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...children. Four segments of services for young children--(1) child care, (2) Head Start, (3) services for children with disabilities, and (4) preschool programs--have all been major players in providing services for differing, and sometimes overlapping, populations of young children. Each group has a similar mission: to help children (most often with special needs or limited opportunities) master the skills and knowledge needed to adapt effectively to kindergarten at age 5. Each group has its own history and has developed more or less independently of the others. Because the groups developed independently, they have overlapping personnel preparation programs, evaluation efforts, and data systems. This paper explores some strategies for moving from independent and overlapping services toward a seamless system of early child care and nurturance provided by these four diverse players. Voluntary collaborations between these players seem unlikely because of self-interest and bureaucratic challenges. Barriers to reform exist in institutional, psychological, sociological, economic, political, and geographic domains. This paper proposes that four engines of change--legislation, court decisions, administrative rule making, and professional initiatives--be energized to move toward a seamless system. Such collaboration can begin by merging support systems such as personnel preparation, technical assistance, and evaluation. The paper concludes with specific recommendations for achieving an integrated early childhood system.
Introduction
The development, care, and education of children from birth to age 5 has been the focus of rapidly increasing public interest. Numerous early childhood public policy initiatives have focused attention on a major problem of coordination and collaboration of services for young children. This increased public interest in young children seems to stem from several factors:
* A sharp increase in mothers of young children in the workforce (Kamerman & Gatenio, 2003).
* A realization of the importance of early brain development and stimulation to later development (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).
* Increasing evidence that a large number of young children enter the public schools unready to take advantage of what the schools offer (Zill & West, 2001; Kagan & Cohen, 1997; McMillen & Kaufman, 1996).
* Increasing pressure to improve school achievement for children at risk for academic and social failure (Neuman, 2003; Clifford, Early, & Hills, 1999).
Four federally funded segments of services for young children--(1) federally supported child care (i.e., Child Care and Development Block Grant [CCDBG] and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families [TANF]), (2) Head Start, (3) federally mandated services for children with disabilities (i.e., P.L. 94-142 [Education for All Handicapped Children Act] and P.L. 99-457 [Education for the Handicapped Amendments of 1986]), and (4) preschool education programs supported through Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (P.L. 89-10) and through state initiatives--have all been major players in providing services for differing, and sometimes overlapping, populations of young children. Each group has a similar mission: to help children (most often with special needs or limited opportunities) master the skills and knowledge needed to adapt effectively to kindergarten at age 5. Because the groups developed independently, they have overlapping personnel preparation programs, evaluation efforts, and data systems (Clifford, 1995).
Each group urgently requests increases in its existing resources from its supporting agencies to achieve its mission. The price for such increased resources for these programs could be reduced if we moved from independent and overlapping services toward a seamless system of providing needed services for preschool children to eliminate some of the redundancy and if we collaborated in planning the use of scarce resources more efficiently and effectively than is currently being done. It is especially timely to consider such measures in an era of state and federal budget shortages.
The purpose of this paper is to suggest some ways of moving toward a seamless system of providing needed services for preschool children at risk for academic and social failure (this paper focuses primarily on 3- and 4-year-olds because these children are the primary focus of policy makers at this time). The integration of programs for infants and toddlers with preschool programs is another complex issue deserving a more detailed discussion than can be given in this paper. We hope to address this issue in a future paper. The increasing number of working mothers of young children (Kamerman & Gatenio, 2003) has made the question as to whether the young child should be kept at home or in some child care setting a nonissue. The issue now is how to maximize the child care arrangements that many young children will experience, in cooperation with the family. We address two major questions: "What should an ideal comprehensive system of services look like?" and "How would we get from here (our current situation of overlapping missions, procedures, and purposes) to there (the desired result of one seamless system of services)?" We will introduce some proposed mechanisms, or engines of change, by which such a movement might take place.
The Players
Table 1 lists the four major players and provides information about how the programs in each area were initiated, how the programs are currently administered, the number of children served within each program area, and the amount of money now allocated to the area by the federal government. As Table 1 illustrates, each of the four program areas was initiated at different times, is administered by different agencies, involves large populations of children, and involves substantial sums of money. Although the figures below are for all children younger than 5, Barnett and Masse (2003) estimate that, overall, the federal government spent more than $20 billion when funds in these programs serving children up to 14 are included. Each program area now has cadres of professionals committed to the purposes of its authorizing legislation together with a number of institutions established to carry out its purpose (e.g., research centers, technical assistance programs, data collection systems).
Child Care
Although established by federal legislation in the 1930s, federally supported child care became a focus of the Great Society programs in the 1960s to aid children and their families. The federal child care effort comprises two major funds: the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), which distributes money to the states, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), designed as part of the welfare reform program. Together these funds amount to $5.3 billion in fiscal year 2001 to help support child care centers, family child care homes, and other nonrelative care homes for children 5 years and younger. In addition, both federal and state governments subsidize family expenditures for child care through tax credits, deductions, and other mechanisms (Barnett & Masse, 2003).
Head Start
Head Start was established as a summer program for disadvantaged youth (ages 3 and 4) and quickly became a permanent program (Zigler, Kagan, & Hall, 1996). Its aim was to help children born into poverty be ready for school by promoting good health, social skills, and cognitive growth. The program was designed to help families as well as the young child and spent $6.2 billion dollars in 2002, serving over 900,000 children. To help children younger than 3, Early Head Start spent another $432 million. Local match is required, but not well documented, and some states add state funds to Head Start programs. Recently, a bill (H.R. 2210) has been introduced in the House of Representatives to facilitate collaboration with other early childhood programs.
Children with Disabilities
Federally supported preschool services for children with disabilities started with a small demonstration program in 1968 (Gallagher, 2000) and developed further through the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142) and a special law to include infants and toddlers, the Education for the Handicapped Amendments of 1986 (P.L. 99-457) (Gallagher, Trohanis, & Clifford, 1989). These two laws were mandates requiring services to eligible children, which resulted in impressive state action supporting the federal commitment, far exceeding the federal financial expenditure.
Preschool Education Programs
Preschool education programs were established through Title 1 of the Elementary and...
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