For the Children & Families Program at Next Generation it’s the end of an era, but the beginning of a new one too. Too Small to Fail and the policy team are moving on to The Opportunity Institute. And as part of these transitions, there is another big change to announce: the next chapter for the California Work & Family Coalition.

American policy has failed to keep pace with the shifting roles of fathers. More than ever, working parents need the tools and supports to balance the demands of work and caring for their family.

Many people I know and talk to about home visiting programs seem to think of them as a “nice to have” service. But these programs provide much more than words of encouragement.

Evidence-based home visiting programs have been found to reap long-term, positive effects for the children and parents enrolled. More than 20 states have established state plans and mechanisms to draw down federal Medicaid dollars to fund home visiting programs. California should join them, and distinguish itself as a state that values evidence-based programs that improve the economy and the healt

More than $1 billion in cuts made to California's child care and early education system since the Great Recession have not yet been restored. Although some important steps were taken to rebuild the system last year, it is still miles away from being what families need.

Ann O'Leary reflects on Next Generation's accomplishments and discusses what's next for the Children & Families program.

Women’s ability to build up assets and live comfortably in retirement all hinge on the wages and jobs we have access to while we are raising children and caring for other family members. Yet we still – still – face lower wages compared to equally qualified men. We are more likely to raise children on our own, making workplace policies like fair scheduling and family leave, and the availability of

Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court provides clarity and relief under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act that pregnant women have been seeking for years. Simply, the Court made clear that when Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978, it did indeed mean that employers must treat pregnant women the same as other workers who are temporarily disabled and similar in their ability or inab

Economic equality, poverty, and child care advocates will join legislators at a press conference today to call for new policies that will help secure women’s economic empowerment in California, and benefit families and communities across the state.

The United States is one of only a handful of countries that offers no paid leave for new parents and no paid sick days. Today’s announcement from the federal government—our nation’s largest employer—should spur action throughout the country and lead to passage of the Healthy Families Act, as well as a national paid family leave program, such as the FAMILY Act.

In case you missed it, San Francisco distinguished itself as a leader again, by passing the first legislation in the country that addresses last minute employment scheduling by large, chain retailers.

Not only did voters approve measures to raise the minimum wage in Nebraska, Arkansas, Alaska, and South Dakota, but Massachusetts voters also passed a historic measure to guarantee employees access to paid sick days, making it the third state in the country to pass such a law.

Halloween is a special holiday for children – it’s one of the few times a year when the entire country actively encourages kids and adults to engage their creative sides, build outrageous/brilliant/hilarious costumes, place decorative gourds on our front porches, and eat too much candy.

Supervisor David Chiu today announced the introduction of city-wide legislation that, if enacted, will give thousands of hourly workers in the city of San Francisco the predictable schedules—and regular pay—they need to secure their families’ well-being.

Born right smack dab in the middle of the ‘baby boom,’ I am a member of an all but extinct sub-group of American women – the stay-at-home-mom-by-choice. For a quarter of a century, built-in flexibility was ingrained in my daily routine. But, to quote the poet laureate of my generation, “the times they are a changing.”

Just as children’s minds are formed by what they read, so too is our national narrative formed by how our media frame and report the news. So reading really is fundamental - both to our kids, and to the health of our planet.

A report released today by the Washington D.C.-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research, highlights how many more Californians than previously thought – approximately 7 million, or 44% of all working Californians – may lack access to paid sick days.

When I came to Next Generation a year ago, I was excited by its unique niche: policy thinking and communications on issues that affect California’s children and families. This was a place that understood that issues affecting parents and children are inextricably linked, and that smart policy-making can’t be successful without the ability to make it heard and understood.

On July 23, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined business, hospital, and community leaders in Oakland to announce the launch of “Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing,” a multi-media community campaign that will help local parents, grandparents, and caregivers improve their babies’ ability to build vocabulary and set them up for brighter futures.

Most hourly and part-time workers report unstable hours. Often times, these workers have little input into their work schedules and may receive their schedules less than a week in advance. Precarious schedules threaten workers’ economic security and create challenges that disproportionately hurt working parents.

