Rights & Needs of Young Children
Defending the Early Years
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.

DEY’s Mission
approaches to learning informed by child development theory and evidence-based research.
What’s New at DEY?
We are thrilled to share our upcoming course for the DEY Reflective Practitioner Series- Racial Identity in the Early Years: A Framework for Educators, Caregivers, and Parents. After our free introductory webinar, subscribers can delve deeper into the framework, through our three month course.
The Reflective Practitioner Series is a subscription-based Professional Learning Community where we explore how reflective practices can improve our ability to advocate for just, equitable early childhood education for all young children and their families. For $25 a month, you will receive access to the course materials including live Zoom discussions, videos, reflective workbooks, and more! Scholarships available!

You’re invited to learn more about the release of a newly published framework from DEY. Fostering Healthy Identity Development in Young Children: Affirming Race, Culture, and Ethnicity in the Early Years is a framework for early childhood educators, caregivers, and parents to understand how racial identity develops and to support healthy development in the early years. As part of the national Black Lives Matter at School (BLMAS) Week of Action, we are hosting a webinar on Tuesday, February 4th at 7 pm. Register today!!
Check out the 2025 BLMAS Week of Action here!
And the DEY 2025 BLMAS Resource List here!

We are excited to announce the return of the DEY Podcast with Kisha Reid. We launched the podcast in 2021, and it was an instant success. In February 2024, Kisha announced that she was taking a hiatus as she opened her new outdoor learning program. We could not wait to welcome her back, and we look forward to sharing Episode 26 very soon! In the meantime, check out Episode 13, Really Seeing Children with Deb Curtis!

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.
Check out our latest DEY Dialogue: Love Letter to Children. Denisha talks with Carla Shalaby about her Love Letter to Children on the day after the election.

Moderated by DEY Executive Director Denisha Jones, these dialogues aim to inspire and reaffirm our dedication to protecting and nurturing childhood. Join us in this important mission of defending childhood and advocating for the well-being of society’s youngest members.
Check out our previous dialogues on quality in ECEC, resisting book bans, and concerns about the Science of Reading here.
Educator, author, and parent Jesse Hagopian features Rosa by Nikki Giovanni for our latest Banned Book Club feature. In honor of the great poet and activist Nikki Giovanni, we are thrilled to share one of her many children’s books with you.
Jesse’s newest book, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education, was published by Haymarket Books on January 14th, 2025. Watch the trailer here and order your copy today.

DEY continues to resist the attempts to censor children’s literature that explores race, gender, sexual orientation, and the truth about our country’s history. Each month, we will feature a banned early childhood book that we encourage you to read to the children in your life.
Are you interested in sharing a banned book? Email denishajones@dey.org.
The next phase in our campaign to Restore the Link Between High Quality and Child Development is to publish short campaign statements highlighting what we know supports child development. These brief statements will help you advocate for polices and practices based in supporting optimal whole child development!
Would you like to contribute to a statement? We’d love to include your stories related to our statement. You can share your thoughts by filling out each of these Google Forms that have specific questions for campaign statements 1-5 and6-10. You can also email your thoughts to denishajones@dey.org.
Click here to read and endorse our sign on statement.

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!
Help DEY continue its important work advocating for appropriate education for young children. Please Consider Making a Donation.
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