smart start and hhs

Smart Start March 30, 2011

Smart Start Overview –The Problem

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Smart Start was created in 1993 as an innovative solutionto a problem: Children were coming to school unprepared to learn.

It was based on research that experiences early in life can have a lasting impact on later learning.


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Since Smart Start’s creation, North Carolina children have been faring better.

But there is still a long way to go.

Then Now

North Carolina ranked 49th in SAT scores

39th

33% of children attending child care were in high quality care

64%

NC graduation rate was 65% 74.2%


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Funding for the past decade: $49 million

*One-time budget reduction of $16M reduced available 08-09 budget to $194M**One-time budget reduction of $7M reduced available 09-10 budget to $187M

***One-time budget reduction of $6M reduced available 10-11 budget to $182M


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# of NC children birth to five in past decade: to 793,284

1(from 648,796)

% of NC children living in poverty in past decade: to 26%

2(from 19% in 2000)

1Data Source: Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau.

2Data Source: Population Reference Bureau, analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Census

Smart Start Overview –Key Principles

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All North Carolina children have the right to a chance at the American Dream.

Early childhood investments arevital to our state’s economic security and prosperity.

Families are our top priority. We put families first by giving them the tools they need to raise healthy, happy, successful children.


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The long-term consequence of neglecting to invest in children early is a lifetime of failure and dependency for far too many.

The earliest months and years of life are a crucial time when the foundation of children’s character, how they relate to others and how they learn, is built.

The simple truth is that if we lose them at 3, we lose them at 13, and we lose them at 30.


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We can’t afford to fail.

Long-term research shows that quality early childhood education raises graduation rates by up to 44%.

1

The most conservative researchers estimate a high school dropout costs $250,000

2in public assistance programs and

efforts to offset a reduced contribution society.

1 Mission: Readiness, http://www.missionreadiness.org/about_us.html

2Paying Later: The High Costs of Failing to Invest in Young Children,

http://www.partnershipforsuccess.org/uploads/20110124_02311PAESCrimeBriefweb3.pdf

Smart Start Overview –The Solution

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All children benefit from good early experiences.

Smart Start reaches children where they are—at home, a child care program, or a pediatrician’s office.


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Smart Start funds evidence-based programs with proven results that:

• Improve children’s early care and education programs so that they are safe, healthy and provide opportunities for children to learn skills they need for success in school.


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Smart Start funds evidence-based programs with proven results that:

• Ensure that children have access to preventive health care.

• Provide parents with tools and education that support them in raising happy, healthy successful children.


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Smart Start works in all 100 North Carolina counties through The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc. (NCPC), and 77 local, private nonprofit agencies (Local Partnerships).


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Smart Start is a public/private partnership at the state and local level. As such it brings people and dollars to the table that would not come otherwise.

NCPC and Smart Start local partnerships raise millions of dollars of private funding, something government agencies do not do.


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In the 2009-10 Fiscal Year alone, NCPC and Local Partnerships raised $17.7 million in cash.

NCPC secures private funding for services in local communities such as a recent $3 million, three-year grant from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation to combat early childhood obesity using evidence-based strategies implemented through Local Partnerships.


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The power of Smart Start is that it delivers outcomes by giving communities local control to determine the best approach to achieving them.


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NCPC establishes measurable, statewide goals for increasing the health, well-being and development of North Carolina’s children birth to five. Local Partnerships then take responsibility for making decisions about how best to achieve those goals based on the needs and resources in their local communities.


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NCPC ensures that Smart Start fully meets all legislatively mandated requirements and operates to the highest standards of effectiveness, efficiency, accountability, and integrity.

NCPC is dedicated to inspiring excellence and innovation in Smart Start through leadership in best practices and evidence-based programming. North Carolina is the only state to institute population outcomes for young children in every county.

Smart Start Performance and Accomplishments

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Independent Evaluations

Since 1996 there have been 37 independently conducted evaluations all with positive results.


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More children are in stable, high-quality care that protects children’s health and safety and promotes children’s development through: small group sizes; stable, nurturing caregivers with training and education in child development; and stimulating and age-appropriate activities and daily routines.


