Governor’s Early

Childhood Initiative

HARTFORD — Gov M. Jodi Rell has proposed a new approach to help parents raise healthy, happy, and capable children — children who will be eager to learn and ready for school.

Under Gov Rell’s proposed two-year budget, $400,000 would be allocated to fund the Great Beginnings program, a cornerstone of her $26 million-plus Early Childhood Initiative.

“Great Beginnings would be the first effort of its kind to help Connecticut parents chart their child’s progress in reaching critical development milestones,” noted Karen Foley-Schain, executive director of the Children’s Trust Fund. “We are excited that Gov Rell has entrusted the Trust Fund to play such an important role in implementing this initiative.”

The Governor’s Early Childhood Initiative would make Connecticut a national model for early childhood education. Gov Rell seeks to expand and finance early childhood and school readiness programs across the state as well as develop new strategies to help close Connecticut’s achievement gap.

The trust fund would implement Great Beginnings through a dual strategy of first tapping into the agency’s existing network of programs and services that reach out to new parents. These services would include the Nurturing Families Network and Help Me Grow program. Second, a partnership with governor’s office, United Way, philanthropic and civic organizations, and the medical and business communities would be developed. This partnership would create a strategy for providing all Connecticut parents with timely access to the most advanced research on child development.

Among the tools being considered for Great Beginnings are the highly regarded Ages & Stages child developmental monitoring program, which provides parents with detailed questionnaires for charting their child’s development; an interactive child development “calendar” provided at birth to new parents while in the hospital that would encourage parents to actively monitor their child’s progress; and partnering with the national “Born to Learn” public awareness campaign being coordinated by the United Way of America, Civitas, and the Family and Work Institute.

Identifying children at risk of developmental delays or behavioral problems has been likened to finding needles in a haystack. According to the National Academy for State Health Policy, between 10 and 20 percent of children — far more than are currently identified — could benefit from some form of developmental intervention.

For more information, visit www.ct.gov.