The Coordinated Funding Request of the Jefferson Parish Early Childhood Collaborative Network was developed by Jefferson Parish Schools as Lead Agency, with information shared through the Jefferson Early Childhood Collaborative and Jefferson Ready Start Network. On December 12, 2024, JPS distributed a Request for Applications (RFA) to all community partners. The RFA included detailed instructions to apply, application questions, and seat requests.

The RFA highlighted that the goal of the Coordinated Funding Request was to ensure that the limited number of publicly funded early childhood seats are allocated to those programs in Jefferson Parish that:

• address parish wide needs,
• are high quality, and
• are in high demand by parents/families.

RFA questions asked partners to describe their community needs and share information about the quality of their program (e.g., facilities, curriculum, GOLD assessment data). ALL applications received by January 10th at 5:00 pm were included in the Coordinated Funding Request and were organized by funding type and by currently funded versus new requests for funding. The Application reflects the number of seats requested by the partner — this number was not reviewed, altered, or ranked in any way by the Lead Agency.

The Coordinated Funding Request will remain posted for public comment through January 16, 2025. Public comments should be emailed to Janai.garrison@jpschools.org. All public comments will be reviewed and addressed within the final Coordinated Funding Request to be submitted to the Louisiana Department of Education within the JPS Super App.