Northampton, Mass., is in the news for its high-quality preschool model. The Western Massachusetts community is a state leader for its approach to preschool expansion, including its collaborative delivery of special education services to young children. 

One factor driving this success is support from the state’s Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI), a grant for communities to expand preschool in their mixed-delivery systems of school district programs and state-licensed early education and care programs.

Through CPPI, “Northampton has received $670,000 annually since 2019 to build toward the state’s goal of a mixed delivery system,” the Daily Hampshire Gazette reports.

Laura Frogameni, the preschool and partnership coordinator at Northampton school district’s Early Childhood Center, tells the Gazette, “What’s happening in Northampton is reshaping the system so that it works better for children and families.”

Among those who are benefitting are children with disabilities or developmental delays. Previously these children had to go to public schools to receive services. Currently, the CPPI grant “pays for special educators to travel to early education and child care centers, bringing their services to where the children are.”

The grant also pays for professional development opportunities that are open to providers across the spectrum, so “Head Start teachers have had the opportunity for trainings with the public schools and vice versa,” the article says. This helps break down some of the isolation that family child care providers can face.

“The grant also provides some money to community-based preschools and child care centers to allow them to offset costs for parents,” and it “pays teachers to advance their certifications and supports family child care with subsidies.”

The Gazette adds, “The goal, Frogameni said, is not only to get all children ready for kindergarten, but for preschool-age children to have access to quality education wherever they go to school.”

CPPI could grow next year, thanks to Governor Maura Healey who called for $15.5 million to expand the program in her FY ’25 budget proposal. The Legislature will release its own budget proposals next, beginning with the House in April. 

Frogameni praises the expansion CPPI, telling the Gazette, “If we can get more cities on board, it’s no longer a pilot program — it’s the way we do business.”

And that would be a huge benefit for children and families.