December 6, 2023 with Carla Ward and Todd Grindal
How Extreme Weather Disrupts Early Education
What happens when a hurricane or wildfire interrupts a child’s early education? For over 500,000 children enrolled in Head Start programs—40% of which are in federally declared disaster areas—the consequences are profound.
In this episode of The Everything ECE Podcast, host Carla Ward speaks with Todd Grindall, Co-Director at SRI Education, to uncover the critical challenges that extreme weather poses to early childhood education. Inspired by the devastation caused by Hurricane Michael, Todd shares insights from his research into how disasters disrupt learning environments, particularly for young children and those with disabilities.
SRI
SRI’s research reveals a critical, overlooked consequence of extreme weather: the disruption of essential early childhood education and health services. In the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, our study— the first of its kind—shows how severe weather causes widespread closures of Head Start and Early Head Start programs, leaving thousands of young children without access to vital developmental support.
Our findings highlight an urgent need to prioritize child-focused services in disaster response planning, ensuring that programs supporting kids and families receive the same level of attention as other critical infrastructure. With climate change increasing the frequency of extreme weather, it’s time to take action and protect the essential services our youngest children depend on for healthy growth and development.
Todd Grindal
Todd Grindal, EdD, studies the impacts of policies and programs on young children and children with disabilities. He is the principal investigator of a Child Care Policy Research Partnership project examining how early childhood educators in Arkansas child care programs interpret and implement state policies designed to reduce the use of suspension and expulsion. Grindal recently completed evaluation and strategic planning activities focused on early childhood systems building for the Virginia Early Childhood foundation. In other Virginia focused work, Grindal conducted an evaluation of the Virginia Preschool Initiative Plus program which included a regression discontinuity design study that leveraged 4 years of test data to examine the causal impact of preschool enrollment on children’s early academic skills.