On Oct. 23, 2023, the State Advisory Council (SAC) formally endorsed the Policy Recommendations of the Vermont Early Childhood State Advisory Council Network for 2024. These recommendations represent the most pressing and actionable priorities for early childhood stakeholders throughout the Building Bright Futures Network.
This year’s policy recommendations focus on a wide array of priorities for improving the well-being of young children and their families, strengthening the quality of the settings and services in which they spend their time, and ensuring families have the resources they need to thrive. These recommendations represent needs and emerging priorities from across the state’s early childhood system. Priorities include:
- Investing in the mental health workforce
- Investing in strategies to support families during the perinatal period, including after experiencing the loss of a child or loss of a caregiver
- Enacting a paid family and medical leave insurance program to support caregivers with caring for and bonding with a new child or while navigating illness
- Increasing access to affordable housing
- Responding to inequities in data collection and reporting in order to better represent and understand the intersectional experiences of people of color, children with disabilities, and other marginalized communities in Vermont
