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EARLY CHILDHOOD

Kids Can't Wait
The Need Services Now!
Find Out More
She's Only Two Once
She Deserves Quality Care and Learning!
Uncover How Affordable Child Care is a Growing Crisis
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The research is clear: a child’s experiences from the time they are born to the age of five set the foundation for their rest of their lives. A baby forms thousands of new neural connections each second, a process strongly shaped by environment and interactions with parents and other caregivers. Children who have quality early learning experiences are more likely to go to college and have good health as an adult, and less likely to drop out of high school, need public assistance, or become a teen parent.

The Children’s Agenda works for the policy and funding changes that underpin a system of early childhood supports that include:

  • Evidence-based home visitation
  • High-Quality child care
  • Comprehensive early intervention screening and services
  • Universal 3 and 4 year-old pre-K, and
  • High-Quality summer enrichment and learning programs

Our Recommendations for Developmental Services

  • Increase Rates To
    Attract Providers and
    Serve More Children
  • Private Insurance &
    Early Intervention
  • True Cost Study
  • Extend the Governor's proposed 5% increase in Early Intervention (EI) reimbursement rates to all EI providers and services in FY2020 as a step towards increasing rates by 30% by FY2022.

  • Raise rates for Preschool Special Education evaluations by at least 5% in FY2020 as a step towards increasing rates by at least 20% by FY 2022 to account for program cuts and inflation.

Require private health insurance companies to contribute their fair share to the cost of Early Intervention.

Fund or conduct a cost study to determine appropriate payment so that young children can receive high-quality services from qualified professionals.

Our Recommendations for Child Care

  • Make Child Care
    Affordable for
    Working Families
  • Support Struggling
    Providers
  • Increase State funding to counties for child care subsidies and program operation to expand equitable access to quality child care to more working families.

  • Increase funding for the Child Care Facilitated Enrollment Projects in order to expand access to subsidies available to working families at higher income eligibility levels.

Increase the subsidy reimbursement rate to the 75th percentile formula to keep struggling providers across the state in business and to allow them to pay their workforce a living wage.

Early Childhood

85% of brain development occurs before school, a process strongly shaped by environment and interactions with parents and other caregivers

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Victories

  • The enacted New York State 2019-20 Budget includes a 5% reimbursement rate increase for Early Intervention physical and occupational therapists and speech language pathologists serving in the Early Intervention program.

  • Monroe County increased spending on child care subsidies by $1.8M in its 2019 budget.

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Contact Us

The Children’s Agenda
1 South Washington St.
Suite 120
Rochester, NY 14614

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(585) 256-2620
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Our Mission

The Children’s Agenda advocates for effective policies and drives evidenced-based solutions for the health, education and success of children. We are especially committed to children who are vulnerable because of poverty, racism, health disparities and trauma.

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