Working Across Systems to Understand Early Childhood Education Participation for Young Children in Foster Care

Abstract

Early childhood education (ECE) participation has significant benefits for young children and families with child welfare system involvement and may help reduce disparities over the lifespan. Yet, ECE participation of young children in foster care remains low, despite federal efforts to prioritize their enrollment. This poster presents Minnesota-specific learnings from 1) quantitative analysis of integrated, statewide administrative data, and 2) interviews with state agency staff who provided broad-level perspectives around barriers and facilitators to ECE participation for young children in foster care, with particular attention to group differences in experiences by race/ethnicity, age, and geography (urban, suburban, rural). We find interagency collaboration to be essential to effectively identify and address challenges in policy, practice, and knowledge and to increase ECE participation and these programs’ myriad benefits for children and families with child welfare system involvement. This study was a partnership between the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare and the Center for Early Education and Development, in consultation with the Minnesota Departments of Human Services and Education.