The topic that sparks my interest to research if funding for early childhood programs. I have narrowed this into the following sub-topics: ways to obtains grants for early childhood programs, how early childhood programs ensure young children are school ready, and the influence of community based family support services that will help train parents how to build a strong foundation for learning.
I have a personal interest in this topic because I am a Prekindergarten Teacher at a public school. Since Prekindergarten is not a mandatory program there are limited amount of spaces available. There are specific criteria that a family must meet in order to get into the program. The criteria is: children who currently have an IEP, economically disadvantaged, and or language deficient. The entire community lives in poverty so each child automatically qualifies based on income alone. The problem then is that there are more children that should be enrolled in the program then spots that are available. This means children are then placed on a waiting list and may be enrolled in the program if a spot becomes available throughout the school year.
As an early childhood educator this is heartbreaking for me. Building a strong foundation is necessary for children to be successful in school. Every dollar invested in young children has a high return in the future. I think that every child should have the opportunity to attend a high-quality preschool program regardless of their families income and there should be enough classes that every child has the opportunity to attend.
Does anyone has any experience as to how to go about obtaining grants for early childhood programs? If so, let me know. I would really appreciate it.
3 comments:
Beth,
Funding is extremely important for early childhood programs. Are you going to concentrate on a certain kind of program? Is your focus going to be solely on public programs? I have helped in writing grants however I work for the military and we do everything a little different then everyone else. I'm very excited to see where you research takes you. Good luck!
Beth,
I hear you loud and clear about funding! I think every child should have that introduction to prekinderaten. When I taught pre-k, we had two different types of programs: one was state funded in which the children needed to meet certain criterias (3 out of 15, the more they had moved them close up the list since spots were limited). The second was a tuition base program. Does your district only offer the criteria based option? I know there are grants out there, our director was consisitently applying, unfortunately I don't know the process.
I look forward to reading about your findings. Good luck with your research!
Beth,
I understand your concern for low-income children not having access to high-quality preschools. I work at a NC Head Start and we encountered the same problem with having a high amount of children on the waitlist. We currently have 215 children on our waitlist.
Post a Comment