Increases in partnerships between The Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation and local schools, early childhood centers and public health/head start agencies has created an upward trend in the percent of children ages 0-4 in Dodge and Jefferson county being screens by this coalition. 

Contributing Factors:

• Partnership building
• Enabling continuing expansion of existing programs

Restricting Factors:

• Staffing shortages and turnover

“Healthy development in the early years (particularly birth to three) provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation.” - Harvard Center for the Developing Child 

Science shows that positive early childhood experiences can have major short- and long-term effects on cognitive and social-emotional development. Money spent on high-quality early care and education (ECE) is an investment. One dollar spent on high-quality early care and education yields an average return of $4 over time. In circumstances where children are extremely vulnerable, the return can be as high as $13.

Access to quality early care and education (ECE): School readiness varies across communities. Factors include urban/rural settings, wealth, and the extent and quality of community supports available to families. Almost 77% of non-rural White children were proficient in letter recognition upon entering Kindergarten in 1998 compared to 66% of rural White children. What might account for rural/non-rural differences in school readiness? While rural students are more likely than non-rural students to be enrolled in a Head Start program prior to Kindergarten, rural children were less likely than non-rural students to attend a center-based ECE program in the year before Kindergarten.

Dodge County’s childcare desert is 4 times worse than Milwaukee County’s. In our region, we have fewer than 1 “slot” available for every 3 children. Even though parents are paying higher fees than ever (19% of gross income when national guidelines suggest 7%), childcare centers struggle to remain staffed and open. Why? A broken business model means parent fees don’t cover the true cost of care, leading to razor-thin margins and low pay for ECE professionals. Innovative models that have shown success in stabilizing childcare revenue use a “three-legged stool” approach, with financial support coming from parents, government and employers.

Learn more: Buffett Institute - About the Early Years
Helping parents understand the benefits of developmental screening - Ages and Stages
Kindergarten Readiness in Wisconsin

Developmental Screening Team Members

Easy access to services...

Early Childhood Referral Resources

Deepen measurement:

• % of children receiving screening 
• % of children in the Monitoring Zone receiving necessary supports
• % of Chidlren Below Cut-Off receiving referrals and related services 

Test new supports:

ASQ Pro Online Data System - WUSD, JC Head Start, and Lake Mills Elementary

ASQ Family Access - WUSD (Under consideration)

QI/Technical Support:

Qtrly Virtual meetings with Cindy Muhar, MKE Child Welfare Partnership 

GWCHF collects ASQ screening data from approximately 17 area partners - listed on the map below. 

*Not all community partners are able to submit data in each year. 

*Listed numbers reflect number of unique children given an ASQ 2 SE or ASQ 3 within a given school year divided by the total number of children ages 0-4 in both Dodge and Jefferson County per the US census population estimates.  (please note - SY 21-22 and SY 22-23 use population total for census year 2022).