High-quality child care leads to academic success for low-income kids

Boston College professor says high-quality care can negate poverty impact

Chestnut Hill, Mass. (September 15, 2009) – For low income parents, finding high quality child care not only boosts the performance of their children in school, but actually combats the effects of poverty, according to a new study in the journal Child Development.

Children who spent more time in high-quality child care in the first five years of their lives had better reading and math scores in middle school, according to researchers from Boston College, the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Samford University, who studied 1,300 middle school students.