A National Campaign To Ensure Better Beginnings Peter L. Mangione & Julie Weatherston WestEd NAEYC Alanta, GA November 7, 2012

Why Babies ? Why Now? School readiness, a competent workforce, solid taxpayers, fewer criminals, more people able to control their impulses and regulate their emotions all these things have their origins in infancy.

Why Babies ? Why Now? Because, in infancy, the brain we rely on for success in school and life is still developing.

What happens to babies during their first three years is that their brains get wired for anticipated future functioning. Foundations of how we will think, feel and communicate in the future are being laid down in infancy. Why Babies ? Why Now?

A focus on ensuring healthy development during infancy will pay dividends all throughout life. Delayed, damaged, or insufficient development is very difficult and expensive to correct later in life. If we ignore the earliest years, we do so to the detriment of our children, families, communities and nation.

The 10 Platform Planks of the “For Our Babies” Movement

1. Prenatal health care coverage for all families, regardless of income, including home-based support and counseling during pregnancy. 2. Affordable intervention services for at-risk pregnancies including preconception assistance. I. Prenatal Care

II. Paid Leave & Well Baby Care 3. Paid leave for parents for the first nine months of their child's life. 4. Affordable visits to the homes of all newborns for the first two years that include guidance by trained professionals in parenting and healthy development, along with counseling on early emotional, social, language, intellectual, and perceptual/motor development.

III. Screening and Follow Up Services 5. Affordable developmental screenings to identify physical and behavioral needs, with referral to affordable help when needed. 6. Affordable services for children with identified special needs. 7. Free intervention services for families in crisis.

IV. Quality Infant Toddler Care 8. Childcare regulations that ensure that care is provided in safe, engaging, and intimate settings. 9. Training, compensation, and professional stature for infant and toddler teachers at the same level as K-12 schoolteachers. 10. Childcare subsidies for all families.

Prenatal Care Death rates from pregnancy complications are three to four times higher among women who receive no prenatal care compared to women who receive basic prenatal care. For every dollar spent on prenatal care, employers can expect savings of $3.33 for postnatal care and $4.63 in long-term morbidity costs.

Paid Leave & Well Baby Care Medicaid-enrolled children who are up-to-date on their well-child check-ups through 2 years of age are 48% less likely to experience an avoidable hospitalization. Children with incomplete care are 60% more likely to visit an emergency department compared to children who are up-to-date.

The Elmira Prenatal/Early Infancy Project, found that for high-risk groups of children enrolled there was a $6.92 return for every $1 invested. Screening & Follow Up Services

Quality Infant Toddler Care Every $1 spent on high-quality early childhood programs for disadvantaged children creates $7 to $9 in future savings to the communities and states that do the investing.

Child Care Subsidies Reducing child care fees by 10% would lead to an increase of 3 to 4% in the probability of maternal employment in the U.S. 75% of the costs of their children’s ECE are paid for by families in the U.S. as compared to 11% in Sweden (OECD, 2005).