Recommendations of the Early Childhood Task Force on Building an Early Childhood System

Recommendations of the Early Childhood Task Force on Building an Early Childhood System
Posted on 11/13/2015

A dedicated group of task force members has developed a set of recommendations to the City and the Schools to build an early childhood system. The Task Force did its work with a powerful vision:

All children in Cambridge receive high quality early education and care from birth through third grade. As a result, all children enter school ready to thrive academically, socially, emotionally and continue to do so through third grade and beyond.

The Task Force was made up of city and school department representatives, parents, early childhood, and health experts from community based organizations and family childcare settings. With support from national experts in the field, we reviewed the research to identify best practices nationally and locally. We engaged in a needs assessment process, surveying local providers and doing focus groups with parents, principals, teachers, early childhood providers and others. What emerged from the research and the needs assessment confirmed the availability of many strong programs and services within Cambridge but also confirmed the significant challenges families and providers face without a coherent system that links families, early childhood providers, and the schools.

The assessment of needs for birth through grade three services in Cambridge made clear:

  • Accessing information for families and providers is often challenging
  • Maintaining and improving quality across all programs is vital
  • Aligning and coordinating services between family support services, family childcare, community based pre-schools, city run pre-schools and the schools is critical
  • Addressing the gaps in service, especially related to social emotional development, is necessary
  • Finding high quality affordable early childhood programs and services is difficult

The Task Force recognized that it would be a multi-year ongoing effort to build an effective early childhood system that would improve the outcomes for Cambridge’s children.

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