Down East Partnership For Children

The North Carolina Pre-Kindergarten Program is a 4-year-old preschool program for at-risk children (based on income or other criteria) to attend high quality programs in public preschool classrooms, Head Start facilities or private child care facilities meeting the quality criteria. In FY24, 591 children were able to participate in this program. Additional support was provided, including classroom improvement, teacher training and/or technical assistance, transition to kindergarten support for children and overall administration and monitoring of the program.

Regional Child Care Resource and Referral Services included consumer education and referral services, professional development and technical assistance for early childhood educators, and regional data collection. In addition to overseeing deliverables in these areas for a 5-county region (Region 14), the program includes 2 specialists: Infant/Toddler, and Healthy Social Behaviors. In FY24, 506 households with preschool age children and 254 households with school age children received consumer education (including child care and community referrals) in Region 14. The quality improvement staff, including regional specialists, provided technical assistance to 69 licensed preschool classrooms and 10 licensed school age classrooms to maintain or improve their quality. In addition, 870 professionals participated in 194 trainings offered to the Region.

Other Program Services include Family Nutrition Education, Family Supports and Education.