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Growing Together: Expanding Roles for Social Work Practice in Early Childhood Settings

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Title: Growing Together: Expanding Roles for Social Work Practice in Early Childhood Settings
Language: English
Authors: Azzi-Lessing, Lenette
Source: Social Work. Jul 2010 55(3):255-263.
Availability: National Association of Social Workers (NASW). 750 First Street NE Suite 700, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-227-3590; e-mail: press@naswdc.org; Web site: http://www.naswpress.org
Peer Reviewed: Y
Physical Description: PDF
Page Count: 9
Publication Date: 2010
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Descriptors: Early Intervention, Early Childhood Education, Disadvantaged Youth, Young Children, Social Work, At Risk Students, Outcomes of Education, Family Involvement, Cultural Awareness, Educational Quality
ISSN: 0037-8046
Abstract: In the United States, interest in early childhood development has grown dramatically over the past two decades and continues to expand. Increasing public support for programs and services that address the needs of young children and their families provides numerous opportunities for social work intervention. This article describes three major early childhood systems--early intervention, Early Head Start, and early care and education--and discusses ways that social workers can strengthen programs within these systems and improve outcomes for participating children and families. Social workers' understanding of and commitment to family-centered practice and cultural competence are highlighted. Opportunities for social workers to become involved in advocating for, developing, and leading high-quality early childhood programs and implications for social work education are also discussed.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2010
Access URL: https://puck.naswpressonline.org/vl=50515152/cl=16/nw=1/rpsv/cw/nasw/00378046/v55n3/s7/p255
Accession Number: EJ892590
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0054283438;swr01jul.10;2010Oct12.14:53;v2.2.460</anid> <title id="AN0054283438-1">Growing Together: Expanding Roles for Social Work Practice in Early Childhood Settings </title> <p>In the United States, interest in early childhood development has grown dramatically over the past two decades and continues to expand. Increasing public support for programs and services that address the needs of young children and their families provides numerous opportunities for social work intervention. This article describes three major early childhood systems--early intervention, Early Head Start, and early care and education--and discusses ways that social workers can strengthen programs within these systems and improve outcomes for participating children and families. Social workers' understanding of and commitment to family-centered practice and cultural competence are highlighted. Opportunities for social workers to become involved in advocating for, developing, and leading high-quality early childhood programs and implications for social work education are also discussed.</p> <p>KEY WORDS: child care; early childhood intervention; Early Head Start; early intervention; family-centered practice</p> <p>Interest in early childhood development has grown dramatically over the past two decades and continues to expand. Growing public support for programs and services that address the needs of young children and their families provides numerous opportunities for social work intervention. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of key early childhood programs in the United States and discuss ways that social work practice can strengthen these programs and improve outcomes for participating children and families. The article describes opportunities for social workers to become involved in developing and leading early childhood programs and expanding the skills and knowledge of professionals providing services in these programs. The importance of advocating for policies that promote effective, high-quality early childhood programs is also discussed.</p> <hd id="AN0054283438-2">GROWING INTEREST, GROWING INVESTMENTS</hd> <p>A number of factors are contributing to increased attention on the early childhood years, which are usually defined as from birth to age six. Particularly influential are research findings that demonstrate the powerful impact of early life experiences on the growth and structure of the brain as well as on the development of complex emotions, social skills, and the capacity for learning. Numerous studies have shown that experiences and relationships in the first five years of life play a major role in future school performance and in a person's ability to form successful and meaningful relationships in childhood and beyond (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).</p> <p>Accompanying these discoveries are a number of social factors, including increased participation in the workforce by women with young children, that have resulted in greater numbers of children spending a portion of their earliest years in child care settings. The onset of welfare reform, with its stringent requirements for parents to work, has pushed an unprecedented number of young children from low-income, single-parent families into the child care system as well (Duncan & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Moreover, it is well documented that a large percentage of young children in the United States arrive at school ill prepared to learn and to succeed. Inadequate school readiness has been linked to disparities in academic achievement, particularly for children from low-income families (Rouse, Brooks-Gunn, & McLanahan, 2005). The issue of school readiness is currently receiving a great deal of attention from political and business leaders and economists, who are deeply concerned that unless its future workforce is well educated, the United States will be unable to effectively compete in an increasingly global marketplace (Heckman & Masterov, 2007; P.L. Lynch, 2007).