MCA’s legislative advocacy, relationships with policymakers, data and communications, and work in coalitions led to unprecedented advances in policies and investments to improve the well-being of Maine children, youth, and families.
June 21, 2023The 34th edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT® Data Book describes how the country’s lack of affordable and accessible child care negatively affects children, families and U.S. businesses.
June 14, 2023Mainers have a long tradition of working together to solve tough problems. Right now, we face a significant, but solvable challenge of an inadequate early care and education (ECE) system. In fact, the problem is that it isn’t a “system” at all but a patchwork of programs of variable quality, affordability, and availability throughout the state. This creates inequities in opportunity both for children’s healthy development and the stability of our workforce. What can we do to support the needs of our modern workforce and ensure Maine has a professional and thriving early care and education system? In the following sections, we briefly describe the current challenges facing both families and providers, strategies to help repair our patchwork of programs throughout the state to create a true early childhood system, and what kinds of investments are required to build and sustain that system.
November 17, 2022MCA’s advocacy, relationships with policymakers, education, and coalition work moved forward many priority policies and investments to improve the well-being of Maine children and families.
June 21, 2021The 32nd edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT® Data Book describes how children across the United States were faring before — and during — the coronavirus pandemic.
April 30, 2021Slides from the presentation of the 2021 Maine KIDS COUNT Data Book to the Children's Caucus. The Data Book, produced every other year by the Maine Children's Alliance, is the only comprehensive report of the physical, social, economic, and educational well-being of Maine children.
November 30, 2020Trends in demographic data represent both challenges and opportunities for Maine to achieve the goal of being a thriving place for all to live, work, and play. As the oldest population in the nation, Maine faces the challenges of caring for older adults and meeting its future workforce needs. On the positive side, migration to Maine and shifts in racial representation are contributing to younger communities. By recognizing the trends in our population, we can better plan for the programs, services, and systems – from early childhood education to senior housing - that will ensure greater long-term social and economic prosperity for all of us.
July 23, 2020The 31st edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT® Data Book describes how children across the United States were faring before the coronavirus pandemic began.
March 20, 2020To understand the changes and identify the drivers of the changes in IMR in Maine over the past two decades, a group of partners representing the non-profit, health care, public health and state sectors designed and implemented the Maine Infant Mortality Project. The goals of this one-year project were to identify the drivers of infant mortality (IM) in the state using quantitative and qualitative data and develop recommendations to reduce IM that reflect the populations, cultures and environment of Maine.
February 29, 2020The State of Maine is at an important crossroads in its juvenile justice system, with an exciting window of opportunity. The problems in the system have been well-known for many years, and significant progress has been made in several areas. But over-incarceration continues and years of under-investment in behavioral health and other services has left the state without adequate programs and services to meet the needs of young people.
January 16, 2020This report is in response to RESOLVE Chapter 66, L.D. 1635, 129th Maine State Legislature, Resolve, To Improve Access to Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment Services for Children from Birth to 8 Years of Age. This report provides information on the Early, Periodic, Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit and programs providing early intervention and developmental screening services in the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), including work done under the Office of MaineCare Services (OMS), at the Maine CDC under the Maternal Child Block Grant, Public Health Nursing (PHN), Maine Families Home Visiting, and Women and Infants Program (WIC), and the Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS). The report also includes information on Child Find under the Department of Education and the early intervention system, including Child Development Services (CDS), Early Head Start, and Head Start.
September 24, 2019This snapshot shares the latest data — for the nation and each state — on children growing up in high-poverty areas. It also singles out two important factors, geographic location and race and ethnicity, that shape a child’s risk of living in concentrated poverty. The document ends by outlining recommended moves that leaders can take to help families in these communities thrive.
August 14, 2019Child care is an essential support for families, allowing parents to work while their children are cared for during this critical period of their development. However, the cost of child care is a significant burden for families—particularly for families with limited financial resources.
