A Connect for Kids Summary
Hundreds of the foremost national and international scholars, business leaders, policy makers, parents and early childhood practitioners agree that quality early childhood services are a national necessity and won't come into being by chance. Not by Chance: Creating an Early Care and Education System for America's Children, reflects the insights of these experts and presents a research and action plan to improve the child care system in our country. Written by Sharon L. Kagan and Nancy E. Cohen, the report synthesizes the results of an in-depth, four-year research and review initiative—Quality 2000—designed to advance new ideas about reforming the system and provide a definitive answer to the question, "What do early childhood experts want for the child care system in our country?"

The report emerges from Yale University at a critical time when a growing body of research shows that the majority of America's young children actually spend their days in settings that are poor to mediocre in quality and compromise children's long-term development. Parents have difficulty finding high-quality child care; poor compensation for child care providers leads to high job turnover, which further reduces the quality of care. In addition, the over-stressed system threatens to worsen as welfare reform increases demand for child care. Experts envision a reformed system in which high-quality early care and education programs are available and accessible to all children under five whose parents want to enroll them.

According to the authors, we now have the research, the know-how, and unprecedented public support to advance change in every area and achieve reform. The report's recommendations provide a long-term view to replace short-term and piecemeal thinking:

• Individual licensing should be required for all staff responsible for children both in child care centers and family child care homes. Staff may obtain licenses by acquiring sufficient training and demonstrating their abilities.
  
  
• Streamlined program licensing, with no exemptions, should be required for all public early childhood programs.
  
  
• Better compensation and benefits should be provided for early care and education staff.
  
  
• Workplaces must be more family-friendly, enabling parents to become more involved in early childhood programs.
  
  
• Program quality should be measured by skills and knowledge that children demonstrate across various domains of development, taking into consideration the individual child, her family, and her community.
  
  
• Adequate funding should be provided to ensure that all children have access to quality and early care and education services—requiring new partnerships among business, government, parents and community organizations.
  
  
• Increased accountability, community involvement, efficiency and continuity of services should exist for young children and their families through coordinated state and local governance boards.
  
  

Not by Chance concludes with a call to action, suggesting specific reform roles for the public, the business community, early childhood practitioners, parents, researchers, policy makers, and the private and philanthropic sectors. According to Kagan, "Only if we regard early care and education as a system—and approach reform systematically—will we solve the quality crisis."

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To order the report, call 203-432-9931; or, send a written request to the Yale Bush Center, 310 Prospect St., New Haven, CT, 06511.

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