Assessing Models of Coordinated Services for Low-Income Children and Their Families

The purpose of the Assessing Models of Coordinated Services for Low-Income Children and Their Families (AMCS) project is to understand how states and local communities are coordinating services across sectors to most efficiently and effectively serve low-income children and their families. Policymakers and program leaders across the country are experimenting with innovative approaches to combine early care and education, family economic security, and other health and human services (Hulsey et al. 2015; Ross 2018; Sama-Miller and Baumgartner 2017). This qualitative study aims to fill gaps in our knowledge by identifying and describing the features of state and local approaches to coordinating early care and education (ECE) services with family economic security and/or other health and human services.

The AMCS study has six primary research questions:

1. How do state and local coordinated services approaches coordinate partnerships and service application and delivery? What are the experiences of those involved with these coordinated services approaches?
2. How do coordinated services approaches intend to reduce barriers and road blocks for families to access services? Are there federal barriers to implementing such approaches?
3. Are approaches that combine ECE, family economic security, and/or other health and human services able to address other child development factors beyond ECE?
4. What have we learned from efforts to integrate enrollment and eligibility processes for health and human services?
5. Are states and/or localities examining service delivery dynamics across ECE programs to assess availability of care slots and services to meet the needs of eligible families? How are they using data to understand service delivery dynamics?
6. How is public and private ECE funding targeted to meet the needs of at-risk children and families? Are there differences in the families that are able to access services?

The study has three primary ways of collecting information: model profile creation and confirmation for up to 76 coordinated services approaches; telephone interviews with leadership from 20 approaches; and site visits to six coordinated services approaches. Site visits include interviews with staff at the coordinated services approaches and focus groups with parents served by the approach.

The information collected in this study will improve federal, state, and local policymakers', practitioners', and other stakeholders' knowledge and understanding of approaches to coordinating services to support low-income children and their families. Findings will be used to inform the federal government and support their work to set program and evaluation priorities; to inform researchers and others in the field about the state of coordinated services; and finally, to inform practitioners who are currently developing, updating and implementing coordinated services approaches.