Local business and community leaders, including the Bay Area Council, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and Kaiser Permanente, today announced a campaign to better prepare Oakland’s children for success in school and beyond. ‘Talking is Teaching: Talk Read Sing’, aims to close the “word gap“—a difference in the number of words children in high- and low-income families hear.

Today, Next Generation is releasing “Helping Hands: A Review of Home Visiting Programs in California” to highlight the importance of voluntary home visiting programs throughout our big, diverse state. In the coming months, Next Generation will continue to pursue a research agenda focused on home visiting, in collaboration with Children Now.

State elected officials, labor leaders, community advocates, parents and caregivers share research on the nation’s first paid family leave program and highlight the need for increased awareness among low-income, hourly and latino workers.

State elected officials, labor leaders, community advocates, parents and caregivers join together to celebrate the nation’s first Paid Family Leave program.

In celebration of its one-year-anniversary, and in collaboration with the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy along with other bipartisan leaders, Too Small to Fail shared video messages from President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Cindy McCain and Senator Bill Frist.

After months of planning, negotiation, and anticipation, Governor Brown’s signature last week on this year’s budget signals a new day for tens of thousands of families around the state.

In California, we like to lead. I’ve said it before. It’s an idea woven into the marrow of Next Generation, and this week it was proven true again.

During the past two days, several bills have successfully moved through the California Legislature that hold a lot of promise for California’s families. The forward momentum of these bills—from allowing workers to earn a minimum level of sick days to improving access to quality child care and preschool—have given us hope that our elected leaders understand the widespread value of ensuring that our

Like we need air, like we need water, the research shows that we need words, spoken to us from our earliest days. The power of parent talk – reading and singing, too – to deliver those words with love, and in turn to set children up for a life of success is extraordinary.

Although America struggles with problems of inequality, there is evidence pointing to how we can address it. We must ask ourselves what kind of America we want for all children and take steps in the right direction to reshape the opportunity landscape for a more equitable America.

This week we decided to celebrate the joy of reading by asking the staff at Next Generation to share their favorite children’s books – the ones their parents, grandparents, and siblings read to them as children. While it wasn’t easy to choose, here are some of our favorites we’d like to share with you.

So many of us Californians have come here with hope for a better future. This hopefulness may explain some of the results of a new Field Poll. It shows unquestionably that Californians believe in the importance of supporting our young children, and we’re willing to pay for it.

Distraction, spin, and information overload – these are just a few of the problems we face when we attempt to sort out the right information we need for our kids and our climate.

Sacramento is buzzing with proposed legislation that would make big changes in California. Given the health of the new budget surplus, advocates and legislators have been leaning in and thinking hard about what parts of the social infrastructure need propping up.

California can and should take a stand on closing the word gap by investing in early learning and development.

Ann O'Leary's speech at the Child Care Aware of America Symposium on the word gap and the importance of talking, reading and singing with babies and toddlers to build their brains and prepare them for later learning and good health outcomes.

Multi-Media Campaign Will Empower Parents and Family Members of Young Children to Realize Their Potential as Their Children’s First Teachers by Offering Tools and Tips to Boost Vocabulary and Early Learning

Our Too Small to Fail team passed a major milestone this week with the news that we've garnered over 100,000 likes on Facebook. To celebrate, we're running a giveaway on the Facebook page and soliciting fan photos on with a contest on Twitter and Instagram. And of course we're still providing high-quality, science-based information on early childhood development to parents and caregivers on toosma

Last week, educators sat together at Santa Cruz county’s fifth annual “Together for Kindergarten” meeting, including family child care providers, center-based providers, as well as kindergarten teachers and administrators, to improve the transition between preschool and kindergarten for children and families.

Consider a classroom filled with confident, eager 4-year-olds on the first day of school. Now, imagine, every seat filled with kids ready to tackle their ABCs and 1-2-3s in pre-k classrooms filled to capacity – in every neighborhood, small-town and city across the country.

Californians of 2025 will have a broad and deep appreciation of the importance of brain development of very young children – not just among advocates and researchers, but among grocery store managers, elementary school administrators, public transit operators, and governors.

Univision Communications Inc. will hold an education fair in Austin, Texas in order to distribute several thousand books to local children and families.

