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Maryland board hears Prekindergarten Expansion Grant report; MSDE cites slot growth and stepped‑up technical assistance
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Summary
Maryland State Board staff told the Strategy and Operations Committee that Pre‑K enrollment and expansion slots rose under the competitive Prekindergarten Expansion Grant, outlined monitoring and technical assistance steps, and said a data deep dive and equity work group will guide future outreach and alignment between LEA and non‑LEA settings.
The State Board of Education’s Strategy and Operations Committee on Tuesday received the Maryland Department of Education’s annual legislative report on the Prekindergarten Expansion Grant, hearing staff describe increased publicly funded Pre‑K enrollment, grant awards, and steps the agency is taking to improve application access and program quality.
Dr. Nakia Washington, MSDE’s prekindergarten program manager, told the committee that 33,994 children were enrolled in publicly funded Pre‑K during the 2024–25 school year and that, after reviewing 108 applications in FY25, MSDE awarded 1,626 expansion slots to 35 private providers and 12 local education agencies. “The Prekindergarten Expansion Grant is a competitive grant that is designed to increase access and child outcomes,” Washington said. She added that FY26 awards expanded further: 50 programs were funded, creating 1,858 publicly funded Pre‑K slots across 10 LEAs and 40 private providers, and that 105 applicants sought funding for the 2025–26 cycle (78 first‑time applicants and 27 returning programs).
Why it matters: the program is part of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future strategy to broaden access to high‑quality early education, including younger children, multilingual learners, children with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness. Officials said expanded access and targeted supports are intended to drive kindergarten readiness statewide.
How the grant works and monitoring: MSDE staff said applicants must participate in Maryland EXCELS and, for licensed providers, have no serious health or safety violations at the time of application. Programs in non‑LEA settings must have a published Maryland EXCELS quality rating of at least 3 (LEA settings must have a rating of 4) and a plan to achieve level 5 within five years. Washington described grant monitoring that includes on‑site check‑ins, classroom observations, coaching for teaching staff, student file eligibility reviews and fiscal and operational compliance reviews. “Each grantee was assigned a pre kindergarten support specialist who was their point of contact for the grant year,” she said.
Technical assistance and accessibility: staff said MSDE increased technical assistance for the FY26 cycle—offering six TA sessions and four office hours, two TA sessions with Spanish translation and one office hour with Spanish translation—and that some materials and a paper‑format worksheet remain available to support applicants. The agency also moved to an electronic online submission system in FY26. MSDE said it analyzes applications that are not funded to identify areas where applicants score lower—budget narratives and writing measurable goals were cited as common weaknesses—and then adds targeted TA sessions to address those gaps.
Licensing and equity questions: a committee chat question asked whether a violation that would disqualify a center applies only to a Pre‑K classroom or to the entire licensed center. Jenna Smith (executive director) responded that licensing and compliance are applied to the entire licensed child care center; public school LEAs are not licensed under the same rules but remain responsible for health and safety compliance. Staff said a preschool work group, led in part by Dr. Laura Wallace, is doing a crosswalk to identify where LEA and non‑LEA requirements can be aligned and to bring recommendations to the board.
Funding and slot increases: the chair raised a question about how MSDE increased slots without increasing available grant funding. Washington said the agency has kept the pre‑K expansion funding level steady (spoken as $26,644,000) in recent years and credited stronger implementation, better data tracking, adjustments in applications and reallocating returned or unused slots to expand capacity without added dollars.
Provider supports: MSDE said the agency offers a 15% advance on grant awards for private providers to help with startup and working capital; staff reported that the majority of private providers accepted that advance. Committee members and MSDE staff discussed further measures to create capacity without new state funding, including repurposing child care resource center funding into shared‑service hubs, using existing Aspire supports, data systems improvements and targeted coaching to help more programs reach EXCELS eligibility.
Next steps: MSDE said private providers will submit updated enrollment data on Nov. 17 to inform a deeper needs assessment, and Dr. Laura Wallace reported an interim preschool work group report is due early next year with implementation activity thereafter. The committee adjourned; the board’s next Strategy and Operations Committee meeting is scheduled for Jan. 14 at 4 p.m.
