A recent study indicates close to a third of Abbotsford kindergarten students are behind in key areas when starting school.

The data is part of the latest report released by Human Early Learning Partnership, a research group at the University of British Columbia.

HELP researchers measured five key areas of child development including language, cognitive, social, emotional, and physical health.

The group started collecting the data on the province’s kindergarten kids in 2000.

Abbotsford data in 2008/09 was taken from 17 neighbourhoods that had 35 or more kindergarten-aged children.

Results show 28 per cent of children district-wide are vulnerable in at least one developmental area when they start school.

The number falls just short of the provincial score that shows 28.6 per cent of kids are deficient in one or more of the social, emotional or cognitive skills displayed by their peers.

Paul Kershaw, HELP researcher, said vulnerability scores can help predict children’s learning, health and behaviour later in life.

The provincial vulnerability rate should not be above 10 per cent, Kershaw said. Not only do high rates impact children’s future, but they also pose “dramatic” economic and health care costs on a community.

“The provincial vulnerability rate, which is similar to Abbotsford’s, compromises economic growth by 20 per cent,” he said.

However, Abbotsford kids have made some gains, with the district’s overall vulnerability rate dropping down from over 34 per cent in 2004. Nine of the neighbourhoods studied saw more than a five per cent drop in their children’s rates since 2004.

Andrea Senft, Abbotsford School District community development manager, said the newest numbers show that initiatives being put in place are making a difference.

To support early learning, the district has opened 11 StrongStart Centres, three school hub programs and a number of preschools and other community-based programs.

The district has set a goal of matching the government’s commitment to lower overall vulnerability rates to 15 per cent by 2015, said Senft.

Maps of Abbotsford data show a wide range between the overall school preparedness of children by neighbourhood.

Sandy Hill, Matsqui-Mt. Lehman, and McMillan had the lowest vulnerability, with rates of 11.8, 14.5, and 16.5 per cent, respectively. The rate of vulnerability climbed to just over 51 per cent in the Babich neighbourhood, followed by 39.8 and 38.1 in Mill Lake and Abbotsford areas – in the city’s centre.

Six of seven neighbourhoods with the highest levels of vulnerable children were also deemed as “disadvantaged” in soci-economic terms.

Poverty is certainly an issue in some of the neighbourhoods, but other issues such as transportation and mobility rates are also factors, said Senft.

English as a second language also plays a factor, particularly in the neighbourhoods of East and West Townline.

The district has implemented free family literacy programs in those areas.

To view a breakdown of local early development data visit www.earlylearning.ubc.ca/EDI/maps_local.html