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?
In March, we conclude our RPS course, Seeing Ourselves Seeing Each Other: Affirming Healthy Identity in the Early Years. Our final topic, Affirming Healthy Identity in the Early Years, will take place on Monday, March 16th, at 7 pm EDT, with early childhood professor and author Kirsten Cole.
For six months, in Seeing Ourselves Seeing Each Other: Nurturing Healthy Identity in the Early Years, we discussed how to affirm a particular racial/ethnic identity in the early years. Subscribers receive access to all the recorded webinars, reflective workbooks, and resources!
In April, we begin our new course, Foundations of Whole Child Care & Education, with Kisha Reid. Each month, Kisha will delve into practices that foster holistic development, support children’s autonomy, and equip early educators with the language, practices, and understanding of how to develop affirming communities for children and families.
For $8 a month, RPS subscribers get access to the live webinar, recording, reflective workbook, and resources!
Our next Research into Practice Book Talk is on Thursday, March 26th, at 7 pm EDT. Join DEY ED as she talks with DEY National Advisor Heather Bernt-Santy about her new book, Using Schema Play Theory to Advocate for Free Play in Early Childhood.
Heather Bernt-Santy, MAEd, is the author of Using Schema Play Theory to Advocate for Free Play in Early Childhood and has spent more than 35 years living her commitment to children, their families, and the educators who support them. Many know Heather as the host of the popular early care and education podcast That Early Childhood Nerd, where she explores big ideas with curiosity, humor, and heart.
Did you miss February’s book talk with Kirsten Cole on her book Teaching for Love and Justice: Learning About Race and Racism Alongside Young Children? Click below to watch the recording.
Kisha welcomes Renata Bowers and discusses the many aspects of her early childhood advocacy work. From Authoring children’s books that promote positive self-image, autonomy, and freedom to her direct work with children and families.
Co-Founder of Frieda B., LLC and author of the national-award-winning Frieda B. series of picture books, Renata Bowers created the fictional children’s character Frieda B. to encourage children to dream big and believe they, too, are free to be their own one-of-a-kind, very important story.
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.
Our February Diversity Is Not Divisive Resource is the Little Justice Leaders Facebook page. This organization makes social justice education easy. Their “mission is simple: We want to make it easy for you to build classrooms and schools rooted in social justice.” Their Facebook page has a ton of great resources for Black History Month.
Denisha talks with Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) Co-Directors Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari and Marina Marcou-O’Malley about the fight for universal child care in New York.
The Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) was founded 25 years ago to demand that New York fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide every child with a sound, basic education. You can follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
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 to defend childhood and advocate for the well-being of society’s youngest members.
Did you miss the livestream? You can catch up on all our DEY Dialogues here.
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!
From California Budget and Policy Center, February 2026 Around 7 million Californians consistently struggle to make ends meet due to factors like unaffordable…
Denisha talks with Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) Co-Directors Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari and Marina Marcou-O’Malley about the fight for universal child care in New York.
Our February Diversity Is Not Divisive Resource is the Little Justice Leaders Facebook page. This organization makes social justice education easy. Their “mission is simple: We want to make it easy for you to build classrooms and schools rooted in social justice.” Their Facebook page has a ton of great resources for Black History Month.
Kisha welcomes Renata Bowers and discusses the many aspects of her early childhood advocacy work. From Authoring children’s books that promote positive self-image, autonomy, and freedom to her direct work with children and families.
Co-Founder of Frieda B., LLC and author of the national-award-winning Frieda B. series of picture books, Renata Bowers created the fictional children’s character Frieda B. to encourage children to dream big and believe they, too, are free to be their own one-of-a-kind, very important story.
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!
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