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Two-generation approaches to promoting the healthy development and school success of young children aim to enhance the well-being and life opportunities of both parents and children. This approach is based on research that shows how conditions affecting both parents and children are interrelated and play a key role in children’s development. For example, health insurance for parents matters for children’s well-being since parents’ health and mental health problems can reduce parenting capacities and the chance that young children will receive the consistent attention and stimulation they need to develop competencies that are key to school success. Similarly, children’s experience of stable, high quality early care and education supports both children’s early learning and parents’ work effort. Several innovative two-generation programs that support the well-being and life chances of both children and parents are being developed and tested. In promising initiatives around the country, including model programs in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Tulsa, Oklahoma, young children are enrolled in high quality preschool programs while their parents receive education and training in high demand jobs that help move families toward greater economic security. Leading scholars view emerging two-generation models as particularly promising because they are informed by research on components of these models that contribute to desired outcomes; these include high-quality learning experiences for children in early care and education programs and employment training for parents that helps them acquire skills needed for higher wage jobs. At a time when a new wave of two-generation programs shows promise, it is important to consider how to strengthen policies that can provide two-generation supports to large numbers of families with young children. Multiple policies affect both young children and their parents, including policies that determine safety net benefits, wages, and access to high-quality child care and health care. Consequently, two-generation supports for low-income families can best be understood by considering the collective impact of key policies on the experiences of young children and their parents. In all states, the influence of policies that collectively affect families with young children is mixed. Some policies contribute to positive two-generation supports while others are likely to detract from these supports. An example illustrates this mixed impact. In a Georgia family headed by a single mother, a young child benefits from a state-funded prekindergarten program which was found to promote children’s early learning in a recent evaluation. But this family experiences economic hardship as a result of the parent’s low-wage job and high out-of-pocket health care expenses. Georgia, like 47 other states, has not set its minimum wage at a level that would bring a family of three above the federal poverty line, and it is also one of 21 states currently opting out of the Medicaid expansion allowed under the Affordable Care Act, which provides health insurance to poor adults. Of course, many other state policies contribute to a collective two-generation impact on families. Table 1 shows a range of policy choices across the states in three areas: early care and education, health, and supports for parenting and family economic security. The table provides a view of policies’ collective two-generation impact on conditions affecting families with young children, and illustrates the value of looking at policies across multiple domains to consider their collective impact.

Parent engagement in children’s education is increasingly viewed as an essential support to children’s learning in early care and education programs and throughout the school years. While there are many definitions of “parent engagement,” the term is used here to describe parents’ efforts to promote their children’s healthy development and learning through activities that can be encouraged by educators in child care, preschool and school settings. (We also use the term “parent involvement” in the same way.) This report makes the case that effective parent engagement during the span from preschool through the early grades is a key contributor to children’s positive academic outcomes. During this period, young children acquire foundational competencies – including language, literacy, early math, and social-emotional skills – that strongly affect their capacity for grade-level learning. When young children fall behind in developing these skills, they often face an uphill path for the rest of their school years. For example, children who have weak language skills upon school entry are more likely to struggle while learning to read, and weak reading skills in third grade greatly hamper children’s learning across the curriculum in later grades. While high-quality teaching in preschool and the early grades is essential, parents can also play a vital role in helping children acquire foundational competencies that fuel school success. The following sections of this report present research, program, and policy information that can inform state initiatives to strengthen parent engagement during preschool through grade 3. Key findings from research: Studies relating parenting behavior to child’s learning and achievement; studies that evaluate interventions; and research on factors affecting parent involvement; Promising models designed for culturally diverse, low-income families; Exemplary state parent engagement initiatives; Opportunities for states to advance parent engagement policies and practices; Summary of research; Recommendations

High quality early care and education can play a critical role in promoting young children’s early learning and success in life, while also supporting families’ economic security. Young children at highest risk of educational failure – those experiencing poverty and related circumstances that may limit early learning experiences – benefit the most from high quality early care and education programs. This fact sheet provides information about the percentages of young children in each state experiencing risks related to poor educational outcomes. It then shows trends in federal and state investments in early care and education programs and state policies related to both access and quality.

Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRIS) have emerged as a central strategy in states' efforts to improve the quality of early care and education programs and the capacity of these programs to promote positive outcomes for children. Currently, 23 states have a statewide QRIS. At the heart of each QRIS is a set of standards that describe the requirements a center-based program or home-based early care and education setting must meet in order to qualify for a QRIS rating. Because children's school readiness is a key goal of QRIS, requirements concerning practices that can promote children's learning and development are of special interest. These requirements are typically found in standards' descriptions of acceptable curricula or learning activities, including methods for promoting the learning of children with special needs and children who are English language learners, as well as practices related to child assessment and parent involvement.

Across the U.S., large numbers of young children are affected by one or more risk factors that have been linked to academic failure and poor health. Chief among them is family economic hardship, which is consistently associated with negative outcomes in these two domains. As early as 24 months, children in low-income families have been found to show lags in cognitive and behavioral development compared to their peers in higher-income families (see box for definitions of economic hardship). Other risk factors, such as living in a single-parent family or low parent education levels, especially when combined with poverty, can markedly increase children’s chances of adverse outcomes. Children affected by multiple risks – three or more risk factors – are the most likely to experience school failure and other negative outcomes, including maladaptive behavior. This fact sheet highlights important findings about the prevalence of children experiencing risk factors in the U.S. These findings were produced with the Young Child Risk Calculator, a tool of the National Center for Children in Poverty (see box). The national and state prevalence data presented here, along with additional results available from NCCP’s Young Child Risk Calculator, highlight groups of vulnerable children and families whose needs can be addressed through a wide range of family support, health, and education policies. Information about the size and characteristics of a state’s population of young, at-risk children can inform policy decisions about investments in new or expanded supports that help mitigate risks and improve life outcomes for these children.