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ALBANY, N.Y. -- SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher and Albany community leaders kick off a program aimed at improving early-learning programs in the city.

The Albany Promise Cradle-to-Career Program will focus on increasing Kindergarten preparedness as a launch pad for future success. The group will first focus on lower-income areas of the city and will ultimately expand to the whole city.

Officials say of the nearly 2,900 eligible children up to age 4, just 6.4 percent are enrolled in licensed registered child care.

Zimpher said, "That's the big launch for the success they'll show by fourth grade, by eighth grade, make sure they go on to high school, make sure they take the hard courses, the key college prep courses in high school so that they're ready to go to college. And then we get them in college, and they're ready to go to a career."

Albany Promise partners will meet monthly to identify education needs in the city and discuss ways to use the city's resources to address them.