North Carolina Partnership for Children (Smart Start)

Description

Every child deserves a chance to have a bright future. In North Carolina, the Smart Start Initiative makes sure that every child receives just that—a smart start in life. Smart Start provides funding and technical assistance to county-level public-private partnerships that design and implement services and programs based on their community’s needs. Plans developed by county partnerships include a range of programs and services addressing child care quality and accessibility, health care services for children, and support services for families.

The North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC) is a state initiative that was established to provide support to county-level Smart Start partnerships and to set statewide goals for early childhood programs and services funded by the initiative. NCPC provides funding and technical assistance to county partnerships on program development, administration, organizational development, communication, fiscal management, technology, contracts management, and fundraising.

County-level groups that receive Smart Start funds are required to have broad-based community participation. These local board members include:

• families;
• private business;
• schools;
• health departments;
• social service departments;
• Head Start;
• cooperative extension;
• community foundations;
• non-profit religious organizations;
• child care resource and referral agencies;
• interagency coordinating councils;
• city and county governments;
• child care providers;
• community colleges;
• libraries; and
• mental health departments.

Additional members of these county boards vary from county to county.

In the 1980s, North Carolina had one of the highest percentages of working mothers in the country, insufficient child care regulations, poor quality of child care, and low SAT scores. Smart Start was created to address the problem that young children entering school were unprepared to succeed. The children were not only unprepared academically, but some children arrived at school hungry, unable to learn on an empty stomach. In other communities, lead poisoning threatened children’s health and ability to learn.

Smart Start began as the result of a task force created under Governor James B. Hunt. The task force saw that solutions for children were not going to come from the state capital of Raleigh, but rather from the local communities where the children and their families lived. In 1993, legislation passed which established a structure at the state and county levels and allocated funds for providing services to young children and families. The state-level partnership would provide funding and technical assistance, and county-level partnerships would design and implement quality services and programs for children based on community needs. County partnerships were given flexibility to make decisions about the services that they would provide. Beginning with twelve partnerships in 1993, Smart Start has now expanded to all 100 North Carolina counties.

All children from birth to age five and their families are eligible for Smart Start services, regardless of income. In each county partnership, planning teams make decisions about the kinds of programs to develop using Smart Start funds.

County partnerships spend anywhere from 30% - 76% of their Smart Start funding on child care subsidies. Currently, a total of over $23 million, or 42% of all Smart Start funds across the state, are being used for this purpose.

Smart Start funding spent on child care related activities other than subsidies, such as teacher education and support, is $17 million, or 30%. The remaining funds are spent on health services, and family support programs and services, such as parenting and education.

In 1998, the North Carolina General Assembly approved $143 million for Smart Start. The partnership was mandated by the General Assembly to raise one dollar for every $10 it receives in state funding. Since Smart Start began, over $30 million in cash and in-kind contributions have been raised and volunteers have contributed over 400,000 hours of their time. In 1998 alone, nearly $11 million in cash and in-kind contributions were received from the private sector, and more than 135,000 volunteer hours were recorded.

Since Smart Start began five years ago, the partnership has:

• offered higher-quality child care to more than 100,000 children;
• provided training and education to more than 26,000 child care teachers, including more than 7,000 through T.E.A.C.H. scholarships;
• provided preventive health care to more than 97,000 children;
• provided parenting and health education to more than 60,000 parents;
• provided child care subsidies to over 50,000 children; and
• created more than 33,500 spaces in child care and education programs.

County partnerships are responsible for evaluating all local Smart Start activities, and assessing whether individual activities are making a difference in the lives of children and families. Funded activities must have clear goals, objectives, measurable outcomes, and strategies.

The Planning and Oversight Committee of NCPC’s Board of Directors developed a set of core services to help county partnerships develop and implement programs that have a direct impact on school readiness. In 1997, for the first time, Smart Start plans required measurable outcomes for each activity that will receive Smart Start funds. A statewide evaluation of Smart Start services is currently being conducted by the University of North Carolina’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.

Smart Start is often used as a statewide, comprehensive model for early childhood initiatives in other states and for national policy discussions. The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University selected the program as a model for replication, awarding it one of the 1998 Innovations in American Government Awards. Smart Start has not been replicated in its entirety in any other state, but many states have shown interest in adapting the model. In May 1998, more than 150 people from half of the states came to North Carolina to see how Smart Start works at both the state and local level.

Track results from day one. NCPC learned that demonstrating results can be the key to retaining the support of legislators. After one year of Smart Start funding, North Carolina legislators were calling for a demonstration of results. Without data on individual participants, this could not be readily provided. The Partnership would have been able to show results more quickly if the programs had tracked individual children from the start.

Be accountable. In addition to being able to demonstrate results, NCPC learned that it needed to assure the public and the state legislature that there was appropriate oversight and accountability of Smart Start dollars. This was especially challenging for NCPC, because the county-level partnerships were still developing at the same time that they were responsible for making program and funding decisions. In April 1996, the NCPC Board of Directors adopted a comprehensive accountability plan designed to tighten fiscal controls, increase accountability, and strengthen oversight of Smart Start.

Develop broad support. Because Smart Start is "owned" by diverse stakeholders and benefits all families at the county level, the program now has broad-based support for increasing state-level Smart Start expenditures.

Monica Harris
North Carolina Partnership for Children
1100 Wake Forest Road, Suite 300
Raleigh, NC 27604
Phone: (919) 821-7999
Fax: (919)-821-8050
Web site: www.smartstart-nc.org