</p> <hd id="AN0054283438-3">SOCIAL WORKERS: PRESENT BUT NOT PROMINENT</hd> <p>Regardless of the rationale for establishing or expanding early childhood initiatives, these programs provide many opportunities for the delivery of high-quality social work services in community-based settings. Given the young ages of participating children--and, often, the youth of their parents--many of these initiatives aim to prevent severe problems from occurring and to stop existing difficulties from becoming worse. They offer a wide range of opportunities to provide services that are strengths based and comprehensive. Through collaboration with parents and service providers from other disciplines, social workers can play a significant role in helping young children, particularly those who are most vulnerable, to have an optimal start in life.</p> <p>Presently, social workers appear to be underrepresented among the professionals developing, leading, and staffing early childhood programs. This is likely due, in large part, to the fact that these programs have been historically underfunded, leaving few resources for services beyond basic child care and education. Until recently, policymakers often viewed early childhood programs as babysitting programs and were likely to dismiss early-intervention approaches as unproven and, therefore, expendable. The wide dissemination of research findings on the rapid rate of brain development in early life, coupled with evaluation results demonstrating the long-term benefits of high-quality early childhood programs, is quickly changing those perceptions (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). Moreover, increased recognition of the lasting, harmful effects of factors such as poverty, trauma, and parents' mental illness on young children has amplified calls to build systems that not only support early learning, but also address the economic and emotional well-being of young children and their families as well. Although funding still lags behind awareness of the critical need for such systems, momentum toward supporting these efforts is rapidly growing at both the state and federal levels.</p> <p>The underrepresentation of social workers in early childhood settings may also be attributable to a lack of awareness on the part of early childhood professionals about the capacity that many social workers have for working with very young children and their families. The expertise of social workers is much more visible in child welfare, health, and mental health settings. In addition, social workers may be unaware of the potential match that exists between their skills and orientation and the needs of many early childhood programs, especially given the limited number of early childhood field placements typically available in BSW and MSW programs.</p> <p>When social workers are involved in early childhood settings, their roles are often constrained to providing case management or addressing specific problems, such as suspected child abuse and neglect. However, as leaders of early childhood programs become more aware of the impact that families and communities have on children's development, these programs are adopting approaches that have long been central to the practice of social work. Increasingly, early childhood programs are striving to deliver services that are family centered, culturally relevant, and strengths based in recognition of growing evidence that such qualities are essential to producing positive outcomes (Karoly et al., 1998; Lombardi & Bogle, 2004; Yoshikawa, 1995). Social workers, with their extensive understanding of the power of transactions between individuals and their environments and their skill in intervening within and across a wide range of systems, are well prepared to play an expanded role in advocating for, developing and leading, and providing services in these programs (Frankel, 1997).</p> <p>In the following sections, three prominent early childhood systems--early intervention, Early Head Start, and early care and education--and the opportunities they provide for social work practice are described. This is followed by a discussion of roles that social workers can play in ensuring that programs in these systems are effective in meeting the needs of the children and families served.</p> <hd id="AN0054283438-4">EARLY INTERVENTION</hd> <p>Early intervention services are provided to children from birth and age five who are identified as having developmental disabilities or being at significant risk for developmental, social, or emotional problems. Authorized by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) (P.L. 108-446), these services are aimed at preventing or reducing problems in the first few years of life so that affected children will experience optimal development and learning. IDEA mandates that appropriate educational services be provided for all children with disabilities between the ages of three and five and establishes comprehensive, family-based services for children from birth to three (Mahoney, 2007).</p> <p>IDEA emphasizes the delivery of services in natural and inclusive settings, strong collaboration with parents, and a comprehensive approach to working with the entire family (Block & Block, 2002; Mahoney, 2007). Therefore, early intervention services are typically provided in the child's home and in other community settings, such as child care centers, and parents and other family members participate in developing and implementing service plans.