Public Health for Communities and Children

Posted by City Health on May 1, 2017

The long-term health of communities and children are deeply connected.

City Health recently released its inaugural report rating cities on their ‘healthiness.’ We’re pleased to note that high quality early childhood programs were included as an indicator of health. City Health explains it here:
“High-quality pre-K improves children’s school readiness and success: they enter school better prepared and are less likely to repeat a grade or be referred to special education. Long-term benefits include higher high-school graduation rates, lower rates of crime and teen pregnancy, higher lifetime earnings, and better health outcomes.”

Philadelphia scored a silver medal overall, and in high quality early childhood education programs, meeting all four critical benchmarks (related to teacher training, class size and ratio, site visits) and 8 of 10 overall benchmarks, but scoring low on enrollment.

There are an increasing number of research reports indicating that high quality early childhood programs can have a positive impact on health from the start, and on a range of life outcomes as children grow, including academic success, social-emotional well-being, and long-term health. A recent presentation by Bartik concludes that significant long-term outcomes can be shown for large-scale pre-K programs if they are high quality or specifically targeted to disadvantaged populations of children.

http://ecactioncollective.org/index.php/blog/216-public-health-for-communities-and-children