Scientific discoveries indicated the importance of brain growth during the first 5 years of child life. To support early childhood development, California voter passed Proposition 10 in 1998 to collect a 50 cent per pack tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products. Kern County Children and Families Commission (First 5 Kern) receives funding from…

The state of Washington implemented the Readiness to Learn program as part of the state's Family Policy Initiative. The primary goal of the program is to serve as a formal link between education and human services by authorizing grants to local school-linked, community-based consortia to develop and implement strategies that ensure children arrive…

Starting Early Starting Smart (SESS) provides an integrated system of child-centered, family-focused, and community-based services targeted to at-risk children from birth to age seven at twelve sites across the country. To access families that are often not in the mainstream of service access and use, SESS programs partner with primary care…

This report presents a statistical look at the well-being of children in the state of Illinois, quantifying the problems confronting them and outlining steps that policymakers and service providers can take to improve the situation. The first part of the report summarizes the state's situation in the areas of education, health, special needs, and…

In the past decade, there has been a sharp increase in awareness of how interventions that address multiple risk factors and target both children and their families can help ensure that children grow up healthy and able to learn. In 1995, the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) undertook a project to "map" state initiatives…