Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care

Wonderful visiting Crayon Campus, Inc. in New Bedford today to announce that new contracts have been awarded to 110 early education and care programs. These contracts invest $402 million a year to purchase high-quality early education and out-of-school time care through approximately 19,000 contracted seats in center-based and family child care programs for children eligible for child care financial assistance. The Healey-Driscoll Administration is the first to re-procure these child care services in 15 years, continuing our work to improve access and affordability to care for families and make government services more modern and equitable. Thank you for joining us, DCF Commissioner Staverne Miller and State Representative Antonia Cabral! Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eWtqHVuF #ChildCare #News #AfterschoolPrograms #FinancialAssistance #Government

Through Governor Healey’s?FutureTech Act, EEC is soliciting vendors to design and develop a new family portal and case management system for the state’s child care financial assistance programs. These efforts aim to build a more modern, mobile-friendly, accessible, multilingual, and dignified child care financial assistance technology system, reducing barriers for families seeking assistance paying for child care and making it easier for child care providers to administer the programs. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eWQfyz2A #IT #TechnologyNews #ChildCare #PressRelease

We were honored to join Community Teamwork in Lowell this week to cut the ribbon for their new Rita O’Brien-Dee Center for Behavioral Health & Development, a modern space dedicated to providing children and families with supports and resources that will help foster healthy social-emotional development outcomes. Named after a true pillar of the CTI community, the new space reflects the shared vision and transformative partnerships Rita has inspired over her five decades of work with the organization and that drive positive change for children, families, and educators. Thank you to the leaders, educators, staff, and supporters at CTI, as well as Senator Barry Finegold, and Representative Vanna Howard, for your continued commitment to this work - and congratulations on this important milestone!

Calling all early education and care staff to join us tomorrow for an information session on the early childhood scholarship! Our next session walking through the application process is on September 25 at 7 pm. Join us then to learn more! Deadline to apply has been extended to November 1st. https://lnkd.in/eRk6SrJD

EEC announced today the first round of pilot partnerships to boost economic mobility pathways for early childhood educators, with a focus on family child care: * The Community Group will support center-based apprenticeship programs Three organizations will serve as FCC intermediary support: * Family Services of Central MA, serving EEC's Western and Central regions * United Way of Massachusetts Bay , serving EEC’s Metro Boston and the Northeast regions * The SEIU Education and Support Fund, serving EEC’s Southeast and Cape region In 2024, the three organizations for FCC intermediary support will collaborate to design a high-quality training program to support new FCCs through licensure and developing core educator competencies. In 2025, the three vendors will implement these programs by creating a system of program recruitment, mentorship pairing, and quality management, which aims to graduate a combined 250 FCC educators by 2026. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ecQeUhiQ #Apprenticeships #FamilyChildCare #Workforce #EconomicMobility

Thanks for having us, For Kids Only Afterschool, to celebrate the state’s first-ever registered #apprenticeship program for the Out-of-School Time (OST) workforce!

Congratulations?For Kids Only Afterschool on the launch of their new OST Registered Apprenticeship?program, the first-of-its-kind to be dedicated to careers in the out of school time programs. Supporting people to earn while they learn through apprenticeship models like this is key to strengthening and professionalizing our out of school time?workforce. Thank you to our colleagues at the The Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD), Senator Sal DiDomenico, State Representative Joe McGonagle, and partners from across the early education and care sector to celebrate this milestone.

It was wonderful to join Ellis Early Learning this week to celebrate their renovated playground, which was supported with a $250,000 EEC EEOST capital grant. Their updated park space is suitable for children under 2 years old and provides a more modern and safe space for kids to play and grow. It was great to be joined by Representative Aaron Michlewitz as well. Thank you, Chair Michlewitz, for your continued partnership in promoting accessible and affordable early education and care. #EarlyEducation #ChildCare #CapitalFunding

Early education is where our youngest learners begin their educational journey – and that includes building foundations for literacy. ???? Today we read with some of Clinton's younger learners and saw how students in some of the older grades are taking off with reading success!

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) is hosting a bidders conference to talk about the Apprenticeship Expansion and Opportunity Grant. You can learn more and get details for the virtual information session on September 17 at 2 pm by visiting: https://lnkd.in/eNf-mvPE