Request for Application for ECEAP Expansion Released

Are you interested in becoming an ECEAP provider? The Department of Early Learning (DEL) has released the Request for Application (RFA) for ECEAP Expansion for 2018-19!

DEL is excited to release this RFA for 1,000 ECEAP slots starting in the 2018-19 school year. ECEAP is Washington's pre-kindergarten program for low income 3- and 4-year-old children and their families. To promote school success, ECEAP provides preschool education, family support, and health and nutrition services. Research shows high-quality early learning programs like ECEAP save states money over the long run by reducing the need for remedial services in schools, social services, and criminal justice.

The RFA has been released on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 and is open to current and potential ECEAP providers. Here are some key pieces of information for this process:

·      When are applications due?

Applications are due Friday, March 2, 2018.

·      Where can I find the application materials?

All RFA materials can be found on DEL's ECEAP website at: https://del.wa.gov/eceap

·      How can I learn more about the RFA for ECEAP Expansion?

Two applicants’ webinars are available to attend in January. These webinars are open to all interested applicants. During the webinar, participants will be oriented to the RFA and be able to ask questions. The two options available are:

o   Friday, January 26 at 6:00 p.m.: Click to Register Here

o   Monday, January 29 at 10:00 a.m.: Click to Register Here

·      Who do I ask if I have questions about the RFA for ECEAP Expansion?

For questions about the RFA process, please email the ECEAP Expansion RFA Coordinator at eceap@del.wa.gov 

Questions will be gathered and responded to weekly. In addition, a Question and Answer (Q&A) document will be uploaded to the DEL ECEAP website and updated weekly throughout the RFA process.

ECEAP is a high-quality preschool option for eligible children and families. You can help 3- and 4-year-old children in your community be ready for kindergarten! If you are interested in learning more about the impact ECEAP makes on children, families, and communities, please read the 2016-17 ECEAP Outcomes Report.

WA Makes Gains in Pre-K Funding and Enrollment

Many 3- and 4-year olds across the nation still lack access to high-quality preschool education despite modest gains in enrollment, quality, and funding, according to an annual report by the nonpartisan National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University.

In Washington, the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) enrolled 10,091 children, up 1350 in 2014-2015, serving eight percent of the state’s 4-year-olds. Washington maintained consistent progress in terms of quality standards– meeting nine of NIEER’s minimum quality standards benchmarks. As of 2014-2015, ECEAP was required to participate in the state’ quality rating and improvement system, called Early Achievers. In 2014-2105, the state invested a total of $83 million in ECEAP, with approximately $76 million of these funds coming from state dollars from the state general fund and the “opportunity pathways account,” which is derived from lottery revenue.

“NIEER’s findings support our need for more high-quality programs and importantly, the inclusion of full-day models into our early learning settings,” said Department of Early Learning Director, Ross Hunter. “As we near our state’s milestone of making preschool an entitlement for low-income families, we need to ensure expansion of programs that prove success in child outcomes.”

More about ECEAP:

• 60% of ECEAP children are ready the spring before entering Kindergarten.
• There are 11,955 children eligible for ECEAP who are not served by ECEAP or Head Start. According to the February 2016 Caseload Forecast Council, 6,260 of these would likely participate if space were available. 
• By fall 2020’s entitlement milestone*, Washington will need 7,377 more slots for children than Washington currently has, based on the children likely to participate. 
• This requires adding 1,844 more slots each year for the next four years, beginning with the 2017-18 school years. 



Inside an ECEAP classroom.

• To add the 7,377 by fall 2020, Washington will need 266 more classrooms, 266 more trained lead teachers, and 266 more assistant teachers.

*The Legislature has made preschool a statutory entitlement for families with incomes at or below 110% of federal poverty level, or FPL, by fall 2020.

