Monday, July 11, 2011 at 11:56AM We are pleased to announce our new website. You can now visit www.SmartBeginnings.org to learn more about Smart Beginnings and the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation.
This website (www.vecf.org) is currently being phased out and will not be updated; please visit the new website for up to date information.
Friday, June 3, 2011 at 02:26PM In an editorial in the Huffington Post, Mark Shriver, Save the Children, praises the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge, a new $500 million grant program for early childhood education.
"Even as we continue to experience the effects of the worst recession since the Great Depression, President Obama's early learning funding is an important acknowledgment that a strong education -- and, thus, economic -- foundation does not begin at Kindergarten. It begins at birth.
Investing at a young age will improve the chances for more children to attend college, and it could add hundreds of billions to our Domestic Gross Product within a generation."
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 09:16AM This week, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a new state-level grant competition to support early childhood education. Individuals from business, law enforcement and the military were present to show their support for investing in early learning in order to strengthen the future workforce, reduce crime rates, and improve national security.
"To win the future, our children need a strong start," said Secretary Duncan. "The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge encourages states to develop bold and comprehensive plans for raising the quality of early learning programs across America."
Learn more.
Friday, May 27, 2011 at 01:30PM 
A public policy agenda that prioritizes children and includes proven programs like home visiting is the focus of a just-released book from David Kirp, professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
In Kids First: Five Big Ideas for Transforming the Lives of Children, the renowned education policy expert proposes a policy framework benefiting all children from "cradle to career." Kirp identifies five key priorities:
- offering strong support for new parents;
- ensuring access to high-quality early education;
- linking schools and communities to improve support for children;
- making caring and stable adult mentors available for all children; and
- providing kids a nest egg to help pay for college or start a career.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 09:16AM A recent policy brief from Zero To Three, entitled Toward a Bright Future for Our Youngest Children: Building a Strong Infant-Toddler Workforce, focuses on strengthening systems that support professional development for the multidisciplinary infant-toddler workforce. The brief summarizes related research and the policy context. Ten recommendations are offered to ensure that policymakers invest in comprehensive, integrated professional development systems for those who work with infants, toddlers, and their families.