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Build Learning Community Conference Call on Family, Friend and Neighbor Care
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This Build Learning Community call featured participants in Sparking Connections, a national consortium and Learning Community sponsored by the Families and Work Institute. Four sites in Build states described their work to integrate family, friend and neighbor care into system building.

In Our Own Backyards: Local and State Strategies to Improve the Quality of Family Child Care
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This report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research finds that programmatic and policy changes are needed to combat the isolation, low earnings, and lack of training opportunities faced by family child care providers and to improve the quality of such care. It aims to aid policymakers, program administrators, and advocates in developing policies and programs that promote quality child care for children in family child care settings, and to encourage the replication of successful programs and policies across the country.

Stair Steps to Quality: A Guide for States and Communities Developing Quality Rating Systems for Early Care and Education
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The United Way’s Success By 6 Initiative released this guidebook to help leaders from public, private, and nonprofit sectors work together with child development experts, regulators, and programs to create a quality rating system for early care and education programs in their community.

Losing Ground in Early Childhood Education
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/ece
This study by the Economic Policy Institute and the Keystone Research Center analyzes data from 1979-2004 and shows a substantial decline in workforce qualifications in center-based early care and education (ECE) programs and the even lower qualifications in home-based ECE. In addition to the full-length study that examines trends on the national level, seven companion Issue Briefs explore the ECE situation in seven specific states (including the Build states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania),and a supplementary set of downloadable tables makes general comparisons across 39 states.

Build Learning Community Conference Calls on Tiered Quality Strategies
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Two Build Learning Community calls have been held on tiered quality strategies including quality rating systems, tiered reimbursement, and rated licensing. A conference call in March 2004 profiled the Reaching for the Stars program in Oklahoma and Keystone Stars in Pennsylvania. Another conference call in August 2004 provided an overview of the complex issues involved in developing tiered strategy systems.

Build Learning Community Conference Call on Community-Based Doulas
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This Build Learning Community conference call, dedicated to children's champion Irving Harris, describes programs using community-based doulas to improve outcomes for young children and their families. Doulas are committed to helping women have satisfying birthing and parenting experiences, and assist families in providing the safe and healthy environments that are critical to a baby's development.