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Top Takeaways is a series of recaps from important conversations, town halls, webinars and virtual events about early learning.

A webinar held in conjunction with the release of the featured scientists, advocates and elected officials with varying but complementary perspectives on how states can best serve their youngest residents. Cynthia Osborne鈥攁ssociate dean at University of Texas at Austin, , and director, the 鈥攕erved as emcee.

Here are our takeaways:

1. The Roadmap is a veritable cornucopia. It鈥檚 a substantial document, over 300 pages, but don鈥檛 worry, it鈥檚 not intended to be read from beginning to end. Users鈥攑rimarily, state leaders who are prioritizing babies and toddlers鈥攎ay want to focus on one state or one issue, depending on their priorities. Policy recommendations are just the beginning. Note: the Impact Center will track progress toward goals, including which measures are adopted and how they are implemented.

2. States can learn from each other. The report finds that California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia have demonstrated the most progress on early childhood issues. In Osborne鈥檚 words, 鈥淎ll states can do more, but some really need to get started.鈥�

Ohio governor Mike DeWine compared children鈥檚 lives to pouring concrete, in that the earlier you start, the easiest it is to influence the shape. One of his first actions upon taking office was to .

The initiative is designed to improve service delivery across state agencies. Similarly, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico鈥攁 state with 鈥攈as formed a to foster collaboration and eliminate red tape.

3. In order to be effective, policies must be equitable (and vice versa). 鈥淔or a significant part of the population,鈥� explained Jack Shonkoff, director of The Center for the Developing Child and professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 鈥淭here is a level of adversity, much of it related to structural inequities associated with poverty, systemic racism and exposure to violence, that appear to overwhelm the ability of the building blocks of school readiness to prepare all children to be ready to succeed, that result in disruptions in whole child development.鈥�

In many cases, the structural and systemic issues manifest in policies that exclude those that need support the most. 鈥淭his belief that some should have and some shouldn鈥檛 has really caused us all to not be able to thrive,鈥� Dr. Joia Crear-Perry of the asserted, 鈥淚t is racism, not race, that is the root cause of health inequities.鈥�

To make things equitable, Shonkoff posited, we can no longer be asking questions like: What is the most effective intervention for children living in poverty? What is the most effective policy for dealing with the consequences and the threats and the hardships of systemic racism? The questions have to be: What works for whom? What has bigger impacts for some part of the population, what works less well for others? 鈥淪cience is telling us that we have to get away from asking about what on average works and understand differential evidence.鈥�

4. Early investments lead to greater return on investment. Science-informed investments that reduce hardships and adverse exposures faced by pregnant women and families with very young children offer a promising pathway to enormous savings in health care costs.

鈥淧olicies in the prenatal period and the first two to three years after birth that strengthen the conditions that support healthy development will generate a substantially larger return on investment than what we have been used to looking at in early childhood,鈥� Shonkoff explained. 鈥淭hree of the five most costly adult diseases are associated with early life adversity.鈥� A focus on health care and not just school readiness will benefit children, family and society in the long term.

5. Science is driving policy. 鈥淭he science is screaming at us,鈥� insisted Shonkoff during his remarks. He provided a crash-course on the biology of adversity and resilience, which helps to explain how excessive stress undermines the foundations of healthy development.

鈥淲e are learning a lot about what it is about adversity in the lives of families with young children that gets into the body and affects early learning and the beginning, the foundations of lifelong physical and mental health,鈥� Shonkoff said.

This is not, nor should it be, a partisan issue. Tony Vargas, a Democratic state senator in Nebraska, and Terri Collins, a Republican member of the Alabama house of representatives, both emphasized the importance of advancing science-informed policies.

Osborne concluded the program with the exhortation: 鈥淓mbrace the science of the developing child!鈥�

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 麻豆精品. Learn more here.