It’s not just about one child.

It’s about the neighbor’s child, and the children in another part of town, and the children on the other side of the state.

Increasing access to high-quality, affordable early education and childcare in Idaho will take a coordinated effort from multiple communities.

Just ask Keri Stark.

“We have to invest in children,” said Stark, the Community Impact Director for United Way North Idaho. “That’s what makes us human.”

The United Way of North Idaho Early Care and Education Task Force is focused on connecting businesses with opportunities to invest in early childhood education.

Idaho is one of four states that does not fund public preschool options — though, according to research from the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children, the majority of Idaho voters say the state should invest in early education and child care.

The lack of public preschool options has a demonstrable effect, the children’s group said. Only 51 percent of Idaho children enter kindergarten with grade-level reading skills.

“That [age 0 to 5] window of development lays the foundation for the rest of their lives,” Stark said. “That really raises the stakes for these kids.”

High-quality preschool is associated with fewer suspensions and increased high school enrollment. Children with access to preschool are also less likely to be involved in crime or to need social services.

“If you get a good start, you have better education and career opportunities,” Stark said.

Kootenai County has 11 preschool-only programs; an additional 115 child-care programs serve preschool-age children. That works out to a total of 978 preschool slots.

More than 9,000 children younger than 5 live in Kootenai County.

“There’s an actual inventory shortage of childcare options,” Stark said.

Even when preschool is available, Stark said many families struggle to afford it. She said many parents faced with a gut-wrenching choice: forgo high-quality childcare or abandon a career to stay home because of the high cost of child care.

“No parent should have to choose,” Stark said.

The United Way is working to develop a playbook for employers and other business stakeholders to show how they can invest in early childhood education, as well as why they should.

Stark pointed to Kootenai Health, one of the few employers in the area that offers onsite child care to employees, as an example.

“That’s been a significant boon to them,” she said.

Child care is a challenging business model, Stark said; fees paid by parents often aren’t enough to cover the real costs. That’s why the United Way is examining what’s feasible for employers.

“This is an issue that has existed for a long time, and it’s going to be slow to change, but we’ve got to start chipping away at it,” Stark said. “We can’t just put it out of our minds and walk away.”

To start the conversation, the United Way plans a series of panel discussions centered on a documentary called “No Small Matter,” which explores early childhood education.

The first public screening of “No Small Matter” is at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17, at The Sixth Street Melodrama and Theater in Wallace.