Sixty percent of children in both Caddo and Bossier parishes arrive to school not “kindergarten ready.” In 2021 Community Foundation of North Louisiana established the Early Childhood Education Fund to expand access to, and enrollment in, quality early childhood education for Caddo and Bossier parish children, ages 0-3.
CFNLA raised $1 million for Caddo Parish and received a $1 million match from the state of Louisiana.
Children were placed with these funds in January of 2022. As of May 9, these funds have provided 1-year scholarships for 73 students (ages 0-3) to enroll in a Type III Childcare Center. Approximately 200 to 215 children will be able to receive scholarships with these funds.
In addition, the Caddo Parish Schools through its Caddo Smart Start program has provided scholarships to an additional 138 children (ages 0-3) to attend Type III Childcare Centers. These placements were made possible by a grant Caddo Parish received from the Louisiana Department of Education.
Finally, according to the February 1, 2022 count, 993 children are attending Type III childcare centers by receiving funding through the LA Childcare Assistance Program (CCAP).
Based on these numbers, the approximate number of children currently enrolled in Type III Early Childcare Centers in Caddo Parish is 1,204. By comparison, in October of 2019 (the last pre-COVID year) there were 842 children enrolled in Type III Childcare Centers through CCAP while 188 were on the waiting list.
While these numbers are preliminary, this means that 362 more children are attending Type III Childcare Centers in Caddo than in 2019.
Year 2 of fundraising for Caddo Parish is now beginning. If the community raises $900,000 towards the match, CFNLA will provide the last $100,000. More info and ways to donate here: https://cfnla.org/caddo/
Year 1 of fundraising for Bossier Parish is now beginning. If the community raises $360,000 towards the match, CFNLA will provide the last $40,000. More info and ways to donate here: https://cfnla.org/bossier/
Goal fundraising amounts are based on the number of students in need of public funding in each parish.
To view the ECE feature in CFNLA’s Annual Report, see: https://cfnla.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2022/05/2021-Annual-Report-compressed-2.pdf