![handle is hein.journals/flrf71 and id is 1 raw text is:
INTRODUCTION: EARLY CHILDHOOD SYMPOSIUM
EARLY CHILDHOOD MATTERS
Nancy E. Dowd* and Teresa Drake**
A core value of American law, enshrined in our Constitution, is
equality.1 Families and children are similarly valued, as the foundation
for our democracy.2 Families are the critical ecology of children's
development, and we pride ourselves on family diversity.3 Children are
our future; their well-being and evolution toward adulthood is the basis
of social welfare for all. Yet the reality of childhood for many American
children is that they are differentiated from their peers and lack
developmental support. These hierarchies begin to emerge early, long
before children enter school and even preschool.4 Once children enter
school, their differences are often exacerbated-gaps in achievement,
incidents of discipline, rates of suspension and exclusion, even funneling
from school to juvenile justice in the school to prison pipeline, exacerbate
the differences among children that present themselves at the
schoolhouse door.5
Early childhood is a critical time in development when equality can
be sustained, or inequality can take root. As a developmental period, it is
marked by rapid neurological development, and thus the period from
birth to three is a foundation for all future development.6 Development is
critically impacted by the ecology of the child. Family is most important,
but each child's family functions within neighborhood, community, and
interlocking layers of policies that impact on the developmental inputs of
the child. Other adults that strongly influence each child's development
outside of the family are healthcare professionals, caregivers or child care
providers, teachers, and other public authorities, such as police officers
* Professor and David Levin Chair in Family Law, University of Florida Levin College
of Law.
** Legal Skills Professor and Director, Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Clinic,
University of Florida Levin College of Law.
1. U.S. CONST. amend. XIV.
2. See, e.g., Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000)
3. See Moore v. City of East Cleveland, 431 U.S. 494, 494 (1977).
4. NANCY E. DOWD, REIMAGINING EQUALITY: A NEW DEAL FOR CHILDREN OF COLOR 9-
53 (NYU Press 2018).
5. Id.
6. Nancy E. Dowd, Straight Out of Compton: Developmental Equality and a Critique of
the Compton School Litigation, 45 CAP. U. L. REV. 199, 229-37 (2017); Five Numbers to
Remember About Early Childhood Development, CTR. ON DEVELOPING CHILD HARV. U.,
http://46y5eh1 fhgw3ve3ytpwxt9r.wpengine.netdnacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Five-
Numbers-to-Remember-About-EarlyChildhood-Development.pdf [https://perma.cc/4MQ8-
3BTD] [hereinafter Five Numbers to Remember].
7. Five Numbers to Remember, supra note 6.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/flrf71&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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