</p> <p>Although social workers have historically been among the professionals providing early intervention services, their roles have been less prominent than those of early childhood educators, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, and speech and hearing specialists. This is likely because of the emphasis on the physical aspects of disabilities that has been characteristic of early intervention programs across the country. Speech, hearing, and neurological problems are often more visible than the emotional and social issues that may threaten a young child's capacity for optimal development. Moreover, there is great disparity in how individual states implement IDEA, particularly in defining developmental risk factors and deciding whether to authorize early intervention services for young children who are at risk due to emotional and environmental factors.</p> <p>Early intervention's emphases on delivering services in children's natural environments, empowering parents, and engaging families fit well with the values and approaches common among social workers. Social workers' roles in these programs include service planning and coordination, parent training, and counseling family members. Families with young children with disabilities are often confronted by a number of challenges, such as feelings of grief, financial concerns, and worries about their child's future. Social workers' capacity to play a number of roles simultaneously to assist such families can be especially helpful in these situations (Bishop, 2002; Block & Block, 2002; Mahoney & Wiggers, 2007).</p> <p>Social workers should draw on their person-in-environment perspective to educate policymakers about the importance of extending early intervention services to young children affected by social and emotional risk factors such as poverty and maternal depression. The growing body of research evidence indicating that these factors threaten optimal development can be used to bolster this argument (Rouse et al., 2005). The 2003 amendment (P.L. 108-36) of the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) (P.L. 93-247) requires child welfare systems to refer infant and toddler victims of maltreatment for assessment by early intervention programs. Based on research findings that risk for disabilities and risk for child abuse and neglect often coexist, CAPTA's intent is to identify and begin addressing developmental delays and other conditions as early as possible (Herman, 2007; Sullivan & Knutson, 1998). A high level of service coordination and family engagement is often necessary to effectively serve the vulnerable young children and families targeted by CAPTA. Social workers, especially those with knowledge of the child welfare system, can provide the support, advocacy, and case management that these children and families require. There are also important roles for social workers to play at the policy level in ensuring that state child welfare and early intervention systems are aligned such that services to vulnerable children and their families are carefully coordinated.</p> <hd id="AN0054283438-5">EARLY HEAD START</hd> <p>Launched in 1995, Early Head Start (EHS) provides comprehensive services to low-income infants and toddlers and their families. The program is an outgrowth of the federal Head Start program, which has provided education and family support to economically disadvantaged three- and four-year-olds for more than 40 years. Recognition of the importance of offering services that foster optimal development in the first three years of life led to the creation of EHS. In addition to serving families with children from newborn to age three, this program encourages the enrollment of young, pregnant women so that service delivery can begin before the baby is born, helping to ensure the health and well-being of both infant and mother.</p> <p>EHS is designed to help give low-income infants and toddlers the best possible start in life by achieving outcomes in four areas: child development, family well-being, staff development, and community building (Lombardi & Bogle, 2004). Services are delivered in families' homes, in early care and education programs, and in a combination of these two settings. Families may participate in EHS from before their child's birth until his or her third birthday, allowing for the development of long-term, trusting relationships between families and service providers.</p> <p>EHS programs are staffed by multidisciplinary teams that include family service workers, mental health consultants, nurses, and early childhood educators who work in partnership with families to plan and deliver customized services. One of this program's strengths is its emphasis on identifying and addressing the unique needs of each participating child and family rather than administering a package of predetermined services. A focus on parent empowerment and attention to overall family well-being, including economic well-being, are additional strong points. Given the multiple challenges many low-income families face and the often confusing array of services and programs in most communities, social workers' abilities to partner with their clients and effectively navigate complex systems are vital to the effective delivery of EHS services (Olsen & DeBoise, 2007).</p> <p>EHS has undergone a rigorous, national evaluation, and the results are promising. Participating children had better developmental outcomes at age three, and their parents scored higher on a wide range of parenting and family self-sufficiency measures than did their counterparts in the control groups. However, although families with a moderate number of demographic risk factors (that is, teenage parenthood, low levels of parental education, and so forth) experienced the greatest positive effects, families with the highest number of these risk factors did not benefit from EHS. These findings have led to calls for the development of more intensive models of service delivery to assist families experiencing multiple stressors and challenges (Raikes, Love, Kisker, Chazan-Cohen, & Brooks-Gunn, 2004).