Pre-K Post Newsletter

Inside this issue

News Clips

Yellowhammer News: Alabama groups launching month-long film festival focused on early childhood education

CLASP: Child Care Relief Funding in the Year-End Stimulus Deal: A State-by-State Estimate

CLASP: COVID Relief Package Includes Some Relief for Child Care Providers

Alabama Appleseed: Flattened: How the COVID-19 pandemic knocked financially insecure Alabamians on their backs and widened the racial prosperity gap

WBRC: Kids Count report shows pre-COVID inequities for Alabama children

NIEER: New Report on Pre-K in Cities Shows 33 of Nation's Largest Cities Now Have Public Pre-K Program

VOICES for Alabama's Children: 2020 Kids Count Data Book

Early Learning Nation: 5 Questions for Alabama Governor Kay Ivey



The Alabama School Readiness Alliance is a joint campaign of:













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  First Class Pre-K new classroom funding application open through March 12  
 

The Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education has announced that the First Class Pre-K funding application for school year 2021-22 is now open on its website. The application will close March 12th at 5:00 pm.

Child care centers, public school systems, faith-based centers, college and university lab schools, private schools, community organizations, military child care centers and other providers of preschool are encouraged to apply.

Head Start-funded classrooms use a non-competitive application process that opens annually in January. Head Start grantees will receive direct communication from the Department when the application process is open.

The number of new First Class Pre-K classrooms awarded in 2021-22 will depend on the level of funding approved for the program by the Alabama Legislature this spring.

Click here to read the overview and apply via Foundant.

 

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  Free film festival to highlight need for increased investments in early childhood education and care  
 


Two documentaries exploring the importance of early childhood education are streaming online for free throughout January as part of the first ever Invest Early Alabama Film Festival. Both documentaries will be available free and on-demand for all registered participants. 
 
The Invest Early Alabama Film Festival is a project of the Alabama School Readiness Alliance with the Alabama Association of School Boards and the Business Council of Alabama. PNC Bank is sponsoring the festival. 
 
The first film, No Small Matter (airing January 4-17), lays out the overwhelming evidence for the importance of the first five years and the dire consequences of our country's failure to act on that evidence. The second film, Starting at Zero: Reimagining Education in America (airing January 18-February 2), focuses its lens on Alabama's First Class Pre-K program. The documentary features numerous interviews with Alabama state and business leaders, including Governor Kay Ivey.
 
Click here to read more.
 
Click here to register for the festival.

 

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  Congress approves an additional $10 billion in COVID relief funding for child care  
 
After months of deliberation and delay, Congressional leaders approved - and the President signed - a COVID relief package in late December. The package includes $10 billion in Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funds dedicated to relief for the child care sector, where providers have been struggling to stay open and serve children and families since the pandemic began in March.

The Alabama Department of Human Resources is expected to receive and begin distribution Alabama's $187 million share of the new child care relief funding in the early part of 2021. 

This new infusion of federal dollars comes on top of the $3.5 billion in relief for child care provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act in the spring.

Read more from the Center for Law and Social Policy.
 

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