Building Bright Futures: Celebrating a Year of Impact, Growth, and Achievement (Fiscal Year 2025–2026)
As we close Fiscal Year 2025–2026, we are proud to celebrate another year of growth, impact, and service to children, families, and early learning providers throughout our community.
Children First
This year, our programs continued to expand access to quality early learning opportunities:
27,661 children were served through the School Readiness (SR) Program.
18,736 children were served through the Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) Program.
School Readiness Waitlist Eliminated
A major milestone this year was the successful elimination of the School Readiness Program waitlist. This achievement means that eligible low-income working families who previously would have waited months—or longer—for assistance can now access affordable, high-quality early learning and afterschool services when they need them. By removing this barrier, we are helping more children enter kindergarten ready to learn, enabling more parents to work or pursue education, and strengthening the economic well-being of families and our community.
8,981 children were selected from the School Readiness application queue, representing a 104.02% increase compared to the previous year. This achievement reflects the combined efforts of the Florida Department of Education, Division of Early Learning, and the Early Learning Coalition. The Division managed the School Readiness funding appropriated by the Legislature in a manner that maximized the number of children served statewide, while the Coalition implemented a managed enrollment process that closely monitored family attrition rates, enabling available slots to be filled promptly and ensuring full utilization of available program capacity.
Supporting Children with Special Needs
We continued to strengthen support for children with special needs by increasing access to the Special Needs Payment Rate Differential.
420 providers received the Special Needs Payment Rate Differential.
892 children with documented special needs benefited from the School Readiness Special Needs Payment Rate Differential, enabling early learning providers to receive enhanced reimbursement that supports more individualized instruction, care, and inclusive learning environments.
School Readiness and VPK Program Assessments
To help ensure high-quality early learning experiences, classrooms were assessed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS®), a nationally recognized observation tool that measures the quality of teacher-child interactions - the foundation of children's learning and development - and helps guide continuous quality improvement in early learning programs
As of June 30:
2,843 classroom assessments were completed.
Achieved 100% compliance by rating 673 School Readiness and 963 VPK programs.
Of the 1,636 program ratings completed, 1,629 programs (99.57%) met or exceeded the minimum contract threshold.
The majority of CLASS® ratings fell within the 5.00–5.99 range on the seven-point scale, reflecting strong teacher-child interactions and demonstrating high-quality early learning environments across the Early Learning Coalition's provider network.
The Children’s Trust Families Forward Child Care Scholarship
The Families Forward Child Care Scholarship supports low-income working families affected by the benefits cliff - those whose incomes exceed the eligibility limits for the School Readiness Program, but who continue to face significant financial barriers to affording high-quality early education - helping bridge the gap between public assistance and self-sufficiency.
As of June 30, 2026, the program served 2,836 children, providing vital support to families.
VPK Student Progress
VPK students in Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties are demonstrating significant developmental and academic gains throughout the year.
Florida's Benchmark for Kindergarten Readiness Progress
A score of 707 is the minimum statewide benchmark that indicates children are making adequate progress toward kindergarten readiness.
CDA Graduates
This year also marked a continued investment in the early childhood workforce through the achievement of new Child Development Associate (CDA) credentials. On June 27, 2026, Miami-Dade and Monroe educators were recognized at the CDA Completion Ceremony held at Florida International University. A total of 78 early childhood professionals earned their CDA credential, including five educators from Monroe County, strengthening the region’s commitment to high-quality early learning.
Finance and Audit Excellence
Our commitment to fiscal accountability and compliance was reflected in outstanding audit and monitoring results throughout the year.
Annual Fiscal Monitoring by the Department of Education resulted in zero findings.
Early Head Start Audit resulted in no findings.
Annual Single Audit resulted in zero findings.
These results demonstrate our strong financial stewardship, effective internal controls, and ongoing commitment to accountability and transparency.
Thank you to our staff, providers, partners, and families for making Fiscal Year 2025–2026 a year of remarkable achievement and impact for children across our community.