BOSTON – The Healey-Driscoll Administration announced that eight school districts are receiving $1.7 million in new Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI) grants to further support their efforts to expand access to affordable high-quality preschool.

 

Included in this eight is the Hoosac Valley Regional School District that, with community partners Childcare of the Berkshires and the Youth Center, will receive $328,000.  

 

"We know that the high cost of child care is holding back our families, our providers and our economy from their full potential. That's why we have been focused on expanding access to affordable, high-quality preschool, creating new seats for children in Gateway Cities and rural communities across the state," said?Governor Healey. "Our 'Gateway to Pre-K' agenda would build on this progress by expanding high-quality pre-k access to even more communities, lowering costs for more families, and ensuring our hardworking providers have the support they need to deliver high-quality care."? 

 

According to a press release, a main driver in the administration's approach to expand preschool access and promote kindergarten readiness, CPPI establishes a district–wide preschool program across classes in public and community-based early education and care programs. By working across the state's mixed early education system, districts are expanding access to a range of programs that meet different needs of working families. CPPI also promotes equitable access to special education to ensure full inclusion of children with disabilities across all settings. Through this program, the CPPI funding also provides scholarships to participating families to enroll in preschool at no or low cost and enables full day/full year services to families through public and community-based classrooms. 

 

These grants build on the $16.4 million already awarded this fiscal year for districts and early education and care programs universal access to preschool.?Governor Healey's proposed "Gateway to Pre-K" agenda will further expand these efforts, investing an additional $15 million in fiscal year 2025, for a total of $38.7 million, to move Massachusetts closer to meeting the goal of universal, high-quality preschool access for four-year-olds in all Gateway Cities by the end of 2026.?With this new announcement, 19 gateway cities are now receiving CPPI to enable expanded affordable preschool access.