The State of Preschool report for the 2014-2015 school year, which includes objective state-by-state profiles and rankings, indicates that urgent action is needed from lawmakers at all levels of government to ensure that every child – particularly those from low-income families – have access to high-quality early education. For the first year, NIEER also analyzed states’ early education workforce and Dual Language Learner policies, which reveal that Washington is one of 14 states that can report the home language of every pre-K student. However, Washington does not require pre-K teachers to have a Bachelor’s degree, nor does it provide salary parity between pre-K and K-3 teachers.

The report finds that total state spending on pre-K programs for the nation as a whole increased by 10 percent, or $553 million, since the previous year, bringing state spending in 2014-2015 to over $6.2 billion. The number of children served by state-funded pre-K served increased by 37,167 in 2014-2015, bringing the total to almost 1.4 million children – the largest number of children ever served by state-funded pre-K. With an average rate of $4,489, states also made one of the most significant increases in spending per child in recent history.

For more information on The State of Preschool 2015 yearbook and detailed state-by-state breakdowns on quality benchmarks, enrollment, and funding, please click here.

More about DEL and NIEER:The Department of Early Learning was created in 2006 to help all Washington children reach their full potential. DEL oversees the state-funded preschool program, child care licensing and subsidies, early intervention services, and other initiatives and programs to support parents as children’s first and most important teachers. For more information, go to www.del.wa.gov.

The National Institute for Early Education Research (www.nieer.org) at the Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, supports early childhood education policy and practice through independent, objective research.

Michael Snow & Katie Pomeroy: Engaging Pre-K Kids with Quality Interaction

In honor of National Teacher Appreciation Week, DEL would like to highlight some of the state’s outstanding teachers from varying programs and areas.

Katie Pomeroy and Michael Snow are instructors for Lewis County Head Start. The two are from the area and enjoy working closely with children in an active and creative environment.

“What I love most about teaching is seeing a child ‘get it,’” said Snow. “There is no greater joy than seeing a child’s eyes light up when they have been working so hard at a skill or concept and it finally all makes sense.”

Pomeroy shares Snow’s views and is happiest when children achieve educational goals.

“For me the most rewarding aspect of teaching is being able to help children bring out the best in themselves and meet their full potential,” she said. “We tend in our society to underestimate the capabilities of children. They can do great things if given the opportunities.”

Snow and Pomeroy are currently utilizing a variety of engaging activities in their classroom to help kids with reading, math, and logical and critical thinking skill sets.

“The kids in my preschool class have been working on a lot of math/number concepts and creating graphs to track their progress,” said Snow. “It is quite astonishing that my partner and I can show them a new concept like creating a chart or graph and moments later they are able to put their new learned skill in action during their own free time," said Snow.

Snow described the class-room activity using dice. Children roll dice and identify numbers on a chart to see which number is rolled the least. 

"30 minutes after that lesson, I caught four kids taking turns rolling dice and keeping track of the numbers that had been rolled on a chart they made themselves,” he said.

Michael Snow helping children use charts to learn numbers.

Beyond numbers, children at Lewis County Head Start are working on literacy and logic.

“Our kids are really engaged in literacy activities right now and we are supporting them in illustrating and labeling their own stories,” said Pomeroy. “All of our children can name at least a few sight works, and some are beginning to sound out words on their own.”

Katie Pomeroy teaching using "Mystery Items."

Pomeroy also noted that children are interested in solving problems and asking the “what if” question.

“We are also encouraging questioning and logical thinking with ‘Mystery Items,’ that the children have to ask questions about in order to identify,” she said.

“Katie & Michael exemplify quality Teacher Interactions through their rich and relevant classroom studies based off the interests/desires of the children in their classroom,” said Debi Hood, director of Lewis County Head Start. “This dynamic duo extends their quality teaching strategies to families through family engagement activities within the classroom with parents regularly facilitating activities within their classroom.”

Thank you Katie Pomeroy and Michael Snow for being dedicated and imaginative instructors for Pre-K children in Washington!

