Early Childhood
Helping early childhood programs, family support systems, and community partners use data to strengthen outcomes for children and families.
Evidence for the systems that support young children.
Early childhood work is complex because families are served by many intersecting systems: health care, home visiting, child care, family support, education, public benefits, behavioral health, and child welfare prevention. Strong evaluation helps these systems see the full picture.
LMA helps early childhood partners answer the questions that matter most: Are families receiving the right support? Are services being delivered as intended? Are programs improving outcomes? Where are gaps emerging? What data will help leaders make better decisions?
Our role is to bring clarity to that complexity.
How LMA supports early childhood work
Program Evaluation & Research
We design and conduct evaluations that help early childhood programs understand implementation, outcomes, fidelity, family experience, and long-term impact. Our methods can include surveys, interviews, focus groups, administrative data analysis, comparison-group studies, randomized trials, and mixed-methods evaluation designs.
Early childhood programs need usable data, not just more data. LMA helps partners select, develop, validate, and implement tools that measure progress, guide service planning, support quality assurance, and communicate results clearly to stakeholders.
Home Visiting & Family Support
LMA has deep experience evaluating home visiting, parenting support, child abuse prevention, maternal and child health, and family strengthening programs. We help partners document outcomes, improve practice, and build stronger evidence for services that support parents, caregivers, and young children.
We build capacity among program staff, evaluators, coalitions, and system leaders through training, coaching, data collection support, facilitation, and practical resources that help teams use findings for continuous improvement.
Systems Planning & Needs Assessment
We help agencies, coalitions, and funders identify service gaps, map resources, assess community needs, and create practical strategies for improving early childhood systems. Our planning processes are collaborative, data-informed, and designed to support shared decision-making.
"Everyone that I have worked with at LeCroy & Milligan Associates has been wonderful!
Their team understands complexities with research, evaluation, and program implementation, they are thoughtful to create a participatory evaluation approach (where feasible), and they communicate successes and challenges along the way.
I really appreciate their high quality work and collaboration to understand how services can be improved for families and children!"
Allison Kemner, Vice President Research and Quality Improvement, Parents as Teachers National Center
Questions we help early childhood partners answer
Supporting Program Improvement, Positive Outcomes, and Grant Reporting. Effective early childhood evaluation starts with better questions.
Are programs being implemented with quality and consistency?
Where are service gaps, barriers, or duplication occurring?
Are services aligned with family needs, strengths, and goals?
Are children and families being reached equitably?
What data systems or tools would make reporting and decision-making easier?
What outcomes are changing for parents, caregivers, and children?
How can findings be translated into program improvement, funding strategy, or systems change?
How are families experiencing services, and what do they identify as most helpful or difficult?
What changes would strengthen coordination across programs, agencies, and community partners?
Experience in action
LMA brings decades of applied evaluation experience to early childhood and family support initiatives. Our work has included rigorous research designs, long-term program evaluation, statewide quality assurance systems, data tools, strategic planning, and technical assistance for programs serving children, parents, and caregivers.
Our Early Childhood Projects
Parents as Teachers
LMA has conducted rigorous evaluation & RCT work with Parents as Teachers programs, including studies designed to build the evidence base for home visiting and assess outcomes for families and children.
Healthy Families Arizona
For over 25 years, LMA has supported evaluation, outcomes reporting, quality assurance, database development, and research related to Healthy Families Arizona and home visiting services.