Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

The Department of Early Education and Care has posted up-to-date early educator scholarship information on its website.

As the website explains, “The Early Childhood Scholarship provides financial assistance if you are currently employed in an early childhood field. This includes all licensed and funded EEC program types.”

The scholarship is for early childhood staff who are “enrolled (or plan to enroll in) a higher education certificate, associates, bachelors or masters degree program at an approved institution in Massachusetts.”

Eligible majors include: ” Early Childhood Education, Child Development, Family Studies, Child Care Administration or fields that directly name early child development as its specific areas of inquiry.”

There’s more detailed information on the Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) website.

The Early Childhood Scholarship was funded as a pilot program back in the fiscal year 2006 state budget. It has since been awarded to thousands of early educators, and its popularity has led to continued public support, with annual funding of more than $3 million per year. 

You can register for a Zoom information session (with simultaneous interpretation in Spanish and Portuguese) that will take place on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, at 7 p.m.

And you can download a scholarship guide that explains how to apply. 

For more information contact the Early Education and Care Help Desk at (617) 988-2450 or submit a report request.

Check it out and consider applying for a scholarship!