Child Care and Early Education at CLASP

New tool provides guidance on implementing culturally competent early childhood practices

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has created the Quality Benchmark for Cultural Competence tool for early childhood programs. The tool is the final product of NAEYC's Quality Benchmark for Cultural Competence Project (QBCCP), which was created to determine key elements of cultural competence for early childhood programs and ways to meaningfully integrate these concepts within quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). CLASP is grateful to have been a collaborator on this important project. As the young child population continues to grow in diversity,  issues of cultural competence must be included in all early childhood policies, standards and practices, including those criteria that form QRIS.

The QBCCP identified seven concepts that define cultural competence for early childhood: 

1. Acknowledge that children are nested in families and communities with unique strengths. Recognize and mitigate the tension between the early childhood profession’s perceptions of the child as the center of the work versus the family as the center of the work.
2. Build on and identify the strengths and shared goals between the profession and families and recognize commonalities in order to meet these goals.
3. Understand and authentically incorporate the traditions and history of the program participants and their impacts on childrearing practices.
4. Actively support each child’s development within the family as complex and culturally-driven ongoing experiences.
5. Recognize and demonstrate awareness that individuals’ and institutions’ practices are embedded in culture.
6. Ensure that decisions and policies regarding all aspects of a program embrace and respect participants’ language, values, attitudes, beliefs and approaches to learning. 
7. Ensure that policies and practices build upon the home languages and dialects of the children, families and staff in programs and support the preservation of home languages. 

The tool includes criteria related to the above concepts, ideas for implementing culturally competent approaches in early childhood programs, and ideas for evaluating or measuring levels of cultural competence.

Economic need in immigrant families

A new research brief from Child Trends and the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis shows child poverty rates disproportionally higher among immigrant families. It is widely agreed that the official U.S. poverty measure is too low and an inaccurate reflection of economic hardship. The Economic Policy Institute has created estimates of the family budget needed across the country to  pay for housing, food, health care, and other basic expenses. Building on this basic budget poverty measure, researchers calculated poverty rates among children in immigrant families and children in U.S.-born citizen families across the states.

Using a budget poverty measure that includes the costs of child care and early education, they find that children in immigrant families have a national estimated budget poverty rate of 47 percent, compared to their official poverty rate of 21 percent. Children of U.S.-born citizens have a national estimated budget poverty rate of 28 percent, compared to their official poverty rate of 13 percent.

While poverty rates vary from state to state, children in immigrant families experience higher rates of poverty in all but nine states, with gaps in rates for immigrant and native families as large as 27 percent in Arizona and Minnesota and 25 percent in Texas.

A range of supports targeted to immigrant families, including access to child care and early education, could help alleviate this disparity in children experiencing poverty. This new data should encourage policymakers to think about using new Economic Recovery Act funds to further support for immigrant families in their states.

Reinvesting in Child Care: Access for Immigrant Families

Ten Policies to Improve Access to Quality Child Care for Children in Immigrant Families is the latest paper in CLASP's "Reinvesting in Child Care" series. It provides policy options states can implement to simultaneously improve their economies and access to quality child care and child care assistance for immigrant families. Children with foreign-born parents are the largest growing segment of the child population; yet, these children are less likely to access child care and early education settings.  

CLASP's Reinvesting in Child Care website page is dedicated to economic recovery and includes general information on the Economic Recovery Act, including implementation guidance and fact sheets for policymakers and advocates. We will be updating this page with additional resources as they become available.

Expanding early education services in Montgomery County Public Schools

Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland recently announced its plan for using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. The plan includes major expansions in special education services and greater support to schools serving disadvantaged students, otherwise known as Title I schools. The county will receive $21.4 million from the ARRA, of which $15.3 million will be targeted for special education services and $6.1 million for Title I schools. In an overwhelming show of support for the new investments, the funding plans were unanimously passed by the Montgomery County Board of Education as part of its FY 2010 operating budget. With the Title I funding, the county intends to increase the number of full-day Head Start classrooms from 13 (in 10 schools) to 21 (in 18 schools). In addition, the county plans to preserve small class sizes, increase math and reading support, and improve services for English Language Learners.

