Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Olivia Golden on Child Health

This report summarizes the roundtable "Infants and Toddlers in State and Federal Budgets: Yesterday's Choices, Today's Decisions, Tomorrow's Options" conducted by the Urban Institute, with support from the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation, on March 30, 2009. The roundtable's focus grew out of the widely perceived mismatch between sharply limited public investments on infants and toddlers and an accumulated body of research demonstrating the significance of the earliest years of life. We describe the group's diverse perspectives and wide-ranging discussion of strategies to address this mismatch.

Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers were doing badly in New Orleans before Katrina and are vulnerable to emotional and developmental damage afterwards. To heal the damage and narrow the gap in school readiness, these youngsters need high quality early childhood programs that blend health, mental health, and learning, along with support for parents. An ambitious plan to bring back families with young children and give them what they need should be a cornerstone of New Orleans' redevelopment, building on the proven model and national infrastructure offered by Head Start/Early Head Start and drawing in additional local partners and federal funding.