1-147 - The Developmental Impacts of Pre-Kindergarten Programs for Children with Special Needs

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Despite firm evidence that publicly-funded center-based early care and education programs (Head Start, public pre-k, and other centers) can promote school readiness for children who are at-risk of low achievement due to poverty, there is a dearth of comparable evidence for children at risk for and with disabilities. This is a serious gap in knowledge as these children are a focus of public investments in these programs through special education funding steams and a rapidly growing subgroup among enrolled children. Two-thirds of children ages 3 through 5 under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are now enrolled in a regular, center-based ECE program with a majority of typically-developing children (U.S. Department of Education, 2014). The capacity of these programs to foster school readiness for these children warrants serious attention given that children who enter kindergarten with low skills tend to remain at low levels of school performance over time. For children receiving special education funding this can be an especially costly economic and developmental outcome. This symposium will present new data that address this issue. The first paper will provide nationally representative data from the ECLS-B examining selection into publicly-funded, center-based ECE for 4-year olds with and at risk for disabilities, as well as preliminary findings regarding the developmental impacts of exposure to these programs for atypically as compared to typically developing children. The second and third papers will provide evidence from the Tulsa and Boston state pre-k programs on the kindergarten outcomes of enrolled children with special needs.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Deborah A Phillips, Georgetown Univ

Discussant

• Paul L. Morgan, Pennsylvania State University

Individual Presentations

• Publicly-funded Center-Based Early Care and Education and the School Readiness of Special Needs Children - Presenting Author: Anna D Johnson, Georgetown University; Deborah A Phillips, Georgetown Univ

• Impacts of Inclusive Preschool on Young Children With Special Needs - Presenting Author: Christina J Weiland, Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Impacts of the Tulsa Pre-K Program on the Social Development of Children With Special Needs - Presenting Author: Mary Elizabeth Meloy, Administration for Children and Families; Anna D Johnson, Georgetown University; Deborah A Phillips, Georgetown Univ