A growing number of children are entering kindergarten without the skills that enable them to be successful in an academic setting. However, it is not children's cognitive skills that concern educators; it is their social and emotional skill deficits that are most troublesome. This article discusses how family and community risk factors can inhibit social and emotional development (i.e., skills that children need to control their behavior in the classroom) in young children, discusses how relationships provide the foundation for social-emotional skill development, and highlights a number of strategies and programs that educators and policymakers need to be aware of in order to help children who are headed toward a trajectory of school failure because of their social and emotional skill deficits.