Beginning in March, some low-income expectant mothers may help in knocking down the county's crime rate.
The county received a $2.7 million grant in December to start Early Head Start programs in South Dos Palos, Atwater, Merced and Delhi.
For the first time, the county will host programs targeting 200 pregnant women and children infant to 3 years old.
Children who attend pre-school are less likely to commit crimes later in life than children who don't, according to HighScope Educational Research Foundation, a nonprofit educational research foundation from Michigan.
The study also found that children who attend preschool are more likely to graduate from high school than children who don't.
The city had applied for federal funding as part of stimulus funds from the American Reinvestment Act.
Money will pay for home visits by early childhood educators to 144 children countywide and Early Head Start programs at existing Head Start centers, said Gaye Riggs, assistant superintendent of Early Care and Education, at a Business-Education Alliance of Merced County (BEAM) meeting, a group that unites business leaders and educators for the promotion of early childhood education programs.
Merced County can really use all the extra funding for early childhood education.
In 2007, Merced County had more than 90 toddlers from low-income families on waiting lists for publicly funded preschool programs, said Barrie Becker, a spokeswoman from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a nonprofit anti-crime organization, at the BEAM event.
And in 2005, 59 percent of of publicly funded preschools in the county had waiting lists.
Because the likelihood of students graduating high school increases if students attend preschool, Merced County could possibly see a 20 percent decrease in violent crime, if high school graduation rates increase 10 percent.
Reporter Jamie Oppenheim can be reached at (209) 385-2407 or joppenheim@mercedsun-star.com.
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