• Extend evidence-based voluntary home visiting;
• Launch a new Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership through competitive grants to support communities’ abilities to expand the availability of Early Head Start and child care providers that can meet high standards of quality for children birth through age three;
• Provide high-quality preschool for every child with a federal-state partnership using a cost-sharing approach with states and requiring states to meet quality benchmarks;
• Encourage full-day kindergarten; and
• Continue to invest in Head Start to support a greater share of infants, toddlers and three-year-olds.

To read more of the details, click here.

NAEYC is excited that Representatives Jared Polis (D-CO) and Don Young (R-AK) introduced today the Continuum of Learning Act, based on NAEYC’s recommendations for the reauthorization of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (also known as No Child Left Behind). High-quality early childhood education prior to school is critical, as is the continuation of developmentally appropriate and comprehensive standards and teaching in the early grades. 

The bill complements and does not compete with the President’s birth to kindergarten proposal by focusing primarily on the early grades, advancing the continuum of developmentally appropriate practices and policies. It also does not compete against the proposed new investment because it uses current Title I and Title II funds.

Highlights include:

• Standards in all domains, using a forward progression based on child development for birth through third grade;
• Child assessments to improve instruction and services, but not for inappropriate high-stakes inappropriate uses;
• Stronger coordination between schools and community programs;
• Professional development for teachers and principals in child development;
• Development of early childhood teacher licenses for teachers working with children in the early grades and younger; and
• “Ready schools” reviews to ensure the early grades have the right conditions for young children’s learning and development.

You can read more about the bill in our press release here.

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