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Child Care Action Alert: Act now to protect our children, families and economy

Posted on February 3, 2025

Federal funding for child care and early education is at risk—and the consequences for children, families, and our economy could be devastating. Without this essential funding, millions of families could lose access to the care they depend on, forcing parents out of work and putting child care providers at risk of closure.

Why This Matters:

🔴 Children suffer - Without stable funding, many child care programs will be forced to close or cut services, leaving children without the quality early learning they need to thrive.

🔴 Families struggle - Without affordable, accessible child care, parents—especially working mothers—will be pushed out of the workforce, threatening their financial stability.

🔴 The economy takes a hit - A collapsing child care system means fewer workers, lost productivity, and economic strain on families, businesses, and communities.

We Must Act NOW!
Congress must prioritize funding for child care—before it’s too late. Your voice can help secure the future of our children and keep families and communities strong.

Send a message to your elected officials NOW. Tell them: No cuts. No freezes. Protect child care funding for our children, families, and economy.

Thank you for speaking up and standing with children, families, and child care providers across the nation.

Guidance for Child Care Providers: Template for “Safe Space” Policies

Posted on January 28, 2025

The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) offers a guide to help child care providers create “Safe Space” policies. Below is a template created by CLASP.

TEMPLATE FOR SAFE SPACE POLICY

Safe Space Policy for [PROGRAM NAME]

Purpose and Principles
This policy provides protocols for staff to follow in case of immigration enforcement actions at or near [PROGRAM NAME]. These protocols are not intended to interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration laws and are not political in nature. The purpose of [PROGRAM NAME’s] safe space policy is to ensure that our services remain accessible to all families while upholding core constitutional principles of educational equity and access.

Scope of the Policy
References to [PROGRAM NAME] property include [list areas such as classrooms, playgrounds, hallways, offices, and other spaces considered private and belonging to the program]. These areas are designated as protected spaces under this policy.

Commitment to Family Accessibility and Safety
We understand that the presence of federal immigration agents on our property could deter families from bringing their children to [PRESCHOOL/PRE-K/CHILD CARE] or accessing critical services. As early care and education professionals, we are committed to maintaining a safe, reliable, and welcoming environment for every family we serve or who seeks our services.

Staff Roles and Responsibilities

Designated Staff Members:

  • [Name or role, e.g., Director or Assistant Director] will handle communication with immigration agents.
  • [Other roles, e.g., Administrative Assistant] will notify on-site staff and contact off-site personnel, such as legal counsel or immigrant rights organizations, if necessary.

Interaction with Immigration Agents:

  • Designated staff must verify agents’ credentials, including a judicial warrant, supervisor authorization, and purpose of visit.
  • Without proper documentation, agents will not be allowed on the property. If credentials are valid, the agent will be accompanied by staff, and all events will be documented.

Minimizing Disruption:
Staff will make every effort to avoid exposing children and families to immigration agents and minimize disruptions to daily routines.

Parent Notification:
In the event of an enforcement action, parents will be informed promptly of the agent’s arrival and departure, as well as the measures taken to protect children and personal information.

General Security Measures:

  • All doors will remain locked during operating hours, with controlled access for authorized staff and parents.
  • Staff will be trained regularly on privacy protocols and safe space procedures.
  • Private information about families will only be collected as necessary and securely stored, accessible only for programmatic purposes.

Policy Review and Updates:
This policy will be reviewed [annually/bi-annually] and updated as necessary to remain compliant with local, state, and federal regulations.

HELPFUL LINKS

 

 

Stephan’s Story: How positive fatherhood programs can mitigate Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Posted on January 23, 2025

This is video 2 of the Y.E.S. (Youth Expert Stakeholders) video Series. Adverse childhood experiences are traumatic events that occur in childhood and negatively impact a young person’s trajectory. Listen as Stephan discusses his experiences, and how he envisions positive fatherhood programs impacting children's experiences.

Click to learn more about the Y.E.S. video series

Health Spotlight: Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention

Posted on January 10, 2025

Isaiah-Fudge-2024_5-cropped-web

By Isaiah Fudge
Director
Positive Youth Development 

For more information on this topic, contact Isaiah at ifudge@acnj.org

Overview
In June 2024, U.S.Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a national public health crisis. This declaration draws attention to two essential points--the need for a holistic approach to address the crisis and to focus on initiatives that effectively combat the issue. New Jersey is rich with one such initiative: community-based violence intervention and prevention (CBVIP) programs. As these programs continue to be more widely recognized as essential health initiatives, there is opportunity for the state to enhance its investments in the organizations leading the grassroots efforts. Additionally, there is opportunity to increase research around the direct positive impacts that CBVIP programs are having on our schools. 

