Creating Access to Early Childhood Education for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities

"To contribute to knowledge about foundation-government funding partnerships and what it takes to make them successful, this paper explores this long-lasting and successful collaboration."

This paper reports on lessons learned from a collaboration between the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the National Office of Head Start, a federally funded community-based programme for low-income families with infants, toddlers, and pregnant women in the United States (US). This partnership was inspired by social policies and programmes that recognise early childhood as a critical period during which economic disadvantage can create a gap in the cognitive development of economically poor and middle class children. Over the course of the 10 years of funding (1997-2007), the Hilton/Early Head Start Training Program (H/EHSTP) reached a total of 480 sites, where more than 17,000 infants and toddlers with disabilities - including those with serious disabilities - and their families were served. The programme focused on children with a variety of disabilities including, for example, children with cerebral palsy, autistic spectrum disorders, Down syndrome, and spina bifida.

Inherent challenges of the partnership included:

• Defining the scope of a major cross-sector partnership;
• Sustaining momentum despite changes in leadership;
• Identifying points of leverage within dramatically different budget contexts represented by the federal government and a single foundation; and
• Finding ways to fully engage children with severe disabilities into Early Head Start.

Success factors, as defined in the report:

• Aligned interests and a galvanised field create potential for collaboration. "Essential to the success of this collaboration was an alignment between the mission and mandate of the Hilton Foundation and the national Head Start Program with their mutual obligation to help young children in need."
• Relationships are a critical ingredient for a successful collaboration. "The Head Start office emphasized that the relationships, the effort that went into establishing them, the tone of respect, and the flexibility and willingness to work through difficulties that inevitably arise were impressive from the start. The Hilton Foundation also emphasized that the ease of the working relationships and the continued attention of the Office of Head Start to this project were ongoing motivating factors for them."
• Find points of leverage within dramatically different budget contexts. "A major point of attraction for the Hilton Foundation was that by tapping into a national program with multiple sites in every state as a vehicle for service delivery, collaborating with Early Head Start meant that the Foundation could leverage its impact far beyond any stand-alone project that it alone could have funded. Additional benefits...included working in the newly invigorated field of early childhood education on a project in strong alignment with the desires of the Foundation's founder."
• Employ an intermediary to bridge the cultural and reporting differences. "As an example of the diplomacy required, an essential element of the H/EHSTP intervention was providing training to Head Start federal employees and contractors, as well as Early Head Start program staff on issues related to including children with disabilities into their programs. Head Start has its own training programs and infrastructure, and it required substantial time and trustbuilding by Dr. Brekken [the intermediary] and her staff to gain acceptance of the new H/EHSTP."
• Provide broad-based training. "In addition to parents, other community service providers important in the lives of children with disabilities were also able to participate as team members in SpecialQuest trainings....The SpecialQuest intervention had a strong focus on training, and the quality of the program was directly influenced by the quality of the training tools - videos and written material - that were used in SpecialQuest trainings." The SpecialQuest Multimedia Training Library is available here.
• Secure ongoing commitment from the leadership of both partners. "The Hilton Foundation Board was enthusiastic about this program and encouraged staff to pursue it throughout the decade of involvement. Head Start staff commented that Steven M. Hilton's involvement was not just symbolic, but included meeting with program leaders, conducting site visits at Early Head Start sites and attending SpecialQuest meetings where he could see the program in action and talk with participants."
• Integrate ways of learning from the funded work into ongoing programme activities to maintain the interest and engagement of all participants in the programme over the long haul. "Observers and participants in this program...point to the ongoing evaluation of the initiative as an important ingredient of its longevity."