Closing the Preschool Gap at Home

Through programs across the country, nurses, social workers, or trained mentors offer support to new or expectant parents, imparting skills to help them become better teachers for their children. Through regular home visits with the families, these programs are working to close an achievement gap between rich and poor children that starts as early as just nine months into a child's life.

The African American Youth Harvest Foundation in Austin, Texas, is aiming to close the gap for young Black boys who are not ready for kindergarten. The nonprofit works closely with families, and helps provide for immediate needs, like food, childcare, and utility bills. In the future, it hopes to employ social workers to address a wider swath of critical concerns and address learning issues among both Black and Hispanic boys, from birth to age 5.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, philanthropist George Kaiser has invested heavily in Educare, a year-round early learning program, and wraparound services, such as prison-diversion and family-based programs, with the belief that early child development can break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and address the opportunity gap before it widens. The Christian Science Monitor is following three mothers with children enrolled in Educare to show how the experiment in philanthropy is playing out on the ground.

Norway’s approach to early childcare, rooted in its Kindergarten Act, prioritizes inclusivity and the value of childhood and unstructured play, where children receive social, emotional and cognitive support. Evidence suggests long-term positive impacts, including improved academic and workforce outcomes when they reach adulthood. Investments in the country’s unique approach to childcare and kindergarten contribute to Norway's top global rankings in child well-being compared to other countries like the U.S.

In partnership with other local organizations and advocacy groups, Communities for Kids trains providers to offer Spanish-language childcare, as the state lacks sufficient access to culturally responsive, bilingual care. The training is free and has already licensed several individuals who now run their own Spanish-speaking childcare centers.

To help address falling enrollment and families’ lack of child care, Brooklyn Charter School extended the school day to twelve hours, providing before- and after-school activities and meals. So far, 80 students have signed up for the expanded hours and the school’s enrollment has rebounded from pandemic lows.

Through the Omama program, Roma women provide individual lessons to Roma children under the age of six living in settlements and disadvantaged communities, where they may not have access to crucial early childhood education. The lessons, which focus on motor skills, cognitive development, and Slovak language proficiency, have benefited roughly 900 children so far.

The Sebastian Indian Social Projects (SISP) works with socio-economically disadvantaged communities, providing social services like healthcare and employment assistance with a primary focus on educating youth. SISP has focused on educating the local female population, which has helped empower them economically and led to several women receiving jobs outside of their village. SISP has also educated several students who were forced to drop out of traditional school and provides supplementary activities along with their standard education, such as skating and coding clubs.

When the coronavirus pandemic caused businesses and organizations to stop in-person offerings, a non-profit in Washington that specializes in services for children with special needs quickly shifted operations to an online format. Although this new online business model isn't financially feasible in the longterm, it has helped bridge the gap in care for many families and "the data so far suggest that most children are doing just as well as with in-person services."

In rural Iowa, employers are partnering with child-care providers to fill gaps for working parents. Take Vermeer, a manufacturing company out of Pella, Iowa. Vermeer recently purchased an old barn near its headquarters and transformed the space to serve more than 100 children.