The Preschool Development Grant is a three-year federal grant to help Delaware achieve an inclusive, integrated early childhood system that supports the growth, development, and learning of all children and their families. This grant helps children receive the highest quality early learning experiences and be ready for a successful transition to kindergarten. Delaware received the full amount of the award in its first year, $8 million. The award follows the $4.2 million PDG B-5 grant the First State won in December 2018.

About $4.8 million will expand home-visiting for families and state-funded preschool seats for children from birth through age 5, and $3.2 million will scale up existing support initiatives for our professionals, including technology advances stalled by the pandemic. DDOE – in partnership with the Governor’s Office and other state agencies – applied for the grant.

Among the work the grant will fund:

More state-funded seats for preschool and home visiting opportunities

  • Expand Delaware’s state-funded preschool programs – This will allow Delaware to pilot state-funded seats for infants and toddlers.
  • Pilot Family Connects home visiting model – This new pilot model allows all families, regardless of income, at least one touchpoint from a nurse home visitor after the birth of their child.
  • Both of these projects will be evaluated using grant funds.

Child care resources and family referrals

  • Update printed family materials for resource and referral and medical partners
  • Increase resource and referral staff to provide a help line for early childhood professionals with questions about early intervention services
  • Expand online Delaware ASSIST portal application access to pre-school programs and referrals to developmental screening and parent resources

Workforce support for professionals

Professional preparation

  • Fund incentives for Institutes of Higher Education to redesign their early childhood curriculum
  • Build out career advisement functions in the new online early childhood professional registry

Mentoring and coaching for the employed

  • Bolster Delaware’s Family Child Care Networks
  • Scale Delaware’s Inclusion Coach initiative
  • Develop mental health consultation program for home visitors

A new quality improvement system for programs

  • Create visual online early childhood program “profile” for each licensed program to make it easier for families to search for the right care
  • Pilot technological changes to the Office of Child Care Licensing monitoring and Delaware Stars verification process

Needs assessment and strategic planning

  • Update the 2019 user experience needs assessment and data system needs assessment
  • Update the state’s strategic plans into a cohesive statewide birth to five strategy