The NGA Center for Best Practices offers Building the Foundation for Bright Futures: Final Report of the NGA Task Force on School Readiness and companion piece, Building the Foundation for Bright Futures: A Governor's Guide to School Readiness.

Under the 2002-03 chairmanship of former 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. The task force continued under the leadership of the 2003-04 NGA chair, Governor Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho. Participating governors included Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, former Governor Bob Holden of Missouri, Governor Bob Taft of Ohio, Governor Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania, and Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina.

Final Report of the Task Force on School Readiness
Entire Document - pdf (9 MB)

Table of Contents:

• Foreword and Acknowledgements
• Executive Summary
• Task Force Recommendations
• Introduction
• Ready States
• Ready Schools
• Ready Communities
• Ready Families
• Ready Children
• Conclusion and Contributors
• Notes

The NGA Task Force on School Readiness offers these recommendations and policy options for what governors can do to promote ready states, ready schools, ready communities, ready families, and ready children. Many of the recommendations presented here are already in place to varying degrees in different states so there is much to build upon. And not every recommendation offered comes with a high price tag. Even in a lean fiscal environment, states have an opportunity to set priorities, align policies, build collaborative relationships and leverage existing resources to maximize impact and achieve goals over the long term.

A Governor's Guide to School Readiness
Entire Document - pdf (35 MB)

Table of Contents:

• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Executive Summary
• Building Ready States
• Supporting Ready Schools
• Supporting Ready Communities
• Supporting Ready Families
• Supporting Ready Children
• Conclusion and Notes

This governor's guide ties the state policy recommendations of the task force to concrete examples of state initiatives to promote school readiness. It includes key considerations for state policymakers and resources to help inform their decisions. The guide follows the same readiness framework as the task force report, presenting what states are doing to build Ready States and to support Ready Schools, Ready Communities, Ready Families, and Ready Children.