Good day! I’m excited to be again at Hechinger after spending the previous tutorial 12 months as a Spencer Fellow on the Columbia Journalism College. This previous 12 months was eye-opening and invigorating. I spent the majority of my time researching and reporting a toddler care coverage investigation, which will likely be printed this fall. I additionally frolicked digging into baby care high quality and techniques, together with visits across the nation and to Scandinavia.
Some highlights:
- In November, I visited Birmingham, Alabama, with the nonprofit Small Magic, to study native efforts to enhance staff-to-child interactions in baby care packages. This go to would be the topic of one in every of my subsequent newsletters.
- In February, I spent an abnormally heat few days in Des Moines, Iowa, to discern the wants of suppliers amidst debate over controversial baby care laws that might enable teen baby care staff to work unsupervised. This baby care coverage investigation will publish later this 12 months.
- In what has been a spotlight of my reporting profession, I spent every week in April visiting baby care packages in Oslo, Norway. These outdoor-focused, play-based packages are organized round a Norwegian regulation that requires that baby care packages “acknowledge the intrinsic worth of childhood” and “contribute to well-being and pleasure.” I can’t wait to share that story with you, which is able to publish this fall with the Christian Science Monitor.
- Lastly, this spring, two moms in New York Metropolis confirmed me how stringent and rigid baby care subsidy guidelines have an effect on households. That story will likely be printed later this 12 months as nicely.
As I end up these fellowship tales, I’ve a protracted record of further early childhood tales I’m leaping into, together with a have a look at kindergarten readiness, entry to discipline journeys and enrichment for elementary college students and deep dives into particular facets of kid care high quality. I’ll be maintaining a tally of the implications of the election and coverage proposals from each events. I additionally wish to know what you wish to see from me through the subsequent 12 months. Please be happy to answer right here—it’ll go on to my inbox—to share any suggestions or story concepts.
Lastly, I’d like to increase an enormous thanks to my colleagues Ariel Gilreath and Sarah Carr for the considerate, detailed early ed tales they printed whereas I used to be gone, in addition to for the help of Hechinger’s editors, which allowed me to reap the benefits of this distinctive alternative. I look ahead to listening to from you, our readers, and thanks, as all the time, for following our work!
This story about baby care coverage was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, unbiased information group centered on inequality and innovation in training. Join the Hechinger e-newsletter.
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