Strong families are the cornerstone of thriving communities. Turns out, they hold one of the keys to their child’s academic success, as well. The majority of a child’s brain develops by the time she is 5 years old, and the strength of a child’s relationships with her family and early caregivers determines whether her brain will develop in healthy ways that promote learning.

Under the four areas of focus--Ready Families, Ready Programs and Schools, Ready Teachers, and Ready Communities--projected outcomes include enhancing and developing methods to provide parent education; enhancing children’s social-emotional development and literacy skills; ensuring that families have access to health care, strengthening basic early childhood education infrastructure such as licensing, subsidies and market rate while working toward improving the quality of early childhood education; supporting adequate compensation for teachers; enhanced education and training for early childhood professionals; encouraging universities and community colleges to develop articulation plans for early education coursework; and encouraging the building of capacity of communities to implement high-quality early childhood education.

While virtually all children have contact with the health care system at some point, many problems may not be detected until children enter school. By offering low-income families and children access to health care and a regular point of contact, the AHCCCS program is uniquely positioned to provide high-quality, comprehensive preventive services that help assure the healthy development of children.