Washington’s state-funded preschool ranks high for funding and quality, low for access

The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) today released its rankings of state preschool programs, and once again Washington’s program ranked among the top in the nation for quality, but landed 31^st out of 39 states that provide state-funded preschool in 2010-11 for access.

Not surprisingly, the study found many states are seeing declining funding for preschool programs. The State of Preschool 2011: State Preschool Yearbook shows total state funding for the nation’s pre-K programs decreased by nearly $60 million from the previous year to the 2010-2011 school year. In the past 10 years, real spending on state pre-K has declined by about 15 percent, or more than $700 per child.

Washington’s state-funded preschool program is the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), which has been serving Washington preschoolers for 25 years. ECEAP serves 3- and 4-year-olds whose families’ incomes are at or below 110 percent of the federal poverty level ($24,585 for a family of four). Sixty four percent of ECEAP families are at or below annual incomes of $17,880 for a family of four.

Here is a breakdown of NIEER’s rankings for Washington:

• Washington meets nine out of 10 benchmarks for preschool education quality, up from six out of 10 in 2001-02. The one benchmark Washington does not meet is requiring a bachelor’s degree for the lead teacher in ECEAP programs. While 42 percent of ECEAP teachers have a bachelor’s or master’s degree, the current standard requires an Associate of Arts degree.  
• For access to the state pre-K program, Washington ranked 31 out of 39 states that provide state-funded preschool programs: Just 8 percent of Washington’s 4-year-olds are enrolled in ECEAP.
• Washington ranked 7 out of 39 for spending on state-funded preschool: Per-child funding has fared better than other states in the past 10 years. Washington spent $6,780 per enrolled child in 2010-11.
• Washington spent $54.4 million on ECEAP in 2010-11.

“Washington’s program remains well-funded, dropping real per-child funding only slightly in 2010-2011, and the quality is there,” said Steve Barnett, director of the nonpartisan National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University that has surveyed state preschool programs on a number of measures since 2001-2002. “As one of the states to receive an Early Learning Challenge grant in 2011, there is hope of improving early learning opportunities for preschoolers in Washington.”

View NIEER’s report for 2011: http://nieer.org/yearbook 
Read the Associated Press story about Washington's ranking.

Washington throws its hat in the ring for federal early learning grant

Washington state has submitted its application for a Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grant. The federal grant will provide $500 million in state-level competitive grants to improve early learning and development programs. The Department of Early Learning (DEL) is leading Washington’s application for the grant, which could bring up to $60 million to our state over four years to support early learning for our children.

RTT-ELC is meant to help states raise the quality of early learning programs so that children start school ready to succeed.
Governor Chris Gregoire said of Washington's application, “This application is bold and it is ambitious, but it is also achievable, and that is what the grant competition is all about. We have submitted a plan that will push our state forward in providing the kind of high-quality early learning opportunities our youngest learners need and deserve."

Washington's application lays out a plan for how to use the grant money:

• Expand the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS), our state’s kindergarten readiness assessment, to include all incoming kindergarteners by school year 2014-15.
• Take to scale our state’s quality rating and improvement system, which helps early learning programs improve the quality of care and education they provide to young children and provides information on quality to families.
• Enhance the state professional development system by offering awards and incentives to those who work with and care for young children.

"This is an important opportunity to help Washington children," DEL Director Bette Hyde said. "Washington is uniquely positioned to move forward quickly if we win a grant because of the work we’ve already done with WaKIDS and QRIS."

DEL created a webpage to keep the early learning community informed about progress on RTT-ELC. That page includes fast facts about Washington's application.

The Associated Press ran a story about Washington's application, "State seeks $60M from feds for preschools."

Today, DEL representatives updated the House Early Learning & Human Services Committee about the RTT-ELC and other DEL news. That hearing will be available on TVW's website.

DEL will continue to tweet information about the application and related news using the hashtag #rttt (which stands for Race to the Top) at www.twitter.com/DEL_wa.