By Alison May
Many state legislatures continue to focus on developing and funding expansion in state prekindergarten programs to support children’s readiness for school. This topic will be one to watch in 2015.
During a first-of-its-kind Summit on Early Education hosted by the White House on Dec. 10, the federal government announced it was awarding 18 states grants under the Preschool Development Grant program.
The grants would expand preschool infrastructure in some states and help develop preschool programs in others.
Currently 41 states and the District of Columbia provide a total of $5.3 billion in state funding for preschool programs. And at least half the states provided additional funding or enacted preschool legislation in 2014.
The body of knowledge that indicates the importance of high-quality prekindergarten programs continues to grow. From the 36 submitted applications to the departments of Education and Health and Human Services, five states will receive development grants and 13 will receive expansion grants.
Development grants recipients include Alabama, Arizona, Hawaii, Montana and Nevada. Expansion grants recipients include Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.
Additional information about the grant types and dollar amounts awarded may be found through the departments of Education and Health and Human Services. In total more than $226 million will be awarded under the Preschool Development Grant program.
It was also announced that $500 million from the Department of Health and Human Services is going to 40 states to expand their Early Head Start.
Finally, we would be remiss if not to briefly mention that financial commitments of more than $330 million in new funds from public, private and philanthropic entities along with the launch of Invest in US, an independent initiative organized by the First Five Years Fund, were revealed during the summit.
“The grant received will benefit many early learners by giving them a head start on their education," said Montana House Minority Whip Edith “Edie” McClafferty, who serves as vice chair of House Education Committee. She is also a member of the Education and Local Government Interim Committee, and an alum of NCSL’s Early Learning Fellows program. "A lot of us worked together to obtain the grant from the Department of Education. This is a great opportunity for our children in Montana.” Her state received $10 million in development grant funds.
Another NCSL Early Learning Fellow from Montana, staffer Pad McCracken, said the “grant award provides even more of a guarantee that early learning will be one of the top issues in the 2015 Montana Legislature, and makes me even more grateful for the policy understanding I gained through the fellows program.”
Be sure to check out an article about preschool in the February edition of NCSL’s award-winning magazine State Legislatures.
As always, the early care and education project at NCSL has a wealth of relevant information for the work being done in your state and throughout all states and territories. Recently updated information about prekindergarten, school readiness and early literacy as well as the one stop shop web document entitled ECE 101 will help you learn more.
NCSL will continue to track this and all early care and education legislation in our bill tracking database.
Alison May is a staff coordinator in NCSL’s Children and Families program.
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