Washington has reached the half-way mark in implementing our four-years, $60 million Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grant and we are proud of how much has been accomplished!Highlights for the year include:
Early Achievers, our state's quality rating and improvement system, is now available statewide.
Consortium members include the Department of Early Learning, Thrive by Five Washington, the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP, Child Care Aware of Washington and the University of Washington, and potentially other regional and local early learning leaders. These organizations share the statewide goals of:
Increasing the availability of high-quality care for infants and toddlers.
Ensuring continuity of care for children and families.
Supporting communities with high needs for infant and toddler care.
Helping infant/toddler programs access resources and system supports that decrease the barriers and challenges that currently make it difficult to provide affordable high-quality infant/toddler care to the state’s most vulnerable children and families
Washington is expanding state-funded preschool by 1,350 enrollment slots for school year 2014-15. This is an exciting opportunity to explore innovative approaches to preschool based on recent research into preparing children for school success.
As of the deadline for letters of intent (April 4), 47 entities have indicated interest in taking on some of the additional 1,350 slots. This includes 20 existing Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) contractors, and 27 entities that do not currently offer ECEAP.Applicants requested 3,208 new slots and 778 conversion slots (moving from a part-day program to full-day or extended full-day).