Northwest Indiana
More than $60,000 will go toward training, building upgrades
Three Northwest Indiana preschool and child care centers will receive more than $60,000 in grants for training and building improvements.
Highland’s Cline Avenue Fellowship Childcare will receive $36,633 to put in a new fire alarm system, install four sinks and provide additional training for half of its staff, Director Jessica Gluth said.
The money will allow staff members to earn a child development associate credential, requiring at least 120 hours of training — something half the staff does not have, she said.
At minimum, they are required to have 12 hours of ongoing education each year.
“The state is not as strict with us in providing a curriculum, or making sure (children) are learning throughout the day,” Gluth said.
“We are not just putting them in a classroom and having them play with toys all day,” she said. “We are making sure we are educating them at the same time.”
Cline Avenue Fellowship Childcare serves about 65 children from the ages of 6 weeks to 5 years, with school aged kids welcome in the summer.
It has run a child care program for about 18 years, she said.
That enrollment has remained steady in recent years, she said, even as other facilities have closed, like Purdue Northwest’s Riley Child Center last summer.
Under the latest round of grants, Immanuel Lutheran Preschool in Valparaiso will receive $16,325 for building improvements, new classroom materials and new staff costs.
Crown Point’s Stepping Up Preschool will get $7,640 as well for building upgrades, classroom materials, staff development, and other costs.
Last month, Indianapolis-based nonprofit Early Learning Indiana announced it would award $126,000 statewide in grants to seven child care and preschools, mostly for building upgrades and professional development.
Early Learning Indiana has given $1.9 million statewide to preschool programs since 2015. The money was provided through $20 million from the Lilly Endowment, according to a news release. Last year, Indiana expanded its On My Way pre-K program, serving 4- to 5-year-olds with income-eligible parents, to more counties including Lake, Allen, Bartholomew, DeKalb, Delaware, Elkhart, Floyd, Grant, Harrison, Howard, Jackson, Kosciusko, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Monroe, St. Joseph, Tippecanoe, Vanderburgh and Vigo.
Indiana lags behind most other states when it comes to preparing disadvantaged children for school, a bipartisan coalition of education advocates say.
More than 40 other states offer significant preschool programs, but Indiana is not one, according to 2015 figures from the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.
