Overview

The first years in a child's life are critical to healthy brain development and future academic success. They provide a window of opportunity with enormous implications for the rest of a child's life. Research shows that comprehensive, high quality care and early learning experiences are linked to children's success in school and in life, and save money by preventing future expenses for remedial education, incarceration, and cash assistance. Governors are raising awareness and championing state efforts to meet the needs of young children from birth to school entry and beyond.

Focus of Center Activities

The NGA Center for Best Practices supports the work of governors and their policy advisors to promote school readiness and support those leading efforts to build a comprehensive system of services for children ages birth to five. As stated in Building the Foundation for Bright Futures: Final Report of the NGA Task Force on School Readiness, the nation's governors recognize the potential for closing the persistent achievement gap by addressing the developmental needs of young children within the context of their families, communities, and schools. The task force identified five core principles which guided the recommendations:

1. The family plays the most important role in a young child's life.
2. Responsibility for school readiness lies not with children, but with the adults who care for them and the systems that support them.
3. The first five years of life are a critical developmental period.
4. Child development occurs across equally important and interrelated domains.
5. Governors and states can pursue various options to promote school readiness.

The NGA Center is engaged in a portfolio of activities that are tightly aligned to the framework, principles and recommendations of the NGA task force report. Through a combination of efforts at the state and national level, the NGA Center seeks to support leadership among governors and state policy leaders to build Ready States that can provide a foundation for bright futures for our nation's youngest children.

These projects include:

• Governors' Early Childhood Summits
• Supporting Gubernatorial Leadership for Building Early Childhood Systems
• State Early Childhood Advisory Councils
• Partnership for Early Science and Policy

• Building the Foundation for Bright Futures
• A Governor's Guide to School Readiness
• Governors' Forum on Quality Preschool
• A Governors Guide to Children's Cabinets

Related NGA Activities:

• Child and Family Services
• Maternal and Child Health