Title I funds may be used for a range of services that support quality early education. Many districts layer Title I funds with other federal, state and local funding, as Montgomery County uses Title I to extend the day for children in Head Start. The district based their decision in part on results of a recently released study, Impact of Full-Time Prekindergarten Program on Student Academic Performance. The district began using Title I to expand their part-day Head Start programs into full-day programs in ten elementary schools in 2007. The study found that children who were enrolled in full-time Head Start programs made significant gains in skills, such as reading, compared to children in half-day Head Start and prekindergarten programs. Gains were especially large for female and Hispanic students, as well as children who received English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services in the full-day Head Start classes.

Montgomery County’s experience demonstrates the importance of providing full-day services to benefit both young children and their working families. Title I funding included in the recovery act can provide the resources for more school districts to follow Montgomery County’s example.

Two new research briefs: Babies in Child Care project

CLASP has published two new research briefs as part of its ongoing Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care project.

• Comprehensive Services presents research on factors that put babies and toddlers at risk for unhealthy development and the benefits of comprehensive health, mental health, and family support services. It supports the project recommendation to: Link necessary services for vulnerable babies and toddlers to child care settings.

• Providing Information on Infant/Toddler Child Care presents research on parents’ access to information on quality child care and subsidies, as well as barriers faced by low-income, immigrant, and limited English proficient (LEP) families. It supports the project recommendation to: Provide culturally and linguistically appropriate information on choosing infant and toddler child care.

Both briefs also examine how state policies can improve care for babies, offer specific policy ideas, and link to online resources for state policymakers. Similar resources are available on several other infant/toddler child care topics through the project page.

Food Insecurity Among Young Children in Immigrant Families

Young children in immigrant families are a growing and diverse population in the U.S. One in four children under age three live in an immigrant family with at least one foreign-born parent. It is, therefore, significant to find that infants and toddlers with immigrant parents experience higher levels of food insecurity compared to their counterparts with native-born parents. This means, these babies live in households with limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. Infants with immigrant parents who have recently arrived in the United States or are limited English proficient (LEP) are most likely to face food insecurity. A new Child Trends brief finds the following:

• Nearly two in ten infants with immigrant parents (19 percent) lived in a food insecure household in 2001-02 compared to slightly over one in ten infants with native-born parents (11 percent).
• Infants with recently-arrived immigrant parents (those who have lived in the U.S. for less than 12 years) are more likely to face food insecurity compared to those with immigrant parents who have lived in the U.S. for a longer period (21 percent compared to 15 percent).
• Infants with LEP immigrant parents are more likely to face food insecurity compared to those with parents who are proficient in English (21 percent compared to 10 percent).

The vast majority of infants and toddlers with immigrant parents are U.S.-born citizens and eligible for federal assistance including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamps). However, issues of fear permeate immigrant communities and prevent even legal noncitizens from accessing benefits for their citizen children.  Given the large and growing number of infants and toddlers with immigrant parents, states should work to ensure that families understand immigrant eligibility for federal benefits and work with trusted messengers, including community-based organizations, to connect families to nutrition assistance programs. Early care and education settings offering comprehensive health services, including Early Head Start, may also link vulnerable babies to needed assistance. Good health during the earliest years of life is essential for the development of healthy foundations for children’s health, behavior, and learning.

SCHIP legislation signed by President Obama

Legislation reauthorizing and expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was signed into law by President Obama this week. The new funding will extend coverage to an estimated additional 4.1 million uninsured children. All children need access to health care to promote their healthy development. A child who is not receiving routine check-ups may miss having a developmental delay diagnosed early, when treatment can be most effective. If a child has an untreated ear infection, he may not be able to hear properly to respond appropriately to his parent or teacher. Children especially need access to health care during the critical growth period of their early childhood years. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, 36 percent of children under age six are covered by a government health insurance and an additional 11 percent have no health insurance.

The new law also eliminates a previous 5-year waiting period before legal immigrant children could enroll. This change is important to ensure all children have access to the health services they need and to reduce fear among all immigrant families, regardless of status, in seeking necessary care for their children. Fear of accessing federal programs is a significant barrier to immigrant families accessing services for their children, including citizen children.  Among young children of immigrants under age six, 93 percent are United States citizens and an additional 4 percent are legal immigrants.

New pre-kindergarten class will benefit refugee children

"I didn't know about Pre-K registration and when I tried to get in there were no more openings at the school."

