MONTGOMERY – Governor Kay Ivey announced today that the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education (ADECE) was awarded $4 million by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Alabama’s Preschool Development Grant Birth Through Five (PDG B-5) initiative for 2023.

“Alabama children deserve the best start possible, and these funds will help us support early childhood educators in an efficient, developmentally-appropriate way,” said Governor Ivey. “This grant will support the scaling of high-quality programs of early childhood care and education, so we can ensure our children are prepared for further education, a career and a lifetime of success.”

Alabama’s PDG B-5 work aligns with Governor Ivey’s Strong Start, Strong Finish initiative, a comprehensive education-to-workforce agenda with a focus on the birth-five continuum, recognizing a child’s first five years as the foundational preparation necessary for lifelong achievement. The PDG B-5 Planning grant will ensure Alabama is positioned to prepare the workforce to serve in early childhood environments.

“This grant builds upon the previous work to implement a unified Early Childhood Care and Education system,” said Dr. Barbara Cooper, Secretary of the ADECE. “Once realized, the system will maximize our previously coordinated efforts to better connect and leverage early learning and care opportunities and ultimately inform decisions with data, increase efficiency, and reduce duplication.”

The ADECE is an executive, cabinet-level state agency established to enable the governor to effectively and efficiently coordinate efforts and programs to serve families and young children from birth to age 8 throughout the state.

For more information about the department, please visit children.alabama.gov.

To learn more about the PDG B-5 grant, visit acf.hhs.gov/ecd/early-learning/preschool-development-grants.

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