Massachusetts Birth to School-Age Task Force
Phase 1: Pre Birth to Age Three
October 2010
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Charge
Governor Patrick’s Education Agenda, Ready for 21st
Century Success (June 2008), called for:
“ the immediate creation of “a Task Force to establish a
statewide birth-to-school-age strategy to ensure the
healthy development of children, particularly those from
low-income families. This strategy should include various
service agencies, link multiple funding streams, and align
preschool and school-age care.”
The Task Force was charged with:
Putting forth recommendations to strengthen supports
and services to effectively meet the needs of children
birth to school-age, their families, and other significant
caregivers to ensure continuously improving
development and learning outcomes for children in the
earliest years.
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Diverse Composition of the Task Force
While EEC established by and convened the
Task Force:
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Membership represents the work of more than
50 practitioners, policymakers, educators and
advocates from myriad disciplines and service
sectors throughout the state.
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Based on the diverse expertise of this coalition,
this report lays the foundation for an integrated
system of early care and lifelong learning that
begins pre-birth.
Alignment of the Work
The work will be accomplished in phases:
Phase I: began in March 2009
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Focused on children pre-natal to three years old
Will result in a report to be voted on for approval by the Board of
Early Education and Care (November 2010)
Alignment with Existing Report from the Massachusetts
Action Planning Team
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Ready for Lifelong Success: A Call for Collaborative Action On Behalf of
Massachusetts’ Children and Youth
Focuses on desired outcomes for all children and youth, ages five to
twenty one, and their families
Submitted to Governor Patrick and the Readiness Cabinet in June
2009
Phase II:
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will build on the existing bodies of work and will focus on children
between age three and five
Unified Task Force Vision
All Massachusetts infants and toddlers will be
emotionally and physically healthy and will have
optimal opportunities to experience consistent,
nurturing care-giving and learning in the context of
strong families living in supportive communities
with culturally competent systems that deliver
high-quality, comprehensive services focused on
promotion, prevention, intervention, and evaluation.
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Science Offers Insight and Opportunity
Center on the Developing Child:
What happens in early childhood can matter for a lifetime.
 Early experiences influence the developing brain.
 Chronic stress can be toxic to developing brains.
 Significant early adversity can lead to lifelong problems.
 Early interventions can prevent the consequences of early
adversity.
 Stable, caring relationships are essential for healthy
development.
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Center on the Developing Child: Risk Factors
.
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Profile of Infants and Toddlers in MA
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Almost 225,000 Children Under the Age of 3 Live in
Massachusetts1
• 26% of Massachusetts children under 6
experienced 1 or 2 demographic risk factors for
poor educational and health outcomes2 (e.g. living
in poverty, linguistically isolated, parents have less
than a high school education, parents have no paid
employment etc.)
• 7% experienced at least 3
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1 National Infant and Toddler Child Care Initiative
2 National Center for Children in Poverty
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ORGANIZATION OF THE WORK
In order to create an actionable plan focused on ensuring
the healthy development of all children, pre-birth to age
three in the Commonwealth, the following frameworks
were used to structure the work of the Task Force.
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Subcommittees
The Zero to Three’s “Infant-Toddler Policy Agenda framework
was adapted by the Task Force . As a result, four
committees were formed to focus on the following areas:
[1]
Good Health
 Strong Families/Communities
 Positive Early Learning Experiences
 Strong Systems
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
ZERO TO THREE is a national nonprofit organization that informs, trains, and supports professionals,
policymakers and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and
toddlers. http://www.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_pub_infanttodller
[1]
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In addition the Task Force added a Diversity Subcommittee
as they felt diversity was an essential component of any
framework given the current national and state
demographic trends.
Target Beneficiaries
When we think about early education and care, particularly for infants
and toddlers in the first three years of life, there are three primary
target interconnected beneficiaries that policies, programs and
services must reach:
1) Children (Infants and Toddlers)
 Within the context of their families, children must have their
fundamental needs met before they can progress toward a more
sophisticated level of development that allows them to actualize
their full capabilities.
2) Families
 Most children live within the context of a family structure and that
system requires basic supports in order for each member to fully
thrive and reach their full potential in all domains of life.
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3) Communities and Programs
 Families and children live within communities and many are served
by early education and family programs; both can provide supports
to advance the abilities of infants and toddlers, and their families,
to progress toward meeting their desired achievements.
Areas of Focus
The Task Force’s work across subcommittees was
organized by the following focus areas:
1) Basic Needs
2) Health and Well-Being
3) Positive Relationships
4) Development and Learning
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12 OUTCOMES DEVELOPED BY TASKFORCE
For each of the target beneficiaries in each area of focus,
the Task Force delineated the results -- the OUTCOMES –
to be achieved
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Outcomes
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BASIC NEEDS OUTCOME STATEMENTS
1.
Infants and toddlers are safe from physical harm in their homes;
safe in their early education and care and community settings.
2.
Parents/families caring for infants and toddlers: have adequate,
stable and affordable housing options; are economically
secure and have stable work that generates a livable wage; and
receive sufficient paid leave to care for sick children, newborn or
adopted infants/ toddlers.
3.
Infant and toddler caregivers/educators receive respect, support,
and adequate compensation for their work.
