A $500,000 One-time Opportunity for Early Childhood Education

New momentum is building for Delaware’s youngest students. The new Early Development and Learning Resources Work Group in the Department of Education demonstrates a commitment from the Secretary to focus attention on this population, which was formerly grouped with special needs students.

Another exciting development is that the state Early Childhood Council has submitted an application for the Head Start Early Childhood Advisory Council grant,  a one-time federal opportunity for Delaware to receive $500,000 over three years to develop and implement the plans of the Council. Each state was allocated funds by the federal government, and it is expected that if a state applies, money will be awarded. Some states might even receive additional funds, as some states have not applied and so their allocations can be redistributed. Delaware’s application proposed to use the funds to:

• Conduct a statewide needs assessment
• Create a unified data system, which will be connected with the state’s longitudinal system as proposed in Race to the Top application
• Update the state’s strategic plan, Early Success
• Conduct administrative activities, such as building a website, publishing information, and attending conferences

The Governor will appoint new membership to the Council–now led by Dan Rich, a member of the Vision 2015 Implementation Team—later this month. We look forward to building on the efforts underway, such as the Stars quality rating and improvement system, Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood for professional development, Policy Matters and fiscal mapping efforts, and the Kindergarten readiness study, to be released in the coming weeks.