The Bush Foundation’s interest in child development began in the 1970s at the encouragement of Irving B. Harris, then a Bush Board member from Chicago who led the development of the Erikson Institute and the Ounce of Prevention Fund in Chicago. Between 1977 and 1987 the Foundation established and supported four centers in Child Development and Social Policy at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina and Yale University. Annual grants of approximately $275,000 were provided to each university to provide pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships, seed money for individual student internships and research on public policy issues. Over the 10-year life of the program 254 Fellows studied at one or more of the Bush centers. 

In 1993, the Foundation established a new program to provide a strong start for very young children (birth to three) who increasingly received care outside their homes as more mothers entered the workforce.  Bush linked West Ed’s Program for Infant Toddler Care (PITC), which provided training for the state of California and others in the western region of the U.S. with state early childhood administrators from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. The main results of the work from 1993 to 2000 included:

		New or improved infrastructures for delivering and supporting child care provider training in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota
		The development and support of a substantial group of trainers who provided training to infant/toddler caregivers on a routine basis throughout Minnesota and the Dakotas
		Positive change in a range of systems (for example, child care licensing divisions) that affected the quality of environments for infants and toddlers

Grants during this period were administered by state and tribal agencies in North and South Dakota, as well as a network of tribes in Minnesota known as the Minnesota Tribal Early Childhood Coalition (MNTRECC). 

In July 2001, the Bush Foundation Board authorized a successor program to the previous Infant/Toddler Training program. Through this program, the Foundation sought to extend and refine its support of infant/toddler caregiver training in four key ways:

1. Broadened the definition of childcare to include a range of infant/toddler care-giving environments.
2. Invested further in existing trainers and training systems to reach the informal system of care provided by “kith and kin” (neighbors, relatives and friends).
3. Strengthened capacity within Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota to develop and deliver appropriate training to caregivers of infants and toddlers. 
4. Targeted resources to the most vulnerable populations.

The successor grantmaking plan, which the Foundation embarked upon in 2002, was also developed in the context of renewed national and regional interest in the quality of environments for infant/toddler development,

An influential report by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, From Neurons to Neighborhoods, underscored the policy and program implications of an explosion of research in the neurobiological, behavioral and social sciences. Major advances had occurred in the understanding of the conditions that influence whether children get off to a promising or worrisome start in life. Also, welfare reform had significantly altered family circumstances and children’s experiences in out-of-home environments. Research continued to indicate that a majority of children were being cared for by relatives and family friends while parents are at work or school.

The Foundation wishes to acknowledge Bush Foundation Senior Program Officer Jane Kretzmann, on staff from 1988 to 2008, for her vision and leadership in developing the early childhood development programs.