</p> <p>In the first several years of the implementation, EHS programs were based primarily in existing Head Start programs and were led mainly by early childhood educators. More recently, EHS grants have been awarded to a wider variety of organizations, including family service and mental health agencies, where social workers have a strong presence.</p> <p>By becoming involved in leading EHS and similar programs, social workers can help to ensure that these programs work with children and families in a comprehensive and holistic way. Bringing together EHS and child welfare and mental health programs could foster the development of service models that are sufficiently intensive and comprehensive to meet the needs of those families encountering a high number of risk factors--families that the current design of EHS does not effectively serve. Moreover, although the promising outcomes that EHS does achieve for many of the vulnerable young children and families it serves are encouraging, the fact that the program currently serves less than 4 percent of those eligible raises a compelling social justice issue. Increasing the capacity of EHS to serve low-income infants and toddlers is an extremely worthwhile focus for social work advocacy at both state and federal levels.</p> <hd id="AN0054283438-6">EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION</hd> <p>Early care and education encompasses family day care and relative care provided in a home as well as child care offered at for-profit and nonprofit child care centers. Head Start and preschool programs are also usually included in descriptions of the early care and education system (Kagan & Neuman, 2000). As part of their efforts to improve school readiness--especially for economically disadvantaged three- and four-year-olds--many states are expanding access to prekindergarten programs. In 2007, over 1 million children participated in state-funded preschool education (Barnett, Hustedt, Friedman, Boyd, & Ainsworth, 2007).</p> <p>Each state establishes its own standards for child care programs, and these vary widely. Experts in the early care and education field concur that quality programs include well-prepared staff members, relatively small caregiver-to-child ratios, a developmentally appropriate curriculum, and a safe and stimulating setting (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2010). Research indicates that only those programs that meet high standards produce significant and lasting benefits to the children they serve (Brown, McComb, & Scott-Little, 2003; Gilliam & Zigler, 2004; Gomby, Larner, Stevenson, Lewit, & Behrman, 1995). Although there is a great deal of consensus among professionals regarding the critical elements that define quality early care and education, most programs lack the resources necessary to provide consistently high-quality care. This is especially the case in low-income communities, where poor care for poor children is often the norm (Collins & Ribeiro, 2004; Kagan & Neuman, 2000; Stoney, Mitchell, & Warner, 2006).</p> <p>A number of efforts are underway, both at the federal level and within individual states, to improve the quality of all types of early care and education. As of 2007, all 50 states had adopted child-based outcome standards for prekindergarten programs, and several were in the process of developing and adopting early learning standards for infants and toddlers (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2007). Other quality improvement initiatives include expanding opportunities for professional development for child care providers and increasing the technical assistance available to individual programs. The degree to which these and other efforts succeed will depend largely on allocation of financial resources that are adequate to the task.</p> <p>The roles typically played by social workers in early care and education settings have been consultative: providing support and guidance to teachers and other classroom staff members and providing parent education, usually in group settings. Although child care staff members and parents appear to value these services, funding limitations have caused them to be in short supply and offered in relatively few programs.</p> <p>Growing recognition of the prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems among young children and their negative impact on academic success has led to increased attention being paid to the roles of social workers and other mental health professionals in child care programs. As Gilliam (2007) noted,</p> <p>Early childhood mental health consultation [EC-MHC] may be an effective means for reducing severe behavior problems in early education and care settings, as well as decreasing the likelihood of children with challenging classroom behaviors losing services through expulsion and suspensions. (p. 4.)</p> <p>Findings from a national study of prekindergarten teachers indicated that teachers without access to classroom-based mental health consultation are nearly twice as likely to report expelling a preschooler as are those who report having ongoing access to a consultant; however, the same study indicated that fewer than 25 percent of the teachers surveyed had regular access to ECMHC (Gilliam, 2006).