Two Alabama organizations are partnering to raise awareness of the possibility for child care providers to receive state grant money towards adding an Alabama First Class Pre-K classroom to their fall 2020 offerings.

The Alabama School Readiness Alliance (ASRA) and the Alabama Association for Early Care and Education (AALECE) will put on a webinar hosted by Dr. Barbara Cooper from the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education. The webinar will tell any interested party how they can apply for grants to fund a First Class Pre-K classroom.

The webinar will also detail changes made to the program that includes more money for grants and different schedules for payment.

A release stated, “Public and private schools, child care centers, faith-based centers, Head Start programs, nonprofits and other community-based preschool providers are all eligible to apply.”

Groups can qualify for up to $150,000 in grant funding from Alabama per eligible classroom.

“The Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education has listened to feedback from child care providers and responded by making important changes to the First Class Pre-K program,” said Allison Muhlendorf, executive director of ASRA, a nonprofit group that spreads the word on expanding pre-k in Alabama.

According to the Department of Early Childhood Education, the three types of First Class Pre-K grants are “an excellence grant (up to $50,400), a tiered grant (ranges from $86,904 to $100,008) and a new classroom or plus grant (up to $120,000).”

The deadline to apply for one of the grants is March 13, 2020.

Those interested can go here.

Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.