• Stay at Home Parent
• Accreditation Facilitation Services
• Early Head Start
• Expansion for Child Care Providers

The primary goal of the Accreditation Facilitation grant program is to increase the quality of child care services for children up to the age they are eligible to enter kindergarten, with an emphasis on programs serving subsidized children ages 0-3.  These grants 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 goal of this grant is to support those providers not yet ready to pursue accreditation, by providing educational and training opportunities that will eventually move them toward accreditation.

The Early Head Start grants are for the purpose of promoting quality for Missouri’s birth to age three population, including prenatal care, by using Early Head Start as the mechanism for increasing quality.  In communities, Early Head Start serves as the hub around which a network of quality family child care homes, group homes, and centers are recruited and developed to meet the needs of both infants/toddlers and their families.  By encouraging the Early Head Start programs to partner with a wide range of providers in the community including both public and private, as well as religious based, family child care homes, group homes, and centers, we create a variety of quality providers from which parents may choose.  This not only allows parents a choice of provider that meets the individualized needs of their family, but provides an assurance that the services received are of a certain level of quality.

The Requests for Proposal can be found at the web site below.  The RFP number for the Stay at Home Parent Program is B3Z04147, the RFP number for the Accreditation Facilitation Services is B3Z04155, and the RFP number for the Early Head Start Program is B3Z04169:

If county offices receive any inquiries about any of the above grant opportunities refer to the web site above or to Julie Kleffner (julie.kleffner@oa.mo.gov) with the Office of Administration at (573) 751-7656.

The Expansion Grant for Child Care Providers will be available to the public by the end of March, 2004.  This grant application is for licensed child care providers to expand their capacity for children ages 0-3.  Applicants must currently be serving a minimum of 25% subsidized children.  Providers in counties with an average met need of licensed child care for children ages 0-3 at or over the state average are not eligible to apply for this grant.  Those counties are:

Boone	Cole	Stoddard
St. Louis City	Montgomery	Callaway
St. Louis	Gasconade	Randolph
St. Charles	St. Francois	Greene

This RFP will be available at:
http://dssapp.dss.state.mo.us/grant/child_care_welcome.asp
If county offices receive any inquiries about the Expansion Grant for Child Care Providers refer to the web site above or to Cindy Reese (Cindy.A.Reese@dss.mo.gov) at the Office of Early Childhood at (573) 522-1385.

• Review this memorandum with all Family Support Division and Children’s Division staff.

• Refer any inquiries about the Stay at Home Parent Program, Accreditation Facilitation Services, Early Head Start Program, and Expansion Grant for Child Care Providers to the resources identified in this memorandum.