Access to Quality Early Childhood Education and Care

Affordable, conveniently located, and quality child care is one of the most pressing concerns of families today.  According to the 2000 Census, 59 percent of all women with children under 18 years of age worked outside the home. Over half of all children under 17 had mothers in the workforce.  An estimated six million of these children are “latchkey” or left unsupervised for at least a part of the day. Child care is clearly a National problem.  However, the impact of child care shortages is most acutely felt at the local level.

Most children of working parents are in some kind of care. The quality of that care is not consistent or assured. Upgrading the quality and access to child care is a necessity to ensure the next generation has the best start possible.

Early childhood education is critical to a child’s success later in life.  Early childhood education builds the foundation of a child’s academic and economic success.  The majority of a child’s brain growth is complete by age five.  At present, many children who enter kindergarten are unable to perform at the level of proficiency expected of them.  High quality preschool is vital to a child’s success later in school and in life.  There is a compelling educational and business case for high quality early education.  It is critical that all children have the fundamental skills to read on grade level by the third grade to succeed in school.

The current administration in the Governor’s office is strongly supportive of early childhood education initiatives.  Governor Timothy Kaine established the Start Strong Council in 2006.  The Council is charged with:

  • Developing statewide goals and best practices for expanding opportunities for 4 year olds to access quality pre-kindergarten programs;
  • Encouraging communities to identify local strengths and challenges in reaching the statewide goals;
  • Overseeing the development and implementation of guidelines for local Start Strong programs;
  • Developing guidelines for the award of grants to local Start Strong Councils;
  • Advising the Governor, the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Health and Human Resources on proposed policy and operational changes that facilitate inter-agency service development and implementation, communication and cooperation; and
  • Recommending funding and strategies necessary to increase access to high quality preschool.

There have been strides towards this goal by a public/private initiative to improve child care on the Peninsula.  Preschool Partners is a nonprofit organization established in 2004 by local citizens and businesses. Its mission is to improve the quality of child care and increase access to quality child care and early childhood education for all Peninsula residents.

Preschool Partners offers a quality assistance program which pairs child care programs with individuals who can mentor and assist in the continued improvement of these programs.  By utilizing a set of standards developed at the University of North Carolina, each program or center is evaluated for its language development, fine motor skill development, exposure to books and reading, staff development, staff interaction and how the time and space are used.  Programs and mentors work together to decide where improvement is needed and how to achieve such improvement.

Preschool Partners working with the local school system have established a neighborhood program identifies underserved areas of the Peninsula and facilitates the establishment of new high quality, affordable preschools.

Preschool Partners has also established a resource and referral system to assist parents in locating convenient, quality child care.  Maintaining comprehensive, up-to-date data on child care supply and demand is an enormous task.  Support and assistance in this effort by multiple partners including early childhood educators, local business leaders, the City leadership is integral to its success. Collectively, they offer the field of early childhood education and care new approaches to common challenges.

Preschool Partners has undertaken the enormous effort of an early childhood system mapping project. The project is a collaborative effort to identify and link resources to ensure a more unified, accessible and sustainable school readiness and violence prevention system.  The outcomes of the system mapping initiative are:

  • A clear articulation of the relationship between Federal, State, Regional and local resources;
  • Improving the overall understanding of how child development works on the Peninsula;
  • Yielding greater understanding of eligibility issues, the system and its impact on families and empowering stakeholders to develop plans for leveraging public and private resources.