Improving Supports for Parents of Young Children: State-level Initiatives, a new report from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) by Louisa Higgins, Shannon Stagman, and Sheila Smith, provides information for states to use as they work to provide families with information and improve access to early care and education programs that help keep children safe, nurtured, physically and developmentally healthy, and promote school readiness.
To help states address how to strengthen supports for young children’s health and development across systems affecting family and child wellbeing, the paper includes:
- Highlights from research that links parenting to child outcomes;
- Questions to guide decisions about programs that could address different families’ needs in a state or territory;
- Efforts by four states (Arizona, Louisiana, New York, and Virginia) to establish specific goals related to parenting supports and to make progress toward achieving those goals; and
- Recommendations for state-level work in this area that reflect current research and states’ experiences.
