KCCTF: Communities Aligned in Early Development and Education (US)

Deadline: 07-May-21

The Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund is pleased to announce applications for Communities Aligned in Early Development and Education to improve the well-being of Kansas children and youth.

The purpose of this grant opportunity is to expand access to full-day, full-year early childhood care and education services for at-risk children in Wyandotte County ages birth up to kindergarten entry to improve school readiness and health.

The Children’s Cabinet is interested in supporting evidence-based, data-driven best practices and program models that provide direct services to at-risk children and families.

Proposals need to support activities and services that are community-based, community-informed, community-driven, and grounded in a public-private partnership framework.

CAEDE Objectives

The following objectives should be addressed as appropriate for strategies in your proposal (common measure in parenthesis):

• Healthy Development
  • Early identification: percentage of children who are screened for developmentally appropriate communication skills, general cognitive skills, and social and emotional skills and referred for additional services as needed. (Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Third Edition; ASQ-3, Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional, Second Edition;
  • Social-emotional development: percentage of children who demonstrate improvement in positive self-regulation and compliance behaviors. (Devereux Early Childhood Assessment; DECA)
• Strong Families
  • Safe, stable, and nurturing relationships (SSNRs): percentage of children whose family or primary caregivers demonstrate support of their learning and development. (Home Observation Measurement of the Environment; HOME)
  • Safe, stable, and nurturing relationships (SSNRs): percentage of family or primary caregivers who indicate a positive level of family functioning, social support, nurturing and attachment, and concrete support. (Keys to Interactive Parenting Scale; KIPS, Protective Factors Survey, 2nd Edition; PFS-2)
• Early Learning
  • Early literacy: percentage of children (birth up to kindergarten entry) who demonstrate ongoing competence in communication and literacy as appropriate for their development. (Individual Growth & Development Indicators; IGDI/myIGDIs)
  • Numeracy: percentage of children (ages 3 to 5) who demonstrate ongoing competence in numeracy skills as appropriate for their development. (myIGDIs)
  • Quality learning environments: percentage of high-quality early care and learning environments predictive of positive change in academic outcomes. (Classroom 12 Assessment Scoring System; CLASS)

Funding Information

• Awards will be issued under this RFP for a 1-year funding period from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022, with a maximum award amount of $1,000,000.
• Awards will be issued based on FY 2022 Children’s Initiative Fund (CIF) dollars of approximately $1,000,000 available statewide dependent upon the final budget approved during the 2021 Legislative Session.

Eligibility Criteria

• This award is limited to projects serving Wyandotte County.
• Eligible applicants should be experienced in providing service delivery models that yield positive outcomes to children from birth up to kindergarten entry and their families meeting at least one of the at-risk criteria, with a commitment to evidence-based, data-driven practices.
• Applicants should include within their proposal a community-informed, community-driven collaborative approach with partners from the private sector.
• Eligible applicants may include:
  • 501©(3) organizations
  • County and city governments
  • Unified School Districts (USDs)

At-Risk Criteria

This RFP is focused on children and their families at-risk of entering kindergarten socially, emotionally or academically unprepared in Wyandotte County. CAEDE at-risk criteria include:

• Family income qualifying for federal free or reduced lunch program;
• First language is not English or English is not the language primarily spoken in the home;
• Children at-risk for developmental delays or who have an established Individual Education Plan (IEP) or Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP);
• Children in foster care, custodial grandparents/kinship care, or out-of-home placement, or children who have been referred by the Department for Children and Families;
• Either parent lacking a high school diploma or GED;
• Teen parent(s) at time of child’s birth (19 years old or younger);
• Custodial parent is unmarried;
• Children lacking health insurance;
• Children with inadequate housing, or who experience chronic or episodic homelessness;
• Migrant status

For more information, visit https://kschildrenscabinet.org/caede/