Infants and Toddlers in State and Federal Budgets: Summary Report from Urban Institute Roundtable

1 Infants and Toddlers in State and Federal Budgets: Summary Report from Urban Institute Roundtable Rosa Maria Castañeda and Olivia Golden 2 Copyright © 2009. The Urban Institute. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for reproduction of this file, with attribution to the Urban Institute. The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization that examines the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. 3 CONTENTS Executive Summary Introduction Infants and Toddlers in State and Federal Budget Processes The Role of Health and Nutrition Programs in Serving Infants and Toddlers The Role of Early Care and Education Programs in Serving Infants and Toddlers Emerging Themes Next Steps 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report summarizes the roundtable “Infants and Toddlers in State and Federal Budgets: Yesterday’s Choices, Today’s Decisions, Tomorrow’s Options” conducted by the Urban Institute, with support from the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation, on March 30, 2009. The roundtable’s focus grew out of the widely perceived mismatch between sharply limited public investments on infants and toddlers and an accumulated body of research demonstrating the significance of the earliest years of life. We describe the group’s diverse perspectives and wide-ranging discussion of strategies to address this mismatch. This executive summary highlights selected points from the full report, with a focus on actionable next steps. It summarizes key facts about federal and state expenditures on young children, draws out five themes from the discussion, and identifies selected short-term action steps for each. These action steps were proposed during the discussion but do not necessarily reflect all participants’ views, since the discussion was not designed to reach consensus. Federal and State Expenditures on Young Children • Of more than 12 million infants and toddlers in the United States, nearly half live in low-income families, a disproportionate share compared with children in other age groups (Douglas-Hall and Chau 2008). • Federal spending on infants and toddlers is concentrated in health and nutrition programs, which together account for 38 percent of federal spending on this age group—but only about a quarter of federal spending on all children (Macomber et al. 2009). • Early care and education programs represent less than 7 percent of federal spending on very young children, compared with 17 percent of federal spending on all children (Macomber et al. 2009). Participants also noted that federal spending in key programs is very small compared to need: for example, even after recently enacted gains, Early Head Start will reach only 6 percent of poor pregnant women, infants, and toddlers. • Federal spending is likely the large majority of public spending for this age group. Participants noted that state and local expenditures on very young children are relatively small, since the vast majority of state and local spending on children goes toward elementary and secondary education. (At the same time, participants highlighted several states that have recently taken important and innovative approaches to investing in infants and toddlers.) • The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) is more focused on children, including young children, than the federal budget as a whole. Its investments though are set to expire at the end of the period 2009–2011. • The state fiscal outlook is currently grim, and participants argued that ARRA will not be sufficient to fill the gap. 5 Five Themes 1. Health and nutrition programs offer opportunities for improving young children’s circumstances that have not been fully tapped. • State early childhood practitioners and advocates should look into the potential role of nutrition programs (including Women Infants and Children [WIC], Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP], and Adult Care Food Program [CACFP]) in their own states as a lever to improve children’s early experiences. • State early childhood and health practitioners and advocates should seek joint opportunities to improve the care of young children. They should i. increase the focus of public health insurance programs on prevention and early intervention for young children, ii. reduce “churning” (young children moving in and out of public coverage), iii. reach out to private insurers and pediatricians, and iv. track key quality of care indicators for young children. 2. Improving infant-toddler services requires better aligning the “Lego set” of programs and funding streams. • Alternative routes to this goal include investing in i. “systems change,” such as revamping professional training across programs, improving data systems, and developing shared program standards and eligi