*This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated. 
1991.07.18 :  Working Group to Help Improve School Readiness

Contact:  HHS Press Office (202) 245-6343
HHS Denver Office (303) 844-3372
July 18, 1991

        DENVER--HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., today
announced the formation of a working group to help improve
children's readiness for school as part of the Administration's
education goals.  Secretary Sullivan said the purpose will be to
coordinate federal agencies' activities and to challenge states
and local communities to bring together the skills and resources
needed to ensure that all children arrive at school each day
healthy and ready to learn.
       Secretary Sullivan will coordinate the effort at the
request of Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander.
       Joining Secretaries Sullivan and Alexander as expert
advisors in the collaborative effort to achieve the first
national education goal ("By the year 2000, all children in
America will start school ready to learn") will be Governor Booth
Gardner (Washington); 
Dr. James Renier, the CEO of Honeywell and author of the Council
of Economic Development's Report on Early Childhood Development;
and Dr. David Hamburg, president of Carnegie Corporation.
        In an effort to combat the wide range of problems which
contribute to a lack of school readiness, including prenatal
exposure to drugs and alcohol, lead poisoning, absence of
immunizations, poor parenting skills, child abuse and neglect,
and malnutrition, the newly formed working group will focus its
efforts on promoting system-wide changes in the traditional, and
often unsuccessful, ways in which educational, health, and social
services are currently provided to children and their families.
        "A child's education doesn't depend solely on the
school," Secretary Sullivan said.  "The social environment and
the communities in which children grow up are crucial elements in
helping them learn and prepare for productive lives."     
       Earlier this year President Bush announced "America 2000,"
a national education strategy designed to transform American
education and achieve the six national education goals agreed to
by the president and the governors in the fall of 1989. 
Secretary Alexander was asked by the president to oversee this
Cabinet-wide initiative, which includes formation of the group
announced today.

        Major activities which will be undertaken by Secretary
Sullivan and the working group include:  the identification of
"best practices" related to school readiness problem areas,
dissemination of information concerning these best practices to
state and local government agencies, volunteer organizations, the
private sector, university training programs and parent/community
organizations, technical assistance and support to state and
local school readiness efforts, and the funding and evaluation of
model, community-based efforts to enhance school readiness that
stress systems-change.

        In describing these activities, Secretary Sullivan said,
"In the same way that a couple of years ago we achieved consensus
on real welfare reform legislation through a process of carefully
designed experimentation, I am interested in starting a process
which leads to systemic changes in the provision of comprehensive
health and social services to guarantee the school readiness of
all of our children.  The ultimate goal of our collaborative
efforts is to strengthen the ability of families, neighborhoods,
and local communities to provide the range of services and
supports needed to ensure that every child can grow and achieve
his or her full potential."


                                ###