Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Early Childhood topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Early-childhood network rated 'high proficient'; district leaders say 12,000 children lack publicly funded seats
Summary
East Baton Rouge Parish’s early-childhood network earned an overall "high proficient" rating for 2024–25 across 4,905 publicly funded seats at 170 sites, but officials warned about a large gap in access — roughly 30% of the area's 18,000 children have publicly funded slots, leaving about 12,000 underserved.
District officials on Dec. 4 presented 2024–25 early-childhood performance ratings for the East Baton Rouge Parish network and urged investment to close a large gap in publicly funded seats.
Ms. Webb, presenting for the district, said the early-childhood network received an overall rating of 5.5 (rated "high proficient") across 4,905 publicly funded seats at 170 sites. Site-level breakdowns included 27 "excellent" sites, 97 "high proficient," 38 "proficient," eight "approaching proficient" and zero "unsatisfactory" sites. Within the district’s EBR pre-K4 program, Ms. Webb said the district’s 41 EBR schools averaged a 5.66 rating with 12 "excellent" sites.
Ms. Webb highlighted capacity concerns: she said roughly 18,000 children are born in the Baton Rouge area annually, and only about 30% of those children have access to publicly funded seats, leaving an estimated 12,000 children underserved. “So we just beg for more investment and more advocacy,” she said, urging board support for expansion.
Superintendent Cole and presenters identified a mix of delivery sites in the network, including district-run pre-K, Early Head Start programs (noting partnership arrangements such as the YWCA powering early Head Start and mayor’s office governance for other Head Start centers), charter and private providers, childcare centers and family/home providers. Ms. Webb noted areas needing instructional-support growth, particularly promoting higher-order thinking skills in early grades.
Board members and staff framed the ratings as positive while stressing the need to increase capacity and funding to serve more infants and toddlers; no funding action was taken at the meeting.
