by: Barbara Bainum Last year, Washington, D.C.’s Mayor and Council enacted ground-breaking legislation that sets the city on a path to creating a strong and equitable foundation for its youngest residents. The Birth-to-Three For All DC Act of 2018 is a blueprint for comprehensive education and health services for infants and toddlers that seeks to end the stark inequities in...

The Council of the District of Columbia passed a nearly $16 million investment as a partial yet key down payment on the Birth-to-Three for All DC Act of 2018. The Council’s commitment will fund measures to ensure healthier birth outcomes and supports for the District’s youngest residents to grow and thrive. Community advocacy to hold the Council accountable to the...

Testimony of Shana Bartley, Executive Director DC Action for Children Agency Performance Oversight Hearing Fiscal Year 2018-2019 Office of the State Superintendent of Education Before the Committee of the Whole and the Committee on Education Council of the District of Columbia February 21, 2019 Good morning, Chairman Mendelson, Councilmember Grosso and members of the committees. Thank you for the opportunity...

October is Hispanic Heritage Month ! In the District of Columbia, Hispanic children represent 15 percent of the under 18 population. Moreover, there are over 7,000 Hispanic/Latino children under age 5 in DC. In 2014, we released a policy brief entitled Giving Hispanic Students a Chance to Succeed from the Start , that explored how race and ethnicity intersect with...

Over the past year, a number of news articles have drawn attention to the steep cost of child care, which in the District is now more than three times as expensive as in-state college tuition. Despite the amount spent by parents and a sizeable public investment (the District’s child care subsidy reimbursement rates are among the highest in the country),...

Editor's Note: One of our goals with "Little Citizens, Big Issues" is to showcase diverse voices and viewpoints from the community on issues affecting young children in the District. This post is by Lauren Hogan, director of public policy at the National Black Child Development Institute (NBDCI). In September, we had the pleasure of announcing that T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood was...

A new study about the benefits of preschool for low-income children is making headlines today -- but it's old news to us. A pile of research going back more than a decade have shown that public investments in early care and education, including but not exclusively preschool, give children a lifelong boost and bring long-term cost savings to society. This...

Yesterday the early care and education field got some news that we have been eagerly anticipating for a long time. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, along with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, announced a new Race to the Top -- this one focused entirely on promoting innovation and improvements in early education. The goal of these Early Learning...

Last week, the D.C. Council held a hearing on the budget for the Office of the State Superintendent for Education. This was after the agency held a public briefing session for advocates and providers on to answer questions about its budget. Unfortunately, very few of our questions were answered in either of these public forums. (Read our testimony .) OSSE’s...