</p> <p>Social workers are well prepared to provide consultation in early care and education settings, given their expertise in working with families and other systems. By influencing teachers' feelings and knowledge regarding behavior management and assisting them in developing appropriate skills, a consultant can help ensure that the needs of even children with very challenging behaviors are met (Mann, Powers, Boss, & Fraga, 2007). When teachers become proficient at meeting these needs, children are less likely to be labeled, stigmatized, or excluded from settings that will help prepare them for school success (Gilliam, 2007). In addition, the skills that teachers and other classroom staff members acquire through the consultation process can be generalized to improve the quality of the services provided to entire classes.</p> <p>Additional roles for social workers in early care and education settings include helping parents to learn behavior management skills, addressing a range of parenting concerns, and helping families to access additional resources. Moreover, licensed clinical social workers have the capacity to provide on-site mental health services directly to young children who are experiencing emotional and behavioral problems and to effectively engage families and teachers in this process. Unfortunately, limited funding often prohibits these services from being delivered in child care settings, where children and families are often more comfortable than they would be in formal mental health agencies (Mann et al., 2007).</p> <p>Social workers should play a critical role in advocating at both state and federal levels for sufficient funding to support early childhood mental health services. Foundations for Learning, part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (P.L. 104-110), provides a blueprint for ensuring that young children are able to access these services in a variety of early care and education settings. Advocacy is needed to substantially increase the meager funding attached to this important piece of legislation. Social workers should also advocate for flexible funding from state Medicaid programs and private insurers to cover the costs of providing on-sight mental health services to young children in child care and preschool programs and consultation to teachers and parents.</p> <hd id="AN0054283438-7">OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEADERSHIP</hd> <p>This brief overview of three systems that serve young children and families illustrates the variety of roles that social workers are well equipped to play in early childhood programs. Opportunities for social work practice are likely to expand as key social work perspectives, including culturally relevant and family-based practice, are increasingly incorporated into the design of these programs. Social workers bring important skills in advocacy, service linkage, counseling, and consultation to their work with young children and their families.</p> <p>It would be unfortunate, however, if social workers were to remain largely limited to providing direct services in early childhood programs instead of also participating in the design, development, and administration of these programs and services. As in other areas of practice, these systems need visionary leaders with a strong commitment to service excellence. Program evaluation is an especially urgent need for many early childhood programs. By helping to develop systems for documenting program outcomes and areas needing improvement, social workers could play an instrumental role in ensuring that high-quality services are available to participating children and families. Moreover, this type of accountability is becoming increasingly vital to making the case for investing substantial public funds in early childhood programs.</p> <p>To influence the overall quality and comprehensiveness of services that young children and families receive, social workers must become engaged in the policy arena, where decisions are made regarding standards for quality and which specific services and programs will receive financial support. Restrictive eligibility criteria, meager funding, inadequate systems for identifying risk, and limited investments in training the early childhood workforce are among the barriers that prevent many of the most vulnerable young children from accessing services that support emotional and social development (Johnson & Knitzer, 2005). Given their understanding of the interconnectedness of children with their families and the systems that contain them, social workers can and should play leadership roles in advocating for policies that adequately address a diverse array of needs of young children, their families, and their caregivers. These roles include working to improve the alignment of various state and federal funding streams and sets of regulations that make up the current patchwork system. In addition, social workers should advocate for policies that require public and private insurance programs to cover the costs of mental health services delivered through early childhood programs and for an expansion of comprehensive, two-generation programs to serve vulnerable children and parents simultaneously (Johnson & Knitzer, 2005).</p> <p>Social workers should also demonstrate leadership in developing and operating early childhood programs. Such leadership could accelerate the progress of early childhood programs in effectively serving children and families, especially by ensuring the delivery of family-centered and culturally relevant services. These approaches are increasingly recognized in the early childhood arena as important, and a number of programs, including those discussed in this article, reflect that recognition. However, there is still substantial room for strengthening these critical aspects of service delivery (Logue, 2007).</p> <hd id="AN0054283438-8">PROMOTING FAMILY-CENTERED SERVICES</hd> <p>Family-centered services focus on the needs and well-being of the entire family, and they include concrete services as well as traditionally defined clinical services that are customized to meet the needs of each family served. Family members--particularly parents--are actively engaged as partners in developing and implementing plans for services (Madsen, 2007).