Hi everyone,

As we alluded to earlier this week, we thought by now we’d be able to share final FY12 funding levels for federal early learning programs. Congress, though, kept busy with other tasks (like the payroll tax extension), and the appropriations omnibus bill that was supposed to be released Monday for a vote tomorrow has not yet appeared.

While we still hope and believe that it will have good news for early learning, and our fingers are crossed that it even keeps open the possibility of Round 2 funding for the Early Learning Challenge, we will all have to stay tuned. For more details and the latest info, join us and our colleagues on tomorrow’s update call. 

Then, get ready: Friday, December 16, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, Early Learning Challenge awards will be announced (and streamed live online here). We’ve updated our announcement day communications toolkit with a new backgrounder and some at-a-glance state snapshots, and we’ll be sharing more resources tomorrow.

Whether or not your state is awarded funding on Friday, you are doing important, exciting work, so don’t be shy about celebrating it, and let us know how we can help. Good luck!

Best,
Cornelia