CLASP conducted the first ever multi-state study of the effects of the current immigration climate on young children under age 8. In 2017, CLASP interviewed early care and education providers, community-based social service providers, and immigrant parents in six states. Our findings, detailed in Our Children’s Fear: Immigration Policy’s Effects on Young Children, reveal a distressing picture of fear, stress, and unease that occupy the minds of millions of young children and their parents daily. This stress—and other documented hardships—puts children’s growth and development at great risk with the potential for impacts that last well into adulthood.

The focus of this companion paper is the effects on early care and education programs and the central role of early childhood professionals working with families during a grave and stressful time, often with limited resources, insufficient information on immigration-related issues, and under tremendous strain.