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Investment in early childhood shows high rate of return.

Article Excerpt
It has long been known that children 5 and under are in the most vulnerable period of their lives in terms of forces that can hinder or promote social, psychological, and intellectual development. Montana has 63,347 children age 5 years and younger who are at this critical time in their development. Early childhood experts know that 85 percent of a child's core brain structure is formed by age 3. It is this remarkable growth that creates the opportunity and the increasing recognition that investing at this age has a high rate of return.

Current Situation for Young Children in Montana

Poverty rates for Montana's children from birth to age 5 are high, with 23 percent living in households that are below the federal poverty level and another 15 percent in households just above the poverty level (100 percent to 149 percent). Sixty-five percent of Montana children under age 6 have parents in the labor force, and 32 percent of children under age 6 live in working-poor families with income below 200 percent of the poverty level. In addition, 7 percent of children under age 6 have no parent working at all.

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Poverty goes hand-in-hand with limited access to health care. Although we like to think most little children have health insurance or a public health program such as Medicaid or CHIP, the fact is there are 5,000 children from birth to age 5 who meet the poverty guidelines for such programs but do not have any access to health care--either from private insurance or public health care coverage (Figure 1).

Head Start and other educational opportunities for young children have become even more important for Montana's working poor families. These programs help kids prepare for the transition into kindergarten. But it is not just Montana's low-income families who benefit from access to high-quality preschool programs; all parents who work outside the home are faced with the challenge of finding a setting that is both affordable and effective in nurturing the academic, social, and emotional needs of their children.

The 19,000 Montana children under 6 who are in family-based child care represent 30 percent of this age cohort, slightly higher than the national figure of 27 percent. Family-based care is defined as "family, friend, and neighbor care" offered in a home-based setting outside a child's own home by both regulated and unregulated providers (www.aecf.org). In Montana, there are 21 child care centers that are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC). These centers serve 1,421 children...

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