2017 Early Childhood Education Summit

The 2017 Early Childhood Education Summit will bring together subject matter experts, community members, business and civic leaders, early childhood professionals and non-profit executives to consider ways the community can address the early childhood education issues facing Hays & Caldwell Counties.

PURPOSE:         

• Helping drive the local debate about early childhood education policies and programs.
• Share with corporate leaders the learnings on early childhood development as a cost-effective for economic and workforce development strategy.
• Deepen their knowledge on the current situation of early childhood in Hays & Caldwell Counties
• Developing an early childhood education business network to exchange best practices on policies, programs, and partnerships in the search for solutions by businesses governments and nonprogress organizations.

GOAL:

• Support a mixed provider delivery system: Whether early childhood programs are delivered by public, private, or nonprofit providers, communities should ensure that quality programs are available and convenient for the families who need them.
• Encourage early learning system and k-12 alignment: Too often, children are in programs that do not adequately prepare them for success in kindergarten. Encouraging better alignment between early learning programs and kindergarten will help children learn to the best of their ability.
• Promote early learning policies as part of the economic development agenda: Several studies have shown the return on investment that early learning programs can bring to communities. From the number of people employed to the supports provided to working parents to the long-term benefits for children who attend high-quality programs, early learning policies should be considered with the economic development plans.
• Encourage business organizations and networks to adopt a policy position in support of public investments for effective, high quality early education programs: Ensure that local chambers, as well as other business networks adopt this priority and follow up with policy makers.