This year, state legislators made major cuts to many critical statewide early learning programs, leaving countless children and families without access to high-quality care. However, Seattle voters still have the opportunity to protect and expand early learning opportunities within the city by renewing the Family, Education, Preschool, and Promise (FEPP) levy in November.
The levy, which will appear under “Proposal 1” on Seattle voters’ ballots, will raise over $650 million for early learning programs – among which is the Seattle Preschool Program (SPP).
SPP is a holistic early learning option available to low-income families across the city of Seattle. It supports children’s school readiness through its evidence-based, nationally-accredited curriculum while supporting partnering child care providers with specialty coaching and resources for their programs.
There are over 100 SPP sites across the city, supporting a total of 2,500 children. One of those sites is Little Dreamers, a bilingual in-home child care center owned and directed by Deyanira Rojas. Deyanira joined SPP as a partner provider last year and is already seeing a difference in the ways she offers care.
“One of the things I am very grateful for with SPP is that they help teachers with ongoing training to provide higher-quality learning for the children,” Deyanira explained.
“They provide us with training and curriculum materials which helps us understand how to interact with the children through language and communication, so they continue to grow and learn more about their strengths, skills, and development.”
Through SPP, Deyanira and her staff have access to tools to identify when a child may have developmental delays and can receive direct support from SPP coaches on how to best serve them.
“I believe one of the most important things SPP offers is the follow-up on children’s development. It helps us especially identify any areas of development that might be lagging so that we can work effectively to help them grow and overcome any challenges,” said Deyanira. “This is crucial in early childhood.”
“If I notice any developmental challenges in a child, I can reach out to my coach or manager. Then, specialists can come to observe the children and provide tools and strategies to support them more effectively.”
SPP also emphasizes the importance of creating spaces that honor diversity and are culturally relevant – not only through language, but through the ways partnering programs interact with the families they serve.
“SPP strongly supports being multilingual. We encourage families to continue using their home language while also supporting the second language. In my program’s case, we teach in both Spanish and English,” Deyanira shared. “In addition, they train us to be more inclusive with both families and children. That is reflected through our family engagement and the activities we organize to include the families.”
As Deyanira explains, SPP does more than provide stipends for child care – it provides comprehensive support for children, families, and early learning providers themselves.
This is why BrightSpark Early Learning Services strongly encourages Seattle voters to vote “YES” on Proposal 1 and approve the FEPP Levy. If Proposal 1 is passed and the FEPP levy is approved, SPP will be renewed and expanded for 7 more years. If it is not, SPP will be discontinued entirely and thousands of children will lose access to high-quality child care centers like Little Dreamers.