Overview | The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation | The Teach More/Love More hotline |  Dave Lawrence Bio | Press/Media |  The Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe | Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership | The Children's Trust

Background

Miami-Dade County, Florida's largest county with 2.4 million people and larger than 16 states, is the home of what is increasingly becoming known as a national model for a community-wide high-quality "school readiness" initiative. Miami-Dade is statistically the most diverse area in the United States (60% Hispanic, 22% black or African American, 18% non-Hispanic white, and more than half of its residents born in another country). For all its pockets of wealth, Miami-Dade also has a significantly higher than national average of underskilled, undereducated and impoverished.

In January 1999, a community-wide effort was launched on behalf of all children in this community from before birth through age 5.

The key convenor was David Lawrence Jr., the president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, who also has been a leader in The Children's Trust, the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe, the Florida Partnership for School Readiness and a member of the governor's Children and Youth Cabinet. He is also "University Scholar for Early Childhood Development and Readiness" at the University of Florida. The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation was inspired and founded by a generous and public-spirited Miami couple -- Dr. Jane and Jerry Katcher -- who believed that the early childhood years are especially critical to the future of children and the community. The Katchers furnish the foundation’s core staff funding, and then it is the foundation’s responsibility to raise the dollars for all its projects.

Major partnerships include United Way, the Healthy Start Coalition (focused on infant and maternal health), The Children's Trust, the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe and the Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership.

What we work on:

We seek to build a movement that embraces all children, all families. This is not about "other people's" children, but rather "everyone's child." We move on many fronts, including these:

• High-quality child care for all: When we began this effort, there were 17 accredited child care sites in Miami-Dade. (Accreditation tells the parent and consumer that a child care facility has recognition of a quality, stimulating environment for children.) Today there are more than 335 accredited child care sites in this community, representing the largest growth in accredited child care in the nation. Quality child care leads to more successful children.
• A high-quality pre-kindergarten experience available, but not mandatory, for all 4 year olds in the state. Propelled by the leadership of then Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas and Dave Lawrence, Florida voters in 2002 passed a constitutional amendment to provide this, public and private, beginning in the school year 2005. Only two other states, Georgia and Oklahoma, make this available for everyone now. Florida's version still has considerable distance to go before it meets the "high-quality" standards mandated in the constitution.
• High-quality parent skill-building. We simply believe that "school readiness" cannot occur without respectful partnerships with parents. Building from a pre-existing "family literacy coalition," we produced a significant strategic plan that has led to the Family Learning Partnership. This focuses on families with young children, advancing three areas of family literacy: (1) Parents as teachers, (2) children's early reading skills, and (3) adult literacy.
• We think that every child is entitled, in a society of fairness and wisdom, to a "medical home" -- that is, high-quality medical care for every child and every family. The reality in Miami-Dade is that 50,000 children between birth and age 5 have no health insurance.
• "Home visiting." There is ample evidence, going back four decades in this country, of the value of a high-quality professional (perhaps a nurse/social worker) or para-professional visiting prospective parents with follow-ups in the hospital and then during the child's first several years. The research makes it clear that this leads to better outcomes for mother and child as well as greater spacing between babies.
• We believe firmly that we need to make real progress with clearly measurable outcomes. In Miami-Dade, we have assessed thousands of 3 and 4 year olds with cognitive, social and emotional assessments done at the beginning of the "school year" and at the end -- with an accompanying effort to fill in the gaps. The research is quite clear: The earlier you identify the difficulties, the better chance you have to fill in those gaps.

Teach More/Love More:

Teach More/Love More is, among other things, a public awareness campaign sponsored by The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and United Way Success By 6. The campaign not only alerts parents to the stark consequences of failing to prepare our children -- all our children -- for school and success in life, but also offers solutions for overcoming the challenges that all parents face.

In 2001, we launched a major, years-long campaign for public awareness on this topic. That campaign's first target is parents and caregivers who can call -- in English, Spanish or Creole -- any hour of the day or night for information that ranges from: "My child has been crying for hours; what should I do?" to "How do I find really good child care that I can afford?"

