Indiana’s Preschool Development Grant (PDG)
Transforming Early Childhood Care and Education
In early 2023, Indiana was awarded a $42 million Preschool Development Grant (PDG) from the federal Administration for Children and Families. This grant aims to accelerate Indiana’s efforts to create sustainable and long-lasting improvements within the early care and education system. Led by the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL) in collaboration with the Indiana Department of Education’s Office of Kindergarten Readiness (OKR), this initiative focuses on building infrastructure, strengthening networks, and increasing resources to better serve Hoosier children and families, particularly those in underserved communities.
Focus Areas of the Grant
The PDG focuses on several critical areas designed to address Indiana’s unique early learning challenges and opportunities:
- Update Statewide B-5 Needs Assessment and Strategic Plan:
Conduct comprehensive assessments to understand the current strengths and gaps in Indiana’s mixed delivery system for children birth to age five and create a shared vision and actionable plan to address system priorities, ensuring improved coordination across stakeholders and agencies.
- Maximize Family Engagement:
Ensure families, particularly underserved populations, have the knowledge and access needed to fully participate in and benefit from early childhood programs that support healthy child development and school readiness.
- Support Quality Improvement:
Enhance the quality of early learning programs across the state by focusing on curriculum improvements, instructional practices and the overall learning environment to boost readiness outcomes.
- Expand Access to High-Quality ECCE Programs:
Expand access to high-quality early care and education programs, especially in underserved areas, and ensure that programs are inclusive and meet the diverse needs of Hoosier children and families.
- Coordinated Application, Eligibility, and Enrollment for Families:
Streamline the processes for applying, qualifying and enrolling in early childhood services, ensuring that families can easily navigate the system and access critical supports.
- Increase Access to Inclusive Settings:
Ensure that children from diverse backgrounds and those with special needs have access to inclusive and supportive early learning environments, giving every child the opportunity to succeed.
Key Progress and Outcomes
As Indiana works to strengthen its early care and education system, significant progress has already been made across the grant’s focus areas. Through strategic partnerships, targeted initiatives and dedicated support for families and educators, the state is addressing the key challenges identified in the B-5 needs assessment.
Focus Area Highlights
PDG focuses on several critical areas designed to improve Indiana’s early care and education system. Each focus area addresses specific needs within the early learning landscape, from empowering families and supporting the workforce to expanding access and improving program quality. Below are highlights of the key accomplishments and project-level successes achieved so far under each focus area:
Statewide B-5 Needs Assessment and Strategic Plan
A new needs assessment, led by Purdue University’s Center for Early Learning (CEL), updated the state of Indiana’s early care and education landscape. The findings from the assessment helped identify key gaps in infant and toddler care, particularly for low-income families.
As a result of these findings, Indiana is updating its birth-to-5 strategic plan with an increased focus on expanding access to high-quality infant and toddler care, as well as supporting local partnerships to strengthen service delivery across counties.
Data used in survey collection was as of October 2023. We’re working to update based on the latest figures. For current state and federal child care subsidy information, please visit Indiana's Child Care Subsidy Dashboard.
View Needs Assessment Findings
Supporting the ECCE Workforce
To address the state’s workforce challenges, Indiana expanded the Early Childhood Education Teacher Registered Apprenticeship Program, providing high school students with a pathway to earn college credits and gain work experience in early childhood settings. Additionally, the Next Level Jobs program has been expanded to cover tuition and fees for early childhood education programs, helping build a stronger workforce through essential credentialing opportunities.
Learn More about the Early Childhood Education Teacher Registered Apprenticeship Program
Visit Indiana’s Statewide Early Educator Job Board
Child Care Provider Licensing Process Redesign
To enhance operational effectiveness of Indiana’s child care licensing system, a comprehensive review and analysis was conducted. That work resulted in the creation of a leadership academy, training content, licensing consultant training and the development of standard operating procedures.
Improving Workforce Compensation
A statewide ECCE compensation study was conducted to address wage disparities and improve the overall working conditions for early childhood educators. The study offered policy recommendations to enhance recruitment, retention, and the quality of the ECCE workforce in Indiana.
Kindergarten Readiness Assessment System (KRA)
Research continues to show that the quality of an ECE program is the strongest predictor of school readiness and life outcomes. PDG funds are being leveraged to create and implement a kindergarten readiness assessment (KRA) and pilot program to measure student knowledge, skills and behaviors for all domains of early learning from ages birth through five. It will be developmentally appropriate according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and aligned to the Indiana Early Learning Standards.
