Rights & Needs of Young Children
Defending the Early Years
DEY’s Mission
approaches to learning informed by child development theory and evidence-based research.
DEY’s Primary Goals
- To advocate at the grassroots, local, state, regional, and federal levels for education policies based on child development theory and research.
- To mobilize the early childhood community to speak up for age-appropriate standards, assessments, and classroom practices that are based on research.
- To promote appropriate practices in early childhood classrooms and to support educators in counteracting policies and practices that undermine whole child health and optimal learning.
What’s New at DEY?
This month, we launch our new Reflective Practitioner Series (RPS) Course: Seeing Ourselves, Seeing Each Other: Nurturing Healthy Racial Identity in the Early Years. Building on our framework for fostering healthy identity in young children, we will explore racial identity development in early childhood education in more depth.
Beginning on Monday, September 30th, at 6 pm EDT, we begin with our first workshop, an Overview of Racial Identity Development, available free to all. Then each month, we focus on one particular racial/ethnic group to explore how you can affirm their racial, ethnic, and cultural identity.
Subscribers can access the full course for $8 a month. For just $25 a month, you’ll also gain access to our Fall Book Study! Subscribe today: https://www.patreon.com/12684285/join
Our first meeting will be Saturday, October 4th, at 11 am EDT/8 am PDT. Join us!
We at DEY recognize that the challenges facing early childhood education and care are increasing—from harmful policies to funding cuts to directives that undermine our expertise. The In Defense of ECEC: Resistance Collective is a space for early childhood educators, advocates, and parents to come together, build solidarity, and strengthen our collective voice.
We will meet monthly or every other month to strategize a collective response, support each other in dealing with specific issues, and learn together.
In honor of DEY Founding National Advisor Maurice Sykes, we have selected his recent co-edited book, Child Care Justice: Transforming the System of Care for Young Children, for the Fall 2025 Book Study! We begin with a webinar on October 9th at 6 pm EDT that will feature co-editor Kyra Ostendorf, contributors Hakim Rashid and Joey Saunders, moderated by contributor Denisha Jones.
The Fall 2025 Book Study on Child Care Justice begins Thursday, October 16th, from 6-7:30 pm EDT and meets for four weeks, ending on Thursday, November 6th.
Platinum subscribers to the DEY PLI Reflective Practitioner Series have access to the Book Study along with our other RPS courses. Non-subscribers can register for the book study for $25. Register for the book study: https://bit.ly/ChildCareJusticeBookStudy
Kisha Reid speaks with Marc Armitage about his evolution as a playworker, the goal of play for more play, tips for responding to licensing, and addressing safety concerns.
The DEY Podcast with Kisha Reid is a monthly discussion-styled show featuring educators, advocates and other changemakers about their grassroots projects, innovations in education and reimagining early childhood environments. Our goal is to amplify these voices so we can all learn and work toward a more equitable and playful environment for children. Check out all episodes here.
After two years and 19 features, we are saying goodbye to the DEY Banned Book Club and transitioning to our newest resource: Diversity is Not Divisive.
We remain committed to recognizing diversity as an asset that must be honored and protected. To support early childhood educators, advocates, and families, we will be sharing our favorite diversity resources.
These resources will include children’s books, books for adults, podcasts, lesson plan ideas, and other materials that highlight the importance of diversity in the lives of young children.
Our first resource is the @maistorybooklibrary Instagram account, which features curated reading lists of diverse early childhood books! Created by teacher and artist Maya Le, MaiStoryBook provides a wealth of resources for honoring diversity!
We’re thrilled to announce the release of our resource for the campaign, In Defense of ECEC: Restoring the Link Between High Quality and Child Development. This advocacy toolkit is a powerful new resource designed to equip early childhood educators, advocates, and leaders with clear, compelling messaging that links what we know about child development to what we do in practice and policy.
Click on the image to download the toolkit, and you can watch the webinar recording below.
You can also download individual pages for each topic covered in the toolkit!
DEY has released a framework to support early childhood educators, caregivers, and parents in supporting young children’s healthy racial identity development. Fostering Healthy Identity Development in Young Children: Affirming Race, Culture, and Ethnicity in the Early Years is a framework designed for early childhood educators, caregivers, and parents to understand the development of racial identity and support healthy development in the early years. Click the image to download the framework.
Click on the image to download the framework, and you can watch the introductory webinar recording below.
Also, check out the DEY 2025 BLMAS Resource List here!
Do you want to explore the toolkit and framework in more depth? Become a monthly subscriber to our Reflective Practitioner Series and access our In Defense of Quality and Fostering Healthy Identity Courses!
Denisha talks with Rixa Evershed and Aidn White about applying ECEC values Equity, Truth, and Care to global challenges.
Kisha Reid speaks with Marc Armitage about his evolution as a playworker, the goal of play for more play, tips for responding to licensing, and addressing safety concerns.
By Katie Rooney Last weekend, I had the incredible pleasure and privilege of attending the Play Empowers Teacher Retreat and…
The campaign and art asks participants to envision their own needs with regard to the DEY principles.
DEY seeks to rally parents and educators to take action on policies affecting the education of young children, by encouraging them to speak out with well-reasoned arguments against inappropriate standards, assessments, and classroom practices.
DEY provides mini-grants of between $200 and $500 to individuals and organizations to help foster work in communities across the country. DEY’s first mini-grant, awarded in 2014, resulted in a rally for play that took place in Minneapolis.
DEY
Are you concerned about the direction that education policy is going? We are, too!
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