Program Quality, Service Integration, Access, and Expansion
Nebraska’s Preschool Development Renewal Grant, Birth to Five Years continues to be used at the ground level to improve the overall quality of early childhood programs and services in the state; to provide increased health, social, and emotional supports; to offer increased access to quality programs and develop new programs; and to build sustainable business models for high quality Early Child Care Education. Building off of the original Preschool Development Grant, expanded efforts include, but are not limited to:
- Researching, developing, and implementing evidence-based practices designed to include all children, with a particular focus on at-risk children with disabilities, special health care needs, developmental needs, or who are barred access to high quality care because of economic or language-based circumstances;
- Building more integrated connections between Early Child Care systems and promoting greater collaborative professional development for early childhood providers;
- Improving and offering increased access to health, developmental, social-emotional, and other learning opportunities for children birth through five;
- Providing Early Childhood Educators supports and resources to maintain the emotional health necessary to offering quality services and maintaining the longevity of the workforce;
- Aligning standards, curriculum, and assessment, to build a more measurable system of child outcomes across the state; and
- Strengthening systems needed for data sharing and use, monitoring and quality improvement, accountability, effective governance, communication, and decision making.
Communities for Kids
Communities for Kids builds local infrastructure for early childhood care and education by focusing on increased quality, availability, and family access to quality early learning programs. C4K+ collaborates with communities to establish Early Childhood Community Coordinators, builds quality and capacity in the early learning system, offers early learning scholarships, and provides bilingual childcare support.
C4K's Bilingual Consultants partner with several communities in Nebraska with large Spanish speaking populations where resources are provided to bring information to family, friend, and neighbor care providers. Specific support related to Early Childhood development, business practices in family home child care, and understanding licensing regulations. C4K will also expand outreach to Latinx family informal care providers and additional communities.
