Early Childhood Education Policy: Developments in USA and Australia

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of early childhood education (ECE) policy, defining policy and its significance in the educational sphere. The paper traces the historical origins and evolution of ECE policies in both the United States of America and Australia. It highlights key developments such as the establishment of day care centers, nursery schools, and kindergartens, and the impact of industrialization, migration, and wartime efforts on ECE. The essay also discusses the background of current policies, including federal and state initiatives, funding mechanisms, and recent developments such as family child care policies and governmental monitoring and evaluation of ECE. The analysis underscores the importance of ECE in fostering children's growth, learning, and achievement of developmental milestones, reflecting the ongoing efforts to enhance the quality and accessibility of early childhood education.

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Early Childhood Education Policy
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Introduction
The term policy could refer to rules, guidelines, principles or laws that are put in place
to guide the actions of human beings. Policies can also refer to directions that are aimed
towards making persons in a particular organization act in certain ways. In most cases, policy
stipulate what is supposed to be done and the person(s) responsible for doing that. In
addition, a policy also provide information or guidelines of how certain procedures are to be
done and to whom. Most people tend to think that policies are rigid that the common people
have no control over them. The general belief is that policies are made by people in positions
power to rule or even oppress the common person. This common belief is not true.
To better understand the concept of policy, it would help to consider the simple
policies. Let us take an example with a policy that a company develops concerning sick
leave. Such a policy is made to help guide employees on what is expected of them in case
they fall sick. In most homes, there are rules that are made to help the family to run smoothly
(Vandenbroeck et al, 2017). For instance, the head of the household may instruct that
children will never be allowed to watch the television unless they have completed their
homework. This analogy is a great example of what policy is like. Policies are usually made
to help people live well and achieve more potential together.
Having looked at the definition of policy, let us now focus on education policy. The
term education policy refers to principles and guidelines made with an aim of ensuring that
the education sphere runs smoothly. It is almost impossible to mention education policy
without mentioning or involving the government for it (the government) is usually at the core
of formation of such policy. In most countries, it is the sole responsibility of the government
to regulate operations and activities pertaining to education in their country (Roskos, 2017).
Therefore, education policy, made by the government will affect every sector of education to

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which the policy was intended. As such, education policies affect public and private schools
alike. Education policy also refers to a collection of rules and regulations that are developed
by the government and that apply to education systems within the country. These policies are
aimed at achieving several milestones, including protecting learners and educators from
different forms of exploitation. It is important to note that education occurs in different forms
and for many purposes. Due to this, there are many education institutions whose objectives
may be different.
There are many education institutions. These include early childhood education,
primary education, secondary education, colleges and universities. There are different
education policies for the different levels of education. There are several areas that the
education policy sector is concerned about. These include but are not limited to the class
sizes, size of classes, teaching methods, the kind of curriculum that is used, requirements that
are required for graduation, development in terms of infrastructure and moral values that
schools are supposed to uphold. With such policies in place, school operations are likely to
run smoothly and without any kind of confusion. There is a field of education called
education policy analysis. The field is concerned with the professional and scholarly study of
educational policy. In the modern day, education policy is a discipline that one can pursue at
university or college. The discipline of educational policy seeks to answer questions as the
aim of getting an education, the main objectives that education policy is intended to attain
and the mechanisms that are put in place to help achievement of those objectives. In addition,
educational policy is also concerned with the measures and tools that can be used to measure
the success or failure of an education policy.
Origins of Current Education Policy

