mr. chairman , i rise in strong support of the school readiness act of 2005 . 
i would like to pay particular attention and highlight a provision of the bill granting greater flexibility to head start programs wanting to provide early head start to children ages birth to 3. a priority goal of the head start program is to reach out and assist as many of our nation 's at-risk children as possible in the most effective and responsible manner possible . 
in continuing with this tradition , i was proud to join with my distinguished colleagues , the gentlewoman from illinois ( mrs. biggert ) xz4000270 and the gentleman from maryland ( mr. van hollen ) xz4004150 , in offering a bipartisan amendment during committee consideration of this measure meant to reach out and serve at-risk children at an age when brain development is occurring rapidly and is perhaps in its most critical phase . 
the biggert-van hollen-platts amendment , which was adopted unanimously in committee , gives grantees providing services under head start ages 3 to 5 , and early head start , birth to age 3 , the flexibility to use existing unfilled head start slots for infants and toddlers who are eligible for early head start . 
in the earliest years , infants and toddlers are developing a foundation not only with respect to language and cognition , but also with respect to emotion , mental health , and social behavior upon which all subsequent learning is built . 
as many as 75 percent of children enter the head start program with vocabulary skills below the average range , and 82 percent of these children start out with early writing skills below the average range . 
these numbers tell us that we need to start reaching out to at-risk children at an even younger age , before they have already fallen behind their peers . 
yet early head start currently serves less than 5 percent of eligible infants and toddlers . 
a major study of the early head start program by mathematica policy research and columbia university found that 3-year-old head start children performed significantly better on a range of measures of cognitive , language , and social and emotional development than a control group . 
in addition , the parents of these children scored significantly higher than control group parents on many aspects of parenting and the home environment . 
early education programs are clearly important to the future of our nation and our nation 's children . 
they have the ability to influence the course of young children 's lives in a positive way . 
i hope my colleagues in this chamber will join me in supporting final passage of h.r. 2123 . 
