A Call to “STEPUP” for Early Childhood Development
Original article appeared on vermillioncountyfirst.com
This past Friday’s STEPUP meeting at Danville’s Second Church of Christ focused on another specific challenge for the Vermilion County area. The topic was early childhood development, and getting those under the age of six ready for school. Tammy Pollitt from Birth to Five Illinois mentioned that throughout the county there are over 6,000 children under the age of six, but only about 1,200 are in some kind of early development or pre-K program. Niah Hamilton, who runs the federal grant iGrow program for the entire county, says that’s a disturbing number.
“Especially when we know that the earlier they’re in some kind of program, the better they’ll be when they go into kindergarten, and third grade and fifth grade. Those things affect standardized testing. We’re just trying to hit it early, and I’m not really sure that the community knows that the earlier start the better.”
Tammy Pollitt says a main part of Friday morning’s session was to talk about why more families don’t have their children in some type of early development program, and how to bring more options to Vermilion County.