuss what lessons and implications these experiences have for improving compensation for child care and other early childhood teachers in the system. Experiences from Georgia and North Carolina will be highlighted.

Resources:

• Strategies in Pursuit of Pre-K Teacher Compensation Parity
• Teacher Compensation Parity Policies and State-Funded Pre-K Programs
• In Pursuit of Pre-K Parity: A Proposed Framework for Understanding and Advancing Policy and Practice
• What Does Good Child Care Reform Look Like?
• Using the Early Childhood Workforce Index to Inform State Advocacy, Policy, and Action

Breakout Sessions

New York Medicaid Spotlights Infants and Toddlers - Board Room 2
Elisabeth Burak, Georgetown Center for Children and Families
Dede Hill, Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy
In August, New York’s Medicaid agency kicked off an innovative “First 1,000 Days” initiative, focused on the first three years of a child’s life. Medicaid covers 59 percent of all children age zero to three in New York State, so it plays an important role in laying a strong foundation for a majority of children. Medicaid also has the capacity to drive the quality of how health care providers and others interact with children and their families. Hear the latest update on federal Medicaid policy, as well as innovative ways states are leveraging this program so children have the best possible start in life.

Resources:

• New York’s First 1000 Days on Medicaid Initiative
• Blog: New York Advocates Explore What Children Need in “First 1,000 Days”
• Infographic on Medicaid’s Role in the First 1,000 Days
• Medicaid's Role for Young Children
• Health Coverage for Parents and Caregivers Helps Children
• Overview of the First 1000 Days on Medicaid Proposal Voting Tool
• First 1000 Days Proposal Template
• First 1000 Days Proposal Example - Developmental Inventory Upon Kindergarten Entry
• Florida State University Center for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy - Tip Sheets for Parents and Health Professionals

Repairing the Safety Net for Young Children and Families - Board Room 1
Annie McKay, Kansas Action for Children
Sheila Smith, National Center for Children in Poverty
Many states are dealing with increasing threats to safety net supports that are critical for young children and their families. Kansas advocates will talk about how they used communications and data to reframe the challenges, identified feasible policy and budget solutions, and engaged communities and coalitions across the state – all of which helped reverse some of the harmful effects of the HOPE Act and shifted public perception and the political narrative to the degree that voters elected more moderate, child-friendly policymakers into office. The National Center for Children in Poverty has powerful data tools for helping state advocates strengthen safety net programs for families in deep poverty. You will come away with new things to try and have the chance to share your ideas and strategies.

Resources:

• Why do Kansas Children Need a Safety Net?
• Repairing the Kansas Safety Net
• New York State Profile of Young Children in Deep Poverty

Closing Plenary – Looking Forward: The Year of the Governor - Lagoon Pavilion
Mike Carpenter, Tennesseans for Quality Early Education
Avo Makdessian, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Jason Sabo, Frontera Strategy
Ceil Zalkind, Advocates for Children of New Jersey
One of the most significant factors affecting early childhood policy in states is whether or not there is a supportive governor. In 2018, there will be 36 gubernatorial elections. If federal policies give states more flexibility in the form of block grants, waivers, or vouchers, governors and state legislators will have even more discretion over how to allocate, maximize, or misuse those resources. Their decisions can support or harm young children, and help or prevent families from becoming independent, secure, and successful. The Alliance is supporting a comprehensive advocacy strategy to inform candidates and shape policy agendas so young children and families are a top priority. We will share data from a survey of the 36 states holding elections for Governor. You will hear about polling, messages, and candidate education activities underway in California and Tennessee, as well as lessons learned from the recent election in New Jersey. Together, we’ll have a spirited discussion about how to act boldly to educate, inform, and help shape future state policy agendas.

Resources:

• NJ Election Advocacy Toolkit
• Choose Children 2018 (CA)
• Choose Children 2018 Fact Sheet
• Choose Children 2018 Campaign Toolkit
• Choose Children 2018 Bipartisan Polling Results