Local communities are ready for preschool expansion, but often lack the funds to get started. Absent a clear federal or state path for preschool expansion, innovative local leaders are forging ahead using a variety of collaborative approaches.

Last week, Strategies for Children hosted a webinar on this topic: “Local Preschool Financing Strategies in Massachusetts.” Three communities presented their work, and 15 other communities participated in the webinar.

Here’s a recap of the event and the topics we discussed.

We heard from Holyoke, Springfield, and Boston, all communities that are leading the way on financing more preschool spots for children through a mixed-delivery system.

Presentations were made by:

Stephen Zrike, receiver/superintendent, Holyoke Public Schools

Steve Huntley, executive director, Valley Opportunity Council

Patrick Roach, chief financial and operations officer, Springfield Public Schools, and

Jason Sachs, executive director of early childhood, Boston Public Schools

Among the themes we heard during the webinar:

• Holyoke, Springfield, and Boston are all utilizing blended funding and community collaborations to expand preschool. The details vary by community. But the lesson is clear: communities should customize their solutions to meet local needs.

• Communities should also be prepared to meet challenges, including:

– finding sustainable funding

-establishing pay parity among early educators who work in different settings;

– delivering special education services, and

– resolving the different rules and regulations of the Department of Early Education and Care and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

 We also discussed the fact that many communities want to expand their mixed-delivery preschool system, including communities that have received federal Preschool Expansion Grant funding, communities that have received state Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative funding, and communities that have not received these grants.

The take-home message: Community-based collaboration works. It’s an approach that expands children’s access to preschool, improves program quality, and meets families’ needs. To learn more, please watch the webinar recording.

Strategies will continue to offer webinars, so we’d love to hear more about what you’d like to know. Please let us know what resources would be helpful to you. And be sure to check out related materials on SFC’s Community Readiness webpage.

We want to be a resource and thought partner for local communities working to build their early learning systems. We hope to help communities connect with and learn from each other, in part by sharing strategies and templates for budget planning, data landscape analysis, coalition building, storytelling, and, of course, advocacy!