School Readiness
The School Readiness Child Care Program is an initiative by the State of Connecticut to expand and improve early childhood education across communities in the state. The Connecticut State Board of Education is committed to ensuring that all of the state’s preschool-age children, including children with disabilities, are afforded an opportunity to participate in a high-quality preschool education. Such an experience fosters a child’s overall development, including literacy and readiness for the public school kindergarten curriculum. The Board’s focus on preschool education is a cornerstone of the state’s school reform efforts, with attention to high expectations and the assurance that preschool-age children will demonstrate performance and proficiency at each age and stage of development and will enter school ready to learn.
School Readiness grants provide funding to enable low-income families to provide child care for their preschool children. It also provides funding for child care centers to improve the quality of their programs through teacher training and education, application for accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and improvement of facilities and equipment. The School Readiness Program is a result of some of the early work done by the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund highlighting the extent and quality of early care in Connecticut and the recognition that improvements needed to be made in order to give children the best start possible. The School Readiness funds are awarded to communities and provide funds to increase the number of children receiving early care, enhance the quality of that care, encourage coordination and cooperation among human service providers, early care providers and the public school systems. In addition, School Readiness encourages the development of shared responsibility and involvement between the municipality, school and community leaders. Because of these goals, in Norwich, it made sense to combine the Children First Norwich and the School Readiness Councils. Through combined effort we are better able to effect positive changes for the children and families of our community. For more information about School Readiness, contact Anne Jerome.
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