From empowering parents to consolidating data, a statewide, birth to 5 comprehensive early childhood system has powerful potential. A community-based team in Delaware is showing what this might look like. Find out more here.  

Interested in developing free, accessible lessons that empower parents around early childhood development? An early childhood parent academy—a structured set of courses covering key topic areas that parents need to know about early childhood development—does just that. Click in for a curriculum and strategies on how to launch one in your state. 

We know first-hand that parent partners can make a big difference in improving children's health outcomes. Here, we’re highlighting one parent partner's story and providing strategies for states interested in putting parent support and parent-partnerships at the forefront of their early childhood improvement efforts.

In theory, everyone should start school on equal footing. But the reality is very different for many children across the country. Even before birth, social determinants of health such as parental income and maternal education affect a child's developmental health. Changing this means building stronger systems that support and empower families so all children can achieve kindergarten readiness.  

Early childhood is a crucial period for child development. From birth through age 3, kids can reach significant milestones in language, cognition, approaches toward learning, physical well-being and motor skills, and social and emotional development that can set them up to reach their full potential, specifically optimal developmental health. Better alignment between systems that support early childhood development can lead to improved outcomes for all children.

Right now, more than 15 percent of children miss out on early developmental screenings and risk their future health. Find out what Delaware is doing to prioritize screenings and make sure Delaware children start school healthy and prepared.