There is a large percentage of young children in the United States that have parents with earnings below the poverty level and this results in these children missing out on quality child. To combat this issue, Congress appropriated funds to expand access to Early Head-Start programs and created Early Head Start - Child Care Partnerships. The Ounce recently conducted a number of interviews with states regarding the Early Head Start - Child Care Partnerships program and shared a report on their findings.
Key findings that the Ounce found:
- Leveraged multiple funding sources and state systems in new ways to support local program success and expanded access to high-quality child care for thousands of families.
- Supported continuity of care without interruptions for infants and toddlers in working families with low incomes.
- Raised the bar for what quality infant and toddler child care could and should be.
- Created higher education pathways to build new skills and competencies for the infant and toddler workforce.
- Piloted reforms that were ultimately scaled statewide to improve care for many more infants and toddlers.
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