Blog, News & Events
Insights, Ideas, and Resources for Early Learning
Welcome to the Think Small Blog, your go-to destination for valuable insights, innovative ideas, and inspiring stories in the field of early learning. Dive into a treasure trove of articles crafted by our team of experts, dedicated to empowering child care providers, educators, and families.
Early Childhood Suspension & Expulsion: Understanding the Policy and Its Impact
What is early childhood suspension and expulsion? Suspension or expulsion happens when a child is removed from their early childhood classroom. In practice, this can look a few different ways. The ...
Guest Post: What is the READ Act?
In Minnesota and around the country, many children are not on track to read proficiently. The latest Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) results show just 48% of 3rd graders met or ...
2024 Minnesota Early Childhood Reports
If 2023 was the year of legislative activity for child care in Minnesota, 2024 is the year of reports! As projects from the 2023 session get underway and existing projects ...
Child Care Affordability Calculator: Additional Context
There is broad agreement that Minnesota?s current early care and education system is not working well for parents, children, or providers. Costs for parents are too high to bear.?The Great ...
Early Childhood Newsletters--Get Connected!
A great way to stay connected with early childhood policy is by making sure you?re signed up to newsletters from organizations and projects you care about. It can also keep ...
Child Care Assistance Program: Additional Changes and Future Aspirations
CCAP helps families pay for child care costs while parents go to work or school. It is a complex program that receives federal and state funding. ?Minnesota counties administer the ...
Child Care Assistance Program: Waitlist and Eligibility
CCAP helps families pay for child care costs while parents go to work or school. It is a complex program that receives federal and state funding. ?Minnesota counties administer the ...
Child Care Assistance Program Reimbursement Rate Changes
CCAP helps families pay for child care costs while parents go to work or school. It is a complex program that receives federal and state funding. ?Minnesota counties administer the ...
What’s in the Budget AND When is it Happening: Child Care Assistance Program
In the summary of what passed this legislative session, one of the important items was changes and funding for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP).CCAP helps families pay for child ...
When is it Happening: Early Childhood Infrastructure, Policy Changes, and Reports
Many changes to early care and education policy passed this legislative session. In an attempt to organize and track the milestones ahead, we?ve created this blog post and accompanying ...
When Is It Happening: Early Learning Scholarships
Early Learning Scholarships will see significant changes in the months and years ahead. Early Learning Scholarships give low-income families financial support to help pay for quality early care and ...
What's in the Budget: Early Care and Education Workforce
It is no secret to those who work in or rely on child care that the field struggled even before the pandemic. The challenge of covering the actual costs ...
2023 Early Care and Education Legislation
There?s now a clearer picture of what will become law in 2023. When it comes to early care and education, there is a lot! We?re still digesting, but here?s ...
What’s in the Budget: Early Learning Scholarships
House File 2292, the early education omnibus bill, passed both the House and Senate and was signed into law by Governor Walz. This bill contains new investments and policy ...
Early Care and Education in the Omnibus Bills
State legislators are on Spring Break, and omnibus budget bills are available. An omnibus bill is made up of many other bills centered on a specific topic. State legislators ...
Early Care and Education Efforts in Progress
The 2023 State Legislative Session is officially underway. Legislators are meeting with constituents, bills are being drafted and introduced, and committees are holding hearings!? Legislative leaders and Governor Walz ...
Importance of Community Solutions Fund
The importance of Community Solutions Fund, one grantee speaks out on their experience and the impacts it has on their community.
Supporting Indigenous Parents: Community Solutions Grantee Update
By Jacqueline Zhang, Todd Otis Public Policy Intern For many years, Barb Fabre has recognized the need for advocating for and empowering parents in the family and child care sectors. Throughout her ...
Policy Hour - Coronavirus Early Childhood Update
By Cisa Keller, Senior Vice President of Early Childhood Quality Development The April Policy Hour focused on Coronavirus Early Childhood Updates.? Children?s Cabinet Update Stephanie Hogenson, Policy Director for the ...
Policy Hour - Budget Forecast and Census
March?s PolicyHour provided an update on the state budget forecast, and the importance of participatingin the upcoming census. State Budget Forecast Betsy Hammer, fromthe MN Budget Project, gave an update ...
Policy Hour - State Level Coordination Efforts
By Marie Huey, Public Policy & Advocacy Coordinator February’s Ann Kaner-Roth Policy hour provided an opportunity to hear from state agencies about their current early childhood projects. Governor?s Children?s Cabinet ...
Policy Hour - 2020 Legislative Session Preview
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy Coordinator Every year, we gaze into the crystal ball to predict what might be ahead for the legislative session. Nobody ever gets it ...
