No Race To The Top Early Learning Dollars For Indiana

Elle Moxley / StateImpact Indiana

Head Start students play in their classroom at Eastview Elementary in Connersville.

Indiana’s bid for a substantial grant from the federal government to fund health and education programs for young children has fallen short.

Obama administration officials awarded Early Learning Challenge Grants to six other states Thursday in the latest round of their Race to the Top competition.

Indiana Bureau of Childcare administrator Melanie Brizzi says the purpose of the grant was to help states build what she calls “effective infrastructure” for early childhood education.

“So the building of successful state systems,” Brizzi told StateImpact earlier this month. “The support and development of high quality, accountable early learning programs, and then the promotion of outcomes for children — so looking at positive school readiness outcomes for children, including health outcomes.”

Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration partnered with the state health and education departments to submit an application, which focused on providing health and behavioral screenings to young children as well as increasing awareness of the state’s early learning guidelines.

Winners Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont will share a $280 million pot of federal money. It’s likely Indiana lawmakers will push for more state money for early learning during the upcoming session.