Funding for pre-Kindergarten programs in states across the nation is growing as 30 states increased funding in 2013-2014. It surprises many to see that funding is up for pre-K across the country, and many southern, highly conservative states, including Mississippi and South Carolina, are leading the way. The argument for pre-K programs in these areas is to move perpetually low education scores and to spend less money now to make changes rather than spend more money in the long term on remediation. 

Frances Campbell, Gabriella Conti, James J. Heckman, Seong Hyeok Moon, Rodrigo Pinto, Liz Pungello and Yi Pan

Science

March 28, 2014

A major study released in Science shows that high quality early education programs improve adult health and reduce disease. A 30-year study of children who participated in the Abecedarian program shows that as adults, these children have significantly improved health, make healthier lifestyle choices and experience fewer illnesses. The researchers provide a number of public policy recommendations, including utilizing quality birth-to-five early childhood development programs to prevent adult chronic disease and as part on ongoing healthcare reform. Additionally, they contend that early childhood programs start with effective perinatal care for mothers and begin at birth for children and that health and nutrition should be integrated into early childhood development programs.

Women's Work: The Economic Mobility of Women Across a Generation

The Pew Charitable Trusts

April, 2014

This research study shows that nearly six in 10 women are wage earners, compared to 43 percent in the early 1970s. Much of this increase is attributed to working mothers, who increased their participation in the workforce by 50 percent over the past generation. The report found that some families have been able to maintain their socioeconomic status or move up the economic ladder based on women's increased participation in the labor force. Despite an increase in participation in the work force, women's earnings continue to matter less to most families' incomes and economic mobility than men's earnings. 

AAP Translating Research on Toxic Stress into Improved Care of Children

Robert W. Block

AAP News

April 1, 2014

The American Academy of Pediatrics is focusing on translating the research of neuroscience into meaningful advances in pediatric practice to ensure that children and families impacted by toxic stress receive optimal child care. The impact of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, demonstrating the association between adverse experiences in childhood and adult health, is becoming more accessible to pediatricians. Pediatricians must recognize the adverse ecology of individual children and their families as the cause of many serious future health conditions, including cancer, heart and lung diseases, and brain health issues. 

Start Saving Now: Daycare Costs More than College in 31 States

Christopher Ingraham

The Washington Post

April 9, 2014

In The Washington Post's blog, Christopher Ingraham states that a report by Child Care Aware America from last fall found that the annual cost of infant day care is more than the average cost of in-state tuition and fees at public colleges in 31 states. The biggest gap is in New York, where day care costs more than $8,000 more than in-state college tuition. South Carolina is at the other end of the spectrum, where in-state tuition is higher than the cost of day care by about $4,000 a year. The variation between states is due to differences in costs of living, the regulations and licensing requirements in each state, and the amount of money each state spends on higher education. In South Carolina, in-state tuition is so high partly because the state reduced funding by 67 percent from 1980 to 2011.

Office of Head Start, National Center on Health

May 2014

The Office of Head Start's National Center on Health released a new interactive online tool that is designed to help early childhood program leaders, health managers and all program leaders integrate meaningful health strategies with school readiness goals. The tool was created to help programs better understand the link between health service plans and school readiness goals. They believe that well-targeted, actionable health promotion, prevention and treatment can help achieve goals of school readiness.

The State of Preschool 2013: State Preschool Yearbook

W. Steven Barnett, Megan E. Carolan, James H. Squires, and Kristy Clarke Brown

National Institute for Early Education Research

May 2014

NIEER released its latest edition of the annual report profiling state-funded pre-kindergarten programs in the United States during the 2012-2013 school year. During this school year, 28 percent of America's 4-year-olds were enrolled in a state-funded preschool program, the same percentage as the year before. However, the actual number of children enrolled decreased, including 9,000 fewer 4-year-olds served in these programs. Their findings raise serious concerns on the quality and availability of pre-K education for most of American children. For the first time, the Yearbook also provides narrative information on early childhood education efforts in the 10 states and the U.S. territories which do not provide state-funded pre-K.

The Future of Children

(Vol. 24, Issue 1)

Spring 2014

The Future of Children: A Collaboration of The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and The Brookings Institution has recently published the Spring 2014 issue of Helping Parents, Helping Children: Two-Generation Mechanisms. This journal focuses on programs that simultaneously serve disadvantaged parents and children with high-quality interventions. Two-generation programs can be more efficient and effective than serving children and their parents individually because the home environment is so important for children's development. The issue discusses six mechanisms through which parents and the home environment are thought to influence children's development: stress, education, health, income, employment, and assets.