Giving Compass' Take:

• Diane Schilder discusses how childcare providers using federal funds can best collaborate to serve low-income working families. 

• How can funders help to connect childcare providers to facilitate collaboration? 

• Read about the high cost of childcare. 

Last year, the federal government devoted $250 million in federal funds to preschool expansion and development, and it budgeted another $350 million this year. Studies show that every dollar spent on high-quality preschool brings savings in terms of reduced costs for absenteeism, special education placement, and grade retention.

But some experts worry that funding for preschool alone doesn’t help low-income working families who want education for their children and child care during times when parents are working. The two new preschool grant opportunities aim to support collaborations between preschool and other early childhood programs to offer more seamless services for children and families.

Rather than providing funds to only support the expansion of preschool in school-based settings, the new grants require states and communities to assess the needs of families, develop plans to meet these needs, and engage families in designing services. These grants prompt states and communities to encourage early childhood programs to work together to offer seamless, high-quality education and care services that meet the needs of families.

So how can service providers form effective collaborations to achieve those goals?

Focus on mutual goals: Regardless of whether those designing and implementing collaborations are program or school administrators, teachers, or university partners, successful collaborations focus on goals and measurable objectives that are agreed upon by all partners.

Develop strong relationships and clearly defined roles: Clearly defining the roles of each partner or partnering organization is key to a collaboration’s success. Strong administrative procedures—such as contracts guiding the collaboration, procedures for explaining each program’s regulation, and processes for sharing data—also contribute to a smooth collaboration.

Forging strong relationships among the partners and devoting sufficient time to the collaboration are also important. Studies have found that the strength of the collaborators’ relationships predicts the collaboration’s success.

Read the full article about collaborating to better serve families by Diane Schilder at Urban Institute.