Back To School And Back On Track

Newtown spends about $5 million a month every month of the year on its schools, but this is the time of year when we are most keenly aware of that investment. Now is when we wrap our kids, who are more precious than all the millions in the world, in new clothes and backpacks and send them off to those dearly-bought schools, hoping that we have done enough as a community and as parents to buy educational success for our children.

Giving kids a good shot at success, however, is not simply a function of money and hope. The results of the Connecticut School Health Survey for 2005, released earlier this summer, suggest that there is no single secret to success for school children. Instead, lots of little things add up, day by day, year after year, to keep kids healthy, strong, safe, and successful in school — and in life. The survey showed that youth with families that love and support them are less likely to contemplate suicide, are more likely to eat well and have a healthy lifestyle, and are less likely to use tobacco or drugs or engage in sexual activity.

How parents interpret “love and support” is key. Appreciating kids and giving them a safe and secure home is only the beginning. Ultimately, it is all the daily details of caring that make the biggest difference for children: buckling seat belts, requiring bicycle helmets, scheduling routine health care, vaccinations and checkups, encouraging physical activity and exercise, purchasing healthy and nutritious food, monitoring television viewing habits, meeting and communicating with teachers, meeting your kids’ friends and introducing yourself to their parents, knowing where they are going and who they will be with, eating together as a family, talking to your kids, and more importantly, listening carefully to what they have to say.

In close and stable families these routine considerations aggregate over the years to keep kids on a trajectory toward personal fulfillment and success. Sadly, not every family has the resources or even the structure to provide these advantages for children. Fortunately, the State of Connecticut has recognized that preventative programs that focus on the health and welfare of children are far more effective and efficient than waiting to deal with the consequences, crises, and costs of neglected children.

Last month, Governor M. Jodi Rell signed An Act Concerning State Investment in Prevention that will invest in programs designed to prevent children and families from falling into crisis. The Community Results Center of the United Way of Connecticut has found that every dollar invested in a tested home visitation model for high-risk families yields $6.12 in monetary benefits to the state; every dollar invested in a specific model for high-quality preschool for low-income children yields another $18.89 in benefits.

Anything we can do, small or large, as parents or as citizens, with or without monetary benefits, to ensure that children going back to school will also be getting back on track toward realizing their full human potential is a worthy investment.