This article in Pediatrics, "Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children," examines the first-ever study linking early television watching with later attention and concentration problems. Researchers from the University of Washington found that, for children age 3 and younger, every hour of television they watched led to a 10-percent increase in the likelihood of attention problems at age 7. Even before their first birthday, kids watch more than 2 hours of television a day.

As national concerns over the quality of child care increase, nonprofit organizations are taking the lead in developing innovative programs to improve early care and education. This Urban Institute research brief looks at North Carolina's TEACH initiative, which is a model for other states.

Although targeting the youngest learners (at ages when the brain develops rapidly) pays off, most education money goes to older children. A report from the Child and Family Policy Center of Iowa and Voices for America's Children finds 13.7 cents of every per-child public education dollar goes to younger kids. Congress is debating a $1.2 billion increase in the Child Care and Development Block Grant's annual appropriation, a move that would increase investments in early learning by $34.57 per young child in America. A $400 million increase in Head Start funding would translate to a $17.29 increase in per young child funding.

A new survey by the National League of Cities shows that child care and early childhood education are high on the agenda for city leaders. That heightened attention to the early years also has some mayors worried about Bush administration efforts to change Head Start.

While Head Start primarily serves low-income preschool children ages 3-5, the Early Head Start program serves low-income infants and toddlers (birth to age three) and pregnant women. This brief describes the unique features of the Early Head Start program.

State teams are already trying out different strategies to improve the potential of kinship care for kids who are removed from parents' care--including interviewing children in shelter placements to identify possible relative caregivers in Oklahoma, using a specific form to ask biological parents for information about possible kinship placements at the time of removal in Washington, and having Child Protective Services investigation workers ask parents, "Whom do you call when you need help with your children?" in Utah. (See the document, Kinship Care and the Breakthrough Series Collaborative.)

Analyzing 2000 Census data on poverty, race and class gaps, Harold Hodgkinson warns that too many students are disadvantaged from the start. Poverty puts many young children behind during their earliest years. Hodgkinson argues that kids' invisibility in the lives of adults and in the political process explains why we've cut the elderly poverty in half since the 1970s, while the percentage of children in poverty has grown. Low-income children who need preschool the most are the least likely to be enrolled. In addition to calling for a Governors' Summit, this report calls for full funding for Head Start, quality universal child care, competitive wages for child care providers, and health care resources for all children.

When people who concentrate on the bottom line call for more public investment in early childhood development programs because they offer the greatest economic return for the money, child advocates should pay close attention. This Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis analysis argues that most of the projects and initiatives that state and local governments fund in the name of creating new jobs result in few public benefits, but dollars invested in early childhood yield extraordinary public returns.

For the nearly one million low-income children now enrolled in Head Start programs across the nation, change is in the air. President Bush says Head Start needs to make early education the top priority--but many experts and advocates believe the traditional Head Start focus on the whole child is key to the program's success. Cecilia Garcia visited a Washington, DC-based Head Start center to learn more.

Good child care matters for families; it also makes a difference in the bottom line. Noting that too many children are entering school ill-prepared, the Business Roundtable and Corporate Voices for Working Families are urging lawmakers to protect funding for preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds in these tight times. They argue that a government commitment to early childhood education is essential to America's efforts to improve education and develop a world-class workforce.