NGA Center for Best Practices

In most states, early childhood coordinating entities have been created to advise governors, legislators, and/or agency administrators on how to best meet the needs of young children and their families. While these entities vary in size, scope, and authority, they all have a similar mission to improve the quality, availability, and coordination of programs and services for young children and their families. They exist as Early Learning Councils, Task Forces, Children’s Cabinets, and Interagency Cabinets, and they are collectively referred to as early childhood advisory councils (ECACs) by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center).

The NGA Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) is providing support and technical assistance to governors' policy advisors and the directors of state early childhood advisory councils, which may exist as Early Learning Councils, Task Forces, Children's Cabinets, Interagency Cabinets, etc. For brevity, these coordinating entities are referred to as Early Childhood Advisory Councils (ECACs). The intent is to not only support state efforts to implement requirements of the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007, but to engage gubernatorial leadership to maximize the councils' potential to drive effective policy decisions for children ages birth to five in states. Activities include:

Research
During the fall 2007, the NGA Center surveyed states regarding the presence and nature of state early childhood coordinating councils. These collaborative bodies bring coherence and consistency to state investments in early care and learning, and promote linkages to family support, health, mental health, and other developmental services.
For the purposes of our survey, a relevant coordinating entity is one that:

enhances the coordination of early care and education services, and may promote linkages to health, family support, or related services that support children's development;
promotes the professional development of early childhood service providers and administrators;
recommends quality improvements or develops quality rating systems for early learning and care programs;
assesses the availability and quality of existing programs and services; or
pursues any other early childhood coordination responsibilities as assigned by the Governor.

The survey asked directors of these coordinating bodies to answer questions that would help us create a baseline picture of what currently exists, enable cross-state comparisons, and indicate particular areas in which the NGA Center‘s technical assistance can be of value to states. Survey responses will inform forthcoming fact sheets, a substantive issue brief, conference calls and a national meeting for governors' advisors and early childhood council directors, to be held in 2008.

Learning Community for ECAC Leadership and Governors' Advisors
The NGA Center is fostering cross-state collaboration and learning among ECAC leadership and governors' policy advisors through conference calls/webinars on topics of interest and relevance to state early learning councils, and providing resources through a private listserv.

Policy and Leadership Retreat
In June 2008, the NGA Center convened ECAC leadership with their governors' education, health and/or human services policy advisors for a 2-day policy and leadership retreat. Participants discussed common issues and shared best practices with peer leaders; learned about cutting-edge developments in early childhood research and policy; and identified technical assistance needs to inform future work by the NGA Center and the Birth to Five Policy Alliance. To access the retreat agenda and presentations, see "Related Documents" below.

ECAC Grants to States
The NGA Center for Best Practices awarded 12 states $10,000 grants to support early childhood advisory councils (ECACs) in Alabama, Connecticut, Colorado, Guam, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The purpose of these grants is to support states in executing critical tasks associated with the formation or implementation of a new or existing ECAC. The intent of these collaborative bodies is to advance a state policy agenda for at-risk children ages birth to five and promote linkages to early care and education, family support, health, mental health, and other developmental services. The grants also will assist states in meeting the provisions of the Improving the Head Start Act of 2007, which requires governors to create or designate a collaborative body to coordinate resources and build greater coherence among federal and state early childhood programs and services.

This grant is a part of the NGA Center's activities with the Birth to Five Policy Alliance and is supported by the Buffett Early Childhood Fund.

To read more about each state's activities, click on the links below:

Related Documents:

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