Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts
Planning and Pre-Application Meeting
Discussion Guide
Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts guidance requires a pre-application meeting prior to submission of application. Those potential PA Pre-K Counts sites in a school district geographic area must meet to coordinate outreach and enrollment. At a minimum, this meeting should include representatives from those agencies that completed Letters of Agreement. The Department of Education will provide the list, with contact information.
Representatives from the school district, Head Start, local child care facilities, Early Intervention, the Community engagement Group, and, if in the area, the Pre-K Counts private-public partnership, could also add value to the meeting.
The following topics and questions are available to guide your planning and discussion at the meeting. Applicants will include a summary of your meeting, using the following topics, and list the participants in your application.
1. Community Assessment
These questions may be helpful to guide the discussion: What are the needs of the community? Where are the pockets of at-risk children? What kinds of risk factors apply (academic, economic, cultural, linguistic)?How are preschool children currently being served? Is there a need for additional pre-kindergarten programming? In what areas? What existing pre-k providers and partnerships exist in these areas? Who has the capacity for additional children/classrooms?
2. Application Process
These questions may be helpful to guide the discussion: Will applicants apply in a joint application or individually? If a joint application is determined, who will be the fiscal agent? Who is the administrative agent? How many children will be included in the application? Where will these children be served? What is the process for writing the grant, including feedback and approvals from the team? What kinds of technical assistance are needed?
3. Recruitment and Eligibility
These questions may be helpful to guide the discussion: How will each of the PA Pre-K Counts programs that are planning to apply coordinate the recruitment of children? What are the outreach activities to recruit at-risk children? Will there be any eligibility requirements? How will children’s enrollment be prioritized? How will the team assure that federal and state Head Start funding will not be supplanted? (This can Include written endorsement from the local Head Start director). How will PA Pre-K Counts funds be used to supplement and/or maximize existing public and private resources? How will child care subsidy be affected?
4. Program Operation
This discussion should include the elements of the program: length of day and program year (this could vary per classroom); class size and student-teacher ratio; teacher qualifications; wrap around care (before and after Pre-K Counts); summer programming; referral or provision of support services – health, social and nutritional); curriculum and assessment; meals provision; services for special needs such as English acquisition or disabilities; transportation; transition planning; professional development; parent involvement.
5. Community Early Childhood Team
These questions may be helpful to guide the discussion: Will the groups that came together for this meeting continue to work together as a team? Who should be included on this team? What are possible goals for this group? Are there other early learning agencies that should be part of the planning/implementation team? Is there an already-existing Early Childhood Council in the community that can facilitate or incorporate this coordination?
