Strategic financing: Making the most of the State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Initiative

The Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s (MCHB) State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (SECCS) Initiative gives states an opportunity to think more strategically about how early childhood services are delivered and funded. SECCS grew out of MCHB’s strategic plan for early childhood health, which specifies two goals:

1. To provide leadership to the development of cross-service systems integration partnerships in support of children in early childhood in order to enhance their ability to enter school healthy and ready to learn; and
2. To support states and communities in their effort to build early childhood service systems that address the critical components of:

• a. Access to comprehensive pediatric services and medical homes;
• b. Socio-emotional development of young children;
• c. Early care and education;
• d. Parenting education; and
• e. Family support.

States with SECCS grants will have to do an environmental scan of current financing of early childhood services and potential funding for service expansion and further systems-building efforts before they develop a broad statewide, multi-agency plan for early childhood. This paper presents a framework to help SECCS partners develop a strategic financing approach to meet these requirements. It is intended to help SECCS partners see themselves not just as fund mappers, but as fund managers.