- There are roughly 20,000 children 5 years and younger in York County in 2012. Of these children, 27.8%, or 5500 children, live in households where the overall income is below the poverty level.
- This trend has been toward more children growing up in poverty for over 6 years; consequently, the number of children and families in need of early interventions continues to grow.
- Children that grow up in poverty or are exposed to other risk factors, such as having teenage parents or parents that did not graduate from high school, have a more difficult path to reaching their potential through capitalizing on the available educational opportunities.
- Across SC, more than half of all 3 and 4-year-old children do not attend any preschool or child care setting. With more families struggling to provide basic needs for their families, too many children do not have the opportunity to develop the needed skills and discipline before they reach Kindergarten. In York County, this would equate to 10,000-11,000 children that could be at risk of arriving at school not prepared for success.
- For every state dollar that has been allocated to York County First Steps, we have been able to leverage an additional $.63 to provide needed interventions to the at-risk children and their families.
- York County provides one of the largest enrollment for Countdown to Kindergarten in the State and has served over 100 children each summer with the home visitation program designed to help rising at-risk kindergarten children receive the needed momentum boost to be successful in school.
Through our collaborations with our partners, we can and do make a positive impact on the population of children that need assistance, but the need is greater than our reach at this point. We will continue to partner with organizations that share our passion to provide the comprehensive interventions needed to expand our services to reach all children that need assistance.
Our goal is to ensure that all children are fully prepared to learn when they arrive at school.