Early Childhood Centers: Services to Prepare Children for School Often Limited

摘要

Most of the nation's disadvantaged children do not attend an early childhoodcenter. By contrast, most children in high-income families do attend these centers. Of the disadvantaged children who attend centers, most attend the kinds of centers--school-sponsored, nonprofit, and for-profit--that are less likely than Head Start centers to provide a full range of services. But despite Head Start's provision of a full range of services, the quality of its services has been uneven. Most disadvantaged children do not receive services at early childhood centers because of the (1) limited number of places and subsidies and (2) narrow missions of programs. The first problem precludes the enrollment of many eligible children. The second constrains the services offered; however, some states and localities have initiatives that show how resources can be combined so that centers can provide the full range of services.