S 2475 (Ruiz, Cunningham) Early childhood covers birth to eight years of age. Currently, early childhood services are spread across four deparmtnets. This can result in fragmented services which are less effective than they could be otherwise. While the process of creating one Department of Early Childhood will not be without challenges, it will place a focus on early childhood arguably one of the most important time periods in a child’s development, and benefit children and their families.

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