Early School Readiness

Early Childhood: Our Wisest Investment

A critical goal of Philadelphia's Children's Commission is to ensure that all of Philadelphia's children are born healthy, thrive developmentally and are ready for school. To achieve this goal, Philadelphians and city leadership must make a commitment to sustaining and expanding investments in early childhood.

Based on the Philadelphia Children's Report Card 2006 data, we know that Philadelphia's children face greater challenges than their peers statewide in getting ready for school success; with significantly more of our youngest children born to mothers who did not receive prenatal care, living in poverty and spending part of their formative years in homeless shelters.

Philadelphia is responding to these needs and has made notable progress in the last several years by investing in vital early childhood initiatives including:

• Strategic immunization efforts, and LAST, the collaborative lead abatement initiative
• Research based parenting programs including the Nurse Family Partnership, and Cradle to Classroom initiative
• Expanded access to early intervention and early education through the Health, Behavioral Health systems and schools,
• Creation of a Facilities Fund to provide grants and loans to child care facilities,
• Focus on quality through the Keystone Stars
• Partnerships with private initiatives such as PNC's Grow Up Great.

As a result of these investments, the Report Card on Child Well Being and other data demonstrate increases in the number of children with age appropriate immunizations, lead testing and grade promotion for first grade students, with corresponding decreases in incidences of lead poisoning and child abuse. These improvements represent targeted investments in strategies that are constantly monitored for impacts. Yet much more remains to be done. Research tells us that for every dollar invested in quality early childhood programs, the return on investment is $17 in savings as the child grows. Investing in early childhood is wise from both an economic and humanitarian standpoint.

In the face of both the great progress and continuing need, we call upon the next Mayor to continue to support and to increase these investments. In particular, funds for home visiting programs, subsidized childcare slots and quality improvement initiatives such as Keystone Stars must be increased to eliminate waiting lists and ensure that all of our youngest citizens have access to quality early life experiences. The Children's Commission also continues to call for legislation which would require children to enroll in school by the age of 6 to reinforce the message that the early school years are absolutely critical to a child’s future prospects and well-being as well as to the vitality of the community as a whole.