Open Session

Committee on Depression, Parenting Practices, and the Healthy Development of Children

Tuesday, February 26 2008

The National Academies

Keck Center, Keck 105, 201

500 Fifth Street, NW

Washington, DC 20001

PROGRAM

9:00 am             Healthy Families, DC:  Starting Early, Starting Smart Initiative

…Joan Yengo, Mary’s Center, Washington, DC

10:00 am           End of Open Session

This meeting is being held to gather information to help the committee conduct its study. This committee will examine the information and material obtained during this, and other public meetings, in an effort to inform its work. Although opinions may be stated and lively discussion may ensue, no conclusions are being drawn at this time; no recommendations will be made. In fact, the committee will deliberate thoroughly before writing its summary of the workshop and final project report. Moreover, once the draft summary is written, it must go through a rigorous review by experts who are anonymous to the committee, and the committee then must respond to this review with appropriate revisions that adequately satisfy the Academy's Report Review committee and the chair of the NRC before it is considered an NRC report. Therefore, observers who draw conclusions about the committee's work based on today's discussions will be doing so prematurely.

Furthermore, individual committee members often engage in discussion and questioning for the specific purpose of probing an issue and sharpening an argument. The comments of any given committee member may not necessarily reflect the position he or she may actually hold on the subject under discussion, to say nothing of that person's future position as it may evolve in the course of the project. Any inferences about an individual’s position regarding findings or recommendations in the final report are therefore also premature.