We have built partnerships with 13 birthing hospitals, 19 birthing centers and 39 community libraries. Today every new mother in our community receives the preview issue of an 11-times-a-year parent skill-building newsletter…information about how to connect the child to health insurance…a high-quality baby book accompanied by a message about the importance of reading to the children from the earliest months…a temporary library card that can be turned in for a permanent card and a round-trip bus pass to the nearest library. Everything is free and in English, Spanish and Creole. (More than 26,000 parents have signed up for the parent skill-building newsletter.)

We have published a Children's Almanac, which goes in our new-parent hospital packets. We also oversaw the production of an hour-long television show on early childhood challenges, produced by The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and WLRN-TV. The show focuses on South Florida families with on-camera expertise by Dr. Roni Leiderman of the Family Center at Nova Southeastern University and famed baby doctor T. Berry Brazelton.

A free book for every newborn:

In 2005, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and the Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership launched a major early childhood education book and curriculum on diversity called "All Kinds of...Todo Tipo De...Tout Kalite...." The book is given free to every new parent in the community via all birthing hospitals and birthing centers. It's designed as a baby's first book, encouraging parents to read with their children from the earliest months; it also helps families learn to recognize and respect the differences and similarities that human beings have in common.

"All Kinds Of..." is published in English, Spanish and Haitian-Creole; this board book was created for parents and caregivers to use with their young children to help them (1) take the first steps in early literacy, and (2) develop comfort with diversity. A trilingual companion activity guide -- All Kinds Of...Activity Guide/Curriculum Framework, Todo Tipo de...Guia de Actividades, Tout Kalite...Liv egzesis edikatif/Chapant yon kourikoulom -– appears on both ADL’s website (www.adl.org) and the Teach More/Love More website, accessible via www.teachmorelovemore.org.. It features a shared reading activity and follow-up activities to support young children's exploration of the world around us.

SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids):

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation selected The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation as one of eight sites across the country to receive a five-year grant. The other locations: Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington, D.C. The intent is: Ready children, ready parents, ready communities and ready schools.

Called SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids), this has followed more than a thousand 3 year olds since the summer of 2003. Parents benefit from skill-building classes in English, Spanish and Creole. The Parents As Teachers curriculum supports this effort.

The key neighborhoods of focus in Miami-Dade County for SPARK are Allapattah-Model City and Florida City-Homestead. Sixty-six child care centers from these neighborhoods have been working toward quality improvement and accreditation in partnership with the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe; 63 of these already have been accredited. All the children are being pre- and post-assessed socially, emotionally and cognitively, also provided through the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe.

Eight public elementary schools are partners in SPARK. Five are in Allapattah/Model City: Kelsey Pharr Elementary, Maya Angelou Elementary, Comstock Elementary, Lenora B. Smith Elementary, Santa Clara Elementary. Three are in Florida City/Homestead: Laura C. Saunders Elementary, West Homestead Elementary and Florida City Elementary. SPARK seeks to engage parents in the school and lessen the transition challenges from early care education to public school.

Using intensive neighborhood- and community-wide planning efforts, the initiative serves as a catalyst or "spark" to help children transition to school ready to learn and to help schools get ready for children to succeed. Significant community leaders are deeply involved: The Children's Trust, the Community Action Agency (and Head Start), the Department of Children and Families, Miami-Dade Public Schools, the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe, Miami-Dade County (and the office of Mayor Carlos Alvarez), YMCA, Miami-Dade Health Department, Florida International University, Nova Southeastern University-Family Enrichment Center, University of Miami-School of Medicine, Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership, University of Florida, South Florida Workforce, United Way and The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation. For more information, go to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation/SPARK site at: SPARK.

A major collaborator with this project is the Lastinger Institute at the University of Florida’s College of Education. The institute focuses on teacher and principal training, and launched in 2006 a nationally pioneering job-embedded master’s at these eight schools (plus one more outside SPARK). Bachelor degree teachers who qualify for the program will be able to receive a University of Florida master’s degree from the College of Education with on-line and in-person instructional work on site in Miami-Dade within 2 1/2 years -- free except for the cost of books and materials -- provided they make a commitment for a full five years total at their schools.

