The priorities for young children that have been consistently articulated by Governor DeWine make up the heart of the plan: reducing the incidence of infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, improving access to and quality of early childhood education, increasing home visits for at-risk mothers, providing a mental health professional in every school, reforming the foster care system, and providing age-appropriate drug prevention education in schools. The values and principles that inform Growing Ohio’s Future are: 1) We believe that intervening early, especially in the lives of at-risk children, and particularly in the areas of physical and emotional well-being, can forever change lives and that children with a strong, safe start in their early years become more productive adults. 2) We believe that focusing on equity will enable us to better address disparities of access and outcome, particularly in the areas of race and ethnicity. 3) We believe that optimizing and leveraging our collective resources will better equip and support families, communities, and early childhood professionals. 4) We believe that both innovations and best practice focused on excellence are foundational to our work. 5) We believe that collective action, synergy, alignment, and persistence are key: no single state agency is tasked with the sole function of improving the well-being of families and children. (author abstract)