Partners with Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative to provide technology, curriculum, mentorship, and other resources
Like many American states, Nebraska has thousands of families that are struggling to get access to quality, convenient, and affordable early education. Solving the problems start with increasing the supply of programs not only to meet overall demand but also to provide quality options that can satisfy a family’s philosophy, location, and schedule. Solving the early childhood care and education gap with high-quality programs in Nebraska can’t be a one-size-fits-all approach. It will require parents to find existing childcare programs, creating new programs, and offering tools to help providers across the state achieve higher quality. The Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative and Wonderschool partnership is offering such required ideal programs to the Nebraska families.
The collaboration aims to increase access to high-quality, family childcare and education programs for Nebraska families. By providing professionals with the technology, curriculum, mentorship and resources they need to run a successful family child care program, NECC and Wonderschool aim to enhance quality, affordable childcare programs across the state, including rural areas.
Programs empowering families
Economic Policy Institute shows that Nebraska families pay about $1,000 per month per child under 5 years old for early care and education. That’s about 50 percent more annually than an in-state public university’s tuition costs and about 20 percent more than the average cost of housing. Nebraska has a community of organizations capable of working to solve this crisis, and this partnership is built upon the strength of that work. The partnership will work to give Nebraska families more high-quality and affordable options to the families in California, New York, and Colorado while empowering a new generation of early childhood education entrepreneurs.
The programs are vetted by Wonderschool and NECC’s teams of early childhood education experts which will begin in early 2020. Nebraska parents will be able to enroll in programs in their area by searching the Wonderschool website.
NECC’s partnership with Wonderschool is a great example of how nonprofit and private sector organizations come together to deliver quality services, technology, and support that program directors and the families they serve need to build thriving ECE programs in both urban and rural communities.
Being part of the Wonderschool network also builds professional community and shared access to resources that can be enormously valuable to independent sometimes isolated family childcare providers. Wonderschool can further its mission to ensure every child under the age of five has access to early education to help them realize their full potential.
