Helping low-income families get their kids reading before they head to school is the purpose of Duval County’s new school readiness program called "Happy Birthday, Graduate!"
The early childhood initiative will provide special backpacks to the families of 5,000 newborns over the next two years.
The little blue and yellow bags, filled with everything from baby toys and books to helpful tips for parents, will be hand-delivered to the new families says Duval School Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti.
"We’re already spending millions of dollars on reading intervention programs in the latter part of elementary, middle and high school," Vitti said. "We want to stop the catching up approach and rather make sure children are at grade level when they should be, and then we can invest in other types of initiatives that go broader than just reading intervention."
According to researchers, children from poor families start school having been exposed to 30 million fewer words than children from more affluent families.
The "Happy Birthday, Graduate!" initiative was announced today on what would have been Dr. Seuss’s 111th birthday.
