Overview
Goal: All young children throughout Minnesota enter school ready to learn.
In order to retain our state's competitive edge in the global marketplace, and to maintain our high quality of life here at home, we need to invest in our children. Arguably the most crucial for a child's development, the early years will set the stage for future challenge or success. Children raised in a loving, stable environment that provides positive stimulation, and who receive early screening and intervention for health or developmental problems, enter school ready to do their best. Investment in those important early years will pay back over a child's entire lifetime.
What's happening
Birth weight and early screening for potential learning and health concerns are two important measures for determining a child’s long-term health and success:
- During 2010, 1 in 20 babies (single births) born in Minnesota was low birth weight. Babies born in Traverse and Cass counties were most likely to have a low birth weight, while those born in Big Stone, Norman, and Yellow Medicine counties were least likely.
- Early childhood screening is required for kindergarten entrance, but screening at age 3 or 4 provides more benefit to children and the schools who will receive them. Efforts to screen children at a younger age are improving: 4 out of 5 of the children screened across the state in 2011 were under age 5.
Making connections
Good health gives children the best chance to enter school ready to learn and to be productive throughout their lives. Success or challenges early in life may lay the foundation for the child's experiences in K-12 education and beyond. An investment in our young children is an investment in the future economy and workforce of our state.
speak out
Richard Chase, Wilder Research Senior Research Manager, looks at the latest trends and gaps in access to early learning and explores four options to close gaps.
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