Totally Gratuitous Cute Baby Photo Post (With Bonus Georgia Pre-K info)

We here at Early Ed Watch are big fans of Bravo’s Top Chef, and we also love any excuse to put pictures of adorable children up on the blog. So we’re pleased to congratulate Top Chef contestant Richard Blais and his wife, Jazmin, on the birth of their beautiful new baby girl, Riley (pictured here with her dad).

To make this post slightly less gratuitous, we’ll note that, since the Blais family lives in Atlanta, Riley can look forward to some good early education opportunities. Georgia is one of only two states in the country (the other is Oklahoma) to provide universal, publicly funded pre-kindergarten to all 4-year-olds whose parents want it (although the state doesn’t serve 3-year-olds). Georgia’s pre-k program, the first large scale state pre-k program in the country, employs a diverse delivery model that utilizes a variety of public, private, and community providers, offering parents a wide range of choices. Although Georgia doesn’t require all pre-k teachers to have a bachelor’s degree, it ensures quality by providing quality professional development resources and requiring programs to use a state approved, developmentally appropriate curriculum aligned with Georgia’s Pre-k Content Standards, which are themselves aligned with both the Georgia kindergarten standards and early learning standard for birth through age 3. Further, Georgia is one of only 9 states nationally to offer full-day kindergarten for all five-year-olds.

So, congrats to Richard, Jazmin, Riley, and the State of Georgia!