Investing in young children: New directions in federal preschool and early childhood policy

Abstract:

This volume explores whether the nation's early childhood programs are boosting child development and preparing children for schooling and proposes reforms that would improve the programs. The volume contains contrasting papers on the success of Head Start, Early Head Start, and home-visiting programs and on policies that would improve these three programs. In this overview paper, we detail government spending on early childhood programs, review the number of children enrolled in each type of program, review the papers on the three programs and an additional paper on program coordination, and recommend policies that would increase the returns produced by early childhood programs.