Good Food, Great Kids: Making Practice and Policy Work for Farm to Early Childcare & Education

This report explores opportunities for learning from and leveraging policy development and implementation to continue to create a base of knowledge that can help practitioners from across sectors build bridges to support better health and educational opportunities for vulnerable children and their families. The policy overview, developed in partnership with the National Farm to School Network and the BUILD Initiative, is intended both to share a broad spectrum of existing information about various experiences in building farm to ECEsupportive policies and begin to point out how forging greater connections between current policies and the work of farm to ECE can benefit early childcare centers, children, and families

Early Childhood Systems Building from a Community Perspective

Even when children and their families have access to support services from a variety of programs and organizations -- such as early learning centers, nutrition programs, and pediatric, nursing, dental and mental health care providers -- there are challenges in connecting families to these services. The result is that families often have a difficult time learning about, applying for and taking advantage of the services that could benefit their children. This Issue Brief, prepared for The Colorado Trust by Julia Coffman of the Center for Evaluation Innovation and Susan Parker of Clear Thinking Communications, explains systems building as an intentional, organized way to create or improve a system of early care and education services for children

Improving the Lives of Young Children: Increasing Referrals and Follow-Up Treatment in Medicaid and CHIP

Outlines factors limiting referrals and treatment for children in public insurance programs, including low reimbursement rates and complex billing rules and fragmentation between primary care and treatment providers. Recommends state policy options

A Handbook of Data Collection Tools: Companion to "A Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy"

This handbook of data collection tools is intended to serve as a companion to A Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy. Organizational Research Services (ORS) developed this guide on behalf of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to support efforts to develop and implement an evaluation of advocacy and policy work. The companion handbook is dedicated to providing examples of practical tools and processes for collecting useful information from policy and advocacy efforts. Included within this handbook are a legislative process tracking log, a meeting observation checklist, a policy brief stakeholder survey, a policy tracking analysis tool, and a policy tracking form.This best practice provides an approach to measure advocacy and policy change efforts, starting with a theory of change, identifying outcome categories, and selecting practical approaches to measurement

Improving the Lives of Young Children: Opportunities for Care Coordination and Case Management for Children Receiving Services for Developmental Delay

Summarizes new opportunities for states to develop a coordinated system of care for children receiving early childhood intervention and services and how providers can support effective care coordination and case management policies

Improving the Lives of Young Children: The Role of Developmental Screenings in Medicaid and CHIP

Outlines barriers to early identification of health, developmental, or behavioral problems. Recommends policies to increase Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program enrollment, Well-Child Visits and screenings, and use of data to improve policies

Improving the Lives of Young Children: Meeting Parents' Health and Mental Health Needs Through Medicaid and CHIP So Children Can Thrive

Outlines options for two-generational service delivery to help address parental health issues, especially depression, and minimize developmental or behavioral problems in their children when the parents are ineligible for or not enrolled in Medicaid

Heinz Endowments 2009 Annual Report

Contains president's message, foundation history, 2009 grants list, financial summary, and list of board members and staff

The Arizona Kith and Kin Project Evaluation, Brief #4

Despite the prevalence of family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) child care (NSECE, 2015), relatively little is known about the characteristics of this type of care, quality of care, and the features of effective quality improvement initiatives for FFN care providers. In general, the early childhood field has remained relatively silent about FFN child care in policy and research discourses surrounding child well-being and quality initiatives (Shivers, 2012; Whitebook et al., 2004). The overall goal of the analyses described in this brief, Brief #4 in a series of four, was to explore and analyze FFN providers’ awareness and use of community resources. This sample was obtained by collecting data from providers involved in a 14-week training-support group intervention known as the Arizona Kith and Kin Project. The providers in the Arizona Kith and Kin Project represent a critical population of providers who are serving young children in Arizona

Quality Rating and Improvement Systems: Considerations for Children from Immigrant Families

As the percentage of immigrants in the U.S. has steadily increased over the last forty years, it is not surprising to find that many children in the U.S. are now born to at least one foreign-born parent or are immigrants themselves. As the U.S. becomes more minority majority, cultural and linguistic diversity will become a key issue when developing goals, policies, and practices to meet the needs of children and families.However, questions remain about whether Quality Rating and Improvement Systems and other quality initiatives are considering the needs of immigrant families and children. This issue of Making the Link discusses some of these concerns and recommendations that can improve systems for immigrant children