NC to get $56 million in fed funds over 7 yrs, early childhood

[littlemissmartypants]

Gov. Cooper announced today that North Carolina will receive $56 million in federal funding over the next seven years to support children’s health and well-being, improve access to high-quality early learning for families across the state and invest in the state’s early childhood workforce. The federal funding is one of the state’s largest infusions of new dollars in North Carolina’s early childhood system.

Learn more: https://governor.nc.gov/news/north-carolina-awarded-56-million-promote-children%E2%80%99s-well-being-and-early-learning

[OldBaldy1701E]

1. I will give you a guess

as to which of the options mentioned will get the most if not all of this money. (Hint: it is not health and well being, nor is it quality learning.)

[littlemissmartypants]

2. What are you implying? Please elaborate. This is the North Carolina group.

Any posts or comments that are designed to attack or suggest nefarious actions by our governor will be met with healthy scrutiny. Especially if they are making claims that cannot be substantiated. No woo in the NC Group, please.

Did you read the article?

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Just in case:

"The new funding comes from two competitive federal grant awards to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS), including a $40.2 million Preschool Development Grant (PDG) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families and up to a $16 million grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

The PDG grant invests in the people who shape young children’s healthy development – parents and early childhood professionals. It will help early childhood teachers build the skills needed to support children’s optimal development without having to leave the classroom. By providing job-embedded professional development and coaching, the grant removes barriers that make it difficult for teachers to pursue higher education.

In addition, the grant funds a partnership with the Smart Start network to expand access to Family Connects, a nurse home visiting program for parents of newborns; support for families as their children transition into kindergarten; and expanded access to high-quality child care for infants and toddlers. This is the state’s second PDG grant. In 2018, the NCDHHS was awarded a one-year $4.48 million PDG planning grant.

The grant from CMS aims to improve quality of care and reduce costs for Medicaid-insured children (age 0-20 years) by implementing the Integrated Care for Kids (InCK) model. InCK will improve how children receive services by coordinating healthcare and other sectors that support children, such as schools, food, and housing. Medicaid and its partners will design and implement alternative payment models that align incentives for positive health and well-being outcomes for children."

[littlemissmartypants]

4. More:

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/occ/resource/pdg-b-5-initiative

“These two grants are a down-payment on our state’s Early Childhood Action Plan, and also give us opportunities to innovate for the health and well-being of older children,” said NCDHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen, MD. “We know it will take all of us working efficiently together in new ways across health, childcare, K-12 education, and child safety, to set our children up for a bright future as North Carolinians.”

The grants build on Governor Roy Cooper’s ongoing efforts to support children and their families and teachers. In 2019 alone, Governor Cooper launched the statewide Early Childhood Action Plan, provided paid parental leave to thousands of state employees, improved pregnancy accommodations in the workplace, and pushed to expand Medicaid so that hardworking North Carolinians, including many parents and early childhood teachers, could access affordable health insurance."