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• 63% of all children in early care and education attended high-quality (4- and 5-star licensed) programs in 2009/10 as compared to 33% in 2001.

• 74% of children whose families received child care subsidy attended high-quality (4- and 5-star licensed) programs in 2009/10 as compared to 30% in 2001.

• Since 2006 the percent of child care administrators with a 4-year college degree in early childhood education or a related field has increased from slightly more than one in four (28%) to nearly one in two ( 46%).


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More children are receiving developmental screenings:

• In 2009, 98% of children received recommended screenings after Smart Start launched the Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) program (compared to 81% before ABCD) in participating counties.

• Since 2001, the percent of children under the age of three who are identified with special needs and receive early intervention services has increased from 3% to 4.8%.


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More families have the tools they need to raise healthy, successful children:

• Parents who described their children as having above normal challenging behaviors decreased from 41% to 15% after participation in the Incredible Years parent education program in 2009.

• 80% of parents participating in Smart Start literacy programs increased the time they spend on literacy activities with their children in 2009.


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Research released this month by Duke University found that investments in Smart Start generate broad education benefits.

Tim Bartik, author of Investing in Kids: Early Childhood

Programs and Local Economic Development, says the

study demonstrates significant economic impact for North

Carolina. He calculates the benefits to state program costs

for Smart Start and More at Four to be 8.79.


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“These findings provide the most rigorous evidence yet that investments in these early childhood initiatives generate substantial benefits for all the children in the counties that receive these funds, even children who were never enrolled in the early childhood programs.” Helen Ladd, the Edgar T. Thompson Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and a professor of economics at Duke


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Key findings include:

• Third-graders have higher standardized reading and math scores and lower special education placement rates in those counties that had received relatively more funding for Smart Start and More at Four when these children were younger.

• The favorable effects for each program are independent of each other and complement each other, so that the best outcomes hold for children exposed to more of each program.


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Smart Start is a national model.

North Carolina was the first state to create an early childhood system. Every state in the nation has contacted NCPC for early childhood assistance.

The W. K. Kellogg Foundation provided funding for NCPC to help 11 states establish their early childhood initiatives.


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Fiscal Integrity

In the past ten years, NCPC and Smart Start local partnerships have been audited more than 450 times by State auditors and/or independent auditors hired by the State.

NCPC has had no audit findings for the past eight years. In the past two years, all partnerships were audited, and had no findings.


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Fiscal Integrity

NCPC conducts rigorous annual monitoring of Local Partnerships; delivers training and technical assistance; and holds Local Partnerships accountable for meeting performance standards in governance, fiscal, and programmatic operations.


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Fiscal Integrity

NCPC provides cost effective

tools and systems for Local

Partnerships to do business

– supporting centralized

accounting, computer, and

program reporting systems to

ensure reliability, accuracy,

and economies of scale.


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Fiscal Integrity

NCPC’s administrative overhead is just 3% of the appropriated State funds.

The other 97% is allocated to the 77 local partnerships that provide Smart Start services in all 100 counties in North Carolina.


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Immediate Benefits

Each year, early learning programs allow 380,000 North Carolinian parents to work.

59% of all NC children under six live in families where all parents work.

In total, these families earn almost $12.5 billion annually.


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Long-term Benefits

Nobel-prize winning economist James Heckman found that investments in early childhood developmentproduce the highest return on the dollar.

Preserving Our Future

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“We must invest now in the next generation to preserve our nation’s security, freedom, and opportunity. The safety of our country demands urgent and intelligent action. We call on all policymakers to ensure America’s national security by supporting interventions that will prepare young people for a life of military service and productive citizenship; this includes fully funding early childhood education programs, improving graduation rates, supporting families in ways that improve parenting skills and reduce child abuse, improving child health, mental health and nutrition services, and helping troubled kids get back on track.” Mission Readiness: Military Leaders for Kids

smart start and hhs

Documents

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solution9all children

nc children birth

healthy successful children

overview key principles8we

local communities

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