In recent years, Delaware has begun several welfare reform programs that have a direct impact on early childhood development. But even the best preschool and early education programs are not enough to ensure that at-risk kids will become educated and self-confident adults. The prevailing view that early childhood care and education begins at birth and ends at the age of five is short-sighted. The gap between early childhood programs and programs for teen pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse, and dropouts is not just a gap; it is a failure. So while it is important to focus on early childhood programs, such work is wasted unless ways are found to follow through and work with the people responsible for children as they grow older. Government can do more to model its approach to human problems on the successful family. Delaware's "Focus on the First Sixty Months" program unified into a single effort Delaware's diverse attempts to help the state's youngest citizens. The next step will be to apply that approach to older children by including an early childhood component in every adult program, or by making an ongoing effort to relate lessons learned in adult programs to programs aimed at children. (RH)