Transition to Kindergarten Planning and Mini-Grant Opportunity

Transitioning into kindergarten is a very exciting but often overwhelming time for young learners and their families. Building strong transition plans that include community partnerships enables schools and educators to be ready to meet children and families where they are in many aspects of this transition period. The opportunity described below will focus on working with school administrative units (SAUs) and community partners to build kindergarten transition teams and plans. Participants will engage in a technical assistance program that guides the strengthening of community partnerships, equitable practices for families, and a universal understanding of what it means to be ready for children and families to succeed in kindergarten. The goal of implementing kindergarten transition plans is to increase family engagement, encourage school attendance, and build strong partnerships to support kindergarten transitions for children, families, and school communities.

The Early Learning Team in the Office of Teaching and Learning at the Maine Department of Education (DOE), together with the Office of Child and Family Services at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, is pleased to extend this mini-grant opportunity to build high-quality transition to kindergarten teams and plans. This project will require SAUs to partner with their community early care and education providers. We encourage all providers who may be interested to reach to their local school administrative units to express interest in being part of their SAU's (or school's) transition team. This opportunity is funded by Maine's Preschool Development Grant (PDG).

Participants will attend monthly technical assistance meetings and take advantage of focused individual sessions as needed. Participants will work to form a transition team for their SAU and will build out a year-long transition plan to support children and families before, during, and after the transition to kindergarten. Once the transition plans are finalized in February 2025, participants will be eligible for mini-grants to support the implementation of the plans leading up to and continuing into the 2025-2026 school year. To complete the series, there will also be follow-up technical assistance (TA) sessions, one in September 2025 and one in October 2025.

We invite all interested representatives from SAUs and community early care and education providers to join us for an informational and Q&A session to learn more about this opportunity on Wednesday, September 25, 2024, from 4:30-5:00 p.m., using the following session link:

Join Zoom Meeting here
Meeting ID: 830 9860 1555

Participants interested in the opportunity will complete a registration form. The registration form requires identification of preliminary team members (at a minimum, representation of one SAU or school leader, one school educator/staff member, and one community early childhood provider) and assurances for building community partnerships and engaging in the technical assistance meetings. If you need assistance in locating early care and education providers in your area, visit www.childcarechoices.me. The registration form should be completed by a representative of the SAU. The form will be open through October 25, 2024.

Initial TA meetings will be held on October 29, 2024, from 4:00-5:00 p.m., November 19, 2024, from 3:30 - 4:30 p.m., and December 17, 2024, from 3:30 -4:30 p.m. We will work together to schedule the remainder of the meetings at a mutually agreed-upon time and date.

Please reach out to Marcy Whitcomb, Public Pre-K Consultant with the Early Learning Team at the Maine DOE, at [email protected] , with any questions and for more information.