Children’s earliest experiences build their brain architecture. Positive interactions between young children, their parents and families, and early childhood care and education teachers create healthy brain development through experiences that prepare them for success in school and life. North Carolina is a leader in early care and learning—and it needs continued investment to strengthen all families and the state’s economy. The Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5) plays an essential role in making sure North Carolina’s child care programs are as effective and efficient as possible. Since the program’s beginning in 2018, North Carolina has relied on the $57.7 million federal PDG B-5 dollars to strengthen the early childhood care and education system that supports children’s healthy development and learning, allows parents to work and keeps businesses running.
In 2024, North Carolina was awarded a three-year $27 million Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five Grant (PDG B-5). The state will receive $9 million per year for up to three years to strengthen early care and education (ECE) programs in its mixed delivery system, support the ECE workforce, increase family involvement in ECE programs, improve ECE program quality, expand access to early childhood services, and create seamless learning experiences from birth to elementary school. This funding will also support a Program Performance Evaluation (PPE) of the PDG B-5 activities to ensure progress towards strategic goals aligned with North Carolina's Birth-Five Strategic Plan. The PPE acts as a tool for accountability, learning, identifying areas of enhancement, and assessing outcomes to ensure the PDG B-5 initiatives are both effective and impactful to NC’s entire early childhood network.
NC’s Current Preschool Development Grant Birth-Five Initiatives
Expanding Family & Provider Outreach to Promote Family and Community Engagement
Across the state, there is a significant need for innovative educational opportunities reaching children, their families, and the early childhood workforce. DCDEE contracts with PBS North Carolina to connect early learners and caregivers with trusted and engaging programming and experiences to promote learning and development. This is demonstrated by PBS NC’s bridge between localized educational content on Rootle, the PBS KIDS Channel, and community activation through the Rootle Roadster Tour. To expand the scope and reach of this activity, DCDEE and PBS NC coordinate and collaborate with early childhood system partners to promote the sharing of resources and blending of state and private funds to maximize supports available for children, families, and the early childhood workforce. This includes expanding the Rootle Roadster Tour, developing educational video content featuring Ava the STEM Ambassador, hosting the annual Impact Early Childhood Education Summit, offering Playful Learning Professional Development Workshops, and implementing Communities of Practice (CoPs) to support educators and families across North Carolina.
Building Bright Futures Apprenticeship Initiative
Building Bright Futures (BBF) is an education and workforce initiative developed by the NC Business Committee for Education (NCBCE) in partnership with DCDEE, offering an organized, streamlined, and supportive framework for registered ECE apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs. BBF supports high school students and adults interested in a career in ECE or in furthering their ECE education. Participants receive ongoing resources and financial support for educational and professional success, including wages, transportation, materials, professional development, and mentoring, up to the completion of an associate degree. BBF has changed the landscape of ECE professionals in NC by creating a supportive framework for these educators to advance their knowledge and careers, and for employers to have access to the talent required to create a high-quality, stable learning environment. This combination of expert instruction in a classroom with real-world application through on-the-job learning (OJL)—under the guidance of a mentor—is a model that has proven successful and results in both increased pay and the number of early childhood educators pursuing credentials or degrees.
Expand Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) Endorsement
Since 2021, DCDEE has partnered with the NC Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Association (NCIMHA) to establish North Carolina’s first-ever ever Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement® (IECMH) credentialing system. The IECMH Endorsement® is a formal recognition of education, work, training, and reflective supervision experiences related to infant and early childhood mental health. Established by the Alliance for the Advance of Mental Health, the IECMH Endorsement® credential is internationally recognized and is based upon the Competency Guidelines for Endorsement for Relationship-Focused Practice Promoting Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. The PDG B-5 Renewal Grant also supports scholarships to reduce financial barriers for professionals engaging in IECMH professional development opportunities, including the annual Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Conference and to develop effective strategies that will engage mixed-delivery system professionals, including home visiting, early care and education, child welfare, higher education, early intervention, health care, and mental health providers.
