A child’s first years are instrumental to their future development. Children with access to high-quality early education programming show increased graduation rates, higher education attainment and lower incarceration rates. This is why PTA has advocated for over a century to provide affordable, accessible and high-quality early education programs to all children, such as universal kindergarten and the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Head Start program. It is critical to PTA’s mission to empower all families with the tools and practices they need to effectively engage in their child’s education and development, starting at the earliest stages.