Rights & Needs of Young Children
Defending the early years
DEY’s Mission
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.
The Miraculous Nature of Everyday Play
In this mini-documentary, DEY founders Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Diane Levin discuss the threats to play, why it’s so important to young children’s optimal development, and why we must preserve and protect it.
Activity Report With the modest funding from the Defending Early Years (DEY-Mini Grant Initiative) in September, 2020, Mercy Youth Initiative…
DEY offers guidelines for implementing an age-appropriate, meaningful, and caring approach to help young children deal with this shocking event.
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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