Child Development Assessment for NC Pre-K And Beyond
Since the 2018 PDG B-5 Planning Grant, DCDEE has collaborated with the NC Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI) to implement strategies that support transitions from preschool to kindergarten in response to Pre-K and kindergarten teachers' need for a data-sharing technology solution to track each child’s developmental progress. This web-based formative assessment system evaluates children's knowledge, skills, and behaviors from birth through third grade. The state-level license enabled the sharing of child formative assessment data among NC Pre-K teachers, kindergarten teachers, and families, improving communication and understanding of developmental expectations for Pre-K and kindergarten children. The state-level license allowed DCDEE and NCDPI to consolidate all current programs using MyTeachingStrategies®, offsetting licensing costs to the providers, offering free support and professional development, and allowing for the standardized collection, transfer and reporting of child development data across early childhood programs.
Collaborative Model for Family Child Care Homes Quality and Family Engagement
In 2022, DCDEE commissioned a report to identify the needs of North Carolina’s family child care homes. In this report practice-based coaching, technical assistance, and connection to resources were identified as key needs of the Family Child Care Home (FCCH) community. Other key needs were related to business practices and shared services. There is an urgent need to support FCCH programs as a key component of North Carolina’s early care and education system. In partnership with the Acelero Charitable Foundation, DCDEE works to increase family and community engagement, increase quality rating and improvement assessment scores, and provide a learning environment for FCCH providers to enhance their professional growth and deliver high-quality early care and education. By providing these targeted support, resources and professional development opportunities for FCCH programs, it will enhance children’s access to high quality early learning experiences and further strengthen North Carolina’s families and contribute to a more robust and resilient early childhood system.
Increase Compensation for Family Child Care Home Providers
North Carolina’s DCDEE started a pilot study in August of 2023 with Preschool Development Grant funds to determine if program quality would increase if Family Child Care Home providers were paid a higher reimbursement rate that was closer to the cost of care. Building on the work of the pilot, DCDEE continues to evaluate the impact of increased reimbursement rates on quality and provider compensation and benefits and to promote retention of Family Child Care Homes by increasing compensation comparable to the actual cost of care. In the expansion of the initial pilot, Family Child Care Home provider participants receive an increased subsidy payment distributed monthly. This payment is distributed through DCDEE’s subsidy payment system and will be tracked throughout the study.
The pilot was conducted for a six-month period beginning August 2023, and providers received monthly supplemental payments for each child enrolled in their program. The higher reimbursement rate was determined by the CostofCare.org calculator, and providers were paid based on enrollment rather than attendance. Alongside the payment and research elements of this pilot, Family Child Care Home providers also participate in monthly Community of Practice (CoP) calls. The CoP calls feature presentations about state-level and community organizations with resources for providers as well as an opportunity for providers to give feedback about their experience in the program and what additional resources would be useful to them.
Expand Adult Mental Health First Aid Training For Child Care Programs
Young children depend on caregivers to ensure their safety and to meet their physical and emotional needs. According to the 2022 Birth – Five Needs Assessment, young children’s social and emotional development is critical to their long-term health and well-being. Mental health significantly impacts young children’s ability to learn, establish healthy connections with others, regulate emotions, and grow into capable adults. DCDEE is partnering with the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (SSW-UNCG) to establish and manage a professional development system for licensed childhood educators serving children ages 0-5 years old that supports ongoing learning in social-emotional development, and mental health. The SSW-UNCG is implementing the Adult Mental Health First Aid evidence-based program with the early childhood education workforce in licensed child care programs to increase the number of early childhood educators that are trained in Adult Mental Health First Aid. In addition, early childhood program directors, educators, and Family Child Care Home (FCCH) providers will be certified Adult Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) instructors.
Key Contacts
PDG B-5 Program Coordinator: Nicole Boone, [email protected]
PDG B-5 Grant Manager: Katherine Falen, [email protected]
This website is supported by Grant Number 90TP0133-01-00 from the Office of Early Childhood Development within the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Neither the Administration for Children and Families nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse this website (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided). The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Early Childhood Development.