Applications Now Accepted: How To Get Stimulus Money for State Advisory Councils

Yesterday, the federal government provided details about how and when states should apply for a chunk of $100 million in stimulus funds for “state advisory councils.” These councils — which are supposed to coordinate the growing tangle of early childhood programs at the state, local and federal level — have been mandated by law since 2007 but have often languished for lack of funding. It’s not even clear how many actually exist.

The new guidance, which calls for proposals for three-year projects, was published on the Web by the Administration for Children & Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (It’s also available as a 10-page PDF document.)

These councils may seem a few steps removed from the work of helping young children, but in fact they are a key component of sustainable, coordinated early childhood programs. If done well, they could root out redundancy among the hodgepodge of state, local and federal programs that exist at this point and ensure that funding is going where it is most needed. As we’ve written before, they are important for laying the groundwork for President Obama’s proposed Early Learning Challenge Fund. But this will only happen if states are smart about how they use these councils; too often, coordinating councils are simply ineffective.

Applications may be submitted through August 30, 2010 August 1, 2010. (UPDATED 11/17/09 based on information from HHS Web site.) We would hope to see states retrieving these funds earlier than that. If they have been paying attention, states should have already lined up many of the materials required — including conducting needs assessments and holding the required public hearings about their plans. It’s high time to start building the better-organized networks of high-quality care and education that families need.

UPDATE: Here are the allocations per state, provided to Early Ed Watch by the Administration for Children and Families. The department will not know exactly how much each state will actually receive until applications are received and funds disbursed.