What led to the development of the PATHS Preschool program?
In 1999, the Surgeon General issued a report that made addressing the mental health of the country’s children and families a national priority. At the time, expulsion rates for preschool-aged children with emotional and behavioral problems were 3.2 times higher than those of children in elementary grades. However, few intervention programs existed that specifically targeted preschoolers from low-income families, a group typically exposed to greater risks. That same year, the Penn State Prevention Research Center was awarded a Head Start-University Partnership Grant (grant #90YD0063) by the Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services, to work with Head Start administrative and teaching staff to implement the PATHS Preschool curriculum and evaluate its effectiveness in a randomized trial. In a published report of that clinical trial — conducted in 20 preschool classrooms with 246 children — students exposed to the PATHS Preschool program scored sig
