Unlike the U.S., many European countries have nearly universal participation in preschool—rates of 95 percent or higher. What’s more, these countries have high rates of participation even among low-income families. A recent scan of child care and early education in Europe, conducted by the American Institutes for Research with a grant from RWJF, identified several promising strategies that could increase participation in early childhood education in the United States, particularly among the most vulnerable.Some of the most innovative ideas the report spotlights:
● A continuous birth-to-school system: In Sweden, Family Centers provide prenatal and maternal health care, child health care, day care, preschool, and other social services in a single agency and location from when a child is born until they’re ready to enter school.
● Community and family engagement: In Belgium, early childhood education agencies use family supporters called “gezinsondersteuners”—paid staff members recruited from local communities who provide support and advice to new parents or to parents who recently immigrated into Belgium. A significant part of their work involves connecting those parents to other child and family services, including referrals to health care services, social workers, and employment agencies.
● Extra support for the most vulnerable: In Denmark, Norway, and the United Kingdom, low-income parents who don’t have traditional work schedules can receive subsidies to help them cover the costs of care outside of “core” hours (typically 9 a.m.–3 p.m.)
Similar strategies were behind the success of programs across the continent and underscore how we have much to learn from our neighbors overseas.
The European experience also strongly suggests that the best way to reach vulnerable families is to provide universal access to early care and education programs—where all children, no matter where they live or how much money their families earn, have the option to enroll in high quality and affordable child care.
Europe’s accomplishments offer us insights for our collective efforts to strengthen early education in the U.S.
Challenges Can Be Overcome
Every child—and every family—in the U.S. should be able to access high quality, affordable child care and preschool. And we need to make sure the people who have the toughest time accessing these services are not left behind.
Of course, it’s not going to be easy. But it wasn’t easy for European countries either. They faced resistance among teachers about losing their academic focus and becoming “child care providers,” and resistance among parents about early care and education becoming too “school-like” and academic for their younger children. They encountered parents whose cultural norms, lack of awareness and mistrust of government agencies kept them from enrolling their children in the formal programs that were available to them. They navigated a fragmented child care and early education system far removed from similar services for school-age kids. They worked hard to keep the costs of early child care and education services manageable. During the recession, which hit many European countries especially hard, they fought to maintain public and financial support for universal early child care and education.
And they overcame these challenges.
Our Children, Our Future
We’re encouraged that cities and states across the U.S. are embracing universal pre-K and taking steps to improve the child care facilities and preschools our children attend. But it’s time to accelerate these efforts. The repercussions of not doing so are already being felt by families across the country. And are hurting us as a nation.
One thing we can all agree on is that early childhood matters. The earlier we start to nurture children’s well-being, the better chance we have to put them on a path to success.
Read the report Connecting All Children to High Quality Early Care and Education to get started.