The Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF) announced about $37.5 million in mixed delivery grants of state general funds through the Virginia Depa1tment of Education to support quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) services for 2,687 children from bi1th to age s across the state, including in the Lynchburg region. Virginia’s Mixed Delivery program, administered by VECF, enables eligible families with infants, toddlers and preschoolers to access high-quality, full day, year-round ECCE services in private, community-based settings of their choice so they can work, and their children can enter kindergarten ready to learn. Funding was awarded through a competitive process to Ready Region lead agencies, including Ready Region Southside’s Center for Early Success, who received just more than $3.2 million.
The mixed delivery program began in 2016 as an innovative pilot envisioned by the Virginia General Assembly and the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation and has expanded to serve infants, toddlers and two-year-olds in fiscal year 2023. It uses a cost-of-quality methodology for setting service rates and a contract-based model that provides more predictable and sustained funding for sites to suppo1t competitive compensation and early educator retention.
Stephanie Mann, director of Ready Region Southside, said the funding means expanded access to high-quality childcare for families across the Southside region, which serves the cities of Danville, Halifax, and Lynchburg, and the counties of Amelia, Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, Brunswick, Campbell, Charlotte, Cumberland, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Nottoway, Pittsylvania, and Prince Edward.
In May 2025, she said there were 1,577 children sitting on subsidy waitlists across Southside and 449 of those children were ages from birth to 5 years old. In Lynchburg in particular, there are children currently on the childcare subsidy program (CCSP) waitlist. She said that mixed delivery provides publicly funded ECCE services in licensed (non-faith-based), private ECCE settings for eligible children and funds full-day, year-round ECCE services for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Current mixed delivery slots in the area include the Bedford YMCA, Little Scholars at the YMCA in Lynchburg, Ted and Ted’s Tiny Tots, Teachable Moments, Mary Bethune Academy, Step By Step Early Learning Center in Amherst County, the YMCA-Altavista, YMCA-Brookneal and Caterpillar Clubhouse No. 4 in Campbell County.
Mann said they have 227 mixed delivery sites across the Southside region and that settings include licensed (non-faithbased), private ECCE settings, private center-based and home-based child care. “Center for Early Success works with programs to support filling slots by ensuring solid marketing practices are in place to advertise,” she said. “In addition, we utilize current [Pre-K program] waitlists. We also work with DSS to pass on information to share with families on their waitlists.”
“All mixed delivery classrooms participate in the Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP) and the Virginia Language and Literacy Screening Process (VALLS). Mixed delivery classrooms are required to have and use an approved curriculum,” she said.
On educator pay, Mann said while there is no current required compensation amount for mixed delivery teachers, the end goal is for mixed delivery teachers to be paid at 75% parity to public school teachers by the end of fiscal year 2027, which is June 2028.
Mann said 100% of mixed delivery sites participating in Southside indicate a higher rate of pay for teachers in mixed delivery classrooms. This year, Ready Region Southside identified four new sites to receive slots or funding – one center-based site in Lynchburg, one in Amherst County, one family day home in Brunswick County and one center-based site in Pittsylvania County – bringing the total to 15 sites across Ready Region Southside.
“All mixed delivery Classrooms are required to use a state approved curriculum,” Mann said, noting there are more than 70 approved curriculums. Karen Fitzgerald, director of office operations at Mary Bethune Academy in Lynchburg, said the school has been a childcare center site for the mixed delivery program since 2021. “It truly has been a wonderful experience being a part of this program,” she said. “The funding allows for us to have 10 child spaces available in our center’s PreK classroom, which serves children three and a half to five years of age Monday through Friday.” She said families and children qualify through Ready Region and then are enrolled in these spaces.
“The funding we receive not only benefits the families, whose tuition is subsidized, but it also provides for more educational materials and learning opportunities as well as allowing us the opportunity to
better compensate our hardworking PreK teachers and their assistants whenever possible,” she said. She added it is a wonderful program, and the center has been blessed to have many wonderful families who have enrolled at our center to be a part of it. “We have loved watching these children grow and graduate from our pre-K program and go on to be successful in kindergarten,” Fitzgerald said.
Article from The News and Advance – Rachael Smith