The Caregiver Is the Program

[hero] This new IMLS study names something libraries have known forever: the grown-up in the room is part of the program.

[beat_1] Research question three in the Mathematica study found that roughly two-thirds of the manuscripts they reviewed pointed to the same conclusion: caregivers are central to a child's reading engagement.

[beat_2] Prime Time Family Reading brings humanities into storytime—caregivers participate alongside elementary-age children, not just as observers but as active readers in the same room.

[beat_3] Take 5 in Glynn County, Georgia, builds caregiver surveys directly into the program to measure where children are on reading readiness.

[beat_4] Growing Readers Together in Colorado gives caregivers developmental milestone information tailored to their child's age, so they know what to look for and how to support it.

[beat_5] Strength in Families in Springfield, Massachusetts, shapes programming by age: songs for infants, music and movement for toddlers, play groups for preschoolers—each designed for caregiver-child interaction.

[close] When the caregiver participates, the child's engagement rises—that's not an add-on feature, it's the mechanism itself.

[credit] Source: Mathematica for IMLS, February 2026.

[cta] Read the full Mathematica study (link)