Why Should We Focus on Early Childhood Development in New Mexico?

Early Childhood System Policy Recommendations:

 Children Are Born Learning: 80% of the child’s brain develops between birth and age 5.

 Every Child Deserves an Equal Chance To Succeed: Research shows that if young children are behind in their development at age six, it is very difficult for them to catch up and succeed in school by age 18.

 Investing In Early Childhood Development Reduces Costly Remediation Later In Life: Scientists and educators have shown that making early investments in young children pays off in children’s improved academic success, more appropriate behavioral and social adjustment, decreased need for special education, increased high school completion, and reduced welfare dependency and incarceration.

New Mexico Needs a Comprehensive Early Childhood System:

 Children Need Ready Families, Communities, Schools Linked in a Coordinated System to Achieve Their Highest Potential: Single programs cannot address the complexity of what children and families need. Early Childhood Development programs like home visitation, medical homes, child care, early intervention , Pre-K work better and produce better results if they are connected together in a coordinated community-based system.

A Vision for Early Childhood System in New Families involved in decision-making Mexico results in effective services for all New Mexico. Voluntary Pre-K Accessible to All

High Quality Early Care & Education (Birth – 5) The critical ingredients of a Medical home, Oral Health, Nutrition, Developmental Screening / Early Intervention comprehensive early childhood system for young children and their Home Visiting and Family Support families to achieve success are listed Pre – in Figure 1. Pregnancy, Prenatal & Oral Health Care These critical interventions can be considered as New Mexico’s Before & During Birth 1 year 2 Year 3 Year 4-5 Year investment portfolio for the future Pregnancy well-being of the state.

 Quality Matters:

New Mexico needs to invest in an early childhood system that is high quality and effective to realize a return on investment of state dollars. Such a system has the following characteristics: 1) Family engagement; 2) Well-trained early childhood personnel; 3) Small child to staff ratios; 4) Services with high saturation and intensity; 5) High degree of connection between the various early childhood services: Example: home visiting services well connected with medical home, child development services and early learning services.

Early Childhood Policy Recommendations FY 2010 Tier One Early Childhood Priorities: High priority early childhood investments that need attention now and/or that constitute a down payment on new and effective programs within the early childhood system that need to be extended to more children and their families over time.

 Voluntary Home Visitation: To expand the capacity of communities to offer comprehensive voluntary home visitation based on state standards outlined in report “Building a System of Home Visiting in New Mexico”, CYFD, 2008. Support Executive Request for FY 2010

 New Mexico Pre-K Program: Extend the New Mexico Pre-K Program to more children and families in more New Mexico communities. Funding for Pre-K provides direct learning support to children, professional development and technical assistance, evaluation, instructional material, transportation and administration to assure program success. Support Executive Request for FY 2010.

 Maintain Child Care Assistance at 200% of Poverty: An additional $13.2 million in general fund dollars in FY10 is needed to sustain the child care eligibility at 200% FPL. This program assists low income families with the high cost of child care so that they can work, go to school and achieve economic self-sufficiency. Support Executive Request for FY 2010.

Tier Two Early Childhood Priorities: Important on-going Early Childhood programs that as part of EC system need sustained attention to improve their reach to more children, improve their quality and to ensure greater access for families.

 Medicaid Funding and Increased Access: As part of New Mexico health care reform initiative- Make a substantial down payment towards full coverage of Medicaid eligible children this year. Funding to cover AT LEAST 50% of all children who are Medicaid eligible this year and 50% of the rest of the children for FY 2011. Simplify application and enrollment.

 Increase Developmental Screening : Provide training on developmental screening, referral process, quality improvement methods to child health clinics and other early childhood providers, such as home visitors, WIC providers, early learning providers. Expand developmental screening to include maternal depression and autism.

 Early Intervention System (FIT): Increase funding to implement phase 2 of the family, infant, toddler rate study recommendations, to reimburse providers for services rendered without compensation and to expand services to eligible children.

 Quality Early Learning Initiatives:

o Provide rate increases to cover ongoing increments in the minimum wage increase and to ensure high quality providers continue to accept state assisted children.

o Fund TTAPs to support achievement of AIM HIGH standards for early childhood programs, out-of-school time programs and family homes statewide.

o Provide scholarships to early childhood educators for higher education and to provide retention incentives for increased educational achievement.

o Support quality initiatives through grants to child development ($1.6 Million), extended-day Head Start ($1.6 Million), Head Start look-alikes ($.5 Million), and inclusive child care ($.5 million) programs.  Statewide Family Leadership Network: Implement an early childhood family survey to identify wants and needs. Create a formal mechanism for families to partner with others to have an organized voice into policy decisions affecting families.

 At Home Infant Care: Provide stipends for parents of infants to stay home to care for their infant and take parenting classes

Tier Three Priorities: Additional requests that positively impact early childhood development that originate from other groups that ECAN members support.

Early Childhood Organizations Supporting Policy Agenda:

Albuquerque Public Schools City of Albuquerque, Division of Child and Family Early Childhood AllianceEastern NM University, Early Childhood Special Education Emergency Medical Services for Children, UNMH Envision, New Mexico Family Development Program, UNM First Born Program, LANL Foundation Interagency Coordinating Council of Family Infant Toddler Program Infant Mental Health Association La Vida Felicidad Las Cumbres Lutheran Advocacy Ministries New Mexico Child Care & Education AssociationKiwanis Club of AlbuquerqueNM Association for Education of Young ChildrenNew Mexico Coalition of School Administrators New Mexico Child Development Board New Mexico Human Rights Coalition New Mexico Pediatric SocietyNew Mexico Voices For ChildrenNew Mexico Headstart Association New Mexico Women's AgendaOut of School Time Network, New Mexico Forum for Youth and CommunityPegasus Legal Services  Parents Reaching Out Sandoval County Family Support Program Socorro General Hospital SPARK; New Mexico Community FoundationUnited Way of Santa Fe County UNM Center for Development and DisabilityWestern NM University Early Childhood Program

Others????????