NCREL's Policy Briefs

Integrating Community Services for
Young Children and Their Families

What Will It Take?

The National School Readiness Task Force report argues that a new vision of comprehensive support for young children and families is necessary. This vision to create caring communities depends on four areas of action:

1. Local leadership and planning to develop public commitment and strategies to improve support for young children and families in early childhood programs and schools.

2. Responsive federal policies and resources in order to implement local plans. These federal policies must allow local decision-making to improve the effectiveness of local early childhood programs and schools. Federal funds can help overcome extreme variations in community resources and thus offer more equal opportunity for all families and children.

3. State government leadership to pull together federal and state mandates and funds to create more coherent and flexible local service systems. State policy and management are critical to improving local programs and schools and to developing an effective early childhood workforce.

4. Private sector and voluntary agency commitment to complement public early childhood programs and to build additional sources of support for families. (NASBE, 1991, p. 40).

References and Resources

Posted on March 23, 1995

URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/go/93-3what.htm