The Farm Bill was passed two weeks ago, which is as miraculous as the rain that is falling in Northern California. While it does not include any of the devastating cuts to SNAP eligibility that were proposed during negotiations over the past two years, it is also no reason to celebrate.

Children who don't hear enough words from birth through their toddler years are unprepared to begin school, and don’t have the vocabulary or cognitive skills that will help them succeed in life. That's why our Too Small to Fail initiative has partnered with Univision to give Hispanic parents and caregivers the information they need to help close the word gap.

The new initiative, “Pequeños y Valiosos,” will help Hispanic parents and caregivers get information about early brain development, early learning, and efforts and strategies to close the word gap.

Former State Senator Sheila Kuehl joins Councilwoman Martinez for a press conference anticipating City Council’s vote on support for the FAMILY Act and introducing a motion to build awareness of paid family medical leave in Los Angeles.

The likelihood of a child's succeeding in school, leading a healthy life and productively contributing to the economic engine of California is largely set before the child ever crosses the threshold to kindergarten. Sadly, childhood poverty is the No. 1 predictor for educational success and health outcomes.

Fifty years ago, President Johnson launched an unconditional War on Poverty in an attempt to relieve and abolish it. Has it succeeded, failed, or something else?

For me, 2014 began with a loss. On the 5th of January, Charles “Chick” O’Leary, the longtime head of Maine’s AFL-CIO and father of Next Generation’s Ann O’Leary, passed away. He was a champion of the working men and women of Maine, and an inspiration to all of us at Next Generation.

Governor Brown’s 2014-2015 budget contains significant investments in schools, additional aid to children and families, and a healthy projected surplus for a state that has not seen such positive figures in years. Yet the Governor’s Budget Summary contains no language speaking to the need for increased investment in preschool, or early childhood education.

Through my work with Too Small to Fail, I’ve learned a lot about how small actions on the part of parents and caregivers – reading, talking, and playing with babies and young children every day – can have a substantial impact on early development and school readiness. This holiday break, I set out to practice these ideas with the childre

Simple activities such as singing, dancing, and making music together can improve a child’s memory and learning.

Sometimes, family must come first. In 2002, California took a historic step by passing the first paid family leave law in the nation. Last week, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the FAMILY Act, national legislation that follows in California's footsteps.

In the face of America's growing income inequality, President Obama pushes for a fair minimum wage

Today’s PISA scores tell us that to remain competitive in a global marketplace we need to recognize that investments in early education paired with deep parental involvement, and a strong focus on the distribution of school resources, will lay the foundation for achievement in school, college, career, and life.

The Senate HELP Committee introduced the Strong Start for America's Children Act

Too Small to Fail is partnering up with amazing parent-bloggers at Go Mighty, an online network of goal sharing, support and achievement.

Ann O'Leary remarks on the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Working parents are critical drivers of our current economy, but also hold in their hands our future economy through the support they provide their children, support they provide through the income they earn, and through the time they spend with their children.

Childhood instability can be damaging to a child's early development. Read this factsheet for tips on how parents can ameliorate the impact.

A new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that only 36% of kids are on track with cognitive skills by third grade. Data on hunger, poverty, and child care indicate that American kids need more support.

New research: by 18 months, a word gap differentiates children living in low- and high-income homes. Ohio’s Governor, John Kasich circumvented his state legislature and pushed through the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA. Eduardo Porter maintains the ACA’s guaranteed access to low-cost health insurance will help bring down our country’s intractably high infant mortality rate.

The first numbers out of the gate were big: California’s marketplace, Covered California, got over 1.5 million hits in the first two weeks of implementation, more than any other state marketplace except New York. But there's more to the story.

Researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality have produced a new way of measuring poverty for the state, modeled after a similar federal effort. It's Called the California Poverty Measure, and it has a lot to tell us about the state of poverty in the Golden State.

While HealthCare.gov experiences technical glitches, state insurance-exchanges show signs of success. Children face challenges including the skyrocketing cost of asthma, the need for dental and vision care, and whooping cough.

San Francisco just became the first municipality in the country to pass a law providing working parents and caregivers the “right to request” flexible or predictable work schedules.

