University of Minnesota Professors Arthur Reynolds and Judy Temple said their study is the first to show that large-scale established programs run by schools can promote not only educational success but health status and behavior.

Reynolds directed the Chicago Longitudinal Study, which began in 1986 to investigate the effects of government-funded kindergarten programs for 1,539 children in the Chicago public schools. The study compared 1,539 low-income minority children who were born in 1979 or 1980 with 550 children who participated in alternative full-day kindergarten programs available to low-income families.

The students that had been involved in preschool programs were more likely to finish high school, attend four-year colleges and have health insurance coverage, and less likely to be arrested for a felony, be incarcerated or develop depressive symptoms, found the study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The school-based interventions included low child-to-staff ratios, health and nutrition services and an intensive parent program that includes classroom involvement, field trips and home visits.