Overview

School readiness is a term used with increasing frequency to describe expectations of how children will fare upon entry to kindergarten. School readiness encompasses children's curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, their physical and mental health status, their ability to communicate effectively, their capacity to regulate emotions, and their ability to adjust to the kindergarten classroom environment and cooperate with their teachers and peers. Life experiences directly impact a child's development of these foundational skills and competencies beginning at birth and continuing through childhood. Young children are highly influenced by their relationships with adults, by the environment where they live, and by the opportunities they have to play, learn, and grow.

Under the 2002-03 chairmanship of Governor Paul E. Patton of Kentucky, NGA established a gubernatorial Task Force on School Readiness to identify actions that governors and states can take to support families, schools, and communities in their efforts to ensure that all children are ready for school. In Building the Foundation for Bright Futures: Final Report of the NGA Task Force on School Readiness, the task force offers recommendations and policy options for what governors can do to promote ready states, ready schools, ready communities, ready families, and ready children.