MARYLAND FAMILY NETWORK

Public Policy

Public Policy Links - National

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities covers a wide range of budget and policy issues of concern to children and families.

Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) supports policies that expand resources for child care and early education initiatives at the federal, state, and local levels and studies the relationships between child care subsidy systems, Head Start and Early Head Start, state pre-kindergarten programs, and other birth to five early education efforts to advance ideas that ensure these systems address the full range of needs of children and families.

Center for the Child Care Work Force (CCW) advocates for public policy to restructure the early care and education delivery system to better address the issues of workforce recruitment and compensation and created Worthy Wage Day.

Child Care and Early Education Research Connections promotes high quality research in child care and early education and the use of that research in policy making.

Children's Defense Fund (CDF) advocates for children and poverty issues.

Connect for Kids, an award-winning multimedia project of the Benton Foundation, helps adults make their communities better places for families and children. The Web site offers a place on the Internet for adults—parents, grandparents, educators, policymakers and others—who want to become more active citizens, from volunteering to voting with kids in mind.

Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) is the leading national nonprofit organization working to improve public policies and public-private partnerships to eradicate hunger and under-nutrition in the United States. FRAC is a champion of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).

National Association for Child Care Resource and Referall Agencies (NACCRRA) is the national network of more than 850 child care resource and referral centers (CCR&Rs) located in every state and most communities across the US. CCR&R centers help families, child care providers, and communities find, provide, and plan for affordable, quality child care.

National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting quality child care by strengthening the profession of family child care.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is dedicated to improving the well-being of all young children, with particular focus on the quality of educational and developmental services for all children from birth through age 8.

National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is the nation’s leading public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health, and well-being of America’s low-income families and children.

National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC), a service of the Child Care Bureau, is a national clearinghouse and technical assistance center that links parents, providers, policy-makers, researchers, and the public to early care and education information.

National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) supports early childhood education initiatives by providing objective, nonpartisan information based on research. The goal of NIEER is to produce and communicate the knowledge base required to ensure that every American child can receive a good education at ages three and four.

National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education (ECI) was created to carry out a comprehensive program of research, development, and dissemination to improve early childhood development and learning.

National Women's Law Center (NWLC) is a leading advocate for early learning opportunities for children from economically disadvantaged families.

Pre-K Now Pre-K Now is a public education and advocacy campaign that advances high quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten for all three and four year olds.

Thomas Library of Congress, full text of all Federal legislation proposed in the House or Senate is included on this site. The site also links to Congressional and other Federal government sites that have legislative information.