Family House Health Education

The U.S. Department of Education today released the application for the Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grant, which will provide $500 million in state-level competitive grants to improve early learning and development programs. The Department of Early Learning (DEL) is leading Washington’s application for the grant, which could bring up to $60 million to our state over four years to support early learning for our children.


RTT-ELC is meant to help states raise the quality of early learning programs so that children start school ready to succeed. DEL Director Bette Hyde said, “I believe Washington is well positioned to be competitive in the Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge. We are rolling out our kindergarten entry assessment program, WaKIDS, this school year and we are taking our Quality Rating and Improvement System to 65 child care providers this year as we move toward statewide implementation.”

The grant application is due October 19 and the federal government will announce the awards in December.

DEL has created a webpage to keep the early learning community informed about progress on RTT-ELC.

See our July 18 blog post about entering the RTT-ELC.

Other resources:

U.S. Department of Education press release about the grant application: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/obama-administration-releases-final-application-race-top-early-learning-challeng

Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge webpage: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-earlylearningchallenge/index.html