Policy
Driving Effective Policies
The Center for Children’s Initiatives (CCI) believes all children have a right to start life with the best possible foundation, and we provide policymakers with recommendations rooted in real life insight on the ever-shifting terrain of families’ needs and those of early learning services.
A child’s earliest experiences lay the foundation for all later learning and success. CCI’s experience, expertise, and interaction with families and early education programs and professionals shapes our 360° view of how to support families as they seek early learning opportunities for their children. This informs our efforts to improve policies through providing data, policy reports and effective coalition building.
CCI publishes CCI Primer: Early Care and Education in New York City, which identifies trends in funding, enrollment, capacity and access to early care and learning. CCI sees challenges from multiple angles, recognizing the changes that must happen.
CCI works in close collaboration with other advocates, researchers, parents and policymakers to promote better policies. CCI shares experience and practical know-how with other organizations and policymakers to develop a dialogue for change.
CCI convenes the Early Childhood Strategic Group (ECSG) , a partnership of 20 organizations dedicated to creating an integrated and high-quality system of early care and education for New York City's children. CCI is a co-convener of WinningBeginningNY, the State’s early care and learning coalition. CCI is represented on the New York State’s Early Childhood Advisory Council, which is charged with developing a coherent strategy for early childhood services in New York State.
CCI Promotes Effective Investments
CCI also partners with national advocacy coalitions and funders to keep up with the latest research on early childhood development and best practices, as well as the latest research on how to take quality initiatives to scale. CCI has been a leading voice in promoting the expansion of the State’s Universal Pre-K initiative as an important new investment in early learning as well as investments to improve the quality and availability of services for babies and toddlers. CCI seeks to create a seamless, continuum of services for young children from birth to third grade, with high standards in all settings.
