Access to High-Quality Early Learning/Family Support
Strengthening Skills of Early Childhood Teachers Through Peer Coaching and Reflection
This project will examine a new model designed to increase the capacity of early care and education programs to engage in ongoing quality improvement with a focus on ECE teacher practices that promote language development and positive teacher-child relationships.
Strengthening Families’ Access to NYC Early Care & Education Programs that Meet Families’ Needs
This project examines strategies used by a New York City funded initiative that supports community-based organizations to help families access early care and education (ECE) programs. It identifies effective outreach strategies, barriers families face, and ways to improve enrollment systems, while also engaging policymakers, advocates, and other leaders in using findings to strengthen support for families’ access to ECE programs.
Strengthening State Systems of Quality Support for Early Care and Education Programs
This project will partner with state leaders to conduct a resource analysis in multiple states to examine features of supports for the ECE workforce with a focus on professional development (PD) and infant-early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) that can help ECE teachers support children’s social-emotional development and prevent programs’ use of exclusionary practices. Partners will be engaged in using results to strengthen the state system of supports for ECE programs, with the aim of building a system of effective, coordinated, and accessible PD and IECMH supports that help promote children’s optimal development and early learning.
Supporting Teacher-Child Relationships in Early Care and Education
This project addresses current gaps in our understanding of teacher-child relationships (TCRs). A pilot study examined a three-session community of practice with peer teachers focused on TCRs and participants’ use of a Teacher Reflection Tool that encourages teachers to reflect on their practices during a brief interaction with a child during regular classroom routines.
Child Welfare and Part C Early Intervention Collaboration
This project examines approaches to supporting the developmental and mental health needs of infants and toddlers involved in child welfare through collaboration with Part C Early Intervention. This project highlights opportunities, strategies, and current state efforts to prevent suspension and expulsion of children in early care and education settings.
Early Childhood Two-Generation State Policy Profiles
The Early Childhood Two-Generation State Policy Profiles provide a state-by-state picture of the population of young children and the policy choices that states make across three areas: health and development, early care and education, and family economic support.
Improving Participation of Children in Foster Care in Stable, High Quality Early Care and Education
This project is focused on advancing equity in access to and delivery of stable, high quality early care and education in Arkansas for children in foster care.
New York Public Library Project
NCCP has partnered with the New York Public Library to strengthen its Storytime Program, which serves families with young children.
Family Economic Supports
Studying a High-Intensity Coaching Intervention for Low-Income Parents Facing Benefit Cliffs
For this project, NCCP is learning from parents and staff involved in an intervention in a Nashville, Tennessee community organization that is offering high-intensity coaching and limited financial support to low-income parents who face benefit cliffs. Coaches have been trained to explain the consequences of losing benefits to adults considering employment decisions alongside their families’ material needs and long-term economic security and mobility.
Improving Family Economic Security Through Evidence-Based State Policy Reforms
Generous economic supports for children growing up in or near poverty effectively counter potentially harmful effects on their early development and boost their life chances as adults. In many cases, state legislators and officials have the ability to set policy options that create these needed supports for parents’ and children’s well-being. To support advocates’ and policymakers’ understanding of these options, NCCP’s Family Economic Security (FES) team offers a growing set of resources to promote stronger state FES policies.
Fact Sheets about Low-Income Children
These fact sheets show the disparities in economic hardship experienced by children.
Mental Health Supports for Young Children and Parents
Strengthening State Systems of Quality Support for Early Care and Education Programs
This project will partner with state leaders to conduct a resource analysis in multiple states to examine features of supports for the ECE workforce with a focus on professional development (PD) and infant-early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) that can help ECE teachers support children’s social-emotional development and prevent programs’ use of exclusionary practices. Partners will be engaged in using results to strengthen the state system of supports for ECE programs, with the aim of building a system of effective, coordinated, and accessible PD and IECMH supports that help promote children’s optimal development and early learning.
PRiSM helps advocates and policymakers identify many of the most promising strategies states are using to promote infant-toddler mental health. PRiSM has an online, searchable collection of research-informed IECMH policies and scaled initiatives along with summaries of research about key IECMH strategies
Arkansas’ Implementation of Suspension and Expulsion Reduction Policies (ARISE)
This project will examine factors that support or hinder the effective implementation of Arkansas’ innovative policies to promote children’s social-emotional development and reduce expulsion in child care programs
Child Welfare and Part C Early Intervention Collaboration
This project examines approaches to supporting the developmental and mental health needs of infants and toddlers involved in child welfare through collaboration with Part C Early Intervention
Early Care and Education Suspension and Expulsion Prevention Policy
This project highlights opportunities, strategies, and current state efforts to prevent suspension and expulsion of children in early care and education settings
Medicaid Coverage for Key IECMH Policies: Results of a Series of 50-State Surveys
A series of 50-state policy surveys have been conducted in recent years to examine states’ Medicaid coverage for key infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) services, along with policies that contribute to service access and quality
Past projects can be found in the NCCP Projects Archive