| Overview | Health and Nutrition |
State policies that promote health, education, and strong families can help the early development and school readiness of America's youngest citizens. This profile highlights Massachusetts's policy choices alongside other contextual data related to the well-being of young children.
State Highlights1
A severe state budget shortfall reduced state funding for several early childhood development programs. Funding declined by more than 50 percent for Community Partnerships for Children which provides subsidies to help low-income families enroll children in preschool programs as well as professional development assistance to early childhood programs; child care resource and referral programs; and the Early Childhood Mental Health Program. The universal pre-kindergarten program experienced a 22 percent cut ($9.4 million), for a total of $34.3 million available for pre-kindergarten programs; state funding for Head Start declined 10 percent ($1 million).
- Young children (under age 6)2: 457,131
| Health and Nutrition |
Data Notes and Sources
Last Updated: December 4, 2009
Send us recent developments to update your state's profile.
- State Highlights are drawn from states' government and organization websites and reports. For more information, contact ITO@nccp.org.
- State data were calculated from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (the March supplement) of the Current Population Survey from 2007, 2008, and 2009, representing information from calendar years 2006, 2007, and 2008. NCCP averaged three years of data because of small sample sizes in less populated states. The national data were calculated from the 2009 data, representing information from the previous calendar year.
- National and state data were calculated from the 2008 American Community Survey.