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?
We created this Padlet for you to post your goodbye messages to DEY. Take a moment and read the amazing, heartfelt messages we received.
Kisha talks with Nancy, Diane, Blakely, Geralyn, and Denisha about the history of DEY and what lies ahead for the future of early childhood advocacy.
Check out all episodes here.
For our final Diversity is Not Divisive Resource, we are sharing our framework for Fostering Healthy Identity in Young Children: Affirming Race, Ethnicity, and Culture in the Early Years.
In our latest final DEY Dialogue, Denisha discusses Moral Injury in Teachers with one of her co-researchers, Dr. Brianne Kramer.
Did you miss our final two Book Talks? Click on the link below to watch the recordings.
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!
From the American Library Association 2/26/2026 In response to H.R. 7661, introduced on February 24, American Library Association President Sam Helmick…
Denisha is joined by one of her co-researchers, Dr. Brianne Kramer, to discuss their recently published article on Moral Injury in Teachers.
For our final Diversity is Not Divisive Resource, we are sharing our framework for Fostering Healthy Identity in Young Children: Affirming Race, Ethnicity, and Culture in the Early Years. We developed this framework to support early childhood educators, parents, caregivers, and advocates in fostering healthy racial, ethnic, and cultural identity in young children.
Kisha talks with Nancy, Diane, Blakely, Geralyn, and Denisha about the history of DEY and what lies ahead for the future of early childhood advocacy.
The project served as community-level advocacy by translating child development theory into practical, visible learning experiences. It reinforced the importance of developmentally appropriate practices that should inform early childhood education policies and decision-making.
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.