I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2616 
To promote public-private partnerships to strengthen investment in early 
childhood development for children from birth to entry into kindergarten 
in order to ensure healthy development and school readiness for all 
children. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 7, 2007 
Ms. DELAURO (for herself and Mr. COURTNEY) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor 
A BILL 
To promote public-private partnerships to strengthen invest-
ment in early childhood development for children from 
birth to entry into kindergarten in order to ensure 
healthy development and school readiness for all children. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Early Childhood In-
vestment Act of 2007’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
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(1) The cumulative process of a child’s develop-
ment and learning begins at birth. Research indi-
cates that the physical, cognitive, social, and emo-
tional development that takes place from birth 
through age 5 is crucial for a child’s future achieve-
ment in school and life. 
(2) Parents are the first teachers of their chil-
dren and, accordingly, parental support and parental 
involvement play a critical role in a child’s positive 
development and early learning experiences. 
(3) High-quality early childhood development 
programs and services yield substantial advantages 
for young children and their families in terms of bet-
ter health, readiness for school, and economic well- 
being. 
(4) Research indicates that training and higher 
education for early childhood development personnel 
result in a better quality environment for children, 
which in turn promotes greater child development. 
Yet access to training and higher education for early 
childhood development personnel is limited for a va-
riety of reasons, including limited availability and 
cost. Low wages associated with working in an early 
childhood development program contribute to high 
staff turnover in the program. For personnel who re-
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ceive training, early childhood development programs 
are often unable to raise the compensation of staff 
due to budget constraints. 
(5) Investments in early childhood development 
pay dividends for children, in terms of— 
(A) improved and more successful transi-
tion to kindergarten; 
(B) higher academic performance; 
(C) better employment opportunities and 
higher earnings; and 
(D) lower incidence of crime and depend-
ence on public welfare. 
(6) Our Nation’s economy benefits from early 
childhood development investments through a better 
prepared workforce, stronger growth, and rising 
standards of living, and society will benefit from less 
crime, enhanced schools, and children who are better 
prepared to participate as citizens in a democratic 
society. 
(7) Public-private partnerships have the ability 
to leverage the assets of public and private entities 
in terms of financial resources, expertise, and infra-
structure in order to maximize and align invest-
ments in early childhood development. 
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SEC. 3. PURPOSE. 
It is the purpose of this Act to provide Federal incen-
tives for States to create or enhance partnerships between 
or among public and private entities to improve the access 
to and the quality of early childhood development pro-
grams for all children from birth to entry into kinder-
garten, in order to foster healthy growth and school readi-
ness for all children. 
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) BOARD.—The term ‘‘Board’’ means the 
board of directors established under section 6(c). 
(2) EARLY
CHILDHOOD
DEVELOPMENT.—The 
term ‘‘early childhood development’’ means the at-
tention to children’s development and learning, in-
cluding physical, cognitive, social, and emotional de-
velopment and approaches to learning, for children 
of any age from birth to entry into kindergarten 
with developmentally appropriate quality standards 
that lead to school readiness with respect to early 
literacy, mathematics, cognitive, social, and emo-
tional benchmarks, and other appropriate bench-
marks. 
(3) EARLY
CHILDHOOD
DEVELOPMENT
PRO-
GRAM.—The term ‘‘early childhood development pro-
gram’’ means— 
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(A) a child care center, or family child 
care, that is legally operating under State law 
and complies with State and local requirements 
for the provision of child care; 
(B) a Head Start program carried out 
under the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9831 et 
seq.); 
(C) an Early Head Start program carried 
out under section 645A of the Head Start Act 
(42 U.S.C. 9840a); 
(D) a parenting education program, includ-
ing a home visiting program; 
(E) a health and mental health screening 
program and follow up health care programs; or 
(F) a State or local prekindergarten pro-
gram, 
that provides services for children of any age from 
birth to entry into kindergarten. 
(4) ELIGIBLE PARTNERSHIP.— 
(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘‘eligible 
partnership’’ means a partnership consisting of 
private and public entities that shall include— 
(i) an organization, or consortium of 
organizations, 
described 
in 
section 
501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
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