A hub model for early childhood education will work to get more Missouri children into preschool and guide parents to other educational support programs.
It鈥檚 another part of a long string of recent efforts in the state and St. Louis to improve funding and access for early childhood education, which is increasingly seen by researchers and advocates as a critical development period in learning.
Missouri鈥檚 education agency has named 16 so far with plans to add more. In St. Louis, the hub will be run by the nonprofit United 4 Children. The organization will identify an area school district to partner with.
鈥淲hen families don't really know where to go and they keep struggling, they don't know what questions to ask or where to go to ask those questions. This hub will actually serve as that kind of one-stop shop where they can go,鈥� said Deanna Finch, United 4 Childen鈥檚 executive director.
The hubs are funded through a $6.5 million federal grant the state鈥檚 Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in 2019. The state legislature has also increased early childhood funding.
Preschool enrollment in Missouri lags behind national averages but was in 2019, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research鈥檚 most recent State of Preschool report. But that the recession brought on by the pandemic could slow or reverse progress.
launched last year, pooling the recent increase in state funding to open up more spots across several charter schools and early childhood centers. Prior to the cooperative鈥檚 launch, about half the children in the city were not in a free prekindergarten program, of services.
And city a property tax increase in November that will pump $2.3 million a year into . A to raise funding is underway in St. Louis County.
鈥淪t. Louis has historically struggled, I think, to coordinate,鈥� said Linda Rallo, vice president of Aligned, an education advocacy organization. 鈥淪o sometimes, like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. And so I think the regional hub will be really helpful to that, we have a better idea of what we offer.鈥�
Affordable and quality child care centers often have long waiting lists and while the newly formed regional hubs won鈥檛 directly fund more seats in those centers, United 4 Children鈥檚 Finch said that they want to make finding spots simpler.
鈥淢any times, families just don't know where to go to find out what is quality, who is available, who has slots, that is going to meet the needs of my child,鈥� she said.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson created an Office of Childhood in January to bring different efforts under the education and health departments under one office. It will officially open this summer.
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