Policy Hour: Child Care Updates
This month?s Ann Kaner-Roth Policy Hour was focused on recent and upcoming work at the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) with presenters from the Child Care Assistance Program and Child Development ...
Early Care & Education Crisis Work Group Convening
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy Coordinator Two interconnected crises continue in Minnesota: worst-in-the-nation achievement gaps and a severe child care shortage in many parts of the state Last ...
Guest Post: Community Solutions Grant Program
By Voices and Choices for Children Coalition ?This is the time for us to not just dream about what could be, but also start to build alternatives that we want ...
Policy Hour: Trauma in Early Childhood
By Marie Huey, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator Katy Smith, Licensed Parent Educator and 2011 MN Teacher of the Year, and Dr. Monica Potter, Supervisor of Early Childhood and Family Education ...
Policy Hour: Federal Update
By Marie Huey, Think Small Policy and Advocacy Coordinator While the state legislative session is heating up in Minnesota, there?s also plenty to discuss about what is going on with ...
Policy Hour: State Budget Forecast & Governor's Budget Proposal
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy Coordinator The March edition of Ann Kaner-Roth Policy Hour covered the state budget forecast and the Governor?s budget proposal. February Budget Forecast Betsy ...
Policy Hour: Child Care
By Marie Huey, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator Staff from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) joined us for February?s Ann Kaner-Roth Policy Hour to provide updates on child care. ...
Guest Post: Elders Reflect on Evaluation of Early Childhood Programs
Submitted by Jane Kretzmann, on behalf of Elders for Infants (Glenace Edwall, Dave Ellis, Sandy Heidemann, Jim Nicholie, Glen Palm, and Katie Williams).? Elders for Infants is comprised of professionals ...
Guest Post: Elders Provide Historical Context on Minnesota's Early Care and Education Landscape
Submitted by Jane Kretzmann, on behalf of Elders for Infants (Glenace Edwall, Dave Ellis, Sandy Heidemann, Jim Nicholie, Glen Palm, and Katie Williams).? Elders for Infants is comprised of professionals ...
Policy Hour: Mixed Delivery
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy Coordinator Mixed delivery is a hot topic in early care and education. Even with an extra half hour, December?s Ann Kaner-Roth Policy Hour ...
Policy Hour: Play, Parents and Policy
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy CoordinatorThe November Ann Kaner-Roth Policy Hour focused on play, parents and policy.One of the presenters was?Katy Smith, a Parent Educator who spent 31 ...
Small Talks: True Costs to Families and Early Child Care Educators
Small Talks features leaders who share key insights on early childhood education and discuss innovative solutions to early learning issues in Minnesota.Inadequate investment, scholarship caps, complicated funding streams, and low ...
Policy Hour: What Did We Do Over the Summer?
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy CoordinatorKids were on vacation this summer, but many adults didn?t have time for a break. October?s Ann Kaner-Roth Policy Hour got us up ...
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Introduces Bill to Improve Access to Child Care
U.S. Senator Tina Smith introduced a new bill aimed at reducing the child care shortage in Minnesota and across the nation. The Child Care Supply Improvement Act proposes supports for ...
Learning from the Data We Seek
Think Small?s mission as a nonprofit is to advance quality care and education of children in their crucial early years. We do this by preparing providers, strengthening families and catalyzing ...
An Encouraging Find: Another Potential Benefit of Parent Aware
?The survey results show that Parent Aware-rated programs across all parts of Minnesota were twice as likely to have stayed in business than non-rated programs.? High-quality early learning, as defined ...
Guest Post: The Equity Summit
By May Esperanza Losloso, Senior Organizer, Children?s Defense Fund-MinnesotaFrom April 11-13, 2018, eight members of the Voices and Choices for Children Steering Committee attended the PolicyLink 2018 Equity Summit in ...
Policy Hour: Legislative Wrap-Up
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy CoordinatorThe 2018 legislative session ended on May 22. To explain the implications for the early care and education field, two experts joined us: ...
Policy Hour: St. Paul's Citywide 3K Proposal
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy CoordinatorSaint Paul is planning for a citywide 3K program, and Council Member Rebecca Noecker joined May?s Ann Kaner-Roth Policy Hour to explain the ...
Early Learning Scholarships Help Children & Families
?Please continue funding programs such as early childhood scholarships.? It definitely makes a difference.? It allows kids to get that extra boost in the beginning so they stay on track ...
Picturing Brighter Futures
By Kristie ThorsonAt Think Small, we picture a brighter future for Minnesota?s kids.? We picture a day when ALL young children have access to high-quality early care and education so ...
