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WASHINGTON POLICY

Quality Early Learning:
A Powerful Crime Prevention Tool

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Washington is a bipartisan crime prevention organization led by over 175 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and other top law enforcement officials from across the State.  As leaders on the front-line in the battle against crime, our mission is to take a hard-nosed look at the research about what works to help kids be successful in school and in life and, as a result, less likely to be involved in crime.  Research and experience show that certain targeted investments in programs that give kids a good start in life will prevent them from engaging in later crime and violence.  These investments include quality early learning and intensive home visiting.  Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Washington calls on the legislature to make the following critical investments a top priority in the 2008 session.

Intensive Home Visiting
Research shows that evidence-based, intensive home-visiting programs support at-risk parents as their children’s first and best teacher, improve health outcomes for parent and child, dramatically reduce child abuse and neglect, and help assure that children enter kindergarten ready to learn.  Children who survive abuse or neglect carry the emotional scars for life and most likely comprise a significant number of children deemed “not ready” for kindergarten and more likely to turn to crime.

The 2007-09 budget provided an additional $3.5 million for evidence-based, intensive home-visiting programs.  This increase provided a “down-payment” to meet the needs of at-risk parents to assure that they have education and support to be their children’s first and best teachers, and the best parents they can be.  We have both an opportunity and obligation to assure that thousands more children are ready for kindergarten and spared the devastating effects of child abuse and neglect. 

Law enforcement leaders urge the legislature to include an additional $5 million for
evidence-based home visiting programs in the supplemental budget.

Quality Early Learning
In a survey conducted by WSU, kindergarten teachers reported that only 44% of incoming students were adequately prepared for kindergarten.  In a national survey, 66% of kindergarten teachers said that children who attend preschool are “substantially better prepared” to start and succeed in school. Research also shows that quality early learning programs later result in lower drug use, higher graduation rates, fewer families receiving welfare, and lower crime.

In 2007, investment in the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) was increased by $34M to serve over 2,200 additional low-income children.  This investment will result in more children arriving at kindergarten ready to succeed and provide taxpayers a very high return on investment.  However, most ECEAP programs are not able to serve all eligible children in their communities.  We must continue to expand and improve the ECEAP program to fully realize the crime prevention benefits.

Law enforcement leaders support HB 3168 - the Washington Head Start proposal (see description  below) - to provide more services and improve outcomes for low income children and families
that promote school readiness and reduce future crime.

Washington Head Start

The Washington Head Start proposal will provide more services and improve outcomes to low income children and families.  It will do so by expanding ECEAP in several important ways.

• Increasing the amount of funding per child ECEAP programs receive so that they can provide additional educational programming through an increase in the number of annual classroom hours and more intensive comprehensive services to at-risk children.
• Establishing a state Early Head Start program so that more pregnant women and at risk children from birth to age 3 receive critical services.
• Using the most stringent ECEAP Program Standards and Head Start Performance Standards to provide high quality services for children and families, while also maintaining the flexibility that make local ECEAP programs so successful.
• Creating efficiencies, collaborations, and cost savings by better linking the state ECEAP program to the federal Head Start program. The proposal will reduce state bureaucracy and allow programs to provide more direct services to children by relying on shared monitoring and reporting requirements for programs that receive both federal and state dollars.
• Providing parents with a less fragmented and more easily accessible service delivery model for their children.
• Giving parents more decision making authority within the program so they can play an even more active role in determining what is best for their children.
• Building stronger public recognition and branding of early childhood services for low income children and their families by changing the name of ECEAP to “Washington Head Start.”

If you would like further information or have any questions about Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Washington's policy priorities, please contact Laura Wells at lwells@fightcrime.org or (206) 664-7110.