Children Ready to Learn and Succeed in School

Quality early education and care beginning in the infancy period should be affordable and accessible for all children. It is the first and crucial step in creating a well-educated work force and citizenry to help build better lives for Florida's families and a prosperous economy for Florida as a whole. Our best investment is to capitalize on the capacity for young children to learn in the early years and to teach our children how to live and work in our rapidly growing and complex world. At the outset, all children should enter school ready to succeed and continue to succeed as they grow. It is our desire that all children are ready to learn and to succeed in school as measured by:

• Increase in the percentage of first-time mothers who have graduated from high school.
• Increase in the percentage of children who are read to by their parents and relative caregivers.
• Increase in the percentage of children participating in quality early education and care programs.
• Increase in the percentage of children screened and receiving supports necessary for identified developmental delays and special needs.
• Increase in the percentage of children who reach their developmental potential in physical well-being and motor development, social and emotional development, problem solving, language development and in cognition and general knowledge based on a valid and appropriate school readiness screening tool.
• Increase in the percentage of kindergarten students who attended quality preschool or childcare programs.
• Reduction in the percent of children who are placed into special education in elementary school.
• Increase in the percentage of state investments in early education and care commensurate with K-college educational investments.
• Increase in the percentage of children served by quality early education and care programs (e.g., Gold Seal or other accreditation measures)
• Reduction in the turnover rate for early education and care workforce.
• Increase in the percentage of early education and care workers with CDAs and other credentials.
• Increase in the percent of early education and care centers that provide for continuity of care.

If these positive outcomes can be achieved, when Florida's infants and young children become older we will impact spending and save taxpayer resources by:

• Reducing the growth rate of remedial education costs.
• Reducing the growth rate of costs associated with alternative subsidized schools.
• Reducing the growth rate in costs of funding a fifth year of college for undergraduates.
• Reducing the growth rate of the number of children below poverty level with at least one parent or relative caregiver employed full-time.

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