Commentary: Early Intervention boosts children’s learning — and educational equity
This vital program for children with developmental delays needs increased state funding.
By , For the Times Union
Op-Ed: Early Intervention boosts children’s learning – and educational equity
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American abolitionist and social advocate Frederick Douglass is thought to have said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” A February 2026 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association affirms that truth, reinforcing what decades of research have shown: Intervening early in the life of a child with developmental delays and disabilities is far better than waiting until they enter school.
It’s evidence that New York’s Early Intervention program is a powerful force for good in our state.
The article, based on New York City student data, demonstrates that when an infant or toddler receives speech, occupational and physical therapy before age 3, they are more successful in third-grade language arts and math. Children who received Early Intervention services were 9% more likely to meet ELA proficiency standards. We know that students’ third-grade reading skills are an indicator of later success in high school and beyond.
We believe every child in New York who needs Early Intervention services should receive them. We are members of the New York State Board of Regents, but we’re writing here as individuals, not as representatives of that body or any other state agency, to encourage Gov. Kathy Hochul and members of the state Legislature to make the investments needed to ensure that early therapies are available to every child who needs them.
New York’s Early Intervention program, federally mandated to provide therapeutic services to children under age 3 who are diagnosed with developmental delays and disabilities, enrolls 65,000 to 70,000 students every year but leaves thousands of those eligible children underserved. This puts our children at a disadvantage and raises costs for taxpayers who pay for the special education services needed later on.
In their one-house budget proposals, the Assembly and Senate both call for increased funding for Early Intervention; the final approved budget should do the same.
A first step would be an 8% increase in rates paid to the physical and occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists working in the program. Today, these professionals are paid less than the rates paid in the 1990s, so they are leaving the field to earn more elsewhere.
The future of New York is not built at the point of graduation, but in the earliest moments of life — within the first 1,000 days, where brain development, health and human potential are most profoundly shaped. At a time when nearly half of our children rely on Medicaid and too many families face structural barriers to opportunity, we must confront a simple truth: Educational equity begins long before a child enters a classroom.
This is not merely an education agenda. If we are serious about intergenerational mobility, workforce readiness and the promise of this state, then we must invest early, act collectively and define ourselves not by what we manage to do, but by what we are willing to become.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure — but in public policy, we have inverted the equation, spending pounds on cure when a single ounce of prevention, especially in the first 1,000 days, would not only change the trajectory, but shape the life.
We can’t wait until next year’s state budget, and neither can the babies and toddlers who will soon be our preschoolers and elementary students. The time to invest more in New York’s Early Intervention program is now.
Adrian I. Hale and Wade S. Norwood are members of the state Board of Regents.
To learn more about Early Intervention and the Kids Can’t Wait campaign, please visit Early Intervention and Preschool Special Education – The Children’s Agenda
Times Union article: Commentary: Early Intervention boosts children’s learning — and equity
