The Benefits of Mixed Delivery Programs
Early Care and Education Partnerships: State Actions and Local Lessons
Despite dramatic funding increases in recent years, low-income parents continue to have difficulty finding high-quality early care and education.
State leaders are in an important position to make decisions that affect early care and education partnerships and many leaders perceive that the advantages of partnership outweigh the challenges.
Better Outcomes for All: Promoting Partnerships between Head Start and Pre-K
Collaboration between state pre-k and Head Start is happening in sites across the country, and though it is not easy, it is vital to expanding the availability of quality child care and early education.
Differences in program standards, eligibility, funding, and missions can be bridged though leadership, technical assistance, and careful evaluation of policies.
Testimony of Helen Blank, Before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Education Reform
The reauthorization of Head Start should strengthen provisions for coordination and collaboration among Head Start, state pre-k and child care programs. Programs must be required to meet the highest standards, and must be able to respond to the needs of working parents.
Effiective Strategies for Prekindergarten Expansion: Collaboration with Community Providers
Early education has become a great source of interest for state leaders, and decisions concerning mixed delivery of pre-k services have far-reaching implications. There are many benefits and challenges to designing and implementing a mixed delivery system for pre-k programs.
Specific State Models
Prekindergarten: Four Selected States Expanded Access by Relying on Schools and Existing Providers of Early Education and Care to Provide Services
Georgia, New Jersey, New York, and Oklahoma offer different approaches as a model for other states considering whether to expand the scope of their pre-k programs. Given that states have limited resources, community-based providers can contribute to the coordinated delivery of additional pre-k services while helping to calm fears among child care providers that pre-k programs would replace the need for community-based services..
State Initiatives to Promote Early Learning: Next Steps in Coordinating Subsidized Child Care, Head Start and State Prekindergarten
While current funding still reaches only a fraction of preschool children, some states now have considerable experience in coordinating subsidized child care, Head Start, and public pre-k initiatives. Drawing on the experiences of Georgia, Massachusetts, and Ohio, this paper describes the challenges states face in addressing these important social goals.
A Diverse System Delivers for Pre-K: Lessons Learned in New York State
By 2006, more than 60,000 children were attending pre-k classes across New York at sites as diverse as schools, child care centers, and even settlement houses. This created a rich variety of choices for families, and public school officials have a new appreciation of pre-k as an integral part of public education.
A Synthesis of State Models
All Together Now: State Experiences in Using Community Based Child Care to Provide Pre-Kindergarten
With the growing popularity of pre-k programs across the country, many states offer services through a combination of public schools and community-based child care, called a mixed delivery model. This model breaks the barrier between child care and early education policy as well as strengthening the quality of community-based child care.
A Center Piece of the Pre-K Puzzle: Providing State Prekindergarten in Child Care Centers
Most states allow pre-k to be offered in settings outside public schools, including child care centers and Head Start programs. With the rapid growth of pre-k initiatives, it is important to strengthen and expand efforts to involve child care centers in providing high-quality programs.
Funding
Blending and Braiding Funds to Support Early Care and Education Initiatives
In an effort to provide full-time care,
communities are fostering new partnerships between child care and Head Start programs, and a major challenge in this mixed delivery of services is financing. This brief presents financing strategies that state and local policy makers can employ to consolidate funding streams.
