Switchboard Helping Families Who Are Refugees Access Early Childhood Services
Guidance for Refugee Service Providers
Elly Miles, Erin Doyle, Rebecca H. Berger, Soumita Bose, Hamutal Bernstein
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This guide, produced for Switchboard, aims to familiarize refugee service providers with early childhood services accessible to families who are refugees and immigrants, common barriers to participation, and strategies to enhance family access. The guide includes an overview of three publicly funded early childhood programs:

  • child care and early education, including Head Start and state-funded preschool
  • Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting
  • early intervention and preschool special education

In addition to discussing common barriers families encounter when navigating early childhood programs, we present a summary of strategies that can be implemented to address barriers to and increase access to early childhood programs. Programs in Texas, Utah, and Oregon that have innovated to engage refugee populations in early childhood services, including Head Start and home visiting, are profiled.

The guide includes a wide range of resources to get providers started, including links to toolkits and reports that can support collaboration, access to high-quality child care and early education, early intervention and developmental milestone monitoring, and home visiting.

Acknowledgements: Thank you to program leaders Richard Davidson, Kira Delong, and Danita Huynh for sharing information about their approaches to supporting access. Thank you to Soad Altaai for reviewing and providing feedback. This guide was supported by Switchboard and is available on its website. Switchboard is led by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and provides comprehensive support and guidance to US refugee resettlement providers. The IRC received competitive funding through the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Grant #90RB0052 and Grant #90RB0053. The project is 100 percent financed by federal funds. The contents of this document are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.
Research and Evidence Family and Financial Well-Being Work, Education, and Labor Health Policy Tax and Income Supports
Expertise Families Reproductive and Maternal Health Social Safety Net Early Childhood Immigration
Tags Child care and early education Early childhood home visiting Children's health and development Families with low incomes Head Start and Early Head Start Immigrant children, families, and communities Immigrant-serving organizations Racial and ethnic disparities Refugees and global migration Children and youth
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