Polk County will be among 10 demonstration sites for a national initiative to improve the health and well-being of infants, toddlers and families through an expansion of the Infant-Toddler Court Program. Zero to Three, a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that babies and toddlers have a strong start in life, announced it has been awarded a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to lead the initiative in partnership with the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, the Center for the Study of Social Policy, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and RTI International. The program will support wide-scale implementation of Zero to Three’s Safe Baby Court Team approach, which is aimed at connecting babies and their families with the support and services they need to promote healthy child development, while at the same time ensuring speedier exits from the system and faster permanency.