Ready Schools:

Increasingly, there is a national understanding in the "school readiness" movement that high-quality, systemic change means not only ready children, ready parents, ready communities -- but also ready schools. That means schools that (a) build real relationships with the child care and other sites that "feed" children into kindergarten, first grade and beyond; (b) a real alignment of curriculum and professional development from pre-K through grade 3. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is a significant funder of both The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and the University of Florida.

Partners in the Miami-Dade initiative include the public school system, The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, the University of Florida’s Lastinger Center for Learning, The Children’s Trust, United Way, the Early Learning Coalition, Head Start, the University of Miami and Florida International University.

What is sought is the mobilization and focusing of resources and expertises to produce sustainable and widespread improvement in student learning and healthy child development from birth through elementary. And in the case of Miami-Dade County, the aim is to scale up from the present 16 elementary schools (and the child care centers that feed into those schools) so that by the summer of 2008 we will be working in 70 elementary schools -- and, at the end of 2011, all of the system's 230 elementary schools.

The Children's Trust:

The Children’s Trust, a dedicated source of funding for children’s services, was approved by Miami-Dade voters in 2002 by a 2-1 margin. Miami-Dade became the eighth county in Florida with such a funding source for children.

The Trust board is an independent and diverse group of 33 members from the public and private sector. They decide how The Trust will invest about $100 million a year from property taxes on behalf of our children. The cost to the owner of a median-assessed-value home is $61 a year.

The Trust funds high-quality programs and initiatives for children in health, development and safety, and seeks to increase parental and community responsibility for children. The Trust targets early intervention and prevention services to our most vulnerable children, families and neighborhoods and also pushes for increased availability of needed services for all children and families. The Trust spends about half of available dollars in services for children ages birth to 5 and their families, where it believes the greatest impact can be made; that includes, for one major example, high-quality child care. The other half is invested in children 6-18 and their families.

About a third of The Trust’s overall budget has been committed to funding after-school and summer programs for more than 40,000 children. Among those are programs for children with special needs. Out-of-school programs provide a secure, nurturing, engaging and supervised environment for children with a wide variety of academic, athletic, cultural and social activities. Additionally, The Trust invests heavily in early intervention and prevention services to promote positive child and youth development and teach parenting skills. These programs help reduce illiteracy, delinquency, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, child abuse, injury and neglect. Meanwhile, The Trust also provides funding for incentives, mentoring and training to achieve higher-quality child care.

The Children’s Trust’s 211 helpline provides free information and referrals services to parents, caregivers and youth, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in English, Spanish and Creole. The 211 helpline operators offer telephone counseling, crisis intervention and referral services for countywide programs and services. It is operated by Switchboard of Miami.

Recognizing the tens of thousands of Miami-Dade children without access to quality health care. The Trust has launched a major initiative called “Health Connect.” One major piece of that project aims to have a health team at every Miami-Dade public school. In this, the nation’s fourth largest school system, there are 350 public schools, 230 of those being elementary schools. In 2005, there were a total of 19 nurses and 24 health clinics (some of them operating only four hours a week) serving the 360,000 who attend public schools here. The Trust project, in full collaboration with the school system and the health department, would have a “health team” at every public school by 2011. That means a “health tech” at every school (able to give shots, do wellness exams, etc.), a nurse practitioner for every two schools, and a master’s in social work, focused on social-emotional-behavioral-developmental needs for every two schools. Already health teams are in 100 schools. This is a nationally important and pioneering collaboration. Trust dollars also fund, via the Healthy Start Coalition, a home-visiting program where free, voluntary advice is offered to all first-time mothers in Miami-Dade.

In 2008, The Children’s Trust will come before the citizens of Miami-Dade County for reauthorization through a voter referendum. For more information about The Children’s Trust, go to www.thechildrenstrust.org or call 305- 571-5700.

The Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe:

In 1999, the Legislature passed the School Readiness Act, consolidating the state’s early childhood education and child care programs into one integrated program of school readiness services. That means school readiness programs would be administered by school readiness coalitions (now known as the Early Learning Coalitions) at the county or multi-county level. The Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe is coordinated by the state’s Office of Early Learning, a department of the Agency for Workforce Innovation, and is among 31 coalitions in the state.

The Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe plans and coordinates school readiness services throughout Miami-Dade and Monroe. The coalition seeks to improve the quality of services administered by early education and child care providers that care for children under age 5. The coalition also works to raise awareness of the importance of quality early education and directs resources to income-eligible parents.

The coalition also is responsible for the voluntary universal prekindergarten program. That program, passed by Florida voters in 2002 with enabling legislation signed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2005, is designed to help all 4 year olds prepare for kindergarten and build the foundation for future educational success. The program allows parents to enroll eligible children in a free, high-quality pre-K program at a public or private qualified provider in their community. Already there are more than 125,000 Florida 4 year olds in the program.

For more information about The Early Learing Coalition, call 305-646-7220.

Helping children who might have learning disabilities:

In this country -- and community -- perhaps one of every five children might fit in the broad category of “special needs.” Perhaps a fourth of those might have “learning disabilities,” defined as neurological disorders that affect the brain’s ability to receive process, store and respond to information. In the words of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the term covers a group of disorders and describes “the seemingly unexplained difficulty a person of at least average intelligence has in acquiring basic academic skills. These skills are essential for success at school and work, and for coping with life in general.

Most children with “learning disabilities” are identified at age 8 or 9.Imagine if we could identify children who may be at risk for having learning disabilities much earlier, say at age 4. Imagine how much further ahead they might be at age 8 or 9 if we provide them the support they need before they enter kindergarten and for several years before they reach age 8 or 9. Imagine how much more chance they might have to succeed in school and in life.

Toward that end, The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation has been awarded a grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation to focus on integrating early childhood education with effective practices on behalf of young children who have, or are at risk for, learning disabilities.

The Tremaine grant enhances the award-winning work in this area of our partner, the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe. The coalition’s NEED project (Natural Environment Educational Development) is designed for early identification – in child care -- of children with learning difficulties. Nine NEED coaches have worked with 102 child care centers to implement strategies for early recognition, carefully planned interventions and, when necessary, referrals for additional assessment and support. Using the Tremaine grant to enhance that program significantly increases our community’s ability to reach children with undisclosed learning disabilities early. This particular project – a “recognition and response” model -- focuses on 12 Miami-Dade child care centers, beginning with screening for vision, hearing, social-emotional and developmental skills and abilities to determine those at risk for learning disabilities. It includes intervention strategies for working with children and for engaging and supporting their families. Also part of this early learning system is professional development for pre-K teachers, the development of a learning portfolio/profile for all 4 year olds with easy-to-use information about assessments, interventions and family experiences.

The research tells us that all children can benefit from access to high quality pre-K education. We also know that all children learn differently. The Tremaine Foundation grant allows us to use pre-K education as a platform for ensuring early learning success for all children, and a way to provide special help for children who struggle to learn, or who may be at risk for having learning disabilities. We are pleased that the Tremaine Foundation has chosen Miami, and the partners with whom we work, as one of the first sites in the U.S. to launch this approach.

United Way Center for Excellence in Early Education:

A key collaborator in this community-wide collaboration for high-quality early development, care and education is United Way of Miami-Dade. At the core of these efforts is the Center for Excellence in Early Education, which opened in 2006 at United Way headquarters at 3250 SW Third Ave. in Miami. This $30 million project, all raised privately, serves as a national "best practice" resource center for educators, child care professionals and parents -- all committed to the highest standards of early education.

The first floor of the center houses a demonstration school for 130 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old. The second floor, a resource and training center, offers innovative outreach, research, education and training programs for parents, teachers, local businesses, child care providers, researchers and others in the community dedicated to advancing high-quality early childhood education. That means:

• A teaching center where child care professionals can improve skills.
• A research center where innovative early childhood education curricula can be demonstrated and tested.
• A training center to help businesses and other institutions offer employees the benefit of quality early care and education services.
• A resource center where parents can learn best practices in parenting and early childhood education.
• A demonstration school for up to 140 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years.

