The Acorn School

MAY/JUNE 2009

May 15th, 2009 Posted in Letters from the Executive Director

Have you heard of the Comprehensive Early Childhood Development System for Boulder County? Probably not. Should you care about an Early Childhood Development System for Boulder County? Yes!

The first three to five years of a child’s life are crucial to his or her healthy cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development. What happens during this time can have a significant influence on a child’s chances for success later in life.

For more than 10 years, residents of Boulder County have been working to develop a comprehensive early childhood system to serve all of Boulder County’s children. The Early Childhood Council of Boulder County (ECCBC) has been behind this work and is the primary forum for this countywide planning initiative.

The Framework for a Comprehensive Early Childhood System in Boulder County has two major components:

Services support the children, their families, and their caregivers. They address the quality of education and the environments the children are in, at home and during care.

System Supports refer to the management and infrastructure to support the services and programs, where the quality control and accountability are managed. The system must meet community goals, which means the community must understand its function and its accomplishments, and hold the system accountable to meet those goals.

A comprehensive early childhood system can help ensure that all children and families have access to high-quality programs and services. A large body of research demonstrates that investment in high-quality early childhood programs yield substantial short and long-term benefits. They achieve these impressive results by:

· supporting healthy early childhood development and effective parenting

· promoting academic success and developing productive adult citizens

· reducing public expenditures on remedial education, crime, and health-related problems

· strengthening local and regional economics

The Acorn School is proud to be a leading partner in this project and looks forward to sharing finished products of services and support systems in the near future. Feel free to contact me at anytime if you have questions about the framework for a comprehensive ECE system for Boulder County. Remember the mission of The Acorn School is provide high-quality, accessible early care and education programs, and to advocate for higher standards in the field or early childhood education.

Sincerely,

Matt Eldred -Executive Director