On December 15th, President Obama announced that Massachusetts had received one of the new federal preschool grants. This grant is for up to $60 Million over the next four years towards addressing quality and staffing – Five Massachusetts Cities will receive $15 Million this year.
Our Association worked hard with EEC to shape this grant application, insisting on full-day, full-year care and building upon the successful community based system rather than looking at a public school based care.
This grant will make a positive impact on children in Holyoke, Springfield, Lowell, Lawrence and Boston. We are also very excited that 9 of the 11 selected early education programs to participate in this grant are members of this Association!
This successful grant application speaks to the quality of early education services delivered in Massachusetts by private community based programs. It reflects our high level of NAEYC accreditation and speaks to the need for EEC to develop a QRIS tool that accurately measures the high quality services being delivered daily.