Decisions being made on Capitol Hill and in state capitals may seem remote from the experiences of early childhood professionals, but policymakers have a big impact on babies and families. Early childhood professionals and parents bring key expertise and passion to policy advocacy and have a powerful role to play. This article identifies the…

Temporary child care programs, such as crisis nurseries or respite care services for children with special needs, need to develop and implement a risk management program to address any difficulties that might be encountered in providing direct care services. Risk management is a structured process to minimize potential liability, avoid harm to…

This commentary identifies contributing influences and current issues that may be common across countries and defines potential elements of a universal manifesto on early intervention, including: recognition of individual differences, personalized interventions, involvement of families, support of families, comprehensive assessment, and provision…

This guide is intended to help those providing services to infants and young children with special needs to work more effectively and collegially with family members at the program and policy level. The guide stresses the benefits and barriers to family participation in advisory activities and offers guidelines for promoting family participation.…

With over half the nation's infants and toddlers in regular, non-parental child care, the quality of that care is a priority concern for policymakers. Many studies show that high-quality child care supports the positive social, emotional, and cognitive development of young children. The research summarized in this policy brief identifies factors…

This paper reports on a symposium of experts in child and family development and health care which met to discuss integrated systems of services. The symposium was part of the Carolina Policy Studies Program which is addressing policy implementation of Part H of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The paper notes IDEA's…

This final report describes the activities and outcomes of a federally funded project designed to develop, implement, and evaluate a systemically oriented process model for improving the coordination of education and human services for young children with identified disabilities and their families at the local level. The project developed and used…