Project Thrive and the Resources of NCCP

A Webinar for the ECCS Community

Jane Knitzer, EdDDirector, NCCP

New York, NY | October 29, 2008

www.nccp.org

Who We Are

NCCP is a non-partisan, public interest research organization at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

NCCP uses research to promote the economic security, health, and well-being of America’s

low-income children and families. Our ultimate goal: Improved outcomes for the next generation.

www.nccp.org

NCCP’s Core Foci

Family Economic Security Promoting Opportunity and Mobility

Early Childhood Promoting Healthy Development and School Success

Health and Mental Health Promoting Family Stability and Emotional Wellbeing

www.nccp.org

The Larger Context: Low-Income Status Varies by Age

Percent (%)

0

10

20

30

40

50

PoorLow-income

12–176–1153–4Under 3

43%5.4 million

43%3.5 million

42%1.7 million 39%

9.3 million 35%8.9 million

21%2.7 million

21%1.7 million

20%0.8 million 17%

4.1 million16%

3.9 million

Children living in low-income and poor families, by age group, 2007

Source: Douglas-Hall, Ayana; Chau, Michelle. 2008. Basic Facts About Low-income Children: Birth to Age 18. New York, NY: National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health.

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Variation by State: Children Under SixLow-income rates for young children across the states, 2007

DC

30 to 39% [15]Under 30% [5]

50% or more [6]40 to 49% [25]

Source: Data prepared by the National Center for Children in Poverty, based on U.S. Current Population Survey, March Annual Social and Economic Supplement, 2006-2008.

www.nccp.org

About Project Thrive

Project Thrive is a public policy analysis and education initiative to promote healthy child development.

Supported through a cooperative agreement with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, HRSA-DHHS.

In its 4th year Aim: Help states strengthen their cross-sector early childhood systems through policy analysis and information sharing

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Thrive’s Logic Model Linking Policies to Improve Results

Improved Policy and Finance Context

Improved Child / Family Services Across Systems

Improved Outcomes

Better use of existing resources across programs and funding streams

Improved coordination of eligibility and outreach processes

Better mechanisms to integrate service systems

Cross-system approaches to serve and support families

Better implementation of critical components

More children with medical homes linked to system of care

Earlier identification

of special needs Cross-system training and professional development

Better family support Services in settings families rely on and trust

More access to coordinated services for those with greater risks and needs

Improved child health and development

Reduced family stress Improved parenting Improved work attendance for parents

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What We Do

Synthesize and generate new knowledge about policies and practice.

Actively promote peer-to-peer transfer of knowledge

Develop tools that support systems development Disseminate materials to core stakeholders and

others Develop tools for ECCS Respond selectively to specific requests (e.g.

Tennessee MH fact Sheet)

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Thrive Resources

Virtual Policy Sharing Network (VPSN) Webinars and conference calls

Short Takes Targets core ECCS stakeholders to provide a “big

picture” on critical system-related issues Issue Briefs

Major topical issue briefs that reach the broader policy community (researchers, advocates, professional organizations) often linked to Emerging Issues Roundtables

Informal Consultation to States

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Thrive Page on NCCP.org

www.nccp.org

Thrive Collaborations

LAUNCH (Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health), a SAMHSA Project Will support infrastructure development and policy

reform at state/territorial/tribal level and enhanced programs and services at the local level

NCCP will develop Financing and Indicators resources relevant to state and local level stakeholders, hope to work with ECCS in project states

Build/NCCP Initiative Promoting health and mental health in the context of

early childhood: invitations to selected state teams

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Areas of Focus in our Work To Date

Strengthening Cross-system Infrastructure

Promoting Strategic Fiscal Analysis Building Accountability Through Indicators

Focusing on the Highest Risk Young Children and Families ( Home Visiting; Maternal Depression)

Strengthening the ECE State Policy Framework (Learning Collaboratives)

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Thrive Work of the Future

A series of four webinars and four conference calls • The webinars will include continued attention to indicators, to the more vulnerable children and to opportunities linked to the larger federal context

• The conference calls will address links between ECCS and Early Childhood Advisory Councils (ECAC) as well as some areas that NCCP has not focused on but that are part of ECCS (e.g. Advanced Medical Homes and Oral Health)

Issue briefs related to fiscal strategies and Indicators

On-going efforts to help states address the policy implications of the new ECCS guidance.

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Other (Selected) NCCP Projects and Resources

Early Childhood Improving the Odds Research Connections Chronic Absenteeism Kellogg Part C

Family Economic Security Health and Mental Health

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Improving the Odds Is intended to

Sharpen the debate on effective state policies to promote early childhood development

Focus on young children (< age 6) and their families Is based on

existing 50 state data bases, and is not definitive list of what states should be or are doing

Provides State, regional, and national early childhood profiles 50-state data tables for comparisons across the states A baseline to monitor state and national trends

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ITO’s Integrated Policy Approach

T H R I V I N G C H I L D R E N

3. Economically secure and nurturing families

1. Good health and mental health

2. High-quality early care and learning

Clipart courtesy of FCIT

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Underlying Principles of ITO

Focus on vulnerable families. Families earning less that 200 percent of the poverty level may struggle to meet the basic needs of their children.

State policy choices matter. How a state chooses to allocate federal and state funds, promote quality, and establish eligibility criteria influences who has access to essential supports and who does not.

Research should inform state policies. Research on the effects of poverty, the biology of the developing brain, the cumulative effects of risk, and the effectiveness of evidence-based interventions can inform policy choices. (See NCCP’s User Guide to ITO)

Balance the three-legged stool. Strong policies in one area can be undermined by weak policies in another. Seek balance across child health, early learning, and family support.