That means children in the center have the fullest chance to be ready and eager for formal school...that early childhood caregivers and professionals have the best chance possible to meet the highest standards, including the early care accreditation criteria of the National Association of Educators of Young Children...that parents of young children can improve their knowledge and skills...and that businesses in our community can understand the need for high-quality early childhood care for their employees. A 39-member national advisory board provides overall guidance as well as advice on curricula, research and training, and will identify partnership opportunities to increase this center's impact in the national early childhood education arena.

For more information, contact Gladys R. Montes, the director of the Center for Excellence in Early Education, at 305-646-7074, or montesg@unitedwaymiami.org, or visit www.unitedwaymiami.org/yourunitedway.

The Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership:

The Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership, a coalition of local organizations dedicated to families, sees our community as a place where parents should be a child’s first and most important teacher, where children will have high-quality literacy and language instruction, and where outstanding literacy and language development programs will be available and affordable to all. The Family Learning Partnership collaborates with community agencies and institutions to improve child and family well-being. The work focuses on family and adult literacy, family support, child welfare, literacy training and research.

Here are some Family Learning Partnership projects:

• Lawyers for Literacy: This project focuses on improving the literacy and parent skill-building for young parents, newly arrived immigrants, young people emerging from foster care and others who could use help in improving their own lives and those of their children. In addition to family literacy skills, the project -- using judges, lawyers and law students donating time and expertise -- helps parents and young people to recognize, prevent or resolve legal challenges (sometimes with legal counsel, but most often through community resources and without a lawyer). Individuals learn to understand their legal rights and responsibilities, and appreciate the role that law and lawyers contribute to a just and fair community and country. The learning modules -- all free to those who attend -- speak to legal issues that concern personal finances, immigration, criminal law, workplace rights, landlord/tenant law, family law and health care. This project “builds community” and citizens. Individuals come away with a strong sense that the law serves rather than burdens them.
• All Aboard for Family Fun: An interactive, web-based developmentally appropriate activity program for families to access activities-games, crafts, music, cooking and literacy. There parents and caregivers can find parenting tips, articles on child development and hundreds of new age-appropriate activities every month.
• Family of Readers Program: Working with Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s oldest and largest children’s and family literacy organization, the Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership -- in partnership with The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and Junior League -- conducts literacy initiatives at local schools, libraries, domestic shelters and the juvenile justice system to help children and families embrace reading, learning and early literacy. A consortium of agencies within the early care area is focused on early literacy and shared reading initiatives through the Family of Readers. This helps young parents develop their children’s early language and literacy skills through activities that give parents practice in reading aloud with their children and helps young parents provide early language and literacy experiences to promote later school success.
• Literacy Forum for Providers: The Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership builds and sustains relationships with community organizations to address literacy needs. A learning network of literacy and family service providers in the public, private and faith-based community has been established. With the support of the Dade Community Foundation, these organizations collaborate to maintain up-to-date information on literacy and language services, disseminate information to providers, develop consistent standards of instruction, and provide evaluation and services for adult learners pursuing literacy and language education. Major collaborators include Miami-Dade Public Schools, Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, Head Start/Early Head Start, Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe, WLRN, Human Services Coalition, HIPPY, Peace Education Foundation, Miami-Dade Public Library System, Miami Heat, United Way Success by Six, the University of Miami, Florida International University, Department of Children and Families, Junior League, Workforce Development and faith-based providers.
• Morris B. Morris Family Literacy Fund: The Morris B. Morris Literacy Fund, established in memory of Morris B. Morris, provides books to build home libraries for children and families in Miami-Dade.
• Reach Out and Read Miami: This project seeks to make early literacy promotion a routine component of pediatric care for all children. Working only in pediatric clinics, Reach Out and Read provides families of children age 6 months to 5 years with guidance about the importance of emergent literacy and reading aloud. Our model: (1) pediatricians counsel caregivers on why it is so important to read with young children, (2) pediatricians give the child a developmentally and culturally appropriate book to take home, and (3) volunteers in clinic waiting areas model reading aloud with children. Reach Out and Read is among the few evidence-based programs shown to improve emergent literacy. The Reach Out and Read model focuses on at-risk populations by operating in health care centers where at least half of the children live below or near the federal poverty level. This project serves 42,000 children at 33 sites in Miami-Dade. In the past 18 months, 100,000 books were distributed.
• Learningames: The Dade Community Foundation awarded an 18-month grant to offer caregivers of children birth to age 3 an innovative, research-based approach called “Learningames” in 15 early Head Start classrooms in the Liberty City/Brownsville areas. The goals: (1) to improve children's language and pre-literacy skills and (2) to focus on the adult-child interaction. The program, now serving 700 families, provides regular visits by a skilled mentor, materials to enhance classroom environments, and extensive literacy materials and resources Partners on this initiative include: Head Start/Early Head Start, The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, University of Miami-Department of Pediatrics, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Abt Associates.

