OUR MISSION:

We enrich the lives of at-risk and underserved children and families in Collier County by providing high-quality, affordable early childhood education.

To do this, we commit to:

  • Engage families to assure their children’s future success
  • Provide scholarships for children ages birth to 5 years old to ensure access and school readiness
  • Emphasize the arts and nature through experiential learning
  • Encourage children’s innate ability to develop cognitive, physical and social-emotional skills

Our Vision

We strive to inspire children’s love of lifelong learning.

Ten Things to Know
About Child’s Path

  1. Child’s Path strives to give economically-disadvantaged children access to high-quality early education so that they are able to enter kindergarten “ready” with all their developmental milestones met. Research indicates that 75% of children who enter kindergarten developmentally behind will never catch up.
  2. We provide partial scholarships to low-income working families, and over 75% of the 300 children enrolled receive this financial assistance.
  3. We operate four early learning centers in Collier County.
  4. Child’s Path seeks to meet the need for early education during a child’s most crucial developmental years.  By age 3, a child’s brain has reached 80% of adult size. By age 5, it has reached 90% – nearly full grown!
  5. Child’s Path aims to stop the cycle of poverty at its roots. At-risk children who do not receive high-quality early education are exponentially more likely to later drop out of high school, become a teen parent or commit a violent crime.
  6. Child’s Path uses the highly-regarded Reggio Emilia approach to education, which instills a love of learning in each child by building upon his or her interests. There is also a focus on art experiences and engagement with nature.
  7. Child’s Path provides approximately 85,000 healthy meals annually free for the children.
  8. We aim to attract and retain the best and brightest teachers.
  9. Child’s Path demonstrates its impact and quality. In 2019, 83% of children from Child’s Path who graduated on to kindergarten tested “kindergarten ready” by the state. In contrast, only 43% of children in Collier County tested “kindergarten ready.”
  10. We assist parents in being their child’s first teacher by offering monthly parent workshops on topics that parents express an interest in.