With Historic Investments and Bipartisan Support for Early Childhood Care and Education, Virginia’s Mixed Delivery Program Continues to Provide Much Needed Choice for Families
Media Contact: Sara Hunt | SaraHuntPR@gmail.com | 804-994-1120
Richmond, Va. (July 3, 2024) – The Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF) announced $37,362,656 in grants of state general funds from the Virginia Department of Education to support quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) services for 2,530 children (2,013 three-and four-year-olds and 517 infants, toddlers, and two-year-olds) across the Commonwealth. Through Virginia’s Mixed Delivery program, which is administered by VECF, eligible families with young children gain access to high quality, full-day, year-round ECCE services in the settings of their choice so that they can work and their children can enter kindergarten ready to learn.
“Investments in early education that empower parents to choose the best learning environments for their children and help families thrive are key to Virginia’s prosperity,” said VECF’s board chair Richard Bynum of The PNC Financial Services Group. “Leveraging innovation and public/private partnerships, the Mixed Delivery program delivers affordable access to high quality early care and education services for our children, families, and communities to be successful.”
Funding was awarded through a competitive process to the following Ready Region lead agencies to administer the Mixed Delivery grants in their respective service areas:
Ready Region Blue Ridge (United Way of Greater Charlottesville) – $7,726,920
Ready Region Capital Area (Fairfax County Neighborhood and Community Services) – $981,030
Ready Region Central (Thrive Birth to Five) – $8,094,180
Ready Region Chesapeake Bay (FirstSpark) – $3,314,741
Ready Region North Central (Foundation First) – $1,014,520
Ready Region Southeastern (Minus 9 to 5, Virginia Health Sciences at ODU) – $5,545,670
Ready Region Southside (Center for Early Success) – $2,776,271
Ready Region Southwest (EO) – $5,736,690
Ready Region West (United Way of Roanoke Valley) – $2,172,634
The Mixed Delivery program began in 2016 as an innovative pilot envisioned by the Virginia General Assembly and the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation and has continued to evolve each year since, expanding to serve infants, toddlers, and two-year-olds in FY23. Its ongoing commitment is to help Virginia increase access to high quality, affordable ECCE services in settings, formats, and schedules that work for Virginia’s families in low-income and otherwise at-risk households.
In addition, the Mixed Delivery program tests innovative, problem-solving strategies, including use of a cost-of-quality methodology for setting service rates. Payment of these rates to ECCE sites makes possible the high-quality environments and experiences that young children need to build school readiness skills. Mixed Delivery’s contract-based model provides more predictable and sustained funding for Mixed Delivery sites to incentivize competitive compensation and improve early educator retention so that children benefit from consistent, capable educators and caregivers. Demand for this program continues to grow with the number of slots requested by families statewide at nearly double the 2,530 slots funded.
“The Mixed Delivery program continues to bring great value to Virginia by increasing choice for families, fostering partnerships between public and private early education providers, and delivering strong results with long-term benefits for young children and their families,” said Kathy Glazer, President of the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation.
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About the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation: VECF is the non-partisan steward of Virginia’s promise for early childhood success, working in tandem with diverse stakeholders to ensure equitable opportunities for all families with young children to thrive.