The KRA provides a snapshot of students’ abilities at the beginning of kindergarten from an evaluation of eight domains:
- English/Language Arts
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Studies
- Student Wellbeing
- Physical Health and Growth
- Creative Arts
- Approaches to Play and Learning
In 2024, the KRA is an opt-in assessment. Administered within the first six weeks of the school year, the KRA includes a combination of direct child performance and rating by educators based on ongoing observations of children’s typical daily routines and activities. There are 50 items on the KRA consisting of 26 direct assessment items and 24 observational items. The direct assessment includes student-selected responses and performance tasks. Observations can take place in a variety of naturally-occurring settings. For the observation items, teachers can observe students individually, in small groups, or as a whole class. Observation items are scored using a rubric that includes specific criteria at three levels of proficiency: Demonstrating, Progressing, and Emerging.
Maximizing Family Engagement
Indiana is establishing five Family Advisory Councils across the state, aligning with the service and delivery areas of the Child Care Resource and Referral agencies. These groups are designed to ensure that family voices, particularly those from underserved populations, are actively involved in shaping early childhood and family service policies. Participants will represent diverse communities, including those receiving state or federal assistance, families with children at risk for developmental delays or disabilities, and dual or multi-language learners.
Family members in these advisory groups will be compensated for their time and contributions, with a focus on gathering feedback based on their lived experiences. The state will use these insights to inform policy and implementation changes within Indiana’s B-5 early childhood system. This initiative is critical for creating a more inclusive, responsive system that better meets the needs of all families, particularly those who have historically faced barriers to accessing high-quality ECCE programs and services.
Learn More Family Advisory Councils
Improving Access and Quality
Child Care Expansion Grants were launched in 2023 to provide funding for child care providers to increase seat capacity to serve more CCDF and On My Way Pre-K families. A portion of this initiative was supported with PDG funds. As a result of the grants, more than 1,800 seats are being added across 20 Indiana counties. The Employer-Sponsored Child Care Fund was also established in 2023, offering $25 million in seed funding to help businesses create or expand child care programs for their employees. This initiative is expected to benefit over 400,000 employees across the state, helping to address critical child care needs while expanding access to quality programs.
Learn More About Indiana’s Employer-Sponsored Child Care Fund
Additionally, the state has launched efforts to subsidize access to child care management systems (CCMS) for early care and education operators, enhancing their operational efficiency and improving the overall quality of care. These business automations allow providers to redirect time and energy toward program quality and instructional outcomes.
Learn More About Indiana’s CCMS
Increasing Access to Inclusive Settings
Indiana is working to expand access to inclusive settings that provide equitable early childhood education and care for all children, including those with developmental delays or special needs. This initiative aims to ensure that all children, regardless of background or ability, have access to high-quality early learning environments.
Indiana is implementing the Pyramid Model, a positive behavioral intervention and support (PBIS) framework that uses systems-thinking and implementation science to promote evidence-based practices. Through the use of PDG funding, Indiana is thrilled to become the 42 Pyramid Model state, partnering with Part B and Part C to provide grants to ECE and developmental classrooms that have children with disabilities and/or IEPs (Indiana’s vulnerable children).
The grant will support work in the following areas:
- Building and developing a leadership team to guide implementation of the Pyramid Model within a classroom, school or program
- Increasing staff involvement with the pyramid model
- Developing a variety of mechanisms used to establish partnerships with families in the implementation of the model
- Adopting program-wide expectations that provide a shared focus and shared language for describing behavior expectations to children, staff, and families.
- Building capacity amongst staff through professional development/coaching in order to effectively implement the Pyramid practices
- Developing or maintaining a program-wide data collection and review system
- Purchasing and implementing tools directly related to the above priorities.
Looking Ahead: Next Steps
As Indiana continues to implement the Preschool Development Grant, the state is focused on further expanding access to high-quality early learning programs, particularly in rural and underserved areas. Additional efforts will aim to enhance workforce recruitment, retention and training opportunities to ensure that Indiana’s youngest learners are supported by a skilled and prepared early childhood workforce.
Indiana will continue to provide updates on grant progress, outcomes and stakeholder engagements. Stay tuned for more information on how Indiana’s early care and education system is evolving to better serve all children and families across the state.
Stay Engaged
OECOSL works alongside stakeholders from across the state — including industry partners, early childhood and out-of-school time providers and community leaders — to directly inform early childhood initiatives and provide local-level insights. Hoosiers can stay up-to-date and provide input and feedback on these efforts at any time through our channels below.
