Moving Forward, Goal Areas: Children are Ready for Kindergarten

Annie E. Casey Foundation's recent report, Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters, paints a bleak picture of our future, saying, that "if current trends hold true, 6.6 million low-income children in the birth to age 8 group are at increased risk of failing to graduate from high school on time."  First 5 LA finds this unacceptable and we have made school readiness one of the four goals of our strategic plan.

Because 90 percent of a child's brain develops before age 3, engaging a child early by reading, talking and playing will encourage this brain development. Studies also show that students who have access to reading material at home - including books, magazines and newspapers - score higher on reading tests than children who don't.

In our Best Start communities as well as through countywide efforts, First 5 LA aims to help children become ready for kindergarten by:

• Supporting programs designed to increase a parent's knowledge of child development.
• Ensuring that children in our target communities have access to high quality childcare and preschool opportunities.
• Ensuring that the childcare workforce has the necessary knowledge and skills to meet children's developmental needs.
• Promoting the expansion of early identification and intervention activities through our policy agenda.

To learn more about this goal area, please contact Dawn Kurtz at (213) 482-5902.

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