FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Doxie McCoy (EOM) 202.727.9691; [email protected]
Rachel Joseph (DMHHS) 202.727.7973; [email protected]
Jessica Sutter (DME) 202.727.6054; [email protected]
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Mayor Vincent C. Gray today joined educational and human-services leaders in presenting his Early Success Framework, an effort to more closely coordinate across D.C. government agencies and community partners to ensure all District children develop and learn in nurturing and healthy environments.
“During my State of the District Address earlier this year, I said that I want the District to ‘Seize the Future’ by creating a new economy, by ensuring that our residents are prepared to fill the jobs in that new economy and by improving the quality of life for all in our city. Early-childhood education and development is integral to each of those priorities,” Mayor Gray said. “That’s why we’re announcing this Early Success Framework, which will help us coordinate efforts across the many functions of our government and our partners that touch on early-childhood education and development and will also help us measure our progress.”
The Early Success Framework includes a challenge to meet measurable outcomes in the areas of quality standards for the District’s early-childhood programs, access to high-quality programs for low-income children, lowering the threshold for eligibility to participate in programs to support infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities, participation rates in vision and hearing screenings for young children, access to primary-care physicians, prenatal care, and advanced degrees for Pre-K classroom teachers and assistant teachers.
The Framework is the result of efforts coordinated by the offices of Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Beatriz “BB” Otero and Deputy Mayor for Education De’Shawn Wright.
The Framework, part of the Mayor’s cradle-to-career initiative, is an effort to better coordinate the many ways in which the District government and partner agencies engage the issues surrounding early-childhood education and healthy child development.
The announcement, which took place at the Southeast Children’s Fund Child Development Center, is one of several events in which Mayor Gray is participating this week to mark the national Week of the Young Child.
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