Sacha Klein

The Chronicle of Social Change | 2018-06-13

“In all the years I’ve studied preschool access for abused and neglected children, I’ve never seen an approach as simple and effective,” said Sacha Klein, a researcher and professor at Michigan State University. “Rather than adding yet another arduous task to overworked child welfare caseworkers’ to-do lists, this system makes referring maltreated children to preschool fast and simple. It’s also inexpensive and easy to replicate. I don’t know why more child welfare agencies haven’t adopted this approach.”

The Chronicle of Social Change | 2017-10-30

But Youth Services Insider had never seen Head Start mentioned as a possible preventer of foster care, until a recent study authored by Sacha Klein, Lauren Fries and Mary Emmons. (Click here for the synopsis; the whole study requires subscriber access.)

The study did not get much attention in the media; just a few stories out of Lansing, Mich., home to study author Klein of Michigan State University. Those stories honed in on the finding that among a sample of youth whose parents had previous contact with the child welfare system, those participating in Head Start were 93 percent less likely to be placed in foster care than kids who received no early childhood education program.

Fox 47 | 2017-10-09

Kids up to age 5 in the federal government’s preschool program were 93 percent less likely to end up in foster care than kids in the child welfare system who had no type of early care and education, said Sacha Klein, MSU assistant professor of social work.