For the past 3 years, the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF), in partnership with state and local agencies, has funded a number of innovative approaches to early care and education. The first cohort of children who participated in these programs moved out of early care and education settings and into the K-12 system in fall 2009; this provided a unique opportunity to examine the relation between early care and later school success for a significant, at-risk sample of children in this state.
