The Early Childhood Emergency Preparedness Initiative

The Early Childhood Emergency Preparedness Initiative is an effort to sustain the energy and expertise that the early childhood field marshaled in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in order to develop and disseminate best practices for emergency preparedness and emergency response in widespread public disasters.

Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) was a chilling reminder of the lack of preparedness by the early care and education field for widespread disasters. With hundreds of early childhood programs in the Gulf Coast region closed or operating at reduced capacity, and thousands of families moving from town to town in the aftermath of the storm, well-intentioned workers in public agencies were bewildered:

Where to enroll displaced children ages 0-4 so their parents could set out in search of work, housing, medical care, or lost relatives?

In inland communities where damage was not total but uncounted early care and education programs could not immediately reopen, where to transfer children ages 0-4 so their parents could return to work?

How to maintain child care subsidies and Head Start enrollment for children of the poorest working parents in a state with no central database of subsidy recipients, subsidy-participating programs, or Head Start-funded slots?

Who could counsel children and parents suffering extreme psychological trauma in a region with no early childhood mental health system and no way to dispatch mental health interventionists to train front-line caregivers?

One lesson of Hurricane Katrina was that, in trying to ensure that our communities are as prepared as possible for future disasters, we must not overlook services to children outside the K-12 infrastructure, or services to young children in rural communities.

Another lesson was that the early childhood field must take the lead in emergency planning as well as emergency response in times of crisis.

The National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives, a program of the Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute, convened the Rural Early Childhood Forum on Hurricane Recovery and Emergency Preparedness in Mobile, Ala., Dec. 5, 2005. The forum was a preliminary, informal opportunity for interested governmental and nongovernmental participants in early childhood hurricane recovery to come together and share ideas about improving emergency preparedness for early care and education nationwide (National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives, 2006).

Wide, voluntary, uncompensated participation in the forum demonstrated the will and expertise of the early childhood field to take steps for emergency preparedness before any future public disaster.

Two key ideas echoed through the forum discussions:

• The existing child care infrastructure is not prepared to accommodate displaced young children or repair damaged child care facilities; new procedures for assessing and repairing damages and for tracking and enrolling displaced children in early childhood programs are essential

• Sharing data among local, state, and federal agencies responsible for child care is essential for coordinated, efficient services to displaced young children and their families

Goals and Objectives of the Early Childhood Emergency Preparedness Initiative

I.         To develop the Model Early Childhood Emergency Protocol

II.        To expand the Early Childhood Atlas as an interstate repository of key state and national datasets in support of emergency preparedness and response

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