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Implications for ECCS

Compare your state early childhood profile to the regional and national profile. Where are your policy strengths and weaknesses?

Customize your state early childhood profile by identifying other policy choices your state is or could make.

Make the research case for a more comprehensive early childhood policy agenda in your state.

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Research Connections is a quick and comprehensive, online one-stop for research on child care and early education.

www.nccp.org

Searchable collection of over 13,000 early care and education resources (journal articles, reports, policy

briefs, etc.)

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Produce different types of research synthesis on critical issues in the field.

Offer policy briefs (Research-to-Policy Connections) and literature reviews (Reviews of Research).

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Also produce - Key Topic Resource Lists - which provide a quick summary of the research and an interactive bibliography.

Have one on each of the 5 ECCS components.

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Chronic Absenteeism in Early Schooling

A study based on national, longitudinal data on children entering kindergarten in 1998 – the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K, NCES)

An estimated one in ten kindergarten and first grade students are chronically absent nationally Who is most often chronically absent?

• Poor and low income children • Children with poor health status• Children who were cared for by parents and relatives during the year

before kindergarten, as opposed to those who received center-based care• Children who are chronically absent in kindergarten are more often

chronically absent in later grades• Some districts and schools have higher incidence of chronic absence than

others

www.nccp.org

Chronic Absenteeism in Early Schooling (cont)

Chronic early absence adversely affects academic performance throughout the elementary grades Latino children who were chronically absent in kindergarten performed low in first grade reading

Poor children who were chronically absent in kindergarten had low academic achievement in fifth grade

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Chronic Absenteeism in Early Schooling and Maternal and Family Risk Maternal and family risks - poverty, teenage and/or single

parenting, low levels of maternal education, receipt of welfare, unemployment, poor maternal health, food insecurity, and large family size - are related to greater absenteeism: The cumulative exposure to risk best predicts chronic absenteeism in early

schooling Kindergarteners in contact with three or more risks were more often chronic

absentees than their peers not facing any risks But as children progress through the elementary grades, the impact of

cumulative risk on school attendance lessens, only to rise again in the fifth grade

The most vulnerable children – those who are poor or racial/ethnic minorities or suffer from poor health – have the greatest exposure to cumulative risk

Implications for ECCS: examine the issue in your own state: convene a work group

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Kellogg Pathways to 3rd Grade Success

Test out the Pathways to Third Grade Success Framework to help communities achieve school readiness goals

Develop tools to help communities engage in strategic fiscal and program analysis to maximize impact of local wisdom plus empirical knowledge base

Pilot test in two or three sites: Develop multi-site learning collaborative in years

two or three, engaging communities and states Implications for ECCS: Help with state to local

technical assistance

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Part C

Aim: Understand how to maximize integration of social and emotional with other Part C activities

Project Activities 50 state survey of Part C Coordinators on screening and assessment of children in social emotional domain

Case studies in six sites implementing innovative approaches to integrating social and emotional with other Part C activities

Implications for ECCS: Invite you to tell us about innovative efforts and/or barriers.

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Family Economic Security

Rationale for NCCP’s focus on Family Economic Security Research is clear that poverty is one of the greatest threats – if not the single most important threat – to child health and development.

A major goal of our Family Economic Security work is to illuminate the connections between family economic status and children’s chances for success.

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Family Economic Security

Current topics Effects of poverty and economic hardship on child development and family well-being

Low-wage work and work supports Measures of income adequacy (such as the poverty measure, basic needs budgets)

Economic mobility and intergenerational poverty Universal supports for working families (e.g., child care, family leave, asset protection)

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Family Economic Security

Current Projects: Making Work Supports Work NCCP works with state partners to examine existing work support policies and to identify and promote policy reforms that make work pay for low-wage workers and their families.

Project uses NCCP’s Family Resource Simulator—online policy tool that shows the impact of federal and state work supports on the budgets of low- to moderate-income families.

The Basic Needs Budget Calculator is a related tool that shows how much a family needs to make ends meet.

www.nccp.org

Family Resource Simulator

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Family Economic Security

Current Projects: 50-state profiles and report State Family Economic Security profiles provide data on low-income families and highlight state policy choices to promote work attachment and advancement, income adequacy, and asset development.

Staying Afloat in Tough Times: What States Are and Are not Doing to Promote Family Economic Security

www.nccp.org

Health and Mental Health Agenda Unclaimed Children: 50 state policy study

National study California case study Michigan case study

Reducing Adolescent Risk: 50 state health policy study (aim: changes public discourse to a population approach to policy making in adolescent health)

Pilot examination of factors impacting successful transitions for homeless youth through the Center for Homeless Prevention Studies Spring, 2008

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Questions

What are critical issues not on our agenda that would be helpful to you?

In what other ways might we be helpful to you?

Would you like copies of any written materials?

Please share your questions and comments !

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For more information contact us at thrive@nccp.org

Jane KnitzerDirector, National Center for Children in Poverty

Janice CooperDirector, Child Health & Mental Health

Leslie DavidsonSenior Health Advisor

Louisa B. HigginsInterim Coordinator, Project THRIVE

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Research Connections, Patti Banghartbanghart@nccp.org

Chronic Absenteeism, Mariajose Romeroromero@nccp.org

Early Childhood Projects, Jessica Vickvick@nccp.org

Family Economic Security, Sarah Fassfass@nccp.org

Contacts

Jane Knitzerknitzer@nccp.org

Janice Coopercooper@nccp.org

Louisa Higginshiggins@nccp.org

Leslie Davidsonlld1@columbia.edu