Policy Hour: National Update
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy Coordinator The Minnesota State Legislature was off for Easter/Passover Break this week, so Ann Kaner-Roth Policy Hour turned its focus to national issues. ...
Policy Hour: Early Learning Coordination and Collaboration
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy CoordinatorMarch Ann Kaner-Roth Policy Hour focused on coordination and collaboration projects in the early learning field.Early Learning CouncilDianne Haulcy, Senior Vice President of ...
Guest Post: Creating Equitable Early Learning Policies
Many organizations and individuals are seeking equitable policies and solutions to address persistent inequality. We can no longer support systems that created inequity and maintain inequity. By Voices and Choices ...
Policy Hour: Previewing the 2018 Legislative Session
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy CoordinatorFacts and speculation both made appearances at February?s Ann Kaner-Roth Policy Hour at Think Small in Minneapolis, and Sara(h)s abounded.Sarah Orange, Policy Advocate ...
Policy Hour - Early Childhood Data
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy CoordinatorJanuary Policy Hour started with a special announcement: the event is now named the Ann Kaner-Roth Policy Hour. Ann served as the Executive ...
Policies in Play: Child Care Assistance Program Changes
The Policies in Play series takes a closer look at the recently passed state legislative policies that affect early care and education. We work with partners to find out what ...
Policy Hour - Improving the Early Childhood Workforce
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy CoordinatorDecember Policy Hour presenters shared information about state and national initiatives that are working to enhance and improve the early childhood workforce.Power to ...
Think Small Annual Report: Picturing Brighter Futures
?Our mission is to advance quality care and education of children in their crucial early years.? The theme of our 2017 Report to the Community is ‘Picturing Brighter Futures’ for ...
Policy Hour - Changes to Child Care in Minnesota
Staff from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) presented at November Policy Hour about the changes to child care in Minnesota. During the 2017 legislative session, many changes ...
Children Experiencing Homelessness Benefit from Early Learning Scholarship Changes
Early Learning Scholarships allow children ages 3-5 from low-income families to attend high-quality early learning programs. During the 2017 legislative session, lawmakers made a change to allow children 0-5 from ...
Families First: Connecting Southern MN Children with Early Learning Scholarships
The Policies in Play series takes a closer look at the recently passed state legislative policies that affect early care and education. We work with partners to find out what ...
Policy Hour: Early Education Policy and Funding Changes
By Marie Huey, Public Policy and Advocacy CoordinatorRepresentatives from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) presented at the first Policy Hour of the season. June Reineke and Amanda Varley shared ...
Northeastern Minnesota Addresses Child Care Shortage
The Policies in Play series takes a closer look at the recently passed state legislative policies that affect early care and education. We work with partners to find out what ...
West Central Minnesota Child Care Providers Benefit from Forgivable Loans
The Policies in Play series takes a closer look at the recently passed state legislative policies that affect early care and education. We work with partners to find out what ...
Early Learning Scholarships Are Critical for Children in Child Protection
The Policies in Play series takes a closer look at the recently passed state legislative policies that affect early care and education. We work with partners to find out what ...
Policies in Play
Join us on the playground as we explore Policies in Play! Think Small believes that placing a priority on children and their families through access to high quality early childhood ...
Policy Hour: Parent Aware Changes & Legislative Update
The final Policy Hour of the season was a double dose of early education information! We heard about changes to Parent Aware and received an end of legislative session update.Parent ...
Legislative Wrap-Up: How did Early Learning Fare?
Minnesota legislators wrapped up the special session last week, and the Governor signed budget bills into law. Read about the new policies and programs that affect early learning throughout the ...
A Legislative Update: Early Learning a Policy Priority for State
It is great that early learning is a policy priority for the state, and it?s encouraging to hear it continue to be discussed. In a year of $1.6 billion surplus, ...
Policy Hour: Federal Updates on Early Learning
Field Representative to Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota), Dan Solomon, joined Policy Hour in May to provide updates on federal funding and policies that affect the early learning field.Sen. Franken is ...
Policy Hour: Power to the Profession Initiative
Early education is in the spotlight now. That was the message from Kathleen O?Donnnell, Executive Director, and Sara Benzkofer, Director of Policy and Communications, of MnAEYC-MnSACA. The April Policy Hour ...
Policy Hour: Updates, Challenges and Bright Spots
Jim Koppel, Assistant Commissioner for Children and Family Services for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, spoke to Policy Hour attendees on March 7th. ?He talked about the child care ...
