Early-childhood development is the rare issue that unites liberals and conservatives, nearly all of whom agree that the first few years of a child's life are a time of crucial social and intellectual formation. Yet policymakers and educators rarely pay much attention to the adults who spend their days with young children, particularly child-care workers.
Day care is typically thought of simply as a place where young children play, nap, and eat. But a growing body of research shows the importance of this time period to children's brain development. "So much of what happens in that time is governed by the quality of experience that children have, and that experience is largely shaped by adults," says Meera Mani, director of the Children, Families, and Communities Program at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
That's why the California-based Packard Foundation has decided to focus some of its financial power on the training and professional development of early-child-care workers. California alone has about 5 million children age 5 and under; 85 percent of those kids are under the age of 2, primarily cared for by parents or informal care givers. There are roughly 130,000 licensed child-care providers throughout the state, to say nothing of the unlicensed providers. Focusing on caregivers' professional development potentially could have a huge impact for kids not just in California but across the country.
The foundation plans to put this idea into practice at a new facility called Educare of California at Silicon Valley, a new branch of the Educare model. Funded by various foundations, nonprofits, local governments, and school districts, the facility will care for roughly 168 children, from infancy to 5 years. It will be located on an elementary-school campus in the Santee neighborhood of San Jose, and is scheduled to open in August 2015.
[For more of this story, written by Nancy Cook, go to http://www.nationaljournal.com...mrefid=walkingheader]
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