Child Care Associates Awarded Nearly $3.3 Million in Educational Grants to Help At-Risk Preschoolers in North Texas.

Business Editors/Education Writers

FORT WORTH, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 2003

Fort Worth-based Child Care Associates has been awarded two grants for separate programs that have a common and important goal -- to improve school readiness for high-risk preschool children.

The first grant, for $2,768,520, will fund Project Excellence -- a program designed to create preschool centers of excellence that seek to improve the instruction and classroom environment for at-risk children from low-income families. The program targets children's development of language, cognitive, and early reading skills, which are essential for success in kindergarten, elementary school and beyond.

Project Excellence is a collaborative effort between Child Care Associates and the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District. The project will begin on five H-E-B elementary school campuses and serve 320 children with 48 teachers and paraprofessionals. Also, several area universities will provide additional support for professional development, child assessment, outcome analysis and guidance.

The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and is authorized by the No Child Left Behind Act. The grant will fund the program for three years.

The second grant provides approximately $500,000 through the State of Texas for participation in the Texas Early Education Model: (TEEM): Achieving Higher Levels of School Readiness in Cost Effective Ways. This model encourages early education programs to integrate their services to ensure high teacher quality, ultimately resulting in kids who are more prepared for kindergarten. In this program, Child Care Associates will work with the Fort Worth ISD and the YWCA. Teachers will be training using online professional development programs. They will also use Palm Pilots to collect data about their children's skills development.

"These programs really target the same goal in different ways," said Child Care Associates' President and CEO John A. Whitcamp. "One focuses more on curriculum and the other on staff development, but each is ultimately designed to improve the school readiness of high-risk children. Our primary mission is to help preschool children of low-income parents succeed, both now and later in life."

Non-profit Child Care Associates provides comprehensive child care and development services throughout North and West Central Texas, serving more than 30,000 children each year.