The Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD) has been focused on strengthening internal and external coordination, collaboration, and communication across ACF and with federal partners around early childhood to improve the health and well-being of young children and their families. In 2019, ECD established the ACF Early Childhood Collaborative, a group comprised of representatives from every program office within ACF. The purpose of the collaborative is to ensure that ACF prioritizes and enhances early childhood development across ACF programs to strengthen families and promote economic mobility. This group has developed information to further prioritize early childhood development.
Program Offices on the ACF Early Childhood Collaborative Workgroup include:
- Office of Head Start (OHS)
- Office of Child Care (OCC)
- Children’s Bureau (CB)
- Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB)
- Office of Family Assistance (OFA)
- Office of Community Services (OCS)
- Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE)
- Administration on Native Americans (ANA)
- Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)
- Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response (OHSEPR)
- Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP)
- Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE)
- Office of Regional Operations (ORO)
(PDF)
Why Prioritize Early Childhood? (PDF)
- The Science and Benefits of Positive Early Childhood Experiences
- Economic Mobility
- Child and Family Stability and Well-Being
- Health and Behavioral Health
- A Whole Family Approach
(PDF)
Align Early Childhood Development Across Policy, Practice, Partnerships and Research (PDF) in the following four areas:
- Align Planning and Policies
- Align Intake and Services Delivery
- Align Partners
- Align Systems