Mayors and first selectmen are responsible for ensuring the provision of an array of services in their communities – public safety, education, social services, road repair, etc. They are committed to ensuring the day-to-day health and welfare of people and businesses within their municipality. At the same time, they are focused on long-term efforts to make towns and cities more viable, livable communities – where parents have jobs and where children have the wherewithal to reach their full potential.

Recognizing that the welfare of Connecticut’s nearly half million children between the ages of birth and eight is a focus of concern for both families and for municipalities, CCM and the Connecticut Commission on Children, with assistance from the National League of Cities, launched the Towns Help Kids Succeed Initiative in 2003.

By bringing together CCM’s expertise in the workings and concerns of local government and CoC’s expertise in child and family development issues, the Initiative aims to make the opportunity for early childhood success a reality for all of Connecticut’s young children.

The goal of the Initiative is to enhance school readiness and early childhood development in Connecticut’s towns and cities through more effective and sustained leadership by mayors, first selectmen, councilmembers, city/town managers and other municipal officials.

CCM and child advocacy groups are looking to the Governor and the General Assembly to strengthen a committed focus on early childhood education. Recognizing its importance, Governor M. Jodi Rell has already made early childhood development a top priority of her new administration.

The Benefits of Early Childhood Education are Well-Established

Extensive research has demonstrated that high-quality childcare over the first three years of life is related to less problem behavior and higher cognitive development in later childhood.

Children nurtured in stable, developmentally appropriate environments enter school ready to learn and are less likely to drop out of high school, engage in juvenile delinquency, or rely on social services. As a result, effective school readiness and other early childhood programs will diminish future costs of remedial education, welfare, and criminal justice – and help develop and sustain viable, livable communities.

These children become part of the better educated and highly trained workforce that communities – and the State – need for sustainability and economic success.

Legislative Successful for Early Childhood Programs In collaboration with the Connecticut Commission on Children, CCM is engaged in many early childhood efforts. During the last legislative session, CCM and CoC successfully supported legislation that:

1. Increased funding for preschool, as well as financing of childcare for working families. Preschool funding was increased by $8.5 million;
2. Established the State Council on Poverty, which is mandated by the Connecticut General Assembly to develop a plan to reduce child poverty in Connecticut by 50% by 2014; and
3. Opened a financing mechanism for municipalities to build facilities for early childcare and education through an innovative loan fund with the State.

Childhood Starts at Conception

The health of a child is dramatically shaped during the pre- and post-natal phases of life. Children suffer when their mothers do not receive prenatal care. The chances of life-long danger to the child from poor nutrition and exposure to harmful substances are the greatest during the first 90 days of pregnancy. Mothers without prenatal care deliver three times more premature babies and about four times more low birth-weight babies than other women; five of their babies die for every one delivered to a mother receiving prenatal health care.

One to two percent of all infants are born with a disabling condition. By age five, children with disabling conditions range from 8-12%.

If intervention is delayed until age six, rather than beginning at birth, education costs to age 18 are 50% higher.

Twenty-five percent of children under six have excessive levels of lead in their blood. Lead poisoning is a preventable problem, but one which puts children at risk of learning disabilities, severe illness and significantly reduced IQ’s.

What Can be Done to Bolster Early Care, Safety and Learning of the Young?

Some solutions for school-ready children are within our reach. Achieving school readiness requires a coherent set of strategies, which include:

• A retooled system of care and education for young children, pre-natal through age eight, that is coordinated and integrated for high quality, with benchmarks and standards;
• Pre-natal care to promote the health of infants and to reduce the incidence of infant mortality and low birth-weight babies;
• Universal access to post-natal and pediatric healthcare, nutritional guidance and health coverage;
• Good childcare arrangements for parents at work and in job training to promote optimal child development; and
• Oral language development at home and in early care and education setting to facilitate early reading success.

The Growing Opportunity for State and Local Leadership in Children’s Issues

Research on the development of young children and the needs of working families has clearly pointed to the need for improved systems of early care and education. Municipal leaders are well positioned to make important contributions to early childhood policy and program implementation.

