The Benefits of Early Childhood Developmental Services

2 preschool boys

Many studies have documented the benefits of quality early childhood developmental programs for infants, preschool children and their families. However, the results of the most detailed studies, one lasting 25 years, began to appear in the fall of 2004 and have provided the best understanding and most thorough documentation of the long-term benefits of these programs. Here are some snippets of information from these studies:

  • For every dollar spent on preschool developmental services, the public receives benefits ranging from $3.78 to $8.74. Christy benefits from early childhood developmental programs in Wyoming
  • Early childhood developmental services result in:
    • Fewer special education and other services later in life.
    • More students entering kindergarten ready to learn.
    • Higher levels of verbal, mathematical and intellectual achievement in K-12 and better academic performance in general throughout their lives.
    • Less drug and alcohol abuse.
    • Less child abuse and fewer contacts with the criminal justice system as juveniles.
    • Less likely to be a teenage parent.
    • Higher graduation rates.
    • Lower divorce rates for parents and the children when they reach adulthood.
    • Decline in welfare benefits Higher employment rates and earnings rate
    • Tax payers rather than tax users.
  • A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis concluded:
    • The annual rate of return for the individual and the public over the lifetime of an at-risk preschooler who had received early developmental services was 16%, compared to an average annual stock market return of 6.3% measured from 1871 to 1998.
  • Art Rolnick, Senior Vice President and Director of Research for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis wrote:
    • “The literature is clear: Dollars invested in early childhood development yield extraordinary public (and private) returns.”
  • Robert G. Lynch, associate professor and chairman of the Department of Economics at Washington College concluded:
    • If all at-risk children received early childhood services…, the economic benefits would offset 1/5 of the projected social security deficit between 2030 and 2050.
  • Nobel Prize winning economist James Heckman of the University of Chicago concludes:
    • “We cannot afford to postpone investing in children until they become adults, nor can we wait until they reach school age – a time when it may be too late to intervene. Learning is a dynamic process and is most effective when it begins at a young age…Interventions at an early age…have proven to be highly effective.”