Dear DEY Community,
In 2012, three early childhood professionals agreed to form a nonprofit organization to give a voice to the concerns of early childhood educators, caregivers, and parents of young children about the impact of school reforms on the developing child. Those concerns included the adoption of the Common Core State Standards and their lack of alignment with child development research. They recognized the danger of pushing academics down into the early years, increasing standardized testing, and teaching to the test, and how these practices led to a decrease in time for hands-on, active learning and child-directed play. And they knew that others shared their concerns and desired a space to address them, through awareness and advocacy. Together, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Diane Levin, and Ed Miller launched Defending the Early Years (DEY).
For the past 14 years, DEY has become a trusted and sought-after partner in resisting harmful policies, mandates, and curricula. Despite being a small organization for the first 10 years, with limited resources and Geralyn Bywater and Blakely Bundy working as part-time co-directors, DEY became known as a place where the needs of young children and their families were at the center. DEY raised awareness of the issues impacting early childhood education and care by sharing publications and providing fact sheets. And they made space within their sparse operational budget to offer $200-$500 mini-grants to support others in mobilizing their community, advocating at multiple levels, and promoting appropriate practices while resisting policies and mandates that undermine whole-child development.
Four years ago, we were fortunate to receive a new, three-year grant from Play It Forward, a donor-advised fund, which enabled DEY to hire its first full-time Executive Director, Denisha Jones. These funds supported our strategic plan to project our voice, enact our vision, and increase our visibility. We formed the Banned Book Club to combat censorship, created six regional working groups, launched a national campaign, developed an advocacy toolkit, and continued recording the DEY podcast with Kisha Reid, as well as offering the annual Summer Institute. We also expanded our Advisory Board to include early childhood experts and advocates from around the country and the world. More importantly, those funds enabled us to maintain our mission and uphold our values, despite a regime change that is currently attacking public education, diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are grateful to our angel funders, Susan Ochshorn and Marc Gross, and the generous funds they donated to DEY.
However, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Though the need for this work has not gone away, we have reached a point where it is time to say goodbye to Defending the Early Years. We recognize that this may feel sudden, but it is a decision we have been grappling with for the past two years. And one we have not made lightly, but one that we believe is in the best interest of the staff and the board. It is well known that securing funding for early childhood advocacy is not easy. Foundations and corporations rarely prioritize early childhood education and care, and when they do, there is never enough to fund everyone who applies. And though we have received many wonderful individual donations over the years, that is not enough to sustain an organization. The reality is that we need a dedicated funding stream to continue being the voice for just, equitable, and high-quality early childhood education and care. And without one in sight, we have decided to bring DEY’s admirable run to an end on June 30, 2026.
Fortunately, we plan to continue making all our resources available to anyone who needs them. Our website will continue to house videos, publications, blogs, toolkits, and more. All of these are available for you to watch and share with others. We hope you will continue to use our resources to support your advocacy efforts. Additionally, we have a few more events scheduled for the last two months. Look for details in our May newsletter coming next week.
We would also like to create a space for you to post your goodbyes. We’d love to read about your experiences with DEY (when and how did you first hear about us?) and anything you would like to share about what we have meant to you over the years. We created this Padlet so you can add messages, including text, photos, and even videos. Just click on the + Post button to add your message (you can put your name as the subject so we know who it’s from). If you would prefer to email, send it to denishajones@dey.org, and we will add it to the Padlet for you. We will share these heartfelt posts in next month’s final newsletter.
We want to offer our sincerest thanks to each of you who have stood by us and made DEY the organization it is today. We are eternally grateful for your support in making DEY feel like a family for the past decade. We wish you the best of luck as you continue working for a world where all children thrive and high-quality early childhood education and care are valued as the foundation for building a better world.
Sincerely,
Denisha, Nancy, Diane, Geralyn, and Blakely
