Early Childhood
Early Childhood Pre-K Program
LPSS Pre-K contains classrooms within the school district that are funded by LA4, 8g, Title 1, and Special Education grants as well as some local funds. This program, following the school system calendar, provides daily education to 4 year olds in Lafayette Parish.
FAMILIES READING AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The goal of FRAN is to assist families in improving and integrating adult education, early childhood education, parenting, health information, and everyday living skills into a unified family literacy program. FRAN, located at Truman Early Childhood Education Center, welcomes all families who have children between birth through age 7 years. Pregnant women are also encouraged to attend.
Director of Early Childhood
Emmy Thibodeaux
Family and Child Development Center
FAMILY AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER: We offer a program at Northside High School that can help high school students remain in school and receive child care for their children 6 weeks through 4 years on the school campus. To participate in this program, a student must enroll at Northside High and register to take the Child Development/Parenting classes. For more information, click Here.
Child Care Resource & Referral
CHILD CARE RESOURCE & REFERRAL:
ON TRACK by 5 Alliance (formerly Success by 5 AlIiance) is a Child Care Resource and Referral Agency (CCR&R) for early childhood services. ON TRACK by 5 Alliance is the local CCR&R Agency, contracted by the Louisiana Department of Education. The Agency operates within the Lafayette Parish School System, as a Division of the Early Childhood Department. For more information: www.ontrackby5.com
Lafayette Parish Ready Start Network
LEAD AGENCY: As directed by Act 3, Lafayette Parish has worked together to create a unified system of high quality, publicly-funded options to families to ensure more children enter school kindergarten ready. This network is comprised of a local early childhood community network that includes every publicly-funded Pre-K, Child Care, and Head Start program within the parish.
The state coordinates these community networks by designating a Lead Agency for each community to coordinate essential activities, specifically observations and enrollment. The Lead Agency also serves as fiscal agent.
- conduct administrative functions for the community network
- coordinate CLASS™ observations assuring that accurate observations are conducted for all Toddler and PreK classrooms and that feedback is provided to all programs
- coordinate the birth-to-age-five enrollment and the state funding application for the community network
READY START NETWORK: Lafayette Ready Start Network is a coalition of individuals committed to creating and implementing a bold local vision for early childhood. Ready Start Lafayette supports quality early childhood. This means that all children, wherever they receive care, are in a safe, caring and nurturing environment with qualified professionals that help children successful engage the world around them, not only for today but also for their future.
EARLY CHILDHOOD GUIDE: As part of a pilot with Louisiana Department of Education the Early Childhood Guide Facilitator will serve as a local resource to provide families and the Type III Early Learning Centers in Lafayette Parish with information about the Child Care Assistance Program and hands on assistance to apply for the financial aid.
The goals are:
- to assist families who are working, in school or actively seeking work to find child care and apply for financial aid to afford high quality child care.
- to ease the caseload of Early Learning Center administrators from assisting families with this vital service to refocus their work on providing quality care.
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