You are on this page: Early Head Start - Child Care (EHS-CC) Partnership Opportunity in New York State
EHS-CC Partnerships bring together the best of two worlds – combining the strengths of child care and Early Head Start programs. The Partnerships layer funding to provide comprehensive services and high-quality early learning environments for low-income working families with infants and toddlers.
Head Start programs support children’s growth from birth to age 5 through services that support early learning and development, health, and family well-being. These services help the most vulnerable young children build the foundation for a successful future. While similar to preschool Head Start programs, Early Head Start (EHS) specializes in providing services that support the unique needs of infants and toddlers under the age of 3.
Early Head Start – Child Care (EHS-CC) Partnerships help to enhance early learning opportunities for infants and toddlers by increasing income eligible working families’ access to EHS programs and high-quality child care providers. EHS-CC Partnerships help prepare young children for their transition into Head Start programs, preschools and beyond. Under EHS-CC Partnerships, new or existing EHS grantees partner with regulated, center-based, family child care, and group family child care providers who agree to meet the Head Start program performance standards. The resulting partnerships have allowed programs to leverage their funds to provide more high-quality early learning in their community. By braiding the federal EHS and the state child care assistance dollars, the children in the EHS-CC Partnership all receive the best of both worlds, and the staff and providers are able to receive developmental screenings for the children in their care, professional development, materials, supplies, curricula and more.
Starting in 2014, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announced the availability of approximately $500 million to be competitively awarded for the purpose of expanding access to high-quality, comprehensive services to income eligible families with infants and toddlers through these partnerships or through the expansion of EHS services. In February 2016, ACF announced an increase of $135 million to support additional EHS-CC Partnership programs. This $135 million grant increase has allowed new or existing EHS programs to partner with local child care centers and family child care providers serving infants and toddlers of income eligible families.
As of 2019, New York State has 127 EHS-CC Partnership sites. We are hopeful that there will be additional opportunities to apply for more EHS-CC Partnership grants in the future. This continues to be a great opportunity for New York to raise the quality of infant and toddler care for the children who are most at risk.
Future funding opportunities will be shared when they are available.