JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – The Mississippi State Board of Education (SBE) voted on Thursday to add three new early learning collaboratives (ELC) to the current list of 35 to provide high-quality early childhood education pre-K programs to 4-year-old students.
This ELC expansion is made possible by $2.1 million in state funds to be used by June 2025.
The new ELCs are:
- Holly Springs Early Learning Collaborative
- Lee County Early Learning Collaborative
- Ocean Springs Early Learning Collaborative
The three new ELCs will serve 260 pre-K 4-year-olds in five new classrooms and eight existing classrooms. Through state funding more than 6,800 total ELC students will be served in the 2022-23 school year.
An additional funding opportunity for school districts, local Head Starts, licensed childcare centers and private or parochial schools to join the ELC program will be advertised in a few weeks at mdek12.org/PN/RFP.
