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EARLY EDUCATION AND CARE OVERVIEW
WHAT IS EARLY EDUCATION AND CARE?
Early education and care encompass all of the factors and dynamics that impact a child's early development. Considered separately, 'early education' includes the features and components of a child's environment and relationships, both in and out of the home, that, ideally, contribute optimally to the child's preparation for beginning a formal education. 'Early care' involves assuring that a child has a nurturing, enriching and safe environment, inclusive of both parental and out of home care, during the early, formative and vulnerable years of life. Together, early education and care provide the framework for meeting many of the fundamental needs of children.
Table 1
The Seven Fundamental Needs of Children
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NEED
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DEFINITION
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Safe, Secure Environment with Stable, Caring Adult
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A safe, secure environment that includes at least one stable, predictable, comforting, and protective relationship with a capable adult who has a personal commitment to the child's daily welfare and who has adequate means, time and personal qualities to provide for the child's needs.
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Consistent Relationship with Nurturing Caregivers
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Consistent, nurturing relationships with the same caregivers, including the primary one, early in life and throughout childhood. These serve as the cornerstones of both emotional and intellectual competence.
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Complex, Ongoing Interactions
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Rich, ongoing interactions that increase in complexity and in subtlety as development progresses.
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Environment that Adapts to Child's Developmental Style
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An environment that allows the child to progress through developmental stages in his/her own style and timeline.
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Opportunities to Experiment
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Opportunities to experiment, to find solutions, to take risks, and even to fail at attempted tasks. Out of these opportunities, children develop the perseverance and self-confidence needed to succeed.
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Structure and Clear Boundaries
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Structure and clear boundaries through which children gain security, self-discipline and responsibility.
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Stable Neighborhoods and Support for Families
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Stable neighborhoods and communities; families need all the resources and support of friends, kin networks, religious fellowships, and cultural traditions available to them.
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Source. Greenspan, S.I. (1997).
The fundamental needs of children have changed very little over time. How these fundamental needs are met, however, has changed greatly. With more single-parent households and families in which both parents work, early education and care is less family-centered and home-based and more often found in settings outside the home. In addition, breakthroughs in the understanding of early brain development have heightened the importance of these early learning experiences. These changes have resulted in the placement of greater emphasis on the quality of care and experiences that children receive early in life, both in home and out of home settings
This report provides an update of the status of child care and early education in the Austin/Travis County area and adds an overview of issues and local resources involved in providing family support, especially parenting education resources. Forthcoming assessments will address other issues impacting the development and well-being of children, including health, mental health and child abuse and neglect. In addition, the Community Action Network Child Care Task Force, Ambassadors for Children, has developed a series of recommendations for action to address key issues for improving the quality and increasing the availability of child care. This report will be highlighted in the Child Care section and can be found at caction.org.
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Austin/Travis County will be a community where all children and families have access to a comprehensive system of high-quality early education, child care, and family support in order to assure that all children have opportunities for successful and productive lives.
Community Action Network 1997 Assessment
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The next steps in assessing Austin/Travis County's ability to support quality early education, child care, and family support include examining the child population as well as current services and their costs.
Experts on child development widely agree that the early years are critical for building the foundation for future development. Attachment theory and brain development research have served as the dominant frameworks for understanding critical components of early development. Research in early brain development shows that age zero to three is the most crucial time. "By the age of three, the brains of children are two and a half times more active than the brains of adults - and they stay that way throughout the first decade of life" (Shore, 1997, pg. 21). The major premise of attachment theory is that through interactions with primary caregivers - especially the mother and father - children build internal working models of themselves and of their relationships with others. "Both quality of care and security of attachment affect children's later capacity for empathy, emotional regulation, and behavioral control" (Shore, 1997, pg. 41). Numerous researchers have demonstrated a significant relationship between early childhood events and later delinquency and behavior disorders.
Research findings offer evidence that high-quality preschool programs provide both short and long term benefits to children living in poverty and at high risk of failing in school. In relation to a comparison group not receiving quality preschool care, adults who had participated in the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project (Schweinhart, Barnes, & Weikart, 1993, as described in Shore, 1997) had:
- Significantly higher monthly earnings
- Significantly higher home ownership
- Significantly higher levels of schooling
- Significantly fewer social services received in the last 10 years
- Significantly fewer arrests
While few would argue about the importance of investing in children for the future of the community, would they readily answer "yes" to the following question? Are you willing to make financial commitments today for long term benefits - benefits that may not be apparent for twenty or more years?
In a study recently completed by The University of Texas Center for the Study of Human Resources (June 1999), the net costs and benefits of early childhood investments were examined for Texas children who were living at or near poverty. The estimated total cost of serving 151,830 Texas infants and children with targeted early interventions is $5.65 billion (in 1998 dollars), but a conservative estimate of the net benefit is more than $6 billion. For individuals participating in interventions, the benefits from investments largely result from increased lifetime earnings due to increased high school and college graduation rates. Benefits to Texas taxpayers include:
- Reduced criminal activity ($5.32 billion)
- Increased employee output yields (nearly $2 billion)
- Higher tax payments (nearly $1.5 billion)
- Savings for special education expenditures ($746 million)
The need for safe, quality, affordable child care arrangements has become a major issue for families and communities across the nation. In addition, economic pressures, the competing demands of parenting and workplace responsibilities, and single parenting add additional stress to the normal pressures and demands faced by parents and families. What has become evident is the reality that there are many low-income working families. Many parents who are working hard and trying to make ends meet without public assistance make up the ranks of the 'working poor.'
While the needs of children have remained basically the same, during the last third of the 20th century, marked demographic and economic changes have occurred in families throughout the United States and (Hofferth, 1999). Major changes include:
- An increase in the incidence of single-parent families: Increases in marriages ending in divorce and births to single mothers have resulted in more children having only one parent for at least a part of their childhood;
- Increased maternal participation in the workforce: By 1994, 70% of married mothers with dependent children were in the workforce (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1996);
- Increased incidence of working poor families: In Texas, despite the growing economy that has increased the number of jobs, the hourly wage for a low-wage worker has declined from $6.92 in 1979 (in 1997 dollars) to $6.12 in 1997. More families lack health insurance and must face higher costs for housing and child care. With these and other pressures, working poor families in Texas are falling further and further behind (Center for Public Policy Priorities, 1999).
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