The most important 2017 legislation for preventing child maltreatment prioritizes child care scholarships to children who are in child protection or foster care or are homeless. It also makes them eligible at birth rather than age three. This is critical because quality child care can help offset the potentially devastating impact of maltreatment on brain development in infants and toddlers.
Passing legislation doesn’t guarantee it will be implemented. But the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) quickly set a goal to get 30% of scholarships to this target population. They have already doubled the proportion from 8% to 16%, and when they reach their goal 4,900 of these high risk children will receive scholarships compared to a starting point of 1,278.
MDE is turning the promise of this law into reality.