[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hey everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kickoff the program with one of our most popular and impactful guests.

He's Matthew Melmed, who's executive director of a terrific organization called Zero to Three.

Matthew, good to have you with us again.

- Steve, it's a pleasure.

- Tell everyone, as we put up the website for Zero to Three, what it is and why it's so important, particularly in the area of childcare where we've done so much public awareness programming.

- Well, Steve, Zero to Three is an organization whose mission is to ensure that every baby has a strong start in life.

And the reason for that is that the most important period of learning in a child's life happens well before kindergarten in the first three years, and thus our name.

And during this time, a baby's brain forms more than 1 million neural connections every second.

And the early experiences that a baby and a toddler has helps them to learn to manage their emotions, to build relationships the rest of their lives.

In short, the foundation for who it is that we become as adults and the connection to childcare is that high quality early childhood education and childcare environments actually support development.

It's the experiences and the relationships that babies and young children have where they can have nurturing relationships, responsive caregiving, opportunities for learning that really form who we are and our identity from early on.

So I guess the bottom line, Steve, is you invest in babies.

We invest for the rest of our lives.

- Absolutely, and we'll put up the website for our initiative or the initiative that we're very much a part of, Start Strong NJ, which is creating greater public awareness around the need for accessible, affordable, quality childcare.

Not only its impact on families and on children, but also on the economy.

Along those lines, Matthew, did you just describe what is referred to as brain science?

- Yes, neuroscience has clearly demonstrated that we can strengthen certain neural connections in the brain based upon the fact that if children have really strong nurturing relationships with their parents and their caregivers, if they're in language rich environments, if they have opportunities to explore and learn and have support for their social emotional development, synapses in their brain strengthen.

And if conversely, they have a series of adverse early childhood experiences, they fear adults.

They don't connect with their caregivers in healthy ways.

The environment may have material deprivation or even toxic stress that forms other synapses to strengthen.

And those are the ones that get us in trouble in school and in life.

- Along these lines, Matthew, you understand childcare from a national perspective, from a perspective that most of us don't get to see who are very New Jersey centric.

That being said, public policy around childcare, is it literally state by state?

Because the federal government has, I don't even, I'm not even gonna call it a childcare policy, but they have so many programs and different federal agencies that impact childcare.

Is it literally state by state, Matthew?

- It's a combination, Steve.

Most of the funding is federal in nature, but how it is delivered is really driven by the states with federal guidelines.

And we do not fund it adequately enough, neither at the federal level or the state level.

And we have to think of childcare as a early learning opportunity.

An essential infrastructure, and from a public.

- Excuse me, does that include?

Sorry for interrupting.

Does that include daycare as part of it?

- Yes, when I say childcare.

- Right, I'm sorry.

- I, you know, I think daycare is a term that people don't use as much because you find that parents who have different work time and responsibilities, not just during the day, we need to be thinking about this as beyond daycare.

In fact, beyond childcare, we have to be thinking about it as early care and education 'cause that's really what is happening.

- So I'm curious about this, the return on investment.

How would you describe, Matthew, the quote, ROI, the return on investment for if, in fact, governments, state and federal government were to invest in the way it should be investing in childcare and not see it as charity or giving it away, but there's a return.

Describe that return, Matthew.

- Well, there's two principle returns.

One, it enables parents to work and enables them to work if their child is in a safe and supportive environment where they can focus on their work.

So I think that is clearly a strong economic driver.

The bigger return on investment is the return that happens when babies and toddlers and young children get the care and support and education that they need so that they are ready to enter school ready to learn and be able to have the emotional capacity to navigate that.

- Before I let you go, the Healthy Steps program, describe it.

It's the Zero to Three Healthy Steps program.

What is it and why is it so important and impactful, Matthew?

- Healthy Steps, it is, in essence, embeds within a pediatric setting where virtually every baby shows up.

A developmental specialist who could have the time and training to answer the key questions that parents have about their children's development or behavior.

And pediatrics can play a major role in supporting early learning because it's where virtually every baby comes.

Programs like Healthy Steps embed this developmental specialist.

New Jersey has secured Medicaid reimbursement for Healthy Steps, which expands it to many more families.

However, gaps still remain.

Only 54% of babies who receive Medicaid actually receive six of the recommended well-child visits in the first 15 months, and only 45% received developmental screening in their first three years.

So we've got a ways to go.

New Jersey is great in that it's opened the pathway for this program to scale, but we have to put the emphasis on making that happen.

- Matthew Melmed, we've had him many times, actually go on our website, SteveAdubato.org, look at past interviews we've done with Matthew on a whole range of childcare centric topics.

He's the executive director of a terrific organization called Zero to Three, part of a important coalition committed to affordable, accessible quality childcare.

Matthew, as always, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you, Steve, my pleasure.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

The Burke Foundation Rowan University.

The New Jersey Education Association.

PSEG Foundation.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

And by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Promotional support provided by NJBIZ.

And by New Jersey Globe.

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