How the movement got started:

After several months of preliminary work, in May 1999 177 citizens gathered for 2 ½ days to draft a strategic plan. They included the mayor, the school superintendent, the school board chair, the county's chief health officer, the state attorney, the chief juvenile judge, the United Way president, as well as pre-school teachers, leaders from the faith and business community, and many more.

Our guiding principles:

• Measurable outcomes.
• A baseline of needs, programs and services to determine gaps in service and then strive to fill those gaps.
• Partnerships with business, schools, service providers and faith-based community groups, leading to a fully funded system of comprehensive services for all children birth to 5 and their families.
• A holistic approach -- all delivery systems, all funding sources and especially, for all children birth to 5.
• Integrated services and programs based on a child's total needs.
• High-quality, affordable, early care and education programs for all children from birth to 5 years.
• All children and families with access to a comprehensive, coordinated and affordable healthy services system that is continuous and compassionate.
• Sensitivity to all groups and individuals in the community.
• Homes, communities and schools that are as free as humanly possible from violence, abuse and neglect.

During the summer of 1999, we held 21 community forums, neighborhood after neighborhood, throughout the county. There we shared the strategic plan and sought suggestions. Hundreds of parents told us their priorities:

• More information about how my child learns.
• Information on how to help me be an even better parent.
• Excellent health care for my child.
• Convenient, affordable, high-quality infant care.
• A safer neighborhood.

The Mayor's Children's Summit was held in September 1999. There, 4,500 people voted on which parts of the strategic plan to tackle first. Four major task forces were announced to carry out those priorities: (1) Early Development and Education, (2) Child Health and Well-Being, (3) Parent and Family Skills and Information, and (4) Prevention and Intervention of Abuse, Neglect and Violence. Those task forces were important contributors to subsequent progress. Each task force worked to learn the "best practices" in various priority areas and put together a "community inventory" -- what is being provided and where are the gaps. Task force work and thinking also preceded the major public awareness campaign targeted to parents and caregivers.

From this work also came a full briefing book summarizing the best knowledge available about strategies to achieve school readiness and strengthening the ability of families to raise children to be good citizens. Project leaders on this briefing book were Dr. Barbara Thomlison of Florida International University and Muriel Wong Lundgren. (That is available on this website by going to the home page and clicking Best Trends and Practices.) The briefing book was developed by gathering information from experts and conducting an extensive review of the scientific literature to collect the most promising intervention practices as well as scientifically proven ones.

Throughout our work, we seek to remember the 30 percent or more of the children who enter first grade in our community significantly behind. Way too many will never catch up, and way too many will be candidates for prosecution and prison. The research tells us that if we were wise enough to invest a dollar up front in the first few years of a child's life, we would save at least seven dollars in later years when we need to spend society's resources on those who are failures or in danger of failing. Our society would be less violent; our streets and homes would be safer. We would have more taxpayers and fewer in prison. We would have more people able to compete in the 21st century. The early years are simply that crucial.

David Lawrence Jr.
President
(305) 646-7229
Email: dlawrence@childreadiness.org

Ana Sejeck
Chief Operating Officer and Ready Schools Miami Project Director
(305) 646-7231
Email: asejeck@childreadiness.org

Alina Diaz
Ready Schools Miami Director of Systems and Database Management
(305) 646-7245
Email: adiaz@childreadiness.org

Monica Barrios
Executive Assistant
(305) 646-7228
Email: mbarrios@childreadiness.org

Ana de Aguiar Echevarria
Project Director
(305) 646-7230
Email: adeaguiar@childreadiness.org