• provides access to quality learning to all four-year-olds in the community.
• does not label children by ability, disability, family income, or ethnic background.
• results in fewer daily transitions for some children, allowing them to stay in one place for child care and preschool.
  
• offers families options for preschool and child care.
  
• reduces fragmentation of services for children, allowing families, teachers, and care providers to communicate and support the child.s development.
• makes preschool affordable for all families.
• provides quality learning resources and efforts to children in a variety of settings, including those who stay at home.
• enables children with disabilities to make progress through more interaction with peers.
• results in earlier referrals of children who need additional services.

Benefits to Schools
The community approach

• results in higher-quality learning programs and more cost-effective use of resources, materials, staff, and space not possible alone.
• makes transition into kindergarten easier for five-year-olds.
• brings additional state funding into the school district.
• lets schools fill unused classroom space.
• allows school staff to identify and address learning-related concerns earlier.
• engages school administrators, school board members, and staff in conversations about early education for all children, not only those at-risk or with special needs.
• builds understanding and relationships earlier among parents and school staff.

Benefits to Child Care and Head Start
The community approach

• maintains a healthy, viable system of child care in the community for children of all ages and working parents.
• allows child care centers and preschools to use additional funds to improve staff salaries and materials. • often increases enrollment in the centers with four-year-old kindergar­ten.
• allows child care and preschool staff to benefit from partnering with a licensed teacher delivering a quality curriculum.
• unites communities around the needs of young children and families, allowing educators and care providers to share knowledge and ideas, learn from each other, and support one another.
• creates a more stable, better-prepared workforce of educators and care providers for young children.
• lets children with disabilities receive services from the public schools within the child care, Head Start, or preschool program.
• increases the diversity of children enrolled in private preschools.

Through collaboration.the sharing of resources, power, information, and authority.the community approach allows all those concerned about the well-being of children to create a new system that benefits all four-year-olds and their families.