Todd Grindal
grindato.bsky.social
Todd Grindal
@grindato.bsky.social
Co-Director, Center for Learning & Development at SRI. Lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Researching how policy and practice can better support young children and children with disabilities.
Research focused on critical problems & delivering actionable results isn’t rare. This is what colleagues across the country are doing with support from federal research funds.

These projects help create stronger communities and better experiences for kids.

It is definitely not waste. [8/🧵]
March 28, 2025 at 7:14 PM
We’re now collaborating with government, non-profit and faith-based groups to develop & test low- or no-cost strategies to help foster parents find the care they need. (More to come on the results of those collaborations soon) [7/🧵]
Early Care and Education Is an Essential Component of the Foster Care System: A View From Arkansas - SRI
This brief presents findings from a foster parent survey about the impact of ECE on their ability to accept new foster placements and the challenges they face in searching for ECE.
www.sri.com
March 28, 2025 at 7:14 PM
To help foster families better access care, we needed to understand what matters most for them in their child care decision-making.

They told us they prioritize:

✅ Full-day care
✅ Convenient location
✅ Trauma-informed staff
[6/🧵]
March 28, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Foster families told us that they needed help in the child care search process.

Most said that rely on their own time, effort, and community networks—formal supports that are intended to help just aren’t reaching them. [5/🧵]
March 28, 2025 at 7:14 PM
We learned that high-quality child care represents essential infrastructure for the foster care system.

One illustrative finding was that more than a third of surveyed foster families said they’d declined placements—even when they had room in their home—because they couldn’t find child care. [4/🧵]
March 28, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Last week, my colleagues and I released two briefs from a portion of this collaboration that is focused on supporting children in foster care [3/🧵]

www.sri.com/publication/...

www.sri.com/publication/...
Early Care and Education Is an Essential Component of the Foster Care System: A View From Arkansas - SRI
This brief presents findings from a foster parent survey about the impact of ECE on their ability to accept new foster placements and the challenges they face in searching for ECE.
www.sri.com
March 28, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Our team has collaborated for several years with state agency leaders in Arkansas who are deeply committed to improving outcomes for young children.

Working together, we’re generating insights and strategies to help families and childcare providers improve children's early experiences [2/🧵]
Early Care and Education Is an Essential Component of the Foster Care System: A View From Arkansas - SRI
This brief presents findings from a foster parent survey about the impact of ECE on their ability to accept new foster placements and the challenges they face in searching for ECE.
www.sri.com
March 28, 2025 at 7:14 PM