Prenatal-to-3 Policy Clearinghouse

The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Clearinghouse aims to serve as an integral resource that policy leaders, scholars, advocates, and funders can turn to for comprehensive reviews of the evidence on state policies and strategies that intend to strengthen outcomes for infants, toddlers, and their families. Many clearinghouses provide information on evidence-based programs, but the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Clearinghouse is unique in its focus on evidence-based state policies.

By conducting comprehensive, systematic reviews of the evidence following a thorough review method with rigorous standards of evidence, our team of policy analysts works to identify which state policies and strategies have demonstrated effectiveness at creating the conditions in which young children and their families can thrive. These conditions, made clear by decades of research on the science of the developing child, are represented by our eight prenatal-to-3 policy goals, shown below.

After a comprehensive review of current research, state policies and strategies are designated as either Effective, Needs Further Study, Ineffective, or Harmful. Because of the limits of existing evidence, we are slow to call a policy or strategy Ineffective or Harmful until it has been thoroughly studied. State policies and strategies that have significantly improved outcomes related to at least one of our eight policy goals are considered Effective and are tracked in our annual Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap.