Weeks before the end of 2015, Congress approved and President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law, replacing the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. For the first time in any iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, early learning has been incorporated across the law in addition to the authorization of a new early learning program, the Preschool Development Grants. Having previously been an allowable use of funds, early learning under ESSA has been elevated to promote early learning coordination within communities, greater alignment with the early elementary grades, and early childhood education focused capacity building among teachers, leaders, and other staff serving young children.
While in its early rollout stages, FFYF has developed a toolkit to support early learning advocates which includes: a summary and analysis overview of ESSA, a comparison of ESSA with its predecessors, and a breakdown of ESSA’s Preschool Development Grants along with how they differ from the legacy Preschool Development Grants.