Gov. Bob Ferguson announced on April 16 that the Washington Department of Commerce was partnering with the Department of Children, Youth, and Families to award nearly $56 million in grants to early learning providers.
The funds will be distributed to 74 early learning providers in the state and create 2,056 new child care spaces, according to a news release. The funds will be awarded through the Early Learning Facilities program, which is designed to provide financial assistance to early childhood education contractors and providers to expand, remodel, purchase, or construct new facilities.
Since 2017, the ELF program has awarded more than $235 million, resulting in nearly 15,000 child care slots, according to the release.
ELF grants are currently funding the construction of three facilities in Grays Harbor County, which has allowed the provider to expand by more than 300%, the release noted.
“The Early Learning Facilities Program has been a life-changing partner for our community,” Learning to Grow Executive Director Stephanie Smith said in the release. “Our ELF grant awards created two beautiful early learning centers that expanded our services to include infants through school age and increased our capacity from 46 slots to more than 200. The ELF grant greatly impacted local employment recruitment and retention efforts, child care access for working families, employment of more than 40 staff, and most importantly, the quality of early learning and care for the generations to come.”
View the full list of awardees here.