Family Support

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In the days before terms like "0-3" and "child brain development" were brought into play, an educator in Minnesota had an idea: to strengthen the families of that state one child at a time. People admired him for his tenacity, but didn't believe it could be done. Some 26 years later, the state of Minnesota is the home of the most respected model of family education and support programs in the nation.

Minnesota's Early Childhood Family-Education (ECFE) program is the oldest and largest family education and support program in the nation. In 1973, the president of Minnesota's state senate-also a former educator-placed the concept of early childhood family education on the public agenda. Backed by research findings that underscored the critical importance of parents as a child's first and most influential teachers, the president of the senate proposed ECFE as a way of supporting parents in promoting the healthy development of their children.

The program began as a 10-school pilot program and quickly developed into a flourishing success. Legislation in 1984 authorized any school district with a community education program to establish ECFE and changed the basis for funding from grants to a combination of local tax levy and state aid. The programs, however, are strictly voluntary, but essentially funded by tax dollars.

Today, 350 school districts and 4 tribal schools in Minnesota offer Early Childhood Family Education programs. These school districts encompass more than 99% of the 0-4 population in the state, and ECFE involves more young children and their families than any other publicly sponsored program or service in Minnesota.

Advocates say these programs provide a link between child, parent, and family-therefore, enhancing the community and potentially stopping children from becoming at-risk. Changes in society--high divorce rates, children living in poverty, both parents working--underscore the need for programs like ECFE. The high mobility and general complexity of modern life combine with these and other factors to create intense stress on families of all income levels.

Typically, a family attends a two-hour session which includes parent-child interaction time and additional learning opportunities for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers while parents are involved in a discussion group. The Minnesota ECFE program has become the nation's model for over 20 states who have since tried to copy the program, as well as its benefits.

LINKS AND RESOURCES _______________________________________________________________________

Minnesota Department of Children, Families & Learning

National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education

Family Resource Coalition of America

earlychildhood.com