Connections at the “micro,” person to person, classroom, or individual school-based level, are at the heart of everything we do in early childhood education, beginning with building deep, responsive, nurturing relationships. Social-emotional learning is fundamentally about connections. It is about teaching children to connect with, label, and regulate their emotions, and helping them build the social skills and habits of learning that create healthy connections with peers and engender capable and confident learners.

For ECE to make significant strides forward, more connections must be cultivated at the macro level. Connection, integration, and collaboration locally can provide the framework to create early childhood ecosystems and bring about policy changes on both state and national levels.