Childcare policy will be topic of conference at Palmer House

The Early Childhood Initiative at the University along with the Erikson Institute is organizing a conference titled Childcare Policy; Progress and Challenges to be held from 9 a.m. to noon Friday, May 14, at the Palmer House Hilton, 17 E. Monroe St.

The conference is intended to examine recent developments in federal and state childcare policy and the impact of welfare reform laws. It also will look at changes that are the result of working families seeking more affordable and higher quality childcare, according to the co-

directors of the Early Childhood Initiative, Janellen Huttenlocher, the William S. Gray Professor in Psychology, and Susan Levine, Professor in Psychology.

Deborah Phillips, study director with the Board on Children, Youth and Families of the National Research Council’s Commission on Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, will speak at the conference on “The New Context for Federal Involvement.”

J. Lawrence Aber, director of the National Center for Children in Poverty at the Columbia School of Public Health, will discuss the topic “Can Research Help Improve Childcare Policy: A View from the States.”

Registration for the conference is $35. For more information, call (773) 834-2220.

The Early Childhood Initiative, with major funding from the Robert McCormick Foundation, is a multidisciplinary effort to study the needs of young children.