Supporting vulnerable preschool children: connecting the dots before kindergarten.

Abstract

Forty-one years ago, the infant son of President John F. Kennedy died at Children’s Hospital in Boston after being born 5.5 weeks prematurely and weighing 2.1 kg.1 At that time, there were no regional systems of maternal transport and neonatal care, no National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or program projects supporting research in developmental biology, no screening for genetic disorders that cause mental retardation, no Head Start programs, and no laws ensuring that children with challenges would have the supports required to succeed in school and the community. Three decades later President George H.W. …