Starting At 3 supports legal advocacy to include prekindergarten in school finance litigation and state legislation across the country. Starting At 3’s Director, Ellen Boylan, Esq., recently published "High Quality Pre-Kindergarten as the First Step in Educational Adequacy: Using the Courts to Expand Access to State Pre-K Programs," in the Children’s Legal Rights Journal. The article presents a comprehensive history and analysis of school funding cases involving the creation or expansion of early childhood programs, focusing not only on the preschool remedies imposed by the courts, but also looking at the positive legislative responses motivated by litigation.

Because high quality prekindergarten is a proven strategy for reducing academic achievement gaps, "funding for high quality prekindergarten ought to be included in school finance litigation as the crucial first step in a constitutionally adequate public education system," according to Boylan.

The Children’s Legal Rights Journal is a multi-disciplinary journal published jointly by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, the National Association of Counsel for Children, and Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

For more information about the article and the Starting At 3 initiative, contact Ellen Boylan, Esq., at eboylan@edlawcenter.org or (973) 624-1815, ext. 18.