Tribal Nations, Sovereignty and Equity Focused Early Childhood Policy Development

Early childhood policy development that is intentionally focused on racial equity is foundational to our work on developing strong early childhood systems at the local and state level. It is crucial that system change work taking place in states is deliberately inclusive of working with Tribal Nations as we work to ensure that all children and families have unfettered access to supports and services they want and need to ensure their children thrive and flourish during the early years. Working with Tribal Nations is not simply just about cultural responsiveness it is about developing an understanding of the importance of tribal sovereignty and how state leaders can work with tribes to build strong inclusive statewide early childhood systems. This session allowed participants to learn about tribal sovereignty in terms of building government to government relationships, data sovereignty, food sovereignty and policy development.