The University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs’ Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center recently issued its 2021 policy roadmaps for each state. Utah’s roadmap is available here. Unfortunately, Utah is not identified as a state leader on any strategy and is amongst the worst states when it comes to the percentage of children under three whose mother reports fair/poor mental health and that they are not coping very well.
Utah also scores amongst the lowest states of children under age three who are not read to on a daily basis. Expanding Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to a statewide program is one way to help counteract this issue. More generally, Utah needs to invest in its future workforce by allowing children to “be born healthy and raised in nurturing, stimulating, stable, and secure care environments with limited exposure to adversity.”