Policy Hour: Reports Propose Solutions for Early Learning in Minnesota
Legislative Task Force on Child Care Access and Affordability Senator Melissa Wiklund, DFL-Bloomington, was one of the presenters at the February Policy Hour organized by Minnesota?s Future and hosted by ...
Minnesota Early Learning Organizations Present Policy Agendas at January Policy Hour
The 2017 Minnesota Legislative Session is underway! January?Policy Hour?brought us up to speed on the policy priorities of the organizations in the Minnesota?s Future coalition and the Voices and Choices ...
Prenatal to Three Policy Forums: Working Together for A Great Start
This month marks one year since the start of the Think Small blog. To celebrate, we?re using January to highlight information and initiatives from Think Small and our partners about ...
Think Small’s 2017 Legislative Agenda
The 2017 Legislative session starts in less than one month. In preparation, Think Small created our policy priorities. The priorities all support our mission of advancing quality care and education ...
December Policy Hour Looks Toward 2017 Legislative Session
December?s Policy Hour featured three early childhood?lobbyists: Valerie?Dosland?and Patrick Lobejko of Ewald Consulting, and Sonnie Elliott of FaegreBD Consulting. We also heard from Ben Horowitz of the Minnesota Budget Project.?Many ...
Policy Hour Highlights New Federal Rules in Head Start and Child Care
New federal policy changes will affect the Minnesota early learning field. November Policy Hour featured staff from the state departments of Education and Human Services sharing updates about the changes.
Minnesota PreK-3 Design Team Releases Statewide Recommendations
A new group of early education experts released recommendations for how Minnesota can best improve the early care and education landscape across our state, a key area of focus to ...
Policy Hour Provides Updates on New Early Learning Legislation
The first Minnesota?s Future Policy Hour of the season focused on legislation passed this spring. The presenters provided updates on implementation of projects.
Legislative Task Force Addresses Licensing
The Legislative Task Force on Access to Affordable Child Care discussed licensingrequirements and enforcement at?their meeting on September 21st. State and county officials provided insight into their roles and observations, ...
Leaders in Early Learning Bring Concerns to MN House Committee on Child Care
The Minnesota House Select Committee on Affordable Child Care held a hearing on July 19 at the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board office to hear from the community on child ...
Policy Hour Breaks Down End of Legislative Session
The Minnesota?s Future June Policy Hour reviewed the 2016 legislative session, combing through a list of proposals that passed, did not pass, and some that still may pass if a ...
2016 Legislative Session Overview: Early Care and Education Key Priority in Minnesota
Governor Dayton signed the supplemental budget bill today, allocating $182 million in funding this year and $300 million of funding over the next two years. He is still reviewing the ...
Help Me Grow Hoping to Expand Scope in Minnesota
Kelly Monson, Minnesota?s Children’s Cabinet Program Manager, talked about Help Me Grow at May?s policy hour.The purpose of Help Me Grow is to promote healthy development in children prenatal to ...
What are People Saying About Parent Aware?
In print and social media, Parent Aware has been a hot topic in the past couple of weeks. Parent Aware is Minnesota?s early education Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). ...
County by County, Here’s What Child Care Looks Like Across Minnesota
We must close gaps first by supporting early learning programs already in place to reach our most at risk children. Child Care is an essential and large piece of this ...
April Policy Hour Focuses on Compliance with Federal Requirements
The April edition of Minnesota?s Future Policy Hour featured leaders from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) discussing Minnesota?s response to the federal reauthorization of the Child Care and ...
Federal Education Policy Trends Examined at Policy Hour
Our March 1, 2016 Policy Hour featured Dan Solomon, Field Representative to Senator Al Franken. While congress has been rather unproductive as of late, Solomon shared some bright spots and ...
CCAP, Early Learning Scholarships Key to Equity Conversation at #CYIB16
The 2016 Children and Youth Issues Briefing this week featured an important and inspiring conversation about the future of early learning in Minnesota.
Think Small Announces 2016 Legislative Agenda
Think Small is dedicated to continue improving the early learning landscape across Minnesota, impacting the lives of children and the future of our state and starting with the children who ...
MN DHS Dives into New Federal Guidelines at Policy Hour
The first Minnesota?s Future Policy Hour of 2016 took place at Think Small?s Minneapolis office featuring leaders from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) to discuss the re-authorization of ...
Quality Child Care Impacts Karen Community in Minnesota
This is the first in a series of?videos showing the impact high-quality early learning has on children, families and child care providers across Minnesota. Check back here for a new ...
ESSA Signed into Law, Focuses on Early Learning
A new education law came out of Washington D.C. recently with strong bipartisan support. The new law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, eliminates No Child Left Behind and brings back ...