Quality Preschool

Readiness for school begins in the early developmental years of childhood, making quality learning opportunities and environments for young children an essential part of children’s development. Beginning in 2020, I2D2 published the All County Needs Assessment. The assessment included several data collection efforts and stakeholder partnerships to inform policymakers on strategic planning for Iowa’s children and families. It was the first assessment in the state of Iowa that was able to refine the number of children who have access to and participate in publicly visible center-based experiences prior to kindergarten by integrating administrative data from the Department of Education, former Department of Human Services, Head Start, and private centers participating in Teach Strategies Gold. The 2018 cohort of Kindergarteners in Iowa found that 73% of Iowa’s children have access to center-based experiences, but it highlighted that rural children are less likely to have access to quality care experiences.

In 2022, I2D2 released the Iowa Families with Young Children: 2022 Statewide Family Survey Report: summarizing the unique challenges that Iowa families with young children face when navigating state systems to find and use quality services. The survey collected information from Information on from 2,185 families across 93 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Findings revealed that families with low-income reported less awareness of services specific for children in comparison to high-income families across several domains related to quality preschool: center-based learning (12% v. 6%), center-based child care (22% v. 9%), and services for children with special needs (29% v. 22%).

In addition, I2D2 released the Early Childhood Iowa Longitudinal Study Addendum 1: Experiences of Children Attending Head Start in 2022. This report responded to ECI’s question, “Who are the children participating in Head Start programs, and how can the state better support these children?” Using administrative data from Iowa’s Vital Statistics (birth records), childcare subsidy use, public school prekindergarten and kindergarten, and Head Start enrollment data, the findings uncovered that 21% of Iowa children enrolled in Head Start stayed in the program less than 6 months, 60% of children in Head Start experienced concurrent prekindergarten arrangements, and children attending state-wide voluntary preschool programs (SWVPP) scored higher in school readiness scores compared to children attending Head Start only. The findings demonstrate that quality preschool enrollment is essential for school-readiness.

Following the release of the 2022 Statewide Family Survey Report, the Technical Report on Early Childhood Iowa Longitudinal Study: A First Look at Children 0-5. This report focused specifically on children’s experiences participating in Head Start and included administrative data to uncover additional experiences that influence outcomes for Iowa’s Head Start children. The findings uncovered that Head Start children who experience multiple, concurrent child care had higher school readiness scores compared to children attending Head Start only. These higher scores spanned across socio-emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literacy, and math domains, with literacy and math being the most advantageous.

Since 2020, I2D2 has continued to contribute to advance academic inquiry and the broader field of quality early care and education leveraging integrated data systems. I2D2’s impact has been demonstrated through multiple grants funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), including the Secondary Analysis of Data on Early Care and Education Grant and Head Start Dissertation Grants. The findings identified family characteristics associated with a higher likelihood of enrollment in Head Start or Early Head Start and demonstrated that participation in these programs predicted improved developmental outcomes. These findings have been published in leading journals such as Early Childhood Research Quarterly and AERA open, and presented at major international and national conferences, including National Research Conference on Early Childhood (NRCEC), the International Population Data Linkage Network Conference (IPDLN), and the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD).

I2D2 continues to partner with agencies invested in understanding the early education experiences of Iowa’s children, with recent data sharing agreements and projects developing to explore the changing landscape of opportunities for children and families. We look forward to sharing more data-driven insights in the future!