Child welfare professionals support early childhood well-being through practices that promote placement stability, attachment and trauma recovery. Using pre-training and three-month follow-up survey data from an online training program, this study describes how frequently professionals report using trauma-informed, caregiver-focused, narrative support and placement practices. Findings identify which practices are routinely implemented versus more situational, offering workforce development insights to strengthen services that influence children’s stability, relationships and emotional well-being in foster, adoptive and guardianship systems.

The cycle of inquiry provides a useful framework for enhancing early childhood teachers’ data use practices through professional development (PD). Presenters will describe how Educare Lincoln and evaluation partners implement inquiry cycles to co-develop PD to support teacher classroom instruction. The team will also discuss how data-driven methods helped shed light on teachers’ strengths and challenges and informed the design of PD experiences tailored to areas of need that optimize classroom practices.

(1) This session presents insights from an evaluation of the Smart Start Backpack Program, a take-home initiative designed in collaboration between researchers and community partners to strengthen parent-child interactions and support kindergarten readiness. Using caregiver surveys and interviews, the study examined feasibility, family engagement, and perceived benefits and barriers to participation. Findings highlight the value of hands-on, flexible activities, and the importance of clear guidance and timing. Implications for designing family-centered transition-to-kindergarten supports will also be discussed.

(2) Rising temperatures are reshaping urban environments, with young children facing distinct and unequal risks. Presenters will share high-resolution drone and handheld thermal imaging to reveal how heat is experienced at the scale of children’s movement in parks, streets and child care sites. Findings show how surface materials, canopy cover and neighborhood investment shape uneven thermal conditions. By visualizing children’s lived heat exposure, this work reframes extreme heat as a design, justice and child development issue.

This session describes an NIH-funded, cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating a Self-Determination Theory-informed coaching and feedback capacity-building model delivered through Nebraska Cooperative Extension to improve responsive feeding implementation in rural family child care homes (FCCH). The study examines effects on FCCH provider implementation capacity and child dietary intake. Findings will inform scalable workforce-based strategies to strengthen early childhood nutrition across rural public health systems.

This session leverages large-scale, restricted-access data to provide new evidence on preschool attendance among U.S. children. Trends in preschool attendance over the last 25 years are documented, showing that income inequality in enrollment has declined only slightly. Detailed data is then used to examine inequality in attendance among the most recent groups of preschool-aged children. The session will conclude with implications of these findings for the potential returns of future preschool expansions.

The shortage of early childhood educators calls for innovation in teacher preparation. To address this challenge, the Responsive Equitable System for Preparing Early Childhood Teachers (RESPECT) Across Nebraska Project engaged diverse communities statewide to identify their strengths, valued experiences for young children, and desired educator competencies and dispositions. This presentation will describe how the team built relationships and collaborated with community researcher-partners to plan and conduct focus groups in a multiple case study design.

The Nebraska Early Childhood Data Coalition (ECDC) serves as a collaborative forum for sharing knowledge, learning and building connections. The coalition promotes the innovative work happening across the state's early childhood landscape, shares data and resources, and fosters dialogue to support data-informed decision-making. In this session, presenters will discuss the coalition's current projects and activities, as well as share opportunities for involvement in advancing meaningful, accessible data to improve policies, investments and outcomes in Nebraska.

Accurate, efficient documentation of coaching practices is essential to understanding how early childhood coaching is implemented. While self-report methods such as coaching logs are commonly used, the reliability of those methods needs further exploration. This session will examine the degree of match between coaches' self-reported practices and observer ratings, and how coaching characteristics predict the degree of match between self-reported and observed coaching practices.

Using longitudinal data from NSWERS (2021-2024), this study finds Nebraska’s public early childhood educator (ECE) workforce is not keeping pace with growing Pre-K enrollment. As the number of children served increased, the number of educators, full-time positions and average wages declined, while workforce exits rose. Framed as a “leaky bucket,” low compensation and high turnover perpetuate workforce shortages. These findings call attention to the need for compensation reform and retention investments to sustain Nebraska’s early childhood educator infrastructure.

This session explores interdisciplinary, community-engaged research conducted with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Nebraska at Kearney. Grounded in community-based participatory research and implementation science, Extension educators helped design, implement and study professional learning for early childhood educators. Findings across these programs suggest improved engagement, workforce sustainability and implementation quality, underscoring the importance of Extension educators in translating research into meaningful practice and strengthening early childhood systems serving young children and families.

