High-quality preschool programs for 3-4-year-olds improve school readiness and facilitate a range of positive results in school and in life. These programs are especially beneficial for low-income children and other vulnerable children, including those who are homeless, in foster care, don’t speak English as their primary language or have disabilities. Unfortunately children’s access to preschool is often determined by their parents’ incomes and the lottery of geography, and quality varies widely. More than half (56 percent) of all children in Minnesota didn’t attend preschool, according to American Community Survey 2013-15.
CDF-MN is committed to working to ensure that all children, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, have access to a mixed-delivery system of high-quality preschool programs that prepare them for school and for life.