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HEALTH AND WELL BEING OUTCOME STATEMENTS
4. Infants and toddlers are born, and remain, physically and
mentally healthy, have quality primary care (continuous,
comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated, and culturally
effective), and with their families have access to and are
informed consumers of health care and receive consistent,
coordinated health, dental and mental health services.
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5.
Pregnant women receive comprehensive pre and postnatal
health care and support.
Outcomes
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DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING OUTCOME STATEMENTS
6. Infants and toddlers:
are on track for their optimal development, receive adequate
nutrition, have access to high- quality, affordable early
education and care and have high-quality learning
experiences with their families/ primary caregivers; and
 enter school confident across all developmental domains
(physical, social, emotional, cognitive, language, and approaches
to learning), and are performing well across those domains by
the third grade.
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7.
Parents/families are competent in their role as their infant and
toddler’s first teacher and have the knowledge and resources to
support the optimal development of their infants and toddlers.
8.
Parents/families have meaningful choices in services for infants
and toddlers and are supported in accessing services and have
informal and formal support networks.
9.
All communities have the capacity to strengthen families and
support the healthy growth and development of its infant/ toddlers
and have a coordinated network of high-quality, accessible services
Outcomes
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POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS OUTCOME STATEMENTS
10. Infants/ toddlers have consistent, stable, responsive, nurturing &
culturally responsive relationships in their out of home care
settings and have predictable, responsive and nurturing
relationships in their family settings.
11. Families have access to community-based parent/family
support groups that will include information on resources and
supports for families with infants and toddlers, strategies are
consistently promoted to strengthen maternal/paternal/familialinfant attachment and families have access to early, hands-on pre
and post partum support for new caregivers/parents.
12. Families of infants/ toddlers at risk for out of home placement
have: 1) access to strength-based family support services that
work together to prevent disruption, provide permanency if needed,
2) access to pre and post-permanency supports and 3) access to
a coordinated system for visits between children, placement and
families as appropriate.
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12 GOALS DEVELOPED BY TASKFORCE
Based on the desired outcomes, the Task Force developed
the following twelve corollary GOALS for all
infants/toddlers, families and community/programs in the
Commonwealth
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Example of an Outcome and
Corollary Goal
OUTCOME: Infant and toddler caregivers/educators
receive respect, support, and adequate compensation
for their work.
GOAL: Continue efforts to build a diverse, stable,
competent workforce to meet the needs of infants,
toddlers, and their families.
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INDICATORS OF PROGRESS DEVELOPED BY
TASKFORCE
INDICATORS OF PROGRESS are baseline data points that
will enable policymakers, practitioners, program leaders and
parents/families to see how well our collective efforts are
working on behalf of our children, our communities and our
state.
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Indicators of Progress - Examples
Outcome Statement: Pregnant women receive comprehensive pre
and postnatal health care and support.
Indicator: Percent of mothers indicating smoking and/or
drinking while pregnant
 6.9% (DPH, 2008)
Outcome Statement: All communities have the capacity to
strengthen families and support the healthy growth and
development of its infant/toddlers and have a coordinated network
of high-quality, accessible services and resources.
Indicators: MA EEC programs accredited by NAEYC and
NAFCC
 897 programs, serving 69,146 children (NAEYC, 9/2010)
 92 programs (NAFCC, 9/2010)
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STRATEGIES, IDENTIFIED ACTIONS
AND LEAD CONVENERS DEVELOPED
BY TASKFORCE
The Task Force (TF) offered a series of STRATEGIES
and IDENTIFIED ACTIONS for each goal above, as
well as the LEAD CONVENER for each strategy that is
committed to enacting the work outlined below with
other community and state partners.
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Strategies, Identified Actions and Lead
Conveners – Example of Work in Progress
GOAL # 5: Continue efforts to build a diverse, stable, competent
workforce to meet the needs of infants, toddlers, and their families.
Strategy 1: Strengthen the EEC workforce through intentional strategies that
provide meaningful increases in compensation, linked to education and
competency.
Task Force Identified Action:
•Assure that vouchers for infants and toddlers support the real cost of high quality
care
Lead Convener: Department of Early Education and Care
Action Taken: (Fall 2010)
•EEC is proposing a 3% rate increase for programs serving EEC supported infants
and toddlers.
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Other Work in Progress Aligned with Task
Force Recommendations
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EEC prioritized ARRA funding to:
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Develop the Infant and Toddler Early Childhood
Guidelines
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Provide 2,000 early education and care staff with training
focused on the social emotional development of young
children
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Provide early literacy training for family child care
educators statewide focusing on relationship-based care and
development in the first three years of life
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Develop a multi-pronged communications campaign with a
focus on the importance of the earliest years
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The Department of Public Health (DPH) has received funding to
implement the Home Visiting Grant Program focused on
improving coordination of services for at risk communities etc.
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EEC has also worked with the Children’s Trust Fund on training
Coordinated Family and Community Engagement grantees on the
Strengthening Families model and embedded the model within
procurements.
Next Steps
October 2010:
 Final revisions to Report / Board discussion
November 2010:
 Continued Committee discussion
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Board vote to send Report to Governor’s Office via
EOE