Delaware Wins Early Learning Challenge Grant!
The State is Awarded $49.9 Million for Vision 2015 Priority
We are excited that Delaware's early childhood plan was selected as a recipient of the federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge, providing $49.9 million of additional funding for 2012-2015! Early childhood education is a key component of Delaware's Vision 2015 Plan with the support from the Markell Administration. The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services jointly announced that Delaware is one of nine states to be awarded a grant out of 37 states that applied.
The Early Learning Challenge is an unprecedented opportunity for Delaware to build on the momentum from Governor Markell's $22 million investment in early childhood and the state's $119 million K-12 Race to the Top win to accelerate programs and initiatives that will lead to profound improvements in early learning. The grant allows for a twelve-fold increase in the number of high-need children with access to high quality early childhood education. As in Delaware's first-place Race to the Top win, the application has a broad coalition of support. In crafting the high quality application, there was significant participation and support from a range of stakeholders in the early childhood and K-12 sectors, crossing state agencies and including dozens of partners.
Delaware’s application focuses on supporting the “whole child” needs of young children and their families, building a professional and effective workforce and strengthening Stars, Delaware's quality rating system, to drive high-quality programming. It also creates a unique opportunity to execute policies within a birth to age 8 framework that aligns the early childhood and K-12 systems.
Here are several examples of how children, families, educators and programs will benefit from Delaware’s Early Learning Challenge grant:
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In Delaware, the “readiness gap” will be reduced and more children will enter school prepared for kindergarten due to a higher-quality service providers and strong collaboration between the early childhood and K-12 sectors.
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In the next three years, the number of programs participating in Stars will increase from 140 to nearly 1,000.
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Early childhood educators will benefit from enhanced compensation that will help recruit educators to high-need programs, supplement salaries for those who advance professionally, and retain effective educators.
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The Kids Department will double its annual capacity to provide mental health consultation services to early care and education programs statewide.
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Families will benefit from improved communication about Stars, the importance of program quality, and how to access services for their young children.
With a strong foundation in place and added support from the Early Learning Challenge, Delaware is positioned as a national leader for early childhood systems. Congratulations and thank you to Delaware's state departments, stakeholders, and partners who contributed their support and counsel to this effort!
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