The Stay at Home Parent grants are for planning, developing, and implementing programs that provide early childhood education supports to parents who are staying at home with children ages birth to 3 years, and who have family incomes under 185% of the federal poverty level.

Accreditation Facilitation grants are for the purpose of increasing the quality of child care services for children up to the age they are eligible to enter kindergarten, with an emphasis on those programs serving ages 0-3.  These grants will provide financial and technical assistance to support child care programs that are working toward accreditation by an early childhood accrediting organization recognized by the Department of Social Services.  A secondary purpose of this grant is to support providers, not yet ready to pursue accreditation, in increasing their education and training levels that will eventually move them toward accreditation. 

The Requests for Proposal can be found at the web site below.  The RFP number for the Stay at Home Parent Program is B3Z01131 and the RFP number for the Accreditation Facilitation program is B3Z01133:

    www.moolb.state.mo.us/BidList/SearchByBidNumber.asp

If county offices receive any inquiries about either of these grants refer to the web site above or to Laura Ortmeyer (ortmel@mail.oa.state.mo.us) with the Office of Administration at (573) 751-4579.

• Review this memorandum with all IM and Children Service staff.

• Refer any inquiries about the Stay at Home Parent and Accreditation Facilitation grants to the resources identified in this memorandum.