</p> <p>Although parent engagement is increasingly recognized as an important element of early childhood programs, service providers often lack the skills necessary to form effective partnerships with parents in planning and implementing services. How parents view their roles and how they are treated by service providers in early childhood programs set the stage for their expectations of helping professionals throughout the growth and development of their children. Moving beyond the inclusion of parents in some aspects of service delivery to a true model of parent engagement requires expertise in and a personal commitment to engaging parents as partners (Block & Block, 2002).</p> <p>Social workers' education and their day-to-day practice within social work agencies emphasize the impact that parents have on their children's lives and support strategies for engaging, empowering, and partnering with families (Mahoney & Wiggers, 2007). In addition, social workers possess the skills necessary to assess the needs and strengths of the entire family and to provide support, education, and intervention to individual members as well as to the family as a system (Madsen, 2007; Mahoney & Wiggers, 2007; Webb, 2003). This holistic perspective is especially important when working with families with multiple needs, including parents struggling with depression or other mental health problems, and families affected by domestic violence. As Knitzer (2000) put it, "These families' needs cut across categorical programs, disciplines, and roles. They require the development of new formal partnerships, informal relationships, and a commitment to connecting parts of the service system that are not typically aligned" (p. 5). Social workers can play a variety of roles in the development of partnerships across systems and disciplines to help struggling families meet a diverse array of needs.</p> <hd id="AN0054283438-9">ENSURING CULTURALLY COMPETENT SERVICES</hd> <p>Like all families, those participating in early childhood programs are unique in their strengths, needs, and customs. Because cultural issues affect various risk factors that these families may face and have a significant effect on individual and family resilience, cultural competence is especially critical in the delivery of early childhood services (Van Hook, 2008). Roberts (1990) holistically defined cultural competence as</p> <p>a program's ability to honor and respect those beliefs, interpersonal styles, attitudes and behaviors both of families who are clients and the multicultural staff who are providing services. In so doing, it incorporates these values at the levels of policy, administration and practice. (p. 4)</p> <p>This definition underscores the importance of cultural competence at all levels of program operations, rather than solely in service delivery.</p> <p>IDEA calls for services to be delivered to participating children and families in a culturally competent manner. This is especially important given that children of color, particularly Hispanic and African American children, are disproportionately poor, and low-income children are overrepresented among infants and toddlers with disabilities (Rounds, Weil, & Bishop, 1994). Among the reasons for this inequity are poor nutrition and inadequate prenatal care for low-income pregnant women and limited access to stimulating environments early in their children's lives. Rounds et al. also pointed out that for many of these families, the additional burdens of racism and poverty compound the challenges of caring for a child with special needs. They and others (García Coil & Magnuson, 2000; E.W. Lynch & Hanson, 2004) have urged service providers to make a deliberate effort to learn about, understand, and demonstrate respect for families' cultural beliefs and traditions from the assessment phase throughout the delivery of early intervention services.</p> <p>EHS is also guided by federal standards calling for culturally competent service delivery, including assurance of the availability of services in a family's primary language. The importance of providing services that are responsive to the cultural background of each family served is emphasized in EHS's goals of child and family development, community development, and staff development. EHS also encourages programs to develop strategies that engage fathers in services and encourage them to fully participate in supporting their children's development (Lombardi & Bogle, 2004; Olsen & DeBoise, 2007). In this way, EHS strives to overcome the stereotypes that service providers may have of low-income and minority fathers as disinterested in their children's well-being.</p> <p>Because child care and other early care and education services vary widely across communities, these programs are much more diverse in their emphasis on cultural competence. However, there is growing recognition among child care providers of the importance of delivering these services in a culturally competent manner (Collins & Ribeiro, 2004; García Coll & Magnuson, 2000). Because families of color and immigrant families are overrepresented among those headed by low-wage earners, special effort should be made to instill culturally competent practices in child care programs serving a high proportion of children from low-income families.</p> <p>The integration of content on cultural competence throughout social workers' education and its emphasis in many practice settings prepares social workers to assist early childhood programs in becoming more culturally responsive to the families they serve. Social workers can help programs adapt assessments and interventions to fit the characteristics and needs of children and families from diverse backgrounds. Social workers in leadership positions can work to ensure that diversity is respected and valued at all levels of the organizations that operate these programs.