President Obama’s Early Learning AgendaExpanding Access to High Quality Early Learning

Linda K. SmithDeputy Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood Development

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Why Focus on Early Childhood? Brain Development in the Early Years

NEWBORN 1 MONTH 6 MONTHS 2 YEARS

Brain Science and Poverty • Brain reaches 80% its adult size by age 3, and 90% by age 5.

• 6-year-old children in poverty were 7 to 10 percentage points below the norm in their brain’s grey matter volume, and showed abnormal development in multiple brain regions.

• By age 6, after the brain’s big growth spurt, there are observable differences in children’s brains based on the environments they are exposed to.

• Brain maturation lag explained between 15% and 20% of the achievement gap between low- and high- income children.

• One in four children were in the poverty category in this study.

• In the general population, the estimate is 22% of children, with higher numbers in the earliest years.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 to 17 18+0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Percent of Americans in Poverty, By Age

Percent in poverty Above low in-

come52%

Poor25%

Near poor23%

Children Under 6 in Poverty

Young Children in Poverty in America

25%

75%

High Quality CareLow of Mediocre Quality Care

7%

93%

High Quality CareLow of Mediocre Quality Care

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS. (2006). The NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD): Findings for Children up to Age 4 1/2 Years (05-4318). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Of those in center-based settings, about 75% were in poor or mediocre

quality child care

Of those in home-based settings, about 93% were in poor or mediocre

quality child care

Infants in Child Care

Home-based child care

Center-based child care

11 million children younger than age 5 are in some type of child care arrangement every week in America.

On average, children spend 36 hours/week in child care.

Child care is early education and work support.

President Obama’s Early Learning Initiative Expanding Access to High-Quality Early Learning for All

1. Extending and Expanding Voluntary Evidence-Based Home Visiting

2. Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships and Early Head Start Expansion

3. High Quality Child Care for Working Families

4. High-Quality Preschool for Every 4-Year-Old

President Obama’s Early Learning Initiative Expanding Access to High Quality Early Learning for All