National Agencies, Organizations, and Initiatives

Association for Childhood Education International: Membership organization to promote and support in the global community the optimal education and development of children, from birth through early adolescence, and to influence the professional growth of educators and the efforts of others who are committed to the needs of children in a changing society.

Birth to Five Policy Alliance: The Birth to Five Policy Alliance works to fulfill the American promise of opportunity for all. Forty-two percent of our nation’s children under 6 live in low-income families and the “opportunity gap” is rooted in these very early years. The Alliance’s goal is to shift the odds for our youngest, most vulnerable children so they can grow up eager to learn and ready for success in life.

Center on Education Policy: The Center on Education Policy is a national, independent advocate for public education and for more effective public schools. The Center helps Americans better understand the role of public education in a democracy and the need to improve the academic quality of public schools.

Child Care Lounge: Child care resources, training, and consultation.

Child Care Aware: National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies’ site for finding high quality child care in your area.

NAEYC Accreditation Information:  Accreditation of Programs for Young Children, Associate Degree Programs, Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs.

National Association for Family Child Care: NAFCC is dedicated to advocating for the family child care profession by collaborating with other local, state, and national organizations who contribute to the family child care field to increase awareness about and improve the quality of family child care.  Offers accreditation for family child care.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC): NAEYC is a membership organization of individuals who care about the care and education of children ages birth – 8.  Sets standards for early childhood practice, provides professional development opportunities, promotes high quality early childhood education.  NCaeyc is the North Carolina affiliate of NAEYC.

National Center for Early Development and Learning: NCEDL is a national early childhood research project supported by the US Department of Education's Institute for Educational Sciences (IES).  Administratively based at the FPG Child Development Institute at UNC Chapel Hill, NCEDL is a collaboration with the University of Virginia & UCLA.

National Center for Learning Disabilities: NCLD provides essential information to parents, professionals and individuals with learning disabilities, promotes research and programs to foster effective learning and advocates for policies to protect and strengthen educational rights and opportunities.

National Prekindergarten Center: Supporting quality education for preschoolers with information about finance, governance, and professional development.

Research Connections: A comprehensive, up-to-date, and easy-to-use collection of more than 11,000 resources from the many disciplines related to child care and early education.

Week of the Young Child:  This link will take you to the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) website where you can access tools and information for celebrating the Week of the Young Child held in April each year.

Zero to Three: Promoting early language and literacy development, Zero to Three's Policy Center announces the release of a video and a new policy brief illustrating how early language and literacy development contributes to a child's success throughout life. Play the video right from the website and show it to policymakers, advocates, community partners, and others. For more information check out the early literacy webinar and our wealth of early literacy resources.