</p> <hd id="AN0054283438-10">TAKING ACTION</hd> <p>Rising along with public support for programs for young children is recognition, on the part of early childhood leaders, of the importance of working with children and families in a comprehensive manner. These trends are visible in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5), which includes over $2 billion for the expansion of Head Start and EHS along with additional resources to enhance prekindergarten and other early childhood programs. Social workers should seize these and other emerging opportunities to play an increasingly influential role in shaping and expanding programs for young children.</p> <p>Advocacy is needed at both the state and federal levels to ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to address the multiple needs of families with young children, particularly those in poverty. By actively participating in community, state, and national coalitions (for instance, Zero to Three [<ulink href="http://www.zerotothree.org">http://www.zerotothree.org</ulink>], the National Association for the Education of Young Children [<ulink href="http://www.naeyc.org">http://www.naeyc.org</ulink>]), social workers can educate policymakers on the importance of meeting these needs. In addition, leaders of social work agencies should collaborate with the early childhood organizations in their communities to access funding to improve the comprehensiveness and quality of existing programs and to create additional capacity where it is needed. Social workers at all levels of practice should familiarize themselves with local early childhood programs and providers and identify ways to collaborate with them to ensure that young families have access to resources such as housing and employment assistance and services to address mental health, substance abuse, and family violence problems.</p> <p>The profession's increasing involvement in early childhood systems should also influence the education and training that social workers receive. Practitioners must have up-to-date knowledge of child development and the effects of early experiences on how children develop to practice effectively in early childhood settings. Social workers should seek opportunities to acquire this expertise through discussions with colleagues from early childhood fields and through formal training and coursework. Expansion of field placement opportunities in early childhood settings within both bachelor's- and master's-level social work programs would reinforce and strengthen students' capacities to contribute to the success of these programs. Partnerships between leaders of early childhood programs and higher education faculty in both social work and early childhood education could lead to the development of cross-disciplinary education and training programs that support and inform the work of both professions.</p> <hd id="AN0054283438-11">CONCLUSION</hd> <p>Growing public support for investments in young children and increased recognition within the early childhood field of important concepts such as family-based practice, systems theory, cultural competence, and parent empowerment provide expanded opportunities for the practice of social work in early childhood settings. Social workers can and should play a number of roles to help accelerate the integration of these concepts into various programs and ensure that they meet the diverse needs of the children and families they serve. These roles include participating in policy and program development, administration, consultation, and education as well as providing direct services to young children and their families. By engaging in the various types of leadership, advocacy, and transdisciplinary collaboration described here, social workers can make a significant contribution to improving the quality of services that vulnerable young children receive and help to ensure that they get the best possible start in life.</p> <ref id="AN0054283438-12"> <title> REFERENCES </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" type="bt"></bibl> <bibtext>American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, P.L. 111-5 (2009).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" type="bt"></bibl> <bibtext>Barnett, W. S., Hustedt, J.T., Friedman, A. H., Boyd, J. S. & Ainsworth, P. (2007). The state of preschool 2007. New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" type="bt"></bibl> <bibtext>Bishop, K. 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  Data: Growing Together: Expanding Roles for Social Work Practice in Early Childhood Settings
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  Data: In the United States, interest in early childhood development has grown dramatically over the past two decades and continues to expand. Increasing public support for programs and services that address the needs of young children and their families provides numerous opportunities for social work intervention. This article describes three major early childhood systems--early intervention, Early Head Start, and early care and education--and discusses ways that social workers can strengthen programs within these systems and improve outcomes for participating children and families. Social workers' understanding of and commitment to family-centered practice and cultural competence are highlighted. Opportunities for social workers to become involved in advocating for, developing, and leading high-quality early childhood programs and implications for social work education are also discussed.
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