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This section will focus on an overview of the origins of the current education policies
in the United States of America and Australia. Let us start with the Unites States of America.
As with many other countries around the globe, early childhood education policy in the U.S
as greatly evolved. There are two main developments that led/ evolved to the current policy.
The first major development occurred in the 1830s. During this time, some day care centres
were developed to take care of children for the ‘unfortunate’ children of mothers who were
working. The day care centres were established under voluntary auspices. The second major
development also took place in the 1830s in the state of Massachusetts. Here, nursery schools
were developed to offer foundational learning to young learners. Later, kindergartens were
developed in the same state through the influence of the work of Froebel. After these major
developments, another was to be made in 1838 in Boston. Here, a day care centre was
established with the aim of taking care of children of seamen and widows. One cannot help
but note with awe that most of the historical events pertaining to early childhood were acts of
humanity.
Later in the century, there was a great rise in the number od day care nurseries. The
rapid increase was motivated by the great rate of industrialization that was taking place in
America. In addition, there was massive migration that took place in this period. These two
factors greatly contributed to the rise of day care nurseries. It is important to note that most of
these nurseries were custodial in nature, that is, they focused on providing basic care and
monitoring children. During the war periods, that is, the first world war, second wold war and
the cold war, the number of such nurseries greatly increased. After the wars however, these
nurseries sharply declined. In the 1920s, there was growth in the number of nursery schools
and kindergartens (Follari, 2015). Although, the growth was slow, there was a significant
increase. There was very little public support for the nurseries and kindergartens until in the
1960s. During the 1960s, there was a rapid increase in both the number of day care centres

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and nurseries. Thee were several factors that contributes to this scenario. One of these was
the emphasis on the importance of proper nutrition in early childhood. Research at the time
shown that if a child does not receive proper nutrition at that time, they may suffer some
negative effects which they might never recover from. Due to this reason, well-wishers
started establishing nurseries and providing food to children who came from poor
background. At this time also, there was a large number of women who were joining the
labour force. Day care centres became important for such mothers. Due to the high number of
children who showed up in the nurseries providing food, the government decided to intervene
and support such programs.
The first official legislation relating to early childhood education policy was passed
by the American congress in 1971 (Singer, 2017). However, that policy was vetoed by Nixon,
who was the then president of the United States. After this development, early childhood care
became a matter of concern to the political class and it has been up to date. From these
observations, it is true to conclude that early childhood education policy has gone through a
great and lengthy journey to reach where it is today. In the modern day, there is a
comprehensive early childhood policy that early childhood care centres are expected to
observe at all times.
In Australia, the historical aspect of early childhood education is intertwined with that
of early kindergarten movement in the country. Just like the case of the U.S, the historical
account of early childhood education policy can be explained through many years of slow but
sure changes. Were it not for these changes, there would probably be no such thing as ECD
policy. The kindergarten movement was mainly founded on grounds of philanthropy. A
group of women came together and decided to support children from poor families through
providing them with food and other necessities to help alleviate malnutrition while promoting
health and wellbeing. Despite great technological and infrastructural developments in

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Australia during the late 19th century, most children lived in extremely poor neighbourhoods.
These places were crowded and had unsanitary conditions which made them very unsuitable
for the wellbeing of children. Due to these poor environmental conditions, most children
would lose their lives. The newspapers at the time would report numerous numbers of deaths
of innocent children.
At about the same time, scientific research started revealing great details about
optimal care for children. Proper child-rearing practices therefore became a normal
phenomenon in parenting books. In addition, popular women magazines started publishing
the findings of early childhood research. The research stipulated that it is very important to
take great care for children and to raise them well if they are to grow into healthy and
responsible adults. The research findings however, represented a paradox, that is, the state of
the children at the time was the exact opposite of the state in which children were. There was
also an interesting turn of events at this time, that is, a greater number of women were joining
the work force. These women were fighting for equity. They wanted to be given more
opportunities in the employment sector and to be treated equally with their male counterparts.
This led to formation of kindergarten unions. These unions helped to take care of children
while mothers went to work. It is from these unions that early childhood education has grown
and achieved the milestones that it has in the current day.
Background of the Policy and Significant Recent Development
In 1965, there a foundation was laid of what would soon be a comprehensive early
childhood education policy. At that time, there were few policies on early childhood
education that were developed by both the federal and the state government. The federal
policy on ECD at the time, defined kindergartens as preschool programs that for the year
before joining primary schools. These schools could be half day or full day. As a way to

