CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois leads other states in the U.S. in ensuring that at-risk young children are provided with early childhood education, according to a new study by a researcher in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois.
The study, led by Theodore P. Cross, a research professor in the Children and Family Research Center, was based on data from the Illinois Study of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, which is part of a national study that comprises information from child welfare investigations conducted between March 2008 and January 2009. The Illinois data set included 818 substantiated maltreatment cases investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Substantiated cases also were extracted from the national study, which spanned more than 5,000 substantiated and unsubstantiated cases across 36 states.
Cross found that in Illinois, 69.7 percent of the 3- to 5-year-olds in intact families involved in child welfare cases - versus 53.5 percent of children in intact families across the U.S. - were enrolled in early childhood education programs or kindergarten. Accordingly, 79.7 percent of the same aged-children in out-of-home placements in Illinois were enrolled in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten programs versus 62.3 percent of children in other states.
When the data were broken down by age, Cross found that only about one-third of the 3-year-olds still residing with their families were participating in early childhood education programs versus more than 70 percent of 3-year-olds in out-of-home placements.
However, the percentage of 4-year-olds in early learning programs was 70 percent or better for children residing in their homes as well as for children in out-of-home placements.
Whether with their families or in out-of-home care, all of the 5-year-olds studied were in either kindergarten or pre-kindergarten programs.
The statistics demonstrate the efficacy of a DCFS policy, implemented in 2006 under then-director of DCFS Bryan Samuels, that requires education to begin at age 3 for state wards, Cross said. "There's been some real success with this policy, and there are better outcomes for Illinois than the rest of the country."
"The policy change was part of Samuels' Lifetime Approach, which recognized that early childhood education is critical to the long-term success of children in state care," said DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe. "Erwin McEwen, current director of DCFS, hired early education specialists to create our School Readiness Team, which helps caseworkers link children with quality programs and ensures that the policy is effectively implemented. We know the importance of an early start to education for our kids, and we're proud of the progress made."
Learning problems, poor grades, having to repeat grades and involvement with special education are more common among maltreated children than among their peers. However, studies have indicated that at-risk children who participate in quality early childhood programs are more successful academically when they enter school, have better high school completion rates, and are less likely to commit violent crimes than peers who don't participate in pre-school programs.
"Studies that focused intensively on early childhood education have followed kids over years - even into young adulthood - and have shown that the advantages of preschool education extend into adolescence and young adulthood in terms of life success," Cross said. "I believe that there are even benefits in terms of employment later on."
Some economists have said that every dollar spent on early childhood education programs for at-risk children generates an estimated $7-9 in future savings because of greater labor force participation and higher earnings, reduced welfare dependency and reductions in criminal justice expenditures.
"This is a critical issue because kids involved in substantiated investigations have a double whammy - they experience abuse or neglect, and many, if not most, of them experience a range of risk factors from their family and environment, such as domestic violence, poverty and parental substance abuse," Cross said. "So doing something for them to aid their development and assist their transition to school makes a great deal of sense. Both the short-term and long-term educational outcomes and the cost-benefit from them are tremendous in terms of preventing later difficulties with kids."
Most of the caregivers for the 3- and 4-year-olds not enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs said that the children were not participating because they were "too young for school," Cross said. More work needs to be done to determine if 3-year-olds would benefit from participation in early childhood education programs too, Cross added.