This policy brief describes the State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (SECCS) Initiative, a policy designed to improve early childhood programs to ensure that all children arrive at school healthy and ready to learn. The SECCS is intended to help states build a bridge from birth to school and addresses how states will support children and…

The Subcommittee met to examine the attitudes and the administration's response to the hunger and the malnutrition of farmworker children. Some questions asked were: (1) What programs had been developed to meet the food and nutritional needs of farmworker families? (2) Were they properly administered? If not, why not? (3) Were there sufficient…

California's approach to developing programmatic and administrative models for the implementation of Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) in providing services to young handicapped children is discussed. The models focus on implementing recognized best practices as well as changing state policy and administrative structure to enhance…

Noting that family literacy can work effectively to break the cycle of undereducation, this book examines the history of the national family literacy movement, discusses the role of the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL), and presents guidelines for designing and developing a family literacy program. The book's introductory section…

This guide for operating the Head Start home-based program option is based on experience gathered in the initial Home Start program and in the decade spanning 1974 through 1984. Its purpose is to offer the tested ideas and procedures gained in those years to organizations wanting to provide home-based child/family development services. The Guide…

This paper discusses: (1) the importance of building a comprehensive web of support for families in family literacy programs (such as Even Start) that communicate consistent values and messages essential for educational success; and (2) how integration of program components can be developed and strengthened. The paper is organized around four…

In the past decade, there has been a sharp increase in awareness of how interventions that address multiple risk factors and target both children and their families can help ensure that children grow up healthy and able to learn. In 1995, the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) undertook a project to "map" state initiatives…