Page 8 – Early Learning Nation

New Brief Recommends Extending Tax Breaks to Early Childhood Educators

The IRS currently excludes early educators from a federal tax deduction offered to K-12 teachers who spend their own money on school supplies.

Rebecca Gale·May 1, 2025·5 min read

Every year, in December and in May, Susan Morice prepares a special project for her preschool class. “I do it...

Huong Vu: Helping Parents Become the Best Teacher

The Editors·Mar 30, 2022·4 min read

Strong communities begin with strong families. For many new parents, the challenges of parenting can be daunting. As Huong Vu, Family Engagement Specialist at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester (MA), explains, the group helps parents recognize that they “should be valued as the first teacher of the child and the expert in their own life.”

Child Care Innovation: Centralizing Administrative Roles

Part 3 of a 5-part Series

Rebecca Gale·Jul 20, 2022·9 min read

Our country is in a child care crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic, which has shown how difficult it is for...

Analysis: Public School Pre-K Teachers Are Professionals, But Aren’t Treated That Way

From pay to professional development to coordination with colleagues in higher grades, schools have a long way to go, study finds

Jill Cannon, Elizabeth Steiner and Anna Shapiro·Apr 24, 2025·3 min read

States are investing in expanding their pre-K programs. More than 1.5 million children were enrolled in a state-funded pre-K in...

Play Is a Child’s Search for Meaning: Q&A with Brenda Fyfe

Part 8 in “Seasons of Play” Series

Mark Swartz·Feb 14, 2024·5 min read

To learn more about play’s place in the Reggio Emilia approach, Early Learning Nation magazine spoke to Brenda Fyfe, dean and professor emeritus of the School of Education at Webster University.

Geography and Race, State by State, Can Determine the Fate Of Both Mother and Baby

CAP Report Outlines the Data

K.C. Compton·Mar 17, 2020·9 min read

The U.S. has the highest maternal and infant mortality rates among any comparable developed countries. In 2017, it ranked 55th...

Chronicling a Social Catastrophe, So We Can Prepare Better for the Next One

Mark Swartz·Oct 25, 2022·4 min read

At the start of the pandemic, Anya Kamenetz realized her apartment had a built-in alarm system. It went off at...

Community Health Workers Can Play a Key Role in Keeping Families Healthy

A report calls for the integration of community health workers into early childhood well-child care.

Mark Swartz·May 8, 2025·4 min read

The well-child visit is standard pediatric practice for the first three years of life. Every few months, parents or caregivers...

Virginia is for Childcare Solutions

Smart2Start = 1 Application for Almost 150 Providers

Mark Swartz·Feb 26, 2020·2 min read

Virginia’s Roanoke Valley, anchored by its namesake city in Southwest Virginia, is a considerable distance from the economically booming area...

A Rapid Succession of Child Care Closures Calls for Close Scrutiny

Is Guidepost Montessori on a path to becoming one of America’s most significant child care collapses?

Elliot Haspel·Mar 5, 2025·4 min read

The closure of a child care program can be devastating to children, families and the early educators who staff them....

Dr. Sandra Duncan: How to Design Inspiring Early Learning Spaces

The Editors·Nov 21, 2019·4 min read

When most people talk about designing an early childhood education program, they mean the curriculum, the funding, or the program. Not Dr. Sandra Duncan. When the Design Consultant for Early Childhood Classrooms and Adjunct Professor at Nova Southeastern University talks about designing, she means it literally.

“Baby’s First Years” Offers First U.S. Study to Assess Impact of Poverty Reduction on Infant and Toddler Development

Tom Kertscher·May 8, 2019·5 min read

“What this study is asking is whether or not, as a matter of public policy, is it a straightforward way to achieve the important goal of early childhood development.” -- Matt Klein, executive director, New York City Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity

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