Transcript Saving Babies Is Saving Money The “For Our Babies” Campaign

A National Campaign To
Ensure Better Beginnings
Peter L. Mangione & Julie Weatherston
WestEd
NAEYC
Alanta, GA
November 7 , 2012
Why Babies ? Why Now?
School readiness, a competent workforce, solid
taxpayers, fewer criminals, more people able to
control their impulses and regulate their emotions -- -all these things have their origins in infancy.
Why Babies ? Why Now?
Because, in infancy, the brain we rely on for success
in school and life is still developing.
Why Babies ? Why Now?
• What happens to babies during their first three
years is that their brains get wired for anticipated
future functioning.
• Foundations of how we will think, feel and
communicate in the future are being laid down in
infancy.
Why Babies ? Why Now?
A focus on ensuring healthy development during
infancy will pay dividends all throughout life.
Delayed, damaged, or insufficient development is
very difficult and expensive to correct later in life. If
we ignore the earliest years, we do so to the
detriment of our children, families, communities
and nation.
The 10 Platform Planks of the
“For Our Babies”
Movement
I. Prenatal Care
1. Prenatal health care coverage for all families,
regardless of income, including home-based
support and counseling during pregnancy.
2. Affordable intervention services for at-risk
pregnancies including preconception assistance.
II. Paid Leave & Well Baby Care
3. Paid leave for parents for the first nine months of
their child's life.
4. Affordable visits to the homes of all newborns for
the first two years that include guidance by
trained professionals in parenting and healthy
development, along with counseling on early
emotional, social, language, intellectual, and
perceptual/motor development.
III. Screening and Follow Up Services
5. Affordable developmental screenings to identify
physical and behavioral needs, with referral to
affordable help when needed.
6. Affordable services for children with identified
special needs.
7. Free intervention services for families in crisis.
IV. Quality Infant Toddler Care
8. Childcare regulations that ensure that care is
provided in safe, engaging, and intimate settings.
9. Training, compensation, and professional stature
for infant and toddler teachers at the same level
as K-12 schoolteachers.
10. Childcare subsidies for all families.
Prenatal Care
Death rates from pregnancy complications are
three to four times higher among women who
receive no prenatal care compared to women who
receive basic prenatal care.
For every dollar spent on prenatal care, employers
can expect savings of $3.33 for postnatal care and
$4.63 in long-term morbidity costs.
Paid Leave & Well Baby Care
Medicaid-enrolled children who are up-to-date on
their well-child check-ups through 2 years of age
are 48% less likely to experience an avoidable
hospitalization.
Children with incomplete care are 60% more likely
to visit an emergency department compared to
children who are up-to-date.
Screening & Follow Up Services
The Elmira Prenatal/Early Infancy Project, found
that for high-risk groups of children enrolled
there was a $6.92 return for every $1 invested.
Quality Infant Toddler Care
Every $1 spent on high-quality early childhood
programs for disadvantaged children creates $7 to
$9 in future savings to the communities and states
that do the investing.
Child Care Subsidies
Reducing child care fees by 10% would lead to an
increase of 3 to 4% in the probability of maternal
employment in the U.S.
75% of the costs of their children’s ECE are paid
for by families in the U.S. as compared to 11% in
Sweden (OECD, 2005).