Project Thrive and the Resources of NCCP A Webinar for the ECCS Community

1. Project Thrive and the Resources of NCCPA Webinar for the ECCS Community Jane Knitzer, EdD Director, NCCP New York, NY | October 29, 2008

2. Who We Are • NCCP is a non-partisan, public interest research organization at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. • NCCP uses research to promote the economic security, health, and well-being of America’s low-income children and families. • Our ultimate goal: Improved outcomes for the next generation.

3. NCCP’s Core Foci • Family Economic Security • Promoting Opportunity and Mobility • Early Childhood • Promoting Healthy Development and School Success • Health and Mental Health • Promoting Family Stability and Emotional Wellbeing

4. The Larger Context: Low-Income Status Varies by Age

5. Variation by State: Children Under Six

6. About Project Thrive Project Thrive is a public policy analysis and education initiative to promote healthy child development. Supported through a cooperative agreement with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, HRSA-DHHS. In its 4th year Aim: Help states strengthen their cross-sector early childhood systems through policy analysis and information sharing

7. Thrive’s Logic Model Linking Policies to Improve Results

8. What We Do • Synthesize and generate new knowledge about policies and practice. • Actively promote peer-to-peer transfer of knowledge • Develop tools that support systems development • Disseminate materials to core stakeholders and others • Develop tools for ECCS • Respond selectively to specific requests (e.g. Tennessee MH fact Sheet)

9. Thrive Resources Virtual Policy Sharing Network (VPSN) Webinars and conference calls Short Takes Targets core ECCS stakeholders to provide a “big picture” on critical system-related issues Issue Briefs Major topical issue briefs that reach the broader policy community (researchers, advocates, professional organizations) often linked to Emerging Issues Roundtables Informal Consultation to States

10. Thrive Page on NCCP.org

11. Thrive Collaborations • LAUNCH (Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health), a SAMHSA Project • Will support infrastructure development and policy reform at state/territorial/tribal level and enhanced programs and services at the local level • NCCP will develop Financing and Indicators resources relevant to state and local level stakeholders, hope to work with ECCS in project states • Build/NCCPInitiative • Promoting health and mental health in the context of early childhood: invitations to selected state teams

12. Areas of Focus in our Work To Date Strengthening Cross-system Infrastructure Promoting Strategic Fiscal Analysis Building Accountability Through Indicators Focusing on the Highest Risk Young Children and Families ( Home Visiting; Maternal Depression) Strengthening the ECE State Policy Framework (Learning Collaboratives)

13. Thrive Work of the Future A series of four webinars and four conference calls The webinars will include continued attention to indicators, to the more vulnerable children and to opportunities linked to the larger federal context The conference calls will address links between ECCS and Early Childhood Advisory Councils (ECAC) as well as some areas that NCCP has not focused on but that are part of ECCS (e.g. Advanced Medical Homes and Oral Health) Issue briefs related to fiscal strategies and Indicators On-going efforts to help states address the policy implications of the new ECCS guidance.

14. Other (Selected) NCCP Projects and Resources • Early Childhood • Improving the Odds • Research Connections • Chronic Absenteeism • Kellogg • Part C • Family Economic Security • Health and Mental Health

15. Improving the Odds • Is intended to • Sharpen the debate on effective state policies to promote early childhood development • Focus on young children (< age 6) and their families • Is based on • existing 50 state data bases, and is not definitive list of what states should be or are doing • Provides • State, regional, and national early childhood profiles • 50-state data tables for comparisons across the states • A baseline to monitor state and national trends

16. ITO’s Integrated Policy Approach T H R I V I N G C H I L D R E N 1. Good health and mental health 2. High-quality early care and learning • Economically secure • and nurturing families Clipart courtesy of FCIT

17. Underlying Principles of ITO Focus on vulnerable families. Families earning less that 200 percent of the poverty level may struggle to meet the basic needs of their children. State policy choices matter. How a state chooses to allocate federal and state funds, promote quality, and establish eligibility criteria influences who has access to essential supports and who does not. Research should inform state policies. Research on the effects of poverty, the biology of the developing brain, the cumulative effects of risk, and the effectiveness of evidence-based interventions can inform policy choices. (See NCCP’s User Guide to ITO) Balance the three-legged stool. Strong policies in one area can be undermined by weak policies in another. Seek balance across child health, early learning, and family support.

18. Implications for ECCS • Compare your state early childhood profile to the regional and national profile. Where are your policy strengths and weaknesses? • Customize your state early childhood profile by identifying other policy choices your state is or could make. • Make the research case for a more comprehensive early childhood policy agenda in your state.

19. Research Connections is a quick and comprehensive, online one-stop for research on child care and early education.

20. Searchable collection of over 13,000 early care and education resources (journal articles, reports, policy briefs, etc.)

21. Produce different types of research synthesis on critical issues in the field. • Offer policy briefs (Research-to-Policy Connections) and literature reviews (Reviews of Research).