What is Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention?
Community-based violence intervention and prevention (CBVIP) refers to health-based, community-led approaches to safety that prioritize fostering wellness and healing rather than arrest and detention. CBVIP services not only respond to instances of acute violence, but also addresse the root causes, such as trauma, adverse childhood experiences (ACES), and other health-related issues, that lead to violence in communities. The services prioritize those closest to the violence, especially victims, but even perpetrators of violence, providing wrap-around supports to minimize the possibility of retaliation and/or revictimization. Their impact, however, extends beyond individuals to entire communities, including schools, as staff and administrators often leverage relationships with CBVIP professionals to de-escalate and prevent violence in and around the school building. Specifically, this work positively impacts areas such as chronic absenteeism and school discipline. 

CBVIP professionals in Newark, for example, contract with schools to provide assistance to students to and from school. While not solely due to CBVIP efforts, the 2022-23 NJ School performance report shows impressive decreases in Newark Public Schools’ chronic absenteeism rates, from 28.1% in 2021-22 to 12.7% in 2022-23, well below the state average of 16.6%. The report also shows a decline in police notifications, from 51 in 2021-22 to 23 in 2022-23, and it also highlights a reduction in out-of-school suspensions, which fell from 730 in 2021-22 to 602 in 2022-23. By adopting a de-facto full-service community schools approach, schools like those in Newark engage CBVIP professionals to mitigate behavioral issues and threats surrounding the school, resulting in improved attendance and decreased police notifications. 

Moreover, CBVIP services complement local law enforcement, often acting as a conduit to police and the community. Youth in underserved communities tend to avoid police rather than collaborate with them, especially because of the historical trend trend of over-criminalizing Black and Brown youth. Grassroots CBVIP work, however, bridges police with these communities by helping law enforcement understand the needs of the community, supplementing law enforcement for non-threatening issues, and helping the community hold law-enforcement accountable.

Some Elements of Violence Intervention and Prevention

      • Street Outreach:  The Annie E. Casey Foundation recently highlighted the importance of outreach on preventing youth harm. Also known by other names including high-risk intervention and violence interruption, this work deploys credible professionals, many of whom have lived-experience within the communities they are working in. They have a strong understanding of the local risk factors–neighborhood politics, pulse of the community, etc–impacting mental health and causing violence. The professionals conducting this part of CBVIP work are intentional about building rapport with the people closest to the violence to mitigate those local risk factors. Outreach professionals also have a strong awareness of global risk factors and how they impact the health of people, and leverage that understanding in their approach. ACNJ's County Pocket Guide 2024 reported an estimated 13% of NJ's children were in poverty and 5% of teens were not in school nor working. In their 2024 Kids Count Data book, Annie E. Casey Foundation also reported that 24% of NJ's children have parents who lack stable employment and 35% live in households that have a high housing cost burden. Outreach professionals connect people to wrap-around supports such as housing and legal resources, workforce training opportunities, and mentoring and academic services to thwart some of these risk factors.  
      • Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program (HVIP): This program provides wrap-around support to victims of severe violence while still in the hospital’s care (some organizations work with survivors as young as 5 years old). Hospital staff work in partnership with violence intervention and prevention (VIP) professionals, making referrals to VIP workers on behalf of violence survivors. From there, a plan is crafted alongside the victim, and case management is provided to ensure a pathway to holistic healing. In their guide to implementing HVIP programming, Everytown for Gun Safety highlights the impact HVIP has on decreasing potential re-victimization. A study of a San Francisco-based HVIP showed that HVIP participants had a 50% lower reinjury rate from those who did not participate. Additionally, evidence suggests that HVIP supports increased engagement in, and more likely utilization of, community health services for youth ages 10-24, potentially leading to improved physical and mental wellness outcomes. There’s also evidence suggesting that HVIP work leads to reductions of justice involvement.
      • Trauma Recovery Services: In urban communities many survivors of violence have distrust in the mainstream responses to their harm. Piggybacking on the work of HVIP, trauma recovery services provide safe spaces for youth survivors of violence of all sorts. Mental health services; linkages to legal resources; and referrals for housing are all only a portion of the services survivors can access when engaging with trauma recovery units. All services are provided confidentially and free of charge.This work is often conducted by licensed clinical CBVIP workers, but also by credible professionals who have lived through similar violent situations. 
      • Community Education: Many CBVIP organizations seek to empower youth and the local community through education. Youth and community members are educated on a variety of topics, ranging from financial literacy and economics, to generational trauma and the importance of self-care. The idea behind educating the community is to address root causes of violence such as trauma, ACES, and  low socio-economic status. CBVIP recognizes the power of information, and acknowledges that educating the people they serve can have a preventive impact on violence in their communities.

The Current Status of CBVIP Work in NJ
Through the Department of Law and Public Safety, New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (OAG), competitive funding for CBVIP work has been consistent. According to a September 2024 announcement by the OAG, almost $115 million in funding has been allocated to this work since 2021. The OAG has supported the work in other ways too. In 2022, the OAG established the Division of Violence Intervention and Victim Assistance (VIVA) to bridge victims’ services with VIP work, and provide centralized support to the organizations conducting the work. In 2024, the OAG established the Office of Alternative and Community Responses (OACR) to assist law enforcement with connectivity to community safety leaders.  