Policy experts from First Five Nebraska will provide an update on the latest early childhood legislation and policy in Nebraska. The session will conclude with reflections on the intersection of research and policy and explore creating connections between the research and policy communities.

Cultural engagement with Native practices and language shapes early academic outcomes among American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children in Head Start. Using latent class analysis of the 2019 AIAN Family and Child Experiences Survey national dataset, five distinct profiles of cultural engagement were identified. Children with higher levels of direct cultural transmission demonstrated stronger executive function, vocabulary and literacy scores. Findings are contextualized through key informant interviews with Native scholars and community members.

The SUNRISE study is an epidemiological investigation drawing on researchers from more than 60 low-, middle- and high-income countries to assess the movement behaviors of preschool-aged children according to World Health Organization guidelines. This session will highlight work between researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, University of Nebraska at Kearney, and others from around the U.S. and the world.

This session will include a facilitated conversation on children's social and emotional development. Share your experiences, ask questions and bring your priorities to the table. Attendees will learn from one another across roles and contexts. Together, attendees will explore how to best support young children's social and emotional skills, and contribute to a research, practice and policy agenda in this critical area.

(1) This session will describe the development of a socio-emotional assessment system for children ages 3 to 5. Researchers will provide an overview of an iterative process for developing an instrument that addresses the needs of early childhood centers and families. The team will also share promising preliminary data to support the initial efficacy and acceptability of the tool.

(2) Grounded in a socio-ecological and participatory framework, the Nurture Nebraska campaign promotes awareness of social and emotional development among children birth to age 5. The campaign concept was co-developed through community focus groups and expert panels. Campaign efforts in 2025 unfolded in two phases: organic user-generated storytelling followed by a statewide launch. Mixed-method evaluation, including web analytics and engagement metrics, reveals key awareness insights and adoption patterns.

Burnout is a significant challenge in early childhood education, affecting educators across roles and career stages. Using survey data from 594 Head Start educators across 19 grantees, this study examined how personal characteristics and well-being predict burnout. Findings indicate that job title, experience and age do not predict burnout; rather, mental health emerged as the strongest predictor, highlighting the need for well-being supports within Head Start programs.

Researchers from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Communities for Kids and Nebraska Extension will discuss the Knowledge Network for Early Childhood Workforce (KNEW) project. This congressionally funded community effort started in 2024 and brought together more than 15 rural communities with the goal of increasing recruitment and retention of early childhood educators in Nebraska. The session will highlight how communities came together to collaborate, research on social networks and professional development outcomes.

Consistently low scores in reading and writing outcomes highlight the need for stronger foundational literacy instruction. This session presents findings from a quasi-experimental study examining the feasibility and promise of Write Sounds, an integrated handwriting, phonics and spelling intervention for students with word-level difficulties. Results demonstrate high implementation fidelity and large, significant effects on handwriting accuracy and contextual spelling, with growth across decoding outcomes — underscoring the implications for efficient, integrated literacy intervention in school settings.

The Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) Reimbursement Project tested whether reimbursing clinicians for non-covered activities increased their capacity to take these cases. Three years of data reveal that reimbursements expand CPP services. Reimbursed clinicians received more referrals, completed more assessments, initiated more CPP cases and closed more cases to fidelity. Over time, differences widened. In the final year, reimbursed clinicians opened twice as many cases as non-reimbursed clinicians. Findings suggest expanding reimbursement policy to sustain the CPP workforce.

Play-based learning, traditionally associated with early childhood education, is critical for fostering cognitive, social-emotional and academic skills across all educational levels. This case study explores how educators can integrate play-based pedagogies to enhance equity, engagement and innovation. Data from interviews, survey items and instructional artifacts reveal that play-based strategies improve critical thinking, collaboration and inclusivity. Findings advocate for systemic shifts in policy and practice, positioning play as a transformative tool for 21st-century learning.

Kids Count in Nebraska is a children’s data and policy project led by Voices for Children in Nebraska. Key indicators measure children's well-being in five areas: health, education, economic stability, child welfare and juvenile justice. In this session, Voices for Children will share and discuss the latest data and findings from the 2026 Kids Count report.