Arizona has received an $8.4 million grant to serve early education, from birth through 5 years old. The money will help refine and improve the state’s current early childhood education systems and programs.
The systems-building-grant comes out of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Read On Arizona, the state’s early literacy initiative, is one of the leaders of the grant. Its director of Early Learning, Lori Masseur, says there are several different focuses of the grant including supporting regional family engagement hubs.
“Families can get information about how to improve their child’s literacy. They’re building their own compass and efficacy around supporting their child’s literacy development," Masseur said.
The grant also will help support Arizona in developing a strategic finance plan.
“So there has not been a coherent strategic finance plan in Arizona when it comes to supporting and funding early childhood, so how do we do that at the state level?” Masseur said.
Some other focuses of the federal grant include the development of a more accurate count on the number of students in quality early education programs.
Education Forward Arizona says only about a third of the state’s 3- and 4-year-olds are in quality early learning settings. Masseur says that education is a key to improving early literacy rates.
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The ruling comes a day after news broke of the government’s plan to offer legal aid to detained immigrant children through a $150 million contract Burke Law Group — a small Texas-based firm with a co-founder who is a former Trump appointee. -
Two Valley teens have been selected to represent the state in a national competition called the Patriot Games. -
A new audit has concluded that the agencies responsible for Arizona’s Paid Parent Caregiver program failed to implement cost-control measures required by state law. -
A notice posted on the Federal Register this week details a $150 million government contract with Burke Law Group to represent unaccompanied immigrant children. A multimillion-dollar contact with nonprofits across the country to do the work expired Friday. -
Childcare is notoriously expensive. The market value in our state is $10,764 a year. That’s nearly as much as a year of in-state tuition at ASU.