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ensure that the policy was successfully implemented, the US federal government introduced
funding of the kindergartens. It is important to note that there were only about 18
kindergartens in the United States at this time (Singer, 2017). Interestingly, by 1970 most
states had developed some policy on early childhood education. These policies were mainly
geared toward helping increase the number of children who receive appropriate preschool
care. These policies must have born great fruit that encouraged other all states to formulate
some policy regarding early childhood education. By the year 2000, all states funded some
sort of kindergarten or preschool care.
Significant recent developments in ECE policy in the U.S include the family child
care policy. Family child care refers to a situation where a care giver cares for children other
than their own in caregiver’s own home. Although, it is a recent policy that is not more than
10 years old, the policy has seen about 11 percent of children below the age of 5 and below
the age of three being cared through this arrangement (Follari, 2015). The states develop
various regulations to ensure that this policy is adhered to strictly. These regulations are
aimed to ensure that caregivers have the appropriate qualifications so that they can help the
young children grow, learn and achieve all the appropriate milestones. In the current times
also, ECE policies in the U.S have evolved to include a wide range of governmental actions.
These include federal, state and sometimes local authorities all aimed at ensuring that the
quality of ECE is high quality. The US has developed a policy of ensuring appropriate
monitoring and evaluation of early childhood education policies (Jimenez, Wade, Lin,
Morrow and Reichman, 2016). Another significant current development in ECE policy is the
increased concern by the government on ensuring that all American children achieve high
quality education. The government has achieved this through establishing and funding more
early childhood education centres and offering incentives to those who may want to start such
schools.

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In the current day, kindergartens and early childhood childhood care could be termed
as a near universal experience for most children living in the United States. In the modern
day, extensive research has been and is still being carried out concerning early childhood
education care. Early childhood education policy makers greatly depend on this research to
make appropriate changes in the ECE policy. For instance, research shows that exposure to
high quality preschool education increases the chances of a child to succeed later in school. In
addition, high quality ECE has been shown to reduce the likelihood of a child to engage in
crime or other harmful activities later in life.
In Australia, it would help to look at the Australian Association for Pre-School
Development (AAPSCD) so as to have some important background in the area of ECE. This
was formed in the 1930s and represented a shift from individual state-controlled
organizations to one national body. It is important to note that in the 1920s, the main
responsibility of early childhood centres and kindergartens was to provide children with food
and other necessities. The formation of AAPSCD represented great dedication from the
federal government towards ensuring that education and welfare of children was addressed
appropriately. There were great scientific discoveries that were made at that time that helped
to inform government policy. The AAPSCD was the sole governmental body tasked with
making appropriate policies so that children could achieve the best education and wellbeing
in early life. To achieve this, the AAPSCD focused on three main aspect when developing
policy for ECE. These were setting standards that would be used in educating early childhood
teachers, establish a national bureau that would be tasked with the responsibility to publishing
books for ECE and organising conferences two times a year to discuss on the progress.
In the modern day, the OECD in Australia has achieved great milestones. This section
will focus on significant recent developments in ECE policy in Australia. It is important to
note that although there are some significant steps that have been made as far as ECE policy

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is concerned, Australia is still lagging behind on some aspects of early childhood education.
One of the milestones is that there has been an increasing trend in the number of children
who have access to appropriate early childhood education. This improvement is due to the
changes that are continually made in the ECE policy to ensure that every child has access to
equitable and high-quality education.
In the recent past, there has been significant changes in the policy framework of early
childhood education policy in Australia. For instance, starting in 2014, the government of
Australia has been delivering recurrent funding to ECE schools in Australia (Cumming,
Sumsion and Wong, 2015). This funding is done on a needs basis and is guided by the
Australian Education Act of 2013. The act stipulates that the government should take care of
the recurrent funding for both primary and private ECE centres. In addition, such funding is
determined on a similar basis for all schools using a resource standard for schooling. In
addition, there is also funding that is intended to help the neediest children including the
children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Other special category of children
targeted by the act are children with disability as well as the schools that are marginalised.
Although, there is a long way to go before this funding can reach all appropriate
beneficiaries, it is worth to note that there have been great developments in the ECE sector as
indicated above. These observations represent the significant current developments as well as
the current status of ECE policy in Australia.
Implementation of Early Childhood Education Policy
A policy can only be beneficial if it implemented. Otherwise, it will just remain in
papers and it will not lead to any change. This section will focus on implementation of early
childhood policy in the United States and Australia. The two countries will be compared and

