Currently, NASHP is planning the launch of an ABCD Screening Academy to spread standardized developmental screening to even more states. This ambitious, Fund-supported project will encourage states to adopt policies that promote developmental screening, encourage pediatric practices to make such screening routine, and measure and report progress to statewide leadership committees.

Well-child care visits are important opportunities to monitor children's development and screen for developmental problems and risk factors. The Fund seeks to enhance the ability of parents and child health care providers to identify, as early as possible, young children who have cognitive, social, or emotional developmental delays or are at risk for such delays. Working with Medscape and national experts, the Fund has produced a series of webcasts that provide guidance to child health care professionals on why and how to perform structured, objective screening for developmental delays, behavioral problems, and maternal depression. The webcasts have reached tens of thousands of viewers. This training is supplemented and reinforced by the extensive information available to professionals and parents at the Fund-supported www.dbpeds.org, one of the most heavily trafficked online resources on developmental and behavioral pediatrics.

The Child Development and Preventive Care Program will continue to seek ways to address the persistent challenges of financing preventive care and enhancing linkages between health care providers and other family support and developmental service providers. Due to the lack of a substantial evidence base on the effectiveness of preventive pediatric care, the reluctance to make long-term investments in children, and the fragmented system of child health care, securing appropriate reimbursement for preventive care and for needed community-based services remains a continuing challenge.