Early Childhood Programs Missing Many Minority Children
Stephanie Schmit was quoted in this February 19, 2016 Education Week article by Christina Samuels about CLASP’s Disparate Access report:
Schmit, one of the report’s co-authors, said that this information should be particularly helpful to state policymakers, who are in the process of revamping their subsidy programs to meet new requirements put into place when a reauthorized child care block grant program was passed in 2014. An easy answer to the low take-up among some programs is that they’re underfunded relative to the children who need them. But there could also be state policies in place that make it harder for families that qualify for these programs to take advantage of them.
“There’s low access overall and there’s a lot left to discover about why that is,” Schmit said. “The reason this matters is that we really know how important access to early childhood education is, and how important it is to low-income children. Having this information is something that can lead to action.”
The entire article is available to Education Week subscribers at this link.