Mayor Ed Lee signed one of the nation’s first Family Friendly Workplace Ordinances into law. The new measure will improve flexibility and job security for working parents and caregivers in San Francisco by providing employees with the “right to request” flexible or predictable work arrangements.

A child's first relationships serve as a reference point for all future relationships, and also influence problem-solving abilities, peer relationships and basic coping skills.

The government shutdown impacts both WIC and Head Start, while the new ACA health exchanges open for business. Hillary Clinton addresses the ‘word gap’ and early childhood development.

The report is an important step in realizing the initiative’s goal to help parents, caregivers, communities and businesses take meaningful, evidence-based actions that will improve the health and well-being of America’s youngest children, ages zero to five, and prepare them to succeed in the 21st century.

Children learn words that they hear words spoken directly to them, and if they hear too few words and have too few conversational interactions while they are learning to speak, their vocabularies suffer.

Today the Census Bureau released new data on estimates of poverty for the nation. Next Generation has updated an interactive graphic to help users explore this data and compare their state to the nation and their neighbors.

Over 16 million children live in poverty in America—more than 2 million in California alone—and these numbers represent a direct threat to the future of this country’s economic health and prosperity.

One of the best tools to help families still recovering from the recession just passed both houses and is likely to be signed by Governor Brown.

By working together to find simple solutions for healthier living and eating, communities can improve health outcomes for children and raise the quality of life for all.

Last week, we celebrated the passage of California SB 770 in the California Assembly, and will watch it very closely as it makes its way to the Governor’s desk in a few weeks. The California Work & Family Coalition, a project of Next Generation, supported this bill because it will help ensure that workers don’t have to choose between maintaining an income and caring for a loved one.

SB 770 passed through the Assembly with a final vote of 51-22. The bill allows workers to receive Paid Family Leave benefits while caring for seriously ill grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, and parents-in-law.

As the ACA unfolds, we will be watching, and writing about what this transition will mean for the millions of people in California who need health insurance and will soon be able to get it.

For very young children preparing for school means developing important social and emotional skills, as well as cognitive skills that will help them get ready to learn when they begin kindergarten.

Despite trepidation about new expectations for young children, the unavoidable truth is that preschool-aged children today will face challenges that did not exist even ten years ago.

The difficulties of balancing work and family responsibilities only increase for low-income parents who endure stagnant wages, unpredictable work schedules, and frequently face the threat of long-term unemployment. Here are 3 steps we can take today.

2013 could be a fulcrum moment in U.S. public education because of the prevalence of major reform initiatives taking root

The data from the Center for Disease Control demonstrating obesity rates dropping among low-income preschoolers has the First Lady strutting her stuff. The songs, “Veggie Luv” and “U R What You Eat,” are part of an album of hip-hop songs inspired by the “Let’s Move Campaign.”

Overweight kids may be consuming far more calories than their doctors or parents realize, but recent studies show efforts made by communities to make healthy foods available to kids register promising reductions in childhood obesity rates.

It seems a good night’s rest is more than just a creature comfort. It’s actually vital to the brain development and future academic achievement of young children.

News that matters to the Next Generation.

Limiting exposure to poor air is good for school budgets, and even better for kids' health, says a new study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Despite a surplus, state schools have unfunded energy retrofit projects that could save millions of dollars a year for underfunded schools.

News that matters to the Next Generation.

News that matters to the Next Generation.

California's budget surplus could help children in poverty, argues Ann O'Leary in this op-ed cross-posted from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation are partnering with Next Generation on the “Too Small To Fail" Children's Initiative.

Today's changes to health care and K-12 education funding are a step in the right direction, but won't matter much tomorrow without earlier and broader investments in kids.

Children are now the poorest segment of US society and the child poverty rate is only getting higher, proving that overall economic growth is not enough to heal families hit hard by the recession.

Promoting paid family and sick leave along with more comprehensive child care reforms can help balance the gender wage gap.

The $7 million school solar program in Salinas, where almost a third of children live in poverty, is an investment poised to return dividends for students.

While California has not yet fully recovered from the Great Recession, the Governor is making good investments in health and education.

October’s seven best new resources for children’s advocates and climate hawks.

O’Leary brings wealth of experience from White House, Capitol Hill and academia on economic policy and children and families issues.