Last week we introduced data from the April 2017 release of the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) Program Reach and Risk Assessment, which presents useful county-level information about the number of children at risk for poor school outcomes and the number of children served through OCDEL early childhood educational (ECE) programs in fiscal year 2015 - 2016.
Here’s what it looks like in Philadelphia, the “reach” of ECE programs was impressive:
> Over 46,000 children had access to publicly-funded early learning services in 2016.
> Keystone STARS programs provided care to over 19,000 children from birth to four years old and 11,000 children five years or older.
> Close to 10,000 children –under the age of 5 with disabilities/developmental delays received early intervention services.
Philadelphia performed better than other counties statewide with regard to the risks associated with school failure. The City had neither the highest percentage of births born at low birthweight, nor the highest rate of births born to young teenagers; both factors that put children at risk.
Likewise, other counties had higher percentages than Philadelphia of births born to mothers who smoked tobacco or had higher percentages of substantiated abuse and neglect for young children. These findings are promising for our City.
However, the percentage of 3rd graders scoring below proficient in both reading and math remain alarmingly high.
Figure 1 illustrates the percentage of the 46,000 Philadelphia children under age 5 who were served by the early childhood education programs described in OCDEL’s report.
Figure 1. Programs Providing Services to Children under the Age of 5 in Philadelphia 2016
