Early Childhood Education

Overview
Research has consistently shown that access to high-quality early childhood education can have a positive impact on the school careers of children, particularly those from low-income households. Unfortunately, Latinos are less likely than their African American and White peers to participate in early childhood education programs. For example, while 30% of poor children under age five were Latino in 1999, that year Latinos represented only 24% of children in Head Start, the nation's premier federally-funded early childhood education program. Moreover, more than 80% of farmworker families lack access to the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start program because of a severe lack of funding for the program, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in September 2001. In addition, the paucity of curricula and assessments for Latino and English language learner (ELL) children, in conjunction with the lack of highly-trained bilingual early childhood education teachers, serves as a barrier to ensuring that Latino children arrive at Kindergarten well-prepared and ready to learn.

NCLR Position
NCLR strongly believes that high-quality early education programs can play an integral role in closing the achievement gap for Latino children. To this end, NCLR supports policies at the federal and state levels, which improve access to and quality of early education programs for Latinos and ELLs. Specifically, NCLR aims to increase Hispanic and farmworker children’s participation in the Head Start program and to enhance the quality of Head Start academic and family services provided to Hispanic and ELL children and their families.

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