Mesha Exum wonders how her life would have turned out without a stroke of good luck 11 years ago. She was 16 with an infant son and thought she would have to drop out of school after finding baby Adonis wet, screaming and unattended at the end of his first day of day care. But a few months later, thanks to a referral from a childbirth support program she’d participated in, Exum landed a coveted spot for her son at Educare, an extended-day, year-round preschool that accepts children as young as six weeks and keeps them until kindergarten. In retrospect, it was like winning the early childhood education lottery.
