Mimi Graham, the director of the Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy at Florida State University said “Tallahassee is decades behind our sister cities that have a Children’s Services Council that dedicates money specifically for early childhood.”

Courtney Atkins, executive director of Whole Child Leon, said counties in Florida with such councils “fare way better” than others.

These two statements were made by supporters of the creation of a Children’s Services Council for Leon County that would raise money through a dedicated increase in property taxes.

There are eight counties in Florida that raise money through taxes to support Children’s Services Council’s.

Are the statements made by Ms. Graham and Ms. Atkins true?

Tallahassee Reports decided to look into the statements.

Ms. Graham notes that quality of childcare is related to “higher cognitive performance, better language and math scores..”

One way to evaluate the accuracy of the statements is to determine how Leon County compares with the eight counties that have spent millions on children Service Councils when looking at Kindergarten Readiness scores and third grade FCAT scores, both maintained by the Florida Department of Education. 

If Leon County was “decades behind” other cities, it would seem to follow that Leon County would be behind in these scores.

The table below shows the Kindergarten Readiness score for the eight counties with a Children’s Services Council and Leon County.

The Kindergarten Readiness score measures if a student is ” socially, emotionally, cognitively and physically ready to learn upon entering kindergarten.”

The table shows that 95% of students in Leon County were Kindergarten Ready. This was surpassed by only one of the eight counties that have a Children’s Services Council in place.

In fact, Leon and Hillsborough counties were the only two counties ranked in the top 20 in the state. The state of Florida average for all counties was 91%.

Kindergarten Readiness Scores (Early Child Observation System), 2013

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How about FCAT reading scores for third grade?

The table shows that Leon County leads all eight counties that have a Children Service’s Council in 3rd grade FCAT reading scores. Leon County is the only one of the group ranked in the top twenty. The state of Florida average was 57%.

FCAT Reading Scores for 3rd Grade, 2013

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Do these numbers indicate that Leon County is “decades behind our sister cities that have a Children’s Services Council” as Ms. Graham states?

Do counties with Children’s Services Councils “fare way better” than others as Ms. Atkins states?

The publicly available data presented above is not consistent with these statements.

TR will continue to research data about the status of children in Leon County.