First Focus

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With one in five children under the age of 5 in the U.S. is Hispanic or Latino and that number going up to one in four by 2030, Hispanic and Latino children have a lot at stake in the current preschool debate. Hispanic and Latino families almost universally support preschool (96 percent) and believe that access to preschool provides an advantage to children when they start kindergarten (95 percent), yet Hispanic and Latino children are enrolled in preschool at substantially lower rates than their peers. Hispanic and Latino children are also among the poorest in the country and many are English language learners (ELLs), both which can contribute to poor academic outcomes that are made worse when children can’t access high-quality preschool.