There is a golden opportunity for the State to assist local leaders in guiding young children’s policy and programming, in that:

• Devolution is increasing the need for local leadership in children's policy;
• Federal and state dollars are recognizing the importance of the early years;
• Schools are supportive of a focus on quality early care and education to ensure that children are ready for school;
• Welfare reform necessitates care for children while parents are being placed rapidly into the workforce;
• Concerns with safety resulting from an increase in child abuse reporting, missing children as well as the focus on homeland security silhouetted the need for children to be in safe environments while the family caregiver is working;
• Language and literacy are becoming a bridge to school success and are significantly recognized by the current federal administration in both budget and program opportunities for towns such as the Early reading First grants; and
• Numerous health and safety initiatives are linked to early childhood such as home visitation and immunization.

The Governor and Legislature can provide municipalities with the financial and technical assistance to:

• Assess community needs and prepare locally appropriate strategies to address quality, access and coordination;
• Utilize municipal funds, buildings, services and regulatory functions to support early childhood programming;
• Identify opportunities to leverage funding for childcare and early education;
• Connect families to available early childhood programs and subsidies;
• Help build public-private partnerships to expand the local supply of childcare and other early childhood programs;
• Spur local innovations in early childhood programming that can serve as models for statewide change; and
• Support data-gathering efforts at the local level to improve our broader understanding of the field.

Why Early Childhood Success is Important for Communities

• Early childhood education helps close the educational achievement gap.
• For every dollar invested in quality preschool programs, seven dollars are saved in the costs of remedial schooling, criminal justice, and welfare.
• The Connecticut penal system projects its future prison population on the basis of third-grade test scores.
• Ninety percent of a child’s brain paths are established before the age of 5, the start of kindergarten.

For more information on the Towns Help Kids Succeed Initiative please go to www.ccm-ct.org.

For more information on this or other state-local issues, please contact Ron Thomas, Jim Finley or Gian-Carl Casa of CCM at (203) 498-3000.

Mayors, first selectmen, and city/town councilmembers play a vital role in improving affordability, access, quality and supply of early care and education. Local officials are using their “bully pulpit” to generate public will for improvements in early care and education, and convening community stakeholders and engage new partners. They bring together city/town agencies, local child care providers, the school system, and advocates to coordinate local systems of care for young children. For instance, Mayor John DeStefano has developed the “Mayor’s Early Childhood Initiative”, which implements programs designed to expand the quality and quantity of childcare and family support services in New Haven, Connecticut. In Stamford, Connecticut, Mayor Dannel Malloy has developed a school readiness program – housed in its own new building – that provides early care and education for three and four-year olds to ensure that children’s “social, cognitive, physical, emotional, creative, language and cultural development needs” are met.

Towns Help Kids Succeed Initiative

The Towns Help Kids Succeed Initiative aims to make local chief executive officers more knowledgeable about the importance of early childhood success and increase their awareness of the policies and programs that promote it.

During the first year, the Initiative raised the awareness of municipal leaders on the issue of early childhood success and convened and assisted interested municipal officials to promote the sharing of ideas and strategies for future progress across communities throughout the state. This was achieved through, among other things (1) establishing “Focus Communities”, which received in-depth technical assistance on children-related programs of their choosing; (2) articles in Connecticut Town & City, newspapers and other publications, (3) workshops and other training sessions; (3) establishing the Task Force on Early Childhood Success, comprised of municipal officials, to assist CCM in developing public policy; (4) developing an outline for a compendium of municipal “best practices,” (5) creating a Web site, “Towns Help Kids Succeed”, which offers easy-to-use information on such early childhood issues as health, learning, and safety from a municipal perspective; and (6) developing two Listservs that allow Connecticut leaders to exchange information on early childhood development issues.

CCM and COC’s early childhood initiative grows out of its prior work on issues of school readiness and school financing within Connecticut. In September 1999, CCM and the COC had partnered, and with support from the Fairfield County Foundation, prepared a report on school readiness in Connecticut’s southwest region. The report set the stage for ongoing local and regional planning and policy implementation to maximize resources and bring all Fairfield county stakeholders together in the interest of children.

CCM and COC have also worked closely on the National Crime Prevention Council’s “Embedding Prevention in State Policy and Practice” Initiative, the State’s Afterschool Initiative, as well numerous other projects and workshops regarding children and families.

For more information, please contact Ron Thomas or Jim Finley of CCM at (203) 498-3000.