Special Report on Early Childhood Policy in Michigan 

The 3-year-olds attending The Children's Center's Head Start preschool program in Detroit are all giggles and smiles, exploring their surroundings with that special brand of bright eyes, innocence and curiosity that only toddlers possess.

These chubby-cheeked kids face big hurdles, though: poverty, parents with low educational attainment, parents who don't speak English, developmental delays, disabilities or having a history of "toxic stress" from witnessing violence and trauma.
 
Statistically, kids with these problems are shown to be less likely to graduate high school and college, will earn less money as adults and are more likely to be incarcerated than kids from the general population.
 
But by their very presence in this Head Start program, these kids are receiving one of the interventions shown to reduce the risk of those outcomes.

That's why funding for Head Start was boosted in 2013, with a $65 million funding infusion for the Great Start Readiness Program by the State of Michigan.

To see more on this article by Nina Ignaczak check out the following link: http://www.capitalgainsmedia.c...-special-report.aspx