Early Care and Education(ECE)

Voices is a key player in educating legislators and the public about the importance of ensuring that all children enter kindergarten ready to learn. Voices co-leads the Public Engagement Work Group of Virginia's comprehensive early childhood initiative, called Virginia's Plan for Smart Beginnings. Voices also created and leads the statewide Coalition for Early Childhood Education (CECE).

EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION PUBLICATIONS

Investing in early childhood is a proven strategy for increasing school readiness, closing achievement gaps and developing an educated, competitive future workforce. Voices’ new report, Building Our Future: The State of Virginia’s Early Childhood System, explains the challenges and identifies opportunities to strengthen programs that prepare young children to succeed in school. For highlights and a quick review of the report, please see the executive summary. (pdf, September 2011)

Extremely low reimbursemnt rate for child care providers mean fewer providers who are able to serve children with child care subsidies. Voices' one page brief explores the impact in Northern Virginia. (pdf, September 2011)

Comments to the Virginia Board of Education, May 19, 2011, in support of the Board’s commitment to ensure that all children are prepared for school by the time they reach kindergarten.

Quality Matters: Setting the Stage for Life for Virginia's Infants and Toddlers (summer, 2010): an issue brief written by Voices for Virginia's Children and Nonprofit Solutions for the Virginia Infant & Toddler Specialist Network discusses why the quality of a child’s care is so important, examines the characteristics of high quality care, and reviews efforts to improve child care quality across the state.

Achieving Excellence in Early Care for Virginia’s Infants and Toddlers (summer, 2009): a brief written for the Virginia Infant & Toddler Specialist Network discusses the importance of high quality infant and toddler care, the availability of care in Virginia, and the ITS Network’s efforts to improve quality.

Virginia Head Start Data Brief - A History of Strengthing Families and Communities (January, 2008).

The Virginia School Readiness Task Force's 2008 Virginia School Readiness Report describes the many accomplishments in the Commonwealth around building infrastructure for early childhood initiatives, researching the quality and impact of preschool, and developing resources to assist those working in early childhood programs. Voices for Virginia's Children is pleased to participate in a number of the initiatives described, including Virginia’s Plan for Smart Beginnings and the Professional Development Task Force.