June 2024

The Delaware Early Care and Education Expulsion and Suspension (DECEES) project is funded by the Delaware Department of Education and is a collaborative effort between the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood (DIEEC), the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, the Delaware Department of Education, and the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. The DECEES project is designed to examine past and current Delaware initiatives that support continued enrollment of young children under age 5 in state-licensed early care and education programs; seeks to understand the state landscape for tracking the expulsion and suspension of young children; and gives rise to families’ voices through a three-part brief series.

This brief is the first in a three-part series that details: 1) the current landscape of expulsion and suspension in early care and education, 2) information on program-level suspension and expulsion practices in Delaware and the strategies programs use to prevent exclusions, 3) and how expulsion and suspension affect Delaware families.

We frame each brief around the joint Policy Statement On Expulsion And Suspension Policies In Early Childhood Settings issued in 2014 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education, and endorsed by the Administration for Children and Families Office of Child Care and Office of Head Start. This brief begins the series by providing an overview of the issues surrounding expulsion and suspension in early childhood programs and how the early childhood system in Delaware has addressed this issue to date. Children and Families Office of Child Care and Office of Head Start. This brief begins the series by providing an overview of the issues surrounding expulsion and suspension in early childhood programs and how the early childhood system in Delaware has addressed this issue to date.

Read the brief HERE.