GRANTEE ABSTRACT

Louisiana

Overview 

Louisiana believes children thrive in a unified, 

high quality early childhood care and education 

system where there are expectations for 

children’s achievement and progress; families 

who are able to choose the option that best 

suits their children; and knowledgeable, skilled 

teachers who support children’s learning and 

development toward kindergarten readiness. 

As a result of groundbreaking state legislation 

(Act 3, 2012), Louisiana is unifying preschool, 

Head Start, and child care programs through 

local early childhood networks (Community 

Network Pilots) that ensure at-risk children have 

equitable access to high-quality preschool. 

With close support from the state, half of 

Louisiana’s parishes have already established 

these local networks, or consortium of early 

learning providers, and have made 

demonstrable progress in three areas: 

•	 Collaborative Leadership: Developing a 

collaborative leadership structure 

including child care, Head Start, public 

preschool, and nonpublic preschool 

leaders that develops plans, track 

progress, and continually strives for 

better kindergarten readiness outcomes; 

•	 Teacher Support: Providing training, 

coaching, and evidence-based 

professional development to help all 

teachers improve interactions and 

instruction of young children; 

Lead Agency 

Office of the Superintendent – Early 

Childhood
 

Year 1 Federal Award Amount 

$2,437,982 

Plan Period 

January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2018 

Preschool Development Grants will support
 

states to build, develop, and expand voluntary,
 

high-quality preschool programs for children 

from low- and moderate-income families.
 

There are two types of grants. 

Development Grants are for states that 

currently serve less than 10 percent of fouryear-olds and have not received a Race to the 

Top – Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) 

grant. 

Expansion Grants are for states that currently 

serve 10 percent or more of four-year-olds or 

have received an RTT-ELC grant. 

•	 Coordinated Enrollment: Coordinating 

information and applications across all 

programs to make it easier for families 

to access quality options. 

The remaining communities are currently 

learning from existing Community Network 

Pilots and are expected to launch their own in 

early 2015. 

Louisiana seeks $32 million over 4 years to 

expand the state’s existing high-quality 

preschool programs in high-need 

This abstract was submitted as part of Louisiana’s Preschool Development Grant Application. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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EXPANSION GRANTEE: LOUISIANA
 

communities through a parent choice model, 

and build a technology system to consistently 

measure program quality using programbased report cards and provide useful 

information for families and providers. As 

part of Louisiana’s ambitious and achievable 

plan, the state will work to achieve the 

following goals: 

•	 Increased Access through Choice: 

Provide families of more than 4,500 

at-risk children in Louisiana equitable 

access to high-quality childhood 

choices in diverse settings including 

child care, Head Start, nonpublic and 

public schools; 

•	 A Unified System: Unify early 

childhood system by empowering 

local leaders to coordinate efforts to 

improve child outcomes; 

•	 Sustainable Funding: Transition to 

sustainable funding for high quality 

programs; and 

•	 Improvement and Accountability: 

Improve quality and access, measure 

success with outcomes-based 

program report cards, and hold local 

leaders accountable. 

Project Objectives and Activities 

Louisiana has an ambitious and achievable 

plan that will decrease the four-year old access 

gap in the state and provide more families 

choices for preschool. Louisiana will use $23.7 

million to open 1800 new preschool seats, 

serving more than 4,500 at-risk children. In 

addition, Louisiana will use $7.4 million to 

improve services for nearly 6,000 children. To 

support this work, Louisiana will leverage $13 

million in state matching funds that support 

Community Network Pilots, representing a 

40% match of federal funds. 

In year 1, the state will subgrant with highneed communities to provide 340 new slots. 

These communities were chosen based on 

three factors: 

Demonstrated Success as a Consortium of 

Early Learning Providers (Community 

Network Pilot): Capacity to coordinate 

enrollment and implement a parent choice 

model as demonstrated by participation as a 

lead agency in a consortium of local providers. 

Demonstrated Need through Unmet Parent 

Demand: Demonstrated need for additional 

preschool seats, as determined though an 

annual application process; and 

Communities Most At-Risk: Designation as a 

high need community according to the 

Louisiana State/Tulane University’s state 

report: Early Childhood Risk and Reach. 

In Years 2-4 the state will continue to support 

existing slots funded by the grant as well as 

run a competitive process to add up to 660 

new slots each year, using the three criteria 

above. 

High Need Communities to be served 

under Louisiana’s Plan 

Caddo 

City of Monroe 

(Ouachita) 

Iberville 

Lincoln 

Orleans 

Rapides 

This abstract was submitted as part of Louisiana’s Preschool Development Grant Application. 

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