22. Also produce - Key Topic Resource Lists - which provide a quick summary of the research and an interactive bibliography. • Have one on each of the 5 ECCS components.

24. Chronic Absenteeism in Early Schooling A study based on national, longitudinal data on children entering kindergarten in 1998 – the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K, NCES) An estimated one in ten kindergarten and first grade students are chronically absent nationally Who is most often chronically absent? Poor and low income children Children with poor health status Children who were cared for by parents and relatives during the year before kindergarten, as opposed to those who received center-based care Children who are chronically absent in kindergarten are more often chronically absent in later grades Some districts and schools have higher incidence of chronic absence than others

25. Chronic Absenteeism in Early Schooling (cont) Chronic early absence adversely affects academic performance throughout the elementary grades Latino children who were chronically absent in kindergarten performed low in first grade reading Poor children who were chronically absent in kindergarten had low academic achievement in fifth grade

26. Chronic Absenteeism in Early Schooling and Maternal and Family Risk Maternal and family risks - poverty, teenage and/or single parenting, low levels of maternal education, receipt of welfare, unemployment, poor maternal health, food insecurity, and large family size - are related to greater absenteeism: The cumulative exposure to risk best predicts chronic absenteeism in early schooling Kindergarteners in contact with three or more risks were more often chronic absentees than their peers not facing any risks But as children progress through the elementary grades, the impact of cumulative risk on school attendance lessens, only to rise again in the fifth grade The most vulnerable children – those who are poor or racial/ethnic minorities or suffer from poor health – have the greatest exposure to cumulative risk Implications for ECCS: examine the issue in your own state: convene a work group

27. Kellogg Pathways to 3rd Grade Success Test out the Pathways to Third Grade Success Framework to help communities achieve school readiness goals Develop tools to help communities engage in strategic fiscal and program analysis to maximize impact of local wisdom plus empirical knowledge base Pilot test in two or three sites: Develop multi-site learning collaborative in years two or three, engaging communities and states Implications for ECCS: Help with state to local technical assistance

28. Part C • Aim: Understand how to maximize integration of social and emotional with other Part C activities • Project Activities • 50 state survey of Part C Coordinators on screening and assessment of children in social emotional domain • Case studies in six sites implementing innovative approaches to integrating social and emotional with other Part C activities • Implications for ECCS: Invite you to tell us about innovative efforts and/or barriers.

29. Family Economic Security • Rationale for NCCP’s focus on Family Economic Security • Research is clear that poverty is one of the greatest threats – if not the single most important threat – to child health and development. • A major goal of our Family Economic Security work is to illuminate the connections between family economic status and children’s chances for success.

30. Family Economic Security • Current topics • Effects of poverty and economic hardship on child development and family well-being • Low-wage work and work supports • Measures of income adequacy (such as the poverty measure, basic needs budgets) • Economic mobility and intergenerational poverty • Universal supports for working families (e.g., child care, family leave, asset protection)

31. Family Economic Security • Current Projects: Making Work Supports Work • NCCP works with state partners to examine existing work support policies and to identify and promote policy reforms that make work pay for low-wage workers and their families. • Project uses NCCP’s Family Resource Simulator—online policy tool that shows the impact of federal and state work supports on the budgets of low- to moderate-income families. • The Basic Needs Budget Calculator is a related tool that shows how much a family needs to make ends meet.

32. Family Resource Simulator

33. Family Economic Security • Current Projects: 50-state profiles and report • State Family Economic Security profiles provide data on low-income families and highlight state policy choices to promote work attachment and advancement, income adequacy, and asset development. • Staying Afloat in Tough Times: What States Are and Are not Doing to Promote Family Economic Security

34. Health and Mental Health Agenda • Unclaimed Children: 50 state policy study • National study • California case study • Michigan case study • Reducing Adolescent Risk: 50 state health policy study (aim: changes public discourse to a population approach to policy making in adolescent health) • Pilot examination of factors impacting successful transitions for homeless youth through the Center for Homeless Prevention Studies Spring, 2008

35. Questions • What are critical issues not on our agenda that would be helpful to you? • In what other ways might we be helpful to you? • Would you like copies of any written materials? Please share your questions and comments !

36. For more information contact us at thrive@nccp.org Jane KnitzerDirector, National Center for Children in Poverty Janice CooperDirector, Child Health & Mental Health Leslie DavidsonSenior Health Advisor Louisa B. HigginsInterim Coordinator, Project THRIVE SIGN UP FOR OUR UPDATES www.nccp.org

37. Contacts Jane Knitzer knitzer@nccp.org Janice Cooper cooper@nccp.org Louisa Higgins higgins@nccp.org Leslie Davidson lld1@columbia.edu Research Connections, Patti Banghart banghart@nccp.org Chronic Absenteeism, Mariajose Romero romero@nccp.org Early Childhood Projects, Jessica Vick vick@nccp.org Family Economic Security, Sarah Fass fass@nccp.org