WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. From Meredith Wiley. April 28, 2011:
White Plains Public Safety Commissioner David Chong and Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore visited the preschool program at Country North Children’s Center to read to a classroom of young children and release a new report about the need for high-quality early care and education in New York State. The Commissioner and District Attorney said high-quality early education not only prepares children to succeed in school, it also prevents crime and saves New York State taxpayer’s money.
The report, “Quality Matters: High-Quality Early Education and Care Can Cut Crime in New York,” details the research on the crime prevention benefits of early learning and the need for high quality programs to achieve these results, including good teacher student ratios, a well trained staff and curriculum for social as well as cognitive learning such as taking turns, listening to the teacher and getting along with other children. The Westchester County law enforcement officials called on the Governor and Legislature to implement QUALITYstarsNY—a new quality rating improvement system designed to ensure quality in all early care and learning settings across the state.
Research shows providing at-risk children with high-quality early education prevents crime. A long-term study of the High/Scope Perry Preschool in Michigan found that at-risk children excluded from the program were five times more likely to grow up to become chronic lawbreakers than those who attended the program.
By age 40, those left out of the Perry Preschool Program were twice as likely to have been arrested for violent crimes, four times more likely to have been arrested for drug felonies, and seven times more likely to have been arrested for possession of drugs than those who attended the program.
“No child is born destined to go to jail,” said Commissioner Chong. “Research shows that we can make a difference in kids’ lives through early learning, dramatically improving their odds of becoming productive and contributing members of their communities.”
The State Office for Children and Family Services (OCFS) has just completed a 230-site field-test of the Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS) called QUALITYstarsNY (County North Children’s Center participated in the field test). The law enforcement leaders say this system will ensure early education programs are high quality, helping more at-risk children succeed and ultimately reducing crime in central New York communities.
Chong and DiFiore urged policymakers to enact a plan to implement QUALITYstarsNY as the state’s quality system for all early childhood programs. They also encouraged OCFS, the State Education Department (SED) and the legislature to work together to forward this initiative.
Some studies from other states show that children in low-quality care were more likely to display behavior problems and fail to show any academic gains. In order to get the best return on investments in early learning, the programs must be high quality.
“High-quality early care and education can really make a difference by getting our kids on the right track and making communities safer, DA DiFiore said. “A high-quality investment early on reaps benefits later. Quality outcomes only come with quality programs.”
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids State Director Meredith Wiley stated that that New York State currently has no statewide, standardized system to assess the quality of the state’s early education system or raise quality standards. He urged all policy makers to adopt QUALITYstarsNY as the statewide quality rating improvement system.
Commissioner Chong and DA DiFiore are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids New York, a bipartisan anti-crime organization of 300-plus police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys and violence survivors that advocates for programs and services that have strong research that shows they prevent crime. It is part of a national organization of more than 5,000 law enforcement members and victims of violent crime.
Assemblyman Robert J. Castelli (R, C – Goldens Bridge) also participated in the event.
“Education and early prevention are key components of modern-day crime-fighting techniques that need to be utilized more often to lower crime rates and make New York a safer place to live,” said Assemblyman Robert J. Castelli (R, C – Goldens Bridge), a 22-year veteran with the New York State Troopers and former Chairman of the Criminal Justice Department at Iona College. “Today’s event was a terrific opportunity to bring awareness to these important, but often overlooked, ways to combat crime.”
“It is no longer acceptable to have reactive strategies,” Castelli said. “It is important to have proactive strategies that nip criminal behavior before it starts in young people.”