Prenatal-to-3 State Policies and Strategies
The Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap provides guidance to state leaders on the most effective investments states can make to ensure all children thrive from the start. Grounded in the science of the developing child and based on comprehensive reviews of the most rigorous evidence available, the Roadmap provides detailed information on four effective policies and eight effective strategies that foster the nurturing environments infants and toddlers need, and that reduce longstanding disparities in access and outcomes among racial and ethnic groups and socioeconomic statuses.
Each of the 12 effective solutions in the Roadmap are proven to impact at least one of the eight Prenatal-to-3 (PN-3) policy goals that define the conditions that children need to thrive. For each of the four policies, the evidence points to a specific policy lever that states can implement to impact outcomes. For the eight strategies, the evidence clearly links the strategy to PN-3 outcomes, but the current evidence base does not provide clear guidance on how states should implement each strategy to positively impact outcomes.
Profiles for each policy and strategy provide:
- Extensive information on the impact that each solution has on the eight PN-3 policy goals;
- Policy choices that states can make to effectively implement the proven solutions;
- Progress states have made in the past year toward full and equitable implementation; and
- Dozens of data points to illustrate how states compare to each other in their generosity and reach of the policies and strategies.
Effective Roadmap Policies
Compare states on:
- Income eligibility thresholds for childless adults, parents, and pregnant women;
- % of low-income women who lack health insurance.
Compare states on:
- Weekly benefits;
- Eligibility;
- Maximum value of weekly benefits;
- Funding and administrative mechanisms.
Compare states on:
- Value of the minimum, cost-of-living adjusted, and subminimum wages;
- Scheduled increases to the minimum wage;
- Preemption laws;
- % of children under age 3 with at least one parent working full-time living near poverty.
Compare states on:
- EITC value and refundability;
- Expansions to eligibility.
Effective Roadmap Strategies
Compare states on:
- Length of recertification intervals;
- Availability of simplified reporting;
- Online availability of SNAP application materials;
- % of eligible families not receiving SNAP.
Compare states on:
- Number of program sites;
- % of children and families served by each program.
Compare states on:
- Income eligibility (as a % of SMI and FPL);
- Base reimbursement rates and estimated cost of high-quality care;
- Families’ out-of-pocket costs for child care;
- The distribution of the total cost of care.
Compare states on:
- Number of group prenatal care sites;
- Financial support for group prenatal care.
Compare states on:
- Medicaid coverage;
- Grants or scholarships to support training and credentialing.
Compare states on:
- % of eligible children under age 3 served in evidence-based home visiting programs.
Compare states on:
- % of income-eligible children with access to Early Head Start;
- Financial support for Early Head Start.
Compare states on:
- % of children under age 3 receiving EI services (cumulative and point-in-time estimates; across race and ethnicity);
- % of babies born low birth weight across race and ethnicity;
- Criteria used to determine eligibility for EI services;
- Funding mechanisms for EI services.
