Weekly Digest: July 24, 2008

National Symposium on Early Childhood Science & Policy

Connecticut was one of 13 states selected to send a team to the first National Symposium on Early Childhood Science and Policy.  The Symposium was designed to build leadership capacity in the states for developing and implementing science-based policies that enhance children’s learning, behavior, and health. State-based teams of legislators, gubernatorial policy advisors, and business and civic leaders joined with researchers and Harvard faculty members to learn about recent advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, medicine, and developmental psychology—which together form an integrated science of early childhood development—as well as evidence-based policy implications from four decades of rigorous program evaluation research.

Plenary sessions were organized to address:

-The Science of Child Development and the Future of Early Childhood Policy
-Lessons Learned from Public-Private Partnerships
-The Impact of Early Adversity on Brain Development
-What Research Tells us About Early Childhood Program Effectiveness
-Improving Quality in Early Childhood Programs
-Delivering High-Value Services to Vulnerable Children
-Learning from State Experience: Executive and Legislative Perspectives 

Presentations and webcasts from each of these sessions are now online at the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child website at http://www.developingchild.harvard.edu/content/national_symposium.html

Resource for Families: CTParenting.com

The Connecticut Department of Children and Families has established an
informational website for families at CTParenting.com.  The site provides one-stop access to comprehensive and reliable information on a range of issues that affect the lives of children and families.

CTParenting.com offers information relevant for families with children of all ages and developmental stages, including information on health, safety, child development, education, family fun, and meeting families' basic needs (e.g., housing, food, utilities, etc.). The site also offers special sections tailored to fathers, single and divorced parents, prospective parents, and grandparents caring for grandchildren. Teenagers and younger children also have special sections filled with useful age-appropriate information, games and fun activities.

Report on the Economic Costs of Early Childhood Poverty

Economic Costs of Early Childhood Poverty, a report from the Partnership for America's Economic Success, studies the long-term benefits of adopting anti-poverty policies focused on poor children, prenatal through age 5.  The study concludes that eliminating poverty in early childhood has various positive economic impacts for the child, the family, and society and that the costs of doing so are outweighed by the benefits to the children and to taxpayers. 

To read the report, visit the Pew Charitable Trusts website at http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=35882