OPINION: New Mexico is rewiring the future of early childhood

Most grandmothers can tell you what scientists have spent decades proving: The first five years of life matter profoundly. Long before a child sets foot in a kindergarten classroom, the attention, care and learning opportunities they have access to help shape whether they will thrive or languish for decades to come.

In New Mexico, where child poverty rates remain high and educational outcomes have historically lagged, expectations have been understandably modest. So when our UCLA-based research team was asked to assess the developmental health of children entering kindergarten across the state in 2024, we were expecting worrisome results. Instead, we found something more hopeful.

Using the Early Development Instrument, a well-validated population measure used internationally, we assessed more than 18,000 New Mexico kindergarteners. Nearly three-quarters were developmentally on track across key domains: physical health, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, and communication skills. Each of these domains form the foundation for learning, mental health, resilience and lifelong wellbeing.

The most striking findings emerged when we looked at how patterns of performance varied neighborhood by neighborhood. In more than one-quarter of New Mexico census tracts, children were doing better than expected given the adversity around them. These "resilient" communities were breaking long-standing patterns that typically link early disadvantage to poor developmental outcomes.

As a scientist, I wanted to know why. The first possibility — that the data were flawed — was unlikely. The Early Development Instrument has been shown repeatedly in studies in the U.S., Canada and Australia, to predict later academic and life outcomes. The second possibility — that New Mexico's youngest children have always been resilient, only to falter later — runs counter to developmental science. That leaves a third explanation: Something in the early environments of young children has begun to change.

Over the past five years, New Mexico has undertaken one of the most ambitious early childhood system reforms in the country. The state created a cabinet-level Early Childhood Education and Care Department, consolidating child care, pre-K, early intervention, home visiting, nutrition and family support programs under one roof. This signaled that early childhood was being treated as core infrastructure.

Crucially, the structural reform was matched with durable financing. Voters approved the use of permanent Land Grant Permanent Funds for early childhood, and the Legislature established a dedicated Early Childhood Trust Fund — steps designed to protect investments from political whiplash. At the family level, eligibility for child care assistance expanded dramatically, copayments were eliminated and access to full-day pre-K widened, easing financial strain during children's most sensitive developmental years.

Less visible — but just as important — has been the focus on the workforce. New Mexico became the first state to reimburse child care providers based on the true cost of delivering quality care, leading to historic wage increases and a growing early childhood workforce.

It is too early to declare victory. No single data point can prove causation. But the early signals matter. If this cohort continues to do better as it moves through school, New Mexico's approach may offer evidence that sustained, systems-level reform can shift population-level outcomes.

New Mexico has not adopted a fixed blueprint. Instead, it has approached this as an opportunity to create a learning system, working with communities — including tribal nations and pueblos — to understand what is working, where and why.

Decades of research show that children's trajectories are shaped less by any single program than by the quality of the developmental ecosystem in which they grow. When those environments are supportive — even under difficult conditions — children are more likely to stay on track.

New Mexico's experience suggests that resilience is not just an individual trait but a collective achievement. The real test lies ahead. But at a moment when national conversations about children are often dominated by crisis and despair, the state is offering something rarer: cautious optimism grounded in data, durability and a long view.

America's youngest generation deserves nothing less than an enduring commitment to their thriving. New Mexico is showing that such a commitment—carefully designed and continuously learned from—may actually be within reach.

Neal Halfon is distinguished professor of pediatrics, public health and public policy at UCLA where he directs the Center for Healthier Children Families and Communities.