Details Emerge on Stimulus Spending for Early Childhood

Education Week published a report this week that details some of the specifics of how the $787 billion stimulus package is likely to benefit early childhood education across the country.

The article, "Stimulus Providing Big Funding Boost for Early Childhood" indicates that the stimulus allocates $1 billion over two years for Head Start, and $1.1 billion for Early Head Start, which provides services to infants, toddlers, and pregnant women. This amount is expected to be in addition to the base budget for Head Start and Early Head Start ($7 billion in fiscal 2008).

Federal child-care and child-development block grants, which are used in combination with state money to provide subsidies for families that need child care, will receive $2 billion in increased funding over two years. The program received about $2 billion in fiscal 2008.

In addition, the article notes that stimulus money for early-childhood programs is also contained in other funding streams. For example, sections of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act—serving children with disabilities from infancy to kindergarten age—will receive $900 million.

In addition, the $13 billion in Title I stimulus money, which can be used for schools that have large populations of children from low-income families, can be used to pay for early-childhood programs.

To learn more about spending on early childhood in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee, visit the Center for Urban Child Policy.