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Early Learning
Topic

Head Start

Head Start is a national anti-poverty program for children from families living below the national poverty line. Much of the program is focused on providing preschool for 4-year-olds and support for their families. However, there has been a significant push in recent years to expand Head Start services to children under age 4 and their families. These services, which range from home visits to infant and toddler care, are known as Early Head Start.
Child Care
November 7, 2022

Inflation Reduction Act left children and families behind 

Rising costs, the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and demand that exceeds supply have frayed an already fragile child care sector.

Ruth Fernández and Savitha Moorthy
Commentary
September 30, 2022

Let's nurture multilingualism in our youngest learners

Early childhood educators should support and celebrate the cultures, languages and circumstances of the children in their care.

Jonathan Nomachi
Commentary
June 2, 2022

We can stop the Head Start classroom crisis

Low wages for Head Start teachers are causing classrooms to close, leaving children without services and risking our financial future.

Anna Ioakimedes
Commentary
July 8, 2021

The ‘stars aligned’ in budget deal, but hurdles remain for early education

This is much work still to be done to ensure the pre-K entitlement will narrow, rather than reinforce, gaps in children’s early learning.

Bruce Fuller
Transitional Kindergarten
June 17, 2021

Why some early childhood advocates want more transitional kindergarten choices

A California TK proposal would gradually open the program to all 4-year-olds amid evidence that early learning shapes the adult brain.

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
May 13, 2021

Should California offer transitional kindergarten to all 4-year-olds?

Expanding TK captures the spirit of the Master Plan for Early Learning and Care and aligns with Biden’s campaign for universal preschool.

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
September 2, 2020

Many parents fill in gaps for preschoolers unable to go to in-person programs

Preschool students facing a learning loss because Covid-19 closed their nursery school and child care programs are getting help from parents and teachers trying to keep them learning.

Betty Márquez Rosales
Early Learning
September 3, 2019

Homeless California families get help finding child care

Child care can change the lives of homeless children and their parents. Two counties are trying to help enroll them in free programs.

Zaidee Stavely
Policy & Finance
May 2, 2019

Infants and toddlers the most undercounted in census; California wants to change that

If small children aren’t accurately counted, California could potentially get less federal funding than needed for programs such as Head Start.

Zaidee Stavely
English Learners
March 19, 2019

New training for California preschool teachers to help bilingual children prepare for kindergarten

The trainings teach preschool teachers how to help children learn English and keep their home languages, so they can be more successful in kindergarten and beyond.

Zaidee Stavely
Preschool
December 13, 2018

What California can learn from universal preschool in other states

Some states have successfully expanded both access and the quality of their preschool programs. Here’s what some early learning advocates and researchers say California could learn from them.

Zaidee Stavely
Preschool
December 11, 2018

In push for universal preschool, lessons to heed from California's class size reduction program

The $1 billion program was implemented in less than two months.

Louis Freedberg
Preschool
December 4, 2018

New push underway to expand preschool for low-income children in California

Assemblyman Kevin McCarty introduced three bills this week, one to expand spaces for public preschool for low-income 4-year-olds, one to improve preschool facilities and one to increase reimbursement for preschool programs.

Zaidee Stavely
Math and Science
March 8, 2018

There are many benefits to starting science education early — very early

Report finds that even infants can learn abstract scientific concepts, and starting early can help them with science later on.

Carolyn Jones
Early Learning
January 25, 2018

Early Head Start partners with local child care providers to serve more infants, toddlers in Los Angeles County 

A federal-to-local grant program, Early Head Start Child Care Partnerships, will provide child care and family support services to 122 children in 'high needs' areas of Los Angeles County.

Ashley Hopkinson