Indianapolis (December 18, 2017)– Indiana’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning is offering nearly $4 million in grants to Indiana early learning providers to build capacity to serve more children or to increase the quality of early education and child care services provided in Indiana.
This grant opportunity is open to all early childhood education providers as well as county- or community-based early education coalitions within the state of Indiana. These grants will also increase the number of qualified providers for Indiana’s first publicly-funded pre-kindergarten pilot grant program, On My Way Pre-K.
Applications for these capacity-building grants are due January 31, 2018, and should be submitted here. The funding for these grants was provided via House Enrolled Act 1004, approved by the Indiana General Assembly in 2017.
Any licensed child care center, licensed child care home, unlicensed registered child care ministry, public school, charter school or private school program that has achieved, or is trying to achieve, a Level 3 or Level 4 in Paths to QUALITY™ and has achieved, or is trying to achieve, Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) eligibility is eligible to apply. Paths to QUALITY™ is Indiana’s voluntary child care quality rating and improvement system; and CCDF is a federal program that helps low-income families obtain child care.
An optional informational webinar will be held at 1 PM EST on Tuesday, December 19, 2017. Click here for more information and for details on how to join.  An archived webinar will be available on the website. â€‹
Capacity-building grants may be provided for
- Training and professional development of teaching staff
- Classroom materials that demonstrate increased outcomes for children or increased instructional practices for educators
- Evidence-based curriculum or instructional materials including professional development for teaching staff to utilize the curriculum
- Family engagement activities or materials and/or marketing and communication materials
- Other relevant needs to help expand capacity and improve quality programming to help programs reach Paths to QUALITYâ„¢ level 3 or 4, which is the requirement for a provider to be eligible to be an On My Way Pre-K provider.
Grant applicants are required to demonstrate how the funding from their proposed project will increase capacity through serving more children or adding more high-quality providers within their county.
All applicants are required to secure matching funds from local businesses or other stakeholders who will benefit from the community improvement associated with this grant. This grant match must be at least 5 percent and can be up to 50 percent of the total amount of the total capacity building plan budget submitted. Priority consideration will be given to grant requests from counties currently lacking in high-quality early education providers, counties with demonstrated addiction issues and counties with higher matching funds and letters of support from the community.
Nonprofit applicants struggling to secure the 5 percent grant match minimum may request assistance with the grant match from Early Learning Indiana.
Grants cannot be used for the purchase of land or a building or the construction or expansion of a building. Nonprofit applicants interested in receiving funding for items not allowable have the opportunity to apply for a limited pool of separate grant funding from Early Learning Indiana (ELI). Â
All grants will last for one year starting from the grant’s effective date. At the end of the grant period, grant recipients will have the option to request a no-cost extension if additional activities remain that have not been completed after one year.
On My Way Pre-K is Indiana’s first state-funded prekindergarten grant program, which was established as a five-county pilot by the Indiana General Assembly in 2014. Currently, 20 counties including Allen, Bartholomew, DeKalb, Delaware, Elkhart, Floyd, Grant, Harrison, Howard, Jackson, Kosciusko, Lake, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Monroe, St. Joseph, Tippecanoe, Vanderburgh and Vigo Counties and 8 grandfathered agreement sites are eligible to accept On My Way Pre-K grants for low-income children in high-quality prekindergarten programs.
The Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning is a division of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA). Follow us in Twitter @FSSAIndiana.
Early Learning Indiana provides excellent care and education at its ten Day Early Learning centers; provides referrals to parents and training and other resources to child care providers and schools throughout Indiana; and is a leader, advocate and partner in advancing policies that transform Indiana’s early learning landscape for the better. Find Early Learning Indiana at www.earlylearningindiana.org, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DayEarlyLearning and on Twitter @EarlyLearningIN.
