Project 1: The “all-important early childhood programs analysis” project

Unlike other services like transport, no single number will give you a reasonably complete picture of the situation with access to early childhood learning programs. But by gathering multiple data sources and tracking them over time, you should be able to get an idea of how many families lack access to early childhood programs in your community. Here’s your list:

• State Agencies: Contact your state department of early childhood programs and ask about data sources.
• Foundations: Contact foundations that fund early childhood learning projects to inquire what data they might house.
• Access: Identify early childhood learning program prices and eligibility criteria. There may be local or regional websites that track this information.
• American Community Survey: Research income data from the American Community Survey then compare it to costs for early childhood learning programs in your county. This will tell you how affordable your community is.

As mentioned, this won’t be as simple an assessment as the transportation situation, but if you get these numbers, you should at least be able to tell if the situation in your community is going in a positive or negative direction. In this project, you will be gathering data to paint a picture of local early childhood learning program accessibility. This is the first step in identifying challenges. Imagine, in some sci-fi future, all residents had a family pass — a plastic card with a barcode — that would be used for all forms of early childhood learning programs. Now imagine that an AI program analyzes this data from all county residents to identify high and low use and where gaps in services exist, offering recommendations for fixes.