Below is a press release from the Mississippi Department of Human Services:
Mississippi was recently awarded a Preschool Development Grant Birth to Five (PDG B-5) Renewal totaling over $30 million, which will be disbursed over the next three years to improve access to high-quality early child care and education programs.
The grant will allow for the creation of a new Quality Support System with input from parents and providers focused on strengthening family and provider input to ensure Mississippi's early care and education system is more responsive to all children and families’ needs.
It will also fund a new grant opportunity to address childcare deserts and low-income communities' opportunity for local public-private strategies to increase compensation and create new pathways for recruitment into the early childhood care workforce.
The PDG B-5 Grant is based on the strategic plan developed by the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) Division of Early Childhood Care and Development and other partners, including the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE), the Mississippi Early Childhood Inclusion Center (MECIC), The Children's Foundation of Mississippi, and Mississippi State University Social Science Research Center (SSRC).
"Mississippi recognizes the opportunity and the need to restructure and reinforce its early childhood care system. We are doing this in concert with child care providers and other partners that serve children," stated Dr. Chad Allgood, Director Mississippi Department of Human Services Division of Early Childhood Care and Development.
Input from the child care community and parents is vital to properly develop a system that will help them provide the best possible care and education to our children.
“We recognize the need to transform the existing system into an inclusive system that provides necessary support to families with young children and those programs, like child care, that serve these families," Dr. Allgood added.
Grant activities will be focused on increasing access to child care for children in low-income/high poverty areas and child care deserts, create an inclusive delivery system that connects all stakeholders to resources and support services, promote activities to recruit, build, and sustain the early childhood workforce, engage families and providers to increase public awareness, and to develop a quality support system with input from parents and providers.
Executive Director Bob Anderson believes: "As Mississippi's children go…so goes Mississippi."
"To succeed, we need to increase access to quality early child care and education across the state. Trusted, quality and affordable programs allow parents to participate in the workforce fully and are an investment in families, communities, and the economy," Anderson added.
“This PDG B-5 Grant comes at an opportune time to expand on the work of the child care expansion advisory committee I appointed at MDHS last year,” Anderson noted.
Workforce issues also impact the early care and education system. Mississippi's PDG strategic plan found that the "early care and education workforce is lacking professional respect, adequate pay, benefits, and diversity," causing excess turnover and challenges in recruiting. To address those issues, Mississippi will utilize part of the next round of PDG funds to bolster evidence-based best practices to support the early child care workforce.
"Through the grant, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) will provide professional learning and coaching to early learning providers," said Dr. Jill Dent, MDE Director of Early Childhood Education. "We will also provide family engagement activities to the school district and child care pre-K classrooms."
For more information or to view the PDG B-5 grant, please visit Mississippi's PDG activities, visit https://www.mdhs.ms.gov/eccd/pdg-b-5-preschool-development-grant-birth-…
