Dear Colleague Letter on Mixed Delivery

Description:

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the U.S. Department of Education (ED) have partnered to announce the release of a joint Dear Colleague Letter encouraging state education and early childhood leaders to collaborate and leverage federal resources expanding access to preschool through a mixed delivery approach.

The mixed delivery approach to preschool urges states and local communities to use resources to support preschool programs across various quality settings. Investments in a mixed delivery system for preschools helps leverage existing federal, state, and local funding to expand the availability of high-quality preschool by building on the expertise and capacity of existing providers. Successful implementation of a high-quality mixed-delivery preschool system requires coordination across multiple funding streams and sectors. It is for this reason that HHS and ED have issued this joint guidance to Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) administrators, school leaders, state educational agencies (SEAs), local school districts, Head Start leaders, providers of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) services, family child care providers, early childhood professional organizations, labor unions, and others. With this Dear Colleague Letter, we call on leaders across these programs and systems to coordinate their efforts and consider using federal funds to improve access to preschool experiences in multiple types of high-quality settings through a mixed delivery approach.