UC Irvine

The science of early childhood reveals that healthy development in the earliest years provides the building blocks for future success, including educational achievement, economic productivity, and lifelong physical and mental health. However, many families encounter significant challenges during the early years of childhood. Various early learning opportunities can ameliorate these obstacles with services, including home visiting, parenting education, and early childhood education, including Early Head Start (EHS). EHS is the largest early intervention program targeted specifically to children from birth through age two, pregnant women, and families living below the federal poverty line. Unfortunately, empirical research examining EHS is insufficient to understand the short-term and long-run impacts of the policy and its everyday programming decisions regarding financing, including the EHS—Child Care Partnership grants. In this dissertation, I examine the impacts of EHS by investigating the effects of the program on short-term health outcomes, achievement impacts during the school years and explore the impacts of the EHS—Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grants for programs and communities. In the first study, I investigate if EHS access or availability influences birth weight and infant mortality from preventable causes. This study indicates that EHS programming likely reduces the proportion of low birth weight infants and infant mortality due to sudden infant death syndrome. Then, I extend the timeline under consideration by comparing students' academic achievement with and without EHS programming access during the early childhood years. Results suggest that EHS access improves overall English Language Arts achievement and math achievement during the elementary school years. The final study employs a mixed-methods research design to explore blended funding models like the EHS-CCP grants. The findings reveal increased enrollment for counties with EHS-CCP funded grantees but no program or health services changes. Using qualitative interviews, I find that EHS directors view blended funding models favorably because it provides critical services to children and families and full-day, full-year programming, but I find substantial areas of improvement for Blended Funding Models and EHS-CCP grants. Taken together, the findings from all three studies provide new evidence of the impacts of EHS and an evaluation of the funding landscape of a federal program with a variety of services for infants, toddlers, and their families. The research has implications for promoting the development and wellbeing of linguistically and culturally diverse low-income children during a period when increased investment in federal and state policies is necessary to provide additional support during these crucial years.