Where We Started

In Closing the Opportunity Gap, one of the Institute's two signature programs, we aim to increase opportunities to learn for all children, with a focus on reducing or eliminating opportunity gaps for children growing up in poverty or other conditions of high stress and familial challenge. Although many of our efforts in research, practice, policy, and outreach contribute to this goal, the central initiative of this signature program is the Superintendents’ Early Childhood Plan.

Capitalizing on a Unique Opportunity: The Superintendents’ Early Childhood Plan

The Superintendents’ Plan was designed to offer an innovative, comprehensive approach to reducing gaps based on inequitable opportunities for children birth–Grade 3 in the Learning Community of Douglas and Sarpy Counties. The Learning Community is a formal confederation enacted by the Nebraska Legislature in 2009 of the 11 public school districts in these two metro Omaha counties. The Learning Community Coordinating Council is composed of 12 individuals elected from representative subdivisions of Douglas and Sarpy Counties to four-year terms.

Originally intended to create a “common levy” to equalize school funding across the Omaha metro area and support children living in poverty, over time the Learning Community became actively involved with developing early childhood programs, supporting parents, and reducing truancy and absenteeism, among other efforts. The Superintendents’ Plan was specifically developed in response to legislation (LB 585) passed by the Legislature in 2013 that directed the Learning Community Coordinating Council to establish an early childhood program designed by the metro Omaha superintendents for young children living in neighborhoods impacted by high concentrations of poverty. The plan, which is unique in Nebraska and has few exemplars nationally, is financed by a half-cent levy on property values, resulting in annual funding of nearly $3.5 million to be used for this purpose. The funds are shared roughly equally between the Institute and the participating school districts.

In 2013, the superintendents of the 11 school districts in Douglas and Sarpy Counties invited the Buffett Institute to join with them to prepare a plan for their review and, after approval by the Learning Community Council, to facilitate the plan’s implementation. The plan was adopted unanimously by the 11 superintendents in June 2014 and approved by the Learning Community Council in August 2014. In-depth planning, including multiple visits to school districts with high proportions of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, in-person observations in schools recommended by district administrators, development of criteria for participation, applications from potential volunteer schools, and decisions about which schools would best fulfill the goals of the Superintendents’ Plan, took place. School-by-school, weeklong summer institutes were conducted in 2015, and initial implementation within the districts occurred in 2015–16. Full implementation of the plan continues to the present day.