July 11, 2019Just the overview of county data from Maine KIDS COUNT, 2019
July 3, 2018This report reminds policymakers and child advocates of the barriers that young families face. It examines national and state-level trends — highlighting areas of opportunity and concern — and then shares potential solutions that can help these families thrive.
March 6, 2018This report presents findings from a survey of Maine’s early care and education (ECE) teachers and providers about their experiences related to young children with challenging behavior. The Social-Emotional Learning and Development (SELD) Survey was part of a larger study assigned by a committee of the Maine State Legislature to the Maine Children’s Growth Council and two state agencies.
September 22, 2017Research demonstrates that young children thrive when they have strong relationships with caring, responsive adults and when they are provided age-appropriate, stimulating environments. We also know that 67% of Maine children under the age of six have both parents in the workforce and will require care from birth until they reach public school.
March 29, 2017Report to the Joint Standing Committee on Education & Cultural Affairs of the Maine Legislature • The brain’s architecture is shaped during a child’s early years, establishing a sturdy or shaky foundation for all of the learning and development that follows. Efforts to support the development of both cognitive and socialemotional skills deserve more attention in the design and functioning of early care and education programs.
January 14, 2015The demands of living in today’s economy also require us to think in innovative ways about how best to maintain and support Maine’s quality of life. We simply must provide working families with the resources they need — access to health care, quality education, jobs that pay — that help them support their and their children’s well-being.
April 13, 2013In 2011, an estimated 24.2 percent of Maine’s children under age five lived in poverty and were eligible for Head Start. In 2011- 2012, Maine Head Start served an estimated 28% of income eligible children ages birth to five years old. However, the percent of children being served differs by age. Early Head Start served approximately 11% of the income-eligible infants and toddlers, while Head Start enrolled an estimated 48% of three and four year olds living in poverty.
October 1, 2012This report highlights data trends whenever possible. Of overarching concern is that Maine has not improved in a large number of school readiness measures, but remained stagnant or declined over the past 10 years.
December 13, 2011Head Start provides early care and education, as well as health, nutrition, mental health, social and family support, to low-income families with children from prenatal to five years old.
November 29, 2011The goal of this project is to improve the educational stability of children in the custody of DHHS. To that end, MCA studied the early stages of implementation of the state and federal laws and identified positive advancements and barriers to success. This report includes short- and long-term recommendations on best implementation practices to the stakeholders, including DHHS’s Division of Child Welfare, MDOE, school personnel and other agencies.
July 29, 2011Maine currently has the capacity to serve only an estimated 29.5% of the children who are income eligible for Head Start.
July 29, 2011in 2004, Maine participated in a multi-state initiative that developed a formula defining school readiness: Ready Family + Ready Communities + Ready Early Care and Education + Ready Schools = Ready Child.
July 29, 2011Over the past 6 years, a greater number of Maine children under age 6 in Maine were living at or below the poverty line than in other New England states. The poverty rate for children under 6 years old in Maine is 20%.
July 25, 2011We offer this guide as a reference to help legislators and other policymakers understand the behavioral health issues facing our children and their families. The Maine Children’s Alliance compiled the observations and recommendations of eight organizations involved with mental health services for Maine children.
December 30, 2010This report presents state-level indicators related to the mental well-being of Maine’s children. These indicators are drawn from state and national survey data, and from data from the public systems in Maine that provide mental health, child welfare, education, early childhood and related services for children.
July 6, 2009Fifteen years ago, we both joined a group of visionary people who were committed to strengthening child advocacy inMaine. Our vision became a reality when we incorporated theMaine Children’s Alliance and Ellie Goldberg, our first President and CEO, joined us in a windowless one-room office in Portland. We have come a long way since then.
June 16, 2009While the statewide debate over the school consolidation law passed in 2007 as part of the state budget is unresolved – a citizen initiative to repeal the law will be voted on Nov. 3 – the local impacts are already profound. The 25 new school districts represent the greatest change in Maine local governance since the passage of the Sinclair Act in 1957, when the first regional government entities were formed.