ISRA Awarded Funding to Support the Implementation of Pennsylvania’s PDG State Plan

The Institute of State and Regional Affairs (ISRA) has been awarded funding to continue its vital partnership with the Office of Child Development and Early Learning and the Pennsylvania Key. This collaboration focuses on exploring and enhancing early childhood services for children from birth to age five in Pennsylvania. This initiative is supported by the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5), a federal grant program designed to bolster early childhood services.

The PDG B-5 grant aims to provide comprehensive support across various aspects of early childhood care. This includes conducting needs assessments, strategic planning, promoting family engagement, quality improvement in service delivery, enhancing workforce compensation and support, and providing direct services to young children. A key feature of the PDG B-5 initiative is its emphasis on improving collaboration among various early childhood programs and supporting a mixed delivery system encompassing child care centers, family child care providers, Head Start, state pre-kindergarten programs, and home visiting services.

In line with this, ISRA’s work involves a collaborative research plan to bolster the successful implementation of Pennsylvania’s PDG state plan in compliance with federal guidelines. The primary objectives of this plan are to identify existing gaps in service capacity and access, ensure high implementation fidelity, and address priority areas outlined by the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL). This approach is expected to facilitate more informed decision-making processes and significantly improve Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services for children and families throughout Pennsylvania.