Home How We Help California's Children School Readiness
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School Readiness Program

Helping Children Reach their Greatest Potential

Getting children ready for school means more than packing their lunches, filling their backpacks, and getting them to the bus on time. In fact, the job of helping children succeed in school starts the day they're born.

Research tells us that childrens' brains grow the fastest during the first five years of life, so it's important to love, nurture, read to and play with them to help them get the best possible start in school and in life.

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What Does School Readiness Mean?

At First 5 California, school readiness means making sure that all young children enter school physically, and emotionally healthy and ready to succeed. It also means making sure that early care and education providers, such as preschools, child care centers and family child care providers are prepared to help children succeed as they enter elementary school.

Funded School Readiness Programs use the First 5 California-adapted National Education Goals Panel1 definition of school readiness:

1)  Children's readiness for school
  • Promoting physical well-being and motor development
  • Promoting positive social and emotional development
  • Developing approaches to learning
  • Fostering language development
  • Instilling cognitive development and general knowledge

2)  Schools' readiness for children
  • Creating a smooth transition between home and school
  • Ensuring continuity between early care and education programs and elementary grades
  • Focusing on helping children learn through a student-centered environment
  • Committed to the success of every child
  • Using strategies that have been shown to raise achievement for each student
  • Willingness to alter practices and programs if they do not benefit children
  • Assuring that students have access to services and support in the community

3)  Family and community support and services that contribute to
     children's readiness for school success
  • Providing access to high-quality and developmentally appropriate early care and education experiences
  • Providing access by parents to training and support that allows parents to be their child's first teacher and promotes healthy functioning families
  • Providing access to prenatal care, nutrition, physical activity and health care that children need to arrive at school with healthy minds and bodies and to maintain mental alertness

1 National Education Goals Panel (1997), "Getting a Good Start in School," Washington, D.C. : National Education Goals Panel.


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ZERO TO THREE is a national nonprofit that promotes the health and development of infants and toddlers. The organization informs, trains and supports professionals, policymakers and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers.		  

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