Early childhood

Overview

Early childhood strategies focus on family health and stability and preparing children for kindergarten, including academic development, social-emotional growth, and health and wellbeing from ages 0-5. Children who enter kindergarten ready to learn are more likely to achieve positive academic outcomes through elementary and middle school, avoid risky behaviors in adolescence, graduate from high school, and continue on to post-secondary education.

Evidence-based strategies

	Description	Outcome Areas
Child care and early education programs	Supervision, curricula, programming, and healthy learning environments for children ages 0-5	Kindergarten readiness Stable and healthy families
Early childhood curricula and interventions	Helping young children develop a wide range of skills to prepare for kindergarten	Kindergarten readiness
Early childhood workforce supports	Initiatives to train, recruit, and retain educators and caregivers to deliver evidence-based child care and early education programming	Kindergarten readiness High-quality employment
Supports for expecting parents and families with young children	Increasing access to high-quality health care and education for new and expecting families	Kindergarten readiness Stable and healthy families