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Hotel Group Rate RSVP Deadline: October 5
Begin your Fall 2026 Member meeting experience with these advance learning and connection opportunities:
Pre-Read: History and Context of North Carolina's Early Childhood System
- North Carolina spent decades building an early childhood system. What will it take to sustain it?, authored by Amy Rhyne, expert correspondent at EdNC and former senior director of the Office of Early Learning at the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, looks at three decades of momentum for early childhood, premised on this EdNC timeline of the history and evolution of early childhood education in North Carolina from 1990 to 2026.
- Start with equity: Strengthening North Carolina’s early childhood system for the next 40 years, by Dr. Iheoma Iruka, professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, fellow at Frank Porter Graham (FPG), and founding director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at FPG, reflects on a system that has been influential for nearly four decades. Dr. Iruka argues that the system must now be judged not only by the programs it created, but also by whether those programs have equitably improved access, experiences, and outcomes for the children, families, communities, and workforce most affected by inequity.
Attendees will have the opportunity to explore the history of and forces shaping North Carolina's early childhood system during our opening panel with Dr. Iruka, Amy Ryne and Mebane Rash, EdNC’s CEO and editor.
Pre-Read: Invest Early, Build Together
In advance of our closing session on Friday, October 30, we suggest you spend some time with ‘Invest Early, Build Together’, a 10 Year Plan, developed collaboratively by Invest Early NC, a state level collaborative bringing funders together to align investment, relationships, and advocacy around shared priorities for young children and families.
North Carolina’s 10-Year Plan connects policy, investment, and action around one shared goal: every child entering kindergarten ready to learn, supported by families with the resources, relationships, and opportunities that support healthy development.
Pre-Watch
Listening to Families: What Capita’s Quarterly Insights Can Teach Us About Family-Centered Policy
Thursday, October 15 | Online | 2:00 PM ET
What can we learn when we consistently ask families what is happening in their lives—not simply whether a particular program is working? This discussion features Capita, a think tank focused on building a future where families and communities can flourish, sharing highlights from Quarterly Insights from America’s Families, their standing national survey conducted in partnership with YouGov, which serves as an early-warning system measuring household stability, predictability, and quality of life for families. We explored topline national and North Carolina-specific findings from the third wave of Quarterly Insights data, including what has changed, what remains consistent, and what families themselves identify as shaping their ability to thrive.
- Capita Presentation Recording (22 minutes)
- Slide Deck(opens in new tab)
- What is Family Policy, Capita Syllabus
- What Parents in Durham Told Me, by Joe Waters, Capita (June 2026)
- What American Parents and Families Say About Book Ownership and Reading at Home with Children, Findings from the National Children’s Book Ownership Survey, an inaugural Book Harvest and Capita study (September 2026)