The first five years of a child’s life are a time of enormous social, emotional, physical, and intellectual growth. For children to grow into successful adults, they need a supportive and healthy early foundation. We know that nearly 1/2 of the children in our community are not prepared to enter kindergarten ready to learn, and we know that children who start out behind, tend to stay behind. We are the community-wide convener in transforming Early Care and Education, leading the Ready for K Alliance, a coalition of over 100 partners working to align strategies and improve early educational attainment.

Dedicated to Improving Outcomes for Children

The Ready for K Alliance is focused on ensuring all children enter kindergarten ready to thrive. Kindergarten readiness is an important indicator of whether children will succeed in the classroom for years to come. Based on local data, Jefferson County Public School (JCPS) students who entered school ready for kindergarten in 2016 were over three times as likely to achieve test results at or above their grade level on their standardized math and reading tests in the 3rd grade.

In 2023 only 43.6% of JCPS incoming kindergarteners entered school ready for kindergarten. The Ready for K Alliance is dedicated to improving this outcome for children in our community, not only ensuring they have access to the supports they need from birth to kindergarten entry, but giving them the opportunity to thrive for years to come.

The Ready for K Alliance is committed to improving outcomes for children by focusing on four outcomes areas:

  • HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT

    Children are born healthy with access to resources to maintain healthy development.

  • ACCESS AND QUALITY

    Families have access to affordable, high-quality early care and education.

  • FAMILY AND CAREGIVER ENGAGEMENT

    Families and caregivers are equipped with knowledge and understanding of their child’s development and involve themselves in helping them thrive.

  • SYSTEMS ALIGNMENT

    Institutions, services, and agencies serving children are comprehensive, collaborative, aligned and coordinated.

Ready for K Action Networks:

Healthy Development Action Network

The Healthy Development Action Network launched Ready for K’s first-ever family and caregiver leader council. Contracting with National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) this Action Network is learning best practices, developing policies and procedures, and recruiting families and caregivers to serve on the parent leader council. Once the council is established, it will work alongside the Action Network to identify issues and develop solutions in the healthy development space to support Jefferson Co. families.

Access & Quality Action Network

The Access & Quality Action Network launched a neighborhood-focused quality improvement initiative for center-based child care providers in the Russell neighborhood. Russell: A Place of Promise, Community Coordinated Child Care (4-C), and Child Care Aware are the primary partners on this project. Phase one of this project is focused on co-creating a quality improvement initiative with Russell center-based providers. Phase two will be the launch of the quality improvement initiative created in phase one. Once launched in the Russell neighborhood the Action Network has a goal of expanding to additional neighborhoods.

Family & Caregiver Engagement Action Network

The Family & Caregiver Engagement Action Network is contracting with National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) to create unified messaging, a sole source of resources, and a timeline on transition to kindergarten for community partners. The primary partners in this project in addition to NCFL are La Casita, Play Cousins Collective, JCPS, and Child Care Aware. The project includes quarterly professional development for Ready for K partners, a communications toolkit for partners to use on their social media and in communications to families, as well as a calendar with JCPS deadlines and community partner events. All resources for this project can be found on Ready for K’s website here.

Ready for K Impact Report

Preparing all to achieve

See how we’re preparing all kids to win and kindergarten right from the start.

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