The Council, through leadership, advocacy, and service, assists chief state school officers and their organizations in achieving the vision of an American education system that enables all children to succeed in school, work, and life. The Early Childhood and Family Education initiative brings together long-time sets of CCSSO activities: policy, research, and state networking activities around early childhood and family education initiated in our 1999 policy statement.  Projects of the Early Childhood and Family Education Initiative include the following:

COUNCIL CONNECTIONS TO THE EARLIEST YEARS, The Birth to Five Policy Alliance
is a partnership established in 2005 to help "shift the odds" for young children and narrow the achievement gap by promoting state policies that support families in their parenting role and ensure positive early learning and development opportunities for at-risk infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families.

The Early Childhood Education Assessment (ECEA) State Consortium, a State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (SCASS), providing advice to the states as they develop and align early learning standards and accountability mechanisms.

ADVANCING HIGH QUALITY PREKINDERGARTEN FOR ALL, by building a “CADRE OF CHAMPIONS” for prek, this grant fromThe Pew Charitable Trusts was designed to enlist leaders among chief state school officers to serve as spokespersons for promoting quality universal preschool for America’s young children.

The School Readiness Indicators INITIATIVE, connecting CCSSO as a technical assistance organization partner with the 17 state project that developed state-based indicators of school readiness.

School Readiness/READY SCHOOLS in High-Poverty COMMUNITIES, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as part of the Council's High Povery Schools Initiative, is designed to support states in the development and implementation of comprehensive systems of early childhood education in low-income communities.