However, because of the competitive nature of the OAG grants, and because of other funding-related issues reported by them, many grassroots CBVIP organizations are seeing their sustainability threatened. And, if this work decreases, or even disappears, youth and their families would lose an important initiative that positively impacts their health. With that, prioritizing funding organizations with fidelity to the model might be best, given their ability to robustly address youth and families’ health needs, and given the limited availability of funds. Understanding the extent of CBVIP’s holistic impact would also create pathways to sustainability. Therefore, it is also important to study the model’s impact on local youth institutions, specifically on schools, and how CBVIP reduces chronic absenteeism and over-discipline in them. 

Some Violence Intervention and Prevention Organizations in NJ:     

Atlanticare 
Anti-Violence Coalition of Hudson County
Capital Health System
Center for Family Services
Hackensack Meridian Health
The H.U.B.B. Arts and Trauma Center
Newark Community Street Team
Paterson Healing Collective
Reimaging Justice, Inc. 
RWJ Barnabas Health, Jersey City Medical Center
Salvation and Social Justice
Trenton Community Street Team @ Isles Inc.
Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. 

Read our latest updates on Positive Youth Development

Math Talk for Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers: As Easy as 1, 2, 3!

Posted on January 7, 2025

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By Sara Thom
Former Chair
ACNJ Board of Trustees

For more information on this topic or kids count data, contact Alena at asiddiqui@acnj.org

Did You Know Blog Banner

The Importance of Early Math Skills

Most adults know the importance of reading to young children. Storytime is a wonderful way to bond with kids, develop their empathy and emotional awareness, and introduce them to vocabulary they’ll need to succeed in school. But parents and caregivers may not be aware that math matters for young children. In fact, in an important study of school readiness and later achievement, the authors found that the best predictor of academic success is not literacy or attention span, but math skills at kindergarten entry. 

It is also widely recognized that children who start school with poor math skills rarely catch up to their peers. According to researchers Alan Schoenfeld and Deborah Stipek, “(t)hose least prepared are disproportionately children of color and from low-income families.” This underscores that the achievement gap is rooted in disparities in kindergarten readiness.

Although we know early math skills are a key predictor of later academic achievement, an astonishing, and growing, number of students have not mastered even basic elementary math skills. We often hear in New Jersey that our schools are some of the best in the nation. Yet the most recent data show that overall, fewer than 40% of NJ students score at or above proficiency in math – testing below pre-pandemic levels for the third year in a row. More specifically, the percentage of 3rd graders meeting or exceeding expectations on the math portion of the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment (NJSLA) is approximately 48% and for 8th graders, it is about 19%. The sad truth is that children who aren’t proficient by 3rd grade almost never catch up to their peers. This is nothing to be proud of.

How Parents and Caregivers Can Support Early Math Development

What can parents and child care providers do to enhance young children’s math skills in order to help support their kindergarten readiness and the likelihood of future academic success? The good news is that worksheets and flashcards are not required! Instead, adults can start by noticing and pointing out to young children that math is everywhere. “Math talk” is the key. Engage children in conversations that weave math into daily life. 

        • Count everyday objects like the number of legs your pets have.
        • Compare sizes–which friend or family member is taller or shorter? 
        • Identify a pattern on a striped shirt–red, blue, red, blue; which color comes next? 
        • Ask what shapes a child can identify in a room: a door is a rectangle, a doorknob is a circle, a window might have panes that are squares or triangles, etc.  
        • Work together to measure a cup of rice or other ingredients while cooking dinner, or count scoops of ice cream for dessert. 

The more you start to talk about math, the more you, and the children, will see that it is in fact all around us.

There are helpful tools available that parents and child care providers can utilize to make math fun and engaging. Bedtime Math is a free app that combines reading and math into one experience. Every day, the app serves up a wacky, kid-friendly blurb for adults to read to children on topics like flamingos, pillow forts, and taco-copters. After each blurb, there are math questions to ask the kids at different levels of challenge: Wee Ones, Little Kids, and Big Kids. It takes just 5 or 10 minutes, and research shows that using Bedtime Math even twice a week can help kids make significant gains in their math achievement.

Other highly regarded early math apps include: 

        • Khan Academy Kids 
        • PBS’ Peg + Cat
        • Kahoot! Numbers

All of these encourage mathematical thinking and can be great starting points for families and child care providers to have math conversations in enjoyable ways for kids.

Why Math Literacy Matters for Everyone

Some may argue that math is less relevant in a world where calculators, computers, and now artificial intelligence, are at our fingertips. However, as important and convenient as these tools are, humans still need to judge the accuracy of the information they provide. All of us, not just those in STEM careers, need basic math literacy to understand the world we live in–whether to determine if a sale at the grocery store represents real savings, how to negotiate a car or home purchase, or how to correctly calculate a tip. Let’s raise our next generation to be mathematically confident critical thinkers. It all starts with early math talk!

 

Read our latest updates on Kids Count