On Tuesday, August 19, 2025, Starting Point convened partners from across Ashtabula, Geauga, and Lake counties for an Early Childhood Roundtable. The goal: compare notes on what families, children, and providers are facing right now—and align on practical ways we can respond together. What we heard was both urgent and hopeful: urgent because needs are real and growing; hopeful because our region has a deep bench of organizations ready to collaborate.
What we’re seeing across Northeast Ohio
Children’s behavioral health is the defining challenge of the moment. Partners in all three counties named mental and behavioral health as the top system-wide issue—alongside the related strain on programs to respond without disrupting learning or care. The conversation surfaced concerns about heightened behaviors, rising expulsion risk, and the need for consistent, developmentally appropriate strategies in classrooms and homes.
Workforce and capacity remain the pressure point. Programs continue to experience staffing shortages and turnover, which limits capacity, extends waitlists, and narrows options for families. Partners also underscored the importance of keeping educators in the field through training, credentialing supports, and burnout prevention—especially for those supporting children with higher needs.
Specialized supports for children with special needs must scale. Participants emphasized the need for more adaptive placements and coordinated supports for children with disabilities or developmental delays. Families can encounter long waits for evaluations, gaps in insurance coverage for therapies, and inconsistent eligibility or referral pathways. Providers asked for clearer, faster routes to the right services—and coaching that translates best practices into daily routines.
Foundational learning starts early, and we have ground to make up. Partners cited concerns about limited early literacy exposure, increased screen time, and inconsistent family engagement—trends that show up as children enter preschool and kindergarten. Practical, family-friendly tools and messaging can help caregivers build skills during everyday moments at home.
Gaps families feel most
When we asked each county to name the biggest gaps, clear themes emerged:
- Know-how and consistency: The most common request across all three counties was access to best practices—actionable, aligned, and easy to implement for both center- and home-based settings.
- Staffing stability: Turnover continues to disrupt continuity of care and learning, with Ashtabula reporting it most acutely.
- Inclusive child care options: Families need more settings ready to welcome children with unique needs, paired with real-time coaching and connections to services.
- Access and logistics: Out-of-pocket costs, eligibility thresholds, nontraditional hours (evenings/weekends), and transportation barriers remain real hurdles for many families.
What partners are already offering
One strength of our region is the breadth of services on the ground. Represented partners provide Early Intervention, preschool special education, Head Start/Early Head Start, mental health treatment and consultation, family support (Triple P/Parent Cafés), fatherhood initiatives, foster care services, early childhood coordination, and professional development/technical assistance for educators. State Support Team 5, County Boards of DD, Crossroads Health, Catholic Charities, Job & Family Services, Lake–Geauga United Head Start, Ashtabula Head Start, and Starting Point were among the agencies present. Together, they cover a continuum of supports from pregnancy through school entry.
Where collaboration can move the needle fastest
Roundtable participants identified tangible strategies we can advance together:
- Training that sticks. High-priority topics include responding to behaviors, de-escalation, trauma-informed care, and burnout prevention—delivered in formats that work for small programs, including home-based providers pursuing credentials (e.g., CDA).
- Recruiting and retaining more providers. Coordinated outreach campaigns, simplified entry points, and mentorship for new family child care homes can expand options closer to where families live and work.
- Scaling inclusion. Practical inclusion toolkits, on-call consultation, and stronger links between child care, EI, and school-based services can reduce disruptions and help children thrive in natural settings.
- Better data, better referrals. Sharing county-level trends on disabilities, using common screening tools (e.g., DECA) where possible, and making service pathways clearer to families and providers.
- Make navigation easy. A unified “who does what” web hub with partner links, common language, and simple contact routes helps families and frontline staff get to the right door the first time.
What’s next
Starting Point will compile and share a follow-up packet with attendees, including a summary of themes, a consolidated resource list, and opportunities to co-host county-specific trainings this fall. We’ll also explore adding a partner-links page on our website to make referrals easier for families and educators alike. If your agency would like to pilot inclusion coaching or contribute data insights, we’d love to connect.
Thank you to every partner who joined the conversation—and for everything you do every day to prepare children for success in education and beyond.
