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LATEST NEWS

  • DC Council Budget Hearings Impact Funding for Education Initatives

    • The District of Columbia Council will hold public hearings for the FY2011 budgets of city agencies in April 2010.  Pre K for All DC is interested in how funds are allotted to the City's education agencies because of their direct impact on the city's children. Pre K for All invites all stakeholders in early childhood education to follow and participate in these hearings in order to ensure that all children in the District of Columbia have access to high quality early childhood learning opportunities. 

     

     

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  • DC Council Passes Emergency Legislation to Accelerate Pre-K Implementation

    • On Tuesday January 5, 2010, the Council of the District of Columbia voted unanimously to pass the Pre-K Acceleration and Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2010. This emergency act will fast track the implementation of the landmark Pre-K Enhancement and Expansion Act of 2008 that ensures that all three- and four-year-olds in the District of Columbia have access to high-quality pre-k programs by September 2014.

     

     


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history of DC early childhood education

The District of Columbia is a pioneering leader in early childhood. In 1972, the District became one of the first jurisdictions to offer pre-k in public school settings. Since the 1970s, early childhood leaders have been successfully fighting to expand access to programs. Pre-K for All DC is dedicated to building a high-quality early care and education system for all children from birth to age five.


Key Milestones

1972
The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) Pre-K Program is created to serve four-year-old children in the District. The program is available only in public schools.

1979
The Mayor's Advisory Committee on Early Childhood Development is established to: hold public hearings; increase public awareness of programs; review and comment on legislation, regulations, policies, and programs; recommend methods of upgrading services; and improve communications between providers, the public, and the government.

2002
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation provides a multi-year, multi-million dollar grant, through the Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK) initiative, to the National Black Child Development Institute. The grant is intended to assist the District in uniting resources to better prepare children for school. Over a five-year period, SPARK DC/NBCDI seeks to smooth the transition to school and align pre-k and elementary school settings. The program becomes a new organizing point for a renewed movement toward school readiness for all children.

2003
A group of over 200 early education and K-12 organizations come together to form the Universal School Readiness Stakeholder Group. Working with SPARK DC, the Stakeholders Group works to increase public knowledge, support, and action to ensure all children enter kindergarten ready to learn through high-quality early education programs.

2004
Early education advocates under the banner of the Stakeholders Group and SPARK DC/NBCDI submit the "Roadmap to Universal School Readiness in the District of Columbia." The document becomes the early education platform for the 2005 legislative session.

2005
DCPS grants $4.6 million to the Department of Human Services to provide high-quality pre-k programs in community-based settings. These funds, under the title Pre-K Incentive Program, now serve nearly 400 children in 16 centers across the city. Eighty percent of teachers in the Pre-K Incentive Program have a bachelor's degree, and all classrooms meet NAEYC quality standards.

2006
The Pre-K for All DC Campaign is launched in June with support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Pre-K Now and the Citybridge Foundation. SPARK DC/NBCDI and the Universal School Readiness Stakeholder Group are founding partners.

2008
The DC Council, under the leadership of Vincent C. Gray, unanimously passes and Mayor Adrian Fenty signs the Pre-K Enhancement and Expansion Act of 2008. The Act expands pre-k to three- and four-year-olds without access to programs and provides resources and support to improve the quality of all existing programs - effectively making two years of high-quality pre-k the foundation for DC's on-going education reform efforts.