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contrasted so that we can have a clear picture of the implementation levels, success and/ or
failures in the two countries.
As a result of implementation of the U.S ECE policy, there are several milestones that
have been achieved. For instance, Early childhood education and care in the United Stats
includes a wide range of activities that happen every single day. These activities include but
are not limited to part-time care, full-day care for children of working mothers and full days
at school. The ECE centres/ institutions are funded either through public funds or privately.
There are two main issues that are stressed when it comes to ECE in the U.S. These are
education and care. Such emphasis is made with an intention of ensuring that the children
being cared for are protected and receive the appropriate education for their age. Research
shows that ECE has been largely successful (Britto et al, 2017).
Modern early childhood researchers argue that there is a need for the U.S to combine
the different types of early childhood care centres that exist and have standard care facilities.
Due to the lack of a common/ standard facilities for young children, the early childhood care
system seems skewed and complex. It is worth noting that there is some significant effort
towards integration of early childhood care services. Experts argue that such moves will go a
long way in helping improve the early childhood and education. The following paragraph will
explain the different types of early childhood education centres that have been established as
a result of implementation of early childhood policy.
The first category of ECE care centres are kindergartens. These are centres for
children who are yet to join school. Therefore, these are largely children who are aged five
years. Kindergartens could be half day or full day. For American children, it is almost a kind
of universal experience. About 98% of American children go through kindergartens (Singer,
2017). This could be contributed to American early childhood policy that makes it mandatory

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for all young children to go through kindergartens before joining school. The second category
of care centres are preschools which are also known as nurseries. These are either half day of
full day and are used to impart compensatory education as required American legislation. In
addition to these, there is also family child care which has been discussed in a previous
section.
The U.S early childhood policy stipulates that a child should be covered form birth to
state-designated school age (Elango, García, Heckman and Hojman, 2015). Therefore, it is
the role of the government to ensure that young children achieve the best education and care
until they are old enough to join school. It is also important to state that elementary education
is compulsory and mandatory for every American child. Despite the great role played by the
government to ensure that children receive the best care, there are concerns over the varied
early childhood programs. Some of the factors that arise are whether it is the state or federal
government that should be involved in formulation of standards and guidelines for early
childhood education and care.
The paragraphs above indicate the U.S government is dedicated towards making and
implementing early childhood education policies that will make the stay of a child at school
as comfortable, safe and educative. However, the United States lacks a national system of
ECE. Therefore, there the policies are made by both the federal and the state government
without having a central authority that determines early childhood policy. This understanding
may help explain the implementation of the policies as has been discussed above.
Let us now look at Australia. In the present day, there is evident implementation of
ECE policy. There are different services that have been made available for children and their
families. Unlike in the U.S, implementation of the Australian ECE policy greatly focuses on
having diverse services so that the different needs of families can be appropriately and

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conveniently addressed. It is also worth stating that just like in the United States, there are
different kinds of ECE.
There are long-day care centres, family day care and also care for outside school
hours. Centres for outside school hours care are usually located near schools but they may
also be found in places that are significantly far from the schools. Preschools are also mainly
built alongside or near main schools. However, it is also possible to find preschool facilities
being stand alone or significantly far from the school. There are also occasional care services
that are mainly located in neighbourhood halls.
The provision of the services mentioned above reflect efforts of both the private
sector. Whether public or private, these centres must meet the minimum threshold that is set
by the federal government for care centres of their type. Research shows that more than 73%
of long-day care services are offered by the private sector (Finn-Stevenson, 2018). Most of
the other services, however, are offered by the national government, state governments and
the not-for-profit sector.
In Australia, it is compulsory that every child who has attained the school age to join
school. It is the responsibility of the state governments to ensure that this is enforced. This
policy is greatly implemented and a large number of children attend school as they should. In
most parts of the world, including Australia, education is treated as the key to future success.
In addition, it is considered extremely important to educate the current generations so the
future of the country can be secure and in hands of knowledgeable people (Smith, Tesar and
Myers, 2016).
Just like in the case of United States, there are a number of issues that arise form the
implementation of the current policy. One of these issues is that there is great concern about
the effectiveness of the quality assurance systems that are in place to monitors early