2015 Policy Priority
INVEST IN YOUNG CHILDREN
THROUGH EARLY CHILDHOOD IOWA
SPECIFIC NEEDED
ACTIONS
Restore funding to Early
Childhood Iowa (ECI) to
2008 levels, starting with a
$5 million increase to ECI’s
funding to communities in
2015-16.
Charge both state and local
ECI boards with increasing
their focus on strengthening families to prevent or
mitigate the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences
(ACEs) on healthy development, help families become
more resilient and leverage
community responses that
foster voluntary support
networks for families.
I
owa has made important strides to improve the healthy development of its
youngest residents. They include providing more comprehensive and preventive health services through both Medicaid and hawk-i and developing early
responses to children’s developmental issues and needs through 1st Five. Because
of Early Childhood Iowa (ECI), Iowa also is a leader among states in fostering
community efforts—and public-private partnerships—to strengthen and support
families in nurturing their children’s development.
This, in turn, requires much greater policy attention to families with young children who themselves are stressed and struggling and not able to provide the circle
of security young children need in the critical foundation years—birth to 5, and
particularly birth to 3.
In fact, the science of early-childhood development (adverse childhood experiences, neurobiology, epigenetics and resiliency) points to the
critical need to address social as well as biomedical determinants of health and prevent the toxic
stress that can derail healthy development (see
figure on next page).
ECI, an alliance of stakeholders across early
care, health and education, develops structures
and connections that make all components of
an early-childhood system operate in concert.
ECI strives to ensure that Iowa’s early-childhood
system reaches children, as early as possible,
with needed support; ensures stability and coordination of evidence-based services; engages
parents as decision makers and leaders; catalyzes and maximizes investment and fosters
innovation; and provides flexible funding that
allows local boards to fill gaps and identify local needs through planning and collaboration.
ECI was enacted as a
bipartisan effort recognizing
the importance of the
earliest years and need for
community innovation.
ECI history
January 2015
ECI (then called Community Empowerment) was established in 1998, during Gov.
2009 have not been restored. Local ECI boards
have had to reduce investments, particularly in
community-based supports in the earliest years,
when potential long-term benefits can be greatest.
New opportunities for ECI
Supporting isolated, stressed and unprepared
parents in their roles as their child’s first teacher,
nurse and guide to the world is a critical component of equipping children for success. ECI
already works to reduce stress among families by
easing access to preschool, child care and other
family supports. It has the potential to do even
more.
Adverse childhood experiences are broadly
defined as incidents during childhood that harm
social, cognitive and emotional functioning. Frequent or prolonged exposure to such events creates toxic stress that damages the architecture of
the developing brain. ACEs are strongly connected to negative health and behavioral outcomes
later in life.
Terry Branstad’s fourth term, as part of the educational
blueprint developed under the leadership of business leader
and education activist Marvin Pomerantz. It was a bipartisan initiative that recognized the importance of the earliest
years and the need, ultimately, for community innovation.
ECI has not only provided state funding to many community programs that focus holistically on child development,
it also has created broader community understanding of
the earliest years and leveraged new community support
directed to young children and their families.
However, funding to ECI at the state level has declined
by over $4 million—and more when inflation is considered—over the last five years. Funding cuts from Gov. Chet
Culver’s 10 percent across-the-board budget reduction in
One way to reduce the occurence of ACEs is by
helping families build resilience. The Strengthening Families Framework, coordinated by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, highlights five
protective factors that promote healthy outcomes:
parental resilience, social connections, concrete
support in times of need, knowledge of parenting
and child development and social and emotional competence of children.
ECI is well positioned to help families acquire protective
factors. Such efforts require additional public and private
(professional and voluntary) contoured responses embedded within the neighborhoods where young children
live and grow. They may be Play+Learn at a community
center, a support group
Funding for ECI has
for grandparents raising
declined by over $4
grandchildren at the local
million—and more when
library, or a family night
inflation is considered—
in a church basement in
over the last five years.
a neighborhood where
family-friendly gathering spots are hard to find. They cannot be supported through one-size-fits-all categorical state
or federal response.
famous Frederick Douglass
quote says, “It is better to
build strong children than
repair broken men.”
Early childhood sets the stage
Underlying both President
Obama’s “My Brother’s
Keeper” initiative and the focus of U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s and
former Education Secretary Bill Bennett on poverty reduction through greater parental responsibility (particularly
among fathers) is the understanding that strong families
are essential to children’s well-being. Across the political
spectrum, and among voters, there is great concern not
only over the future we will leave for our children but how
we will equip them, from cradle to career, in becoming our
nation’s future leaders. It is precisely in the earliest years of life—the foundation for healthy social, cognitive, physical and emotional
development—when society invests the least. Iowa makes
greater investments in very young children than the U.S. as
a whole, but there remains a large mismatch in public support in the first years of life compared with later years. For
every dollar public systems (federal, state and school district) in Iowa invest in the education and development of a
school-aged child, 28 cents is invested in each preschooler
and toddler, and only 8 cents in each infant.
ECI already works to
reduce stress among
families. It can do even
more.
There are many reasons for this. Traditional funding to
support children is
directed specifically
to discrete needs of
Per-capita state and federal spending on children by age
the child (health care,
education) and not to
the family. And, not
insignificantly, most of
the poor outcomes and
costs from inaction
with young children
do not show up until
later years—in remediation and special
education costs among
elementary students,
juvenile justice and
child welfare costs
among youth, and
in dependency and
criminal justice costs
among young adults.
In fact, half of all
school failure can
be traced back to
children’s experiences even before they
enter kindergarten. A
Source: Child and Family Policy Center, “Early Learning Left Out,” 2013
Iowa invests more in the health and development of the youngest children than U.S. average, but early childhood lags far below comparable investment in school-aged children.
505 5th Ave., Ste 404
Des Moines, IA 50309
Every Child Counts is the advocacy initiative of Child and Family Policy Center. For more information, contact Sheila Hansen
([email protected] or 515-280-9027 x 114) or visit www.cfpciowa.org.