Early Childhood Learning and Children Issues Discussed at Summit

At today's Children and Youth Summit, leaders from early learning, children and family organizations recommended a list of priorities to the Keiki Caucus that they would like addressed in the 2009 Legislative Session. Below is a list of their concerns. Give us your input and add any concerns you have in our comments section.

-Shortage of early child care providers.
-Cost of early child care (>$10,000/year).
-Lack of quality child care providers.
-Encourage legislators to prioritize, protect and provide programs and services that meet the needs of the "whole child", ie. social and emotional (equal to academic programs) so they can learn.
-Sustaining current early prevention programs.
-Support innovative financing.
-Fund Keiki First Steps.
-Update labor laws to support families with child care issues.
-More awareness campaigns to educate parents on the importance of early childhood development and available programs.