That is what a mom from Kurdistan told Refugee Family Services (RFS) in Stone Mountain, Georgia during a parent interview conducted for their "Refugee Parent Voices" project. The project was funded by CLASP as part of our "Breaking Down Barriers" work.

While Georgia's pre-kindergarten program is universally available to all 4-year-olds, waiting lists persist and in many cases recently arrived immigrants and refugees, lacking knowledge about how to navigate the enrollment process or arriving late in the registration period, are effectively shut out of programs. Every year, RFS assists and registers refugee children in Georgia Pre-K—but they are able to serve only a fraction of the families that need support.

In their interviews, RFS found that refugee families had different needs from other immigrant families, and that few programs had the information and resources to meet these needs.  To fill this need, RFS applied to the state to become a provider of the pre-kindergarten program, and this August, Refugee Family Services will inaugurate the first pre-kindergarten program in Georgia intended for use principally by refugee children. This program will allow these children access to a high-quality pre-kindergarten program that is prepared to competently meet their cultural and linguistic needs and is situated in an organization that is experienced in meeting the family support needs of diverse refugee communities. 

The pre-kindergarten class will be filled by children from Somalia, Sudan, Honduras, Congo, Burundi, Iraq, Burma, and Vietnam. Most of the children were born in refugee camps.  For the first time, they will have the opportunity to participate in a pre-kindergarten program that is designed with them and their families in mind.   

Immigrant families and early education in New York City

CLASP is excited to announce the release of Breaking Down Barriers: Immigrant Families and Early Childhood Education in New York City, a report by the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF). CLASP provided funding for the research of this report through a small grant as part of own "Breaking Down Barriers" project. With this funding, CACF conducted interviews with early education providers working in immigrant communities and facilitated focus groups and surveys with immigrant families about access to early care and education in NYC.

CACF's report relates the unique experiences of Bangladeshi, Chinese, Dominican, Haitian, Korean, and Russian parents in accessing early care and education. Parents in the study expressed their preferences for child care arrangements for their young children, but often the care they were seeking was inaccessible or unavailable. The report finds that immigrant families face multiple barriers preventing access to programs in New York City, including universal pre-kindergarten, Head Start, and child care subsidies. Barriers include insufficient translation of materials, inadequate outreach targeted to immigrant communities, lack of affordable child care, and an ineffective response on the part of the city government to respond to the needs of immigrant families. For example, the city’s Child Care Resource and Referral Hotline only offers services in English, Spanish and Chinese—leaving out other language groups.

CACF makes the following recommendations to improve NYC’s early care and education services for immigrant families, quoted from the report:

• Language and Culture. Improve language assistance services and increase cultural competency of child care program  staff.
• Outreach. Increase language accessible communication with immigrant communities throughout New York City, making them aware of available child care programs and services.
• Professional Development. Ensure that child care providers are knowledgeable of  and can address the unique needs and challenges facing immigrant communities, families, and children in accessing child care services.
• Funding. Increase funding to city agencies and child care networks so that there are enough early childhood education programs and staff to address NYC’s growing immigrant populations.
• Data collection. Conduct an early childhood education needs assessment of NYC's immigrant communities and use data to improve programs, increase outreach, and implement appropriate language assistance services.

Breaking Down Barriers' release was covered by the NYC Gotham Gazette, the Polish Daily News, and the Center for NYC Affairs at The New School as well as by Chinese, Korean, and South Asian language media.

New language access resource for states

All agencies that receive federal funds are required to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964  to take reasonable steps to provide limited English proficient (LEP) individuals with meaningful access to their programs, activities, and services. This includes most agencies that administer child care and early education programs, including school districts, state government agencies, and Head Start programs. Yet, inadequate language access remains a significant barrier to accessing programs for many families with young children.

Ensuring language access may include the use of competent interpreters, hiring of bilingual staff, translation of materials, and the use of telephone language line services. Agencies may conduct assessments to review their language access policies and to create plans for improving service delivery to LEP individuals.

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) has created a language access portal, which is a digital library of hundreds of resources for state and local social service agencies. The portal includes federal and state laws and guidelines, service models, and related research on language access and LEP populations. It also includes information on policies such as bilingual pay differentials, contracting for translation services, and best practices for interpreters. Finally, the portal includes a searchable database of state and local documents that can be used to find examples of translated materials and applications, policy guidance, and other resources. The database is searchable by state, service area, and languages.