The mission of the Early Learning Coalition of Alachua County is to serve children, birth to 5 and their parents.... to provide excellent early care and education, recognize parents as teachers, and meet special needs, in order to assure children are ready for school. Please use the menu to your left to navigate through this section of the web site. If you need information specific to parents or providers, use the menu at the top. Please note that some links do not work at this time. This website is currently under development. Please excuse our dust. We will be adding more information for parents, providers and the community in order to make this site a valuable tool. Thank you for your patience and if you have any comments or suggestions for this website, please email them to us. Download a copy of our newsletter or our Annual Report! Spring 2008 2006-2007 Annual Report Coalition History: 1999: The School Readiness Act (s.411.FS) created a locally designed, operated and managed system of fully integrated and coordinated school readiness programs with a state-level partnership providing overall leadership for coordinating programmatic, administrative and fiscal policies and standards. The Early Learning Coalition of Alachua County, formerly the Alachua County Coalition for School Readiness, began meeting in August 1999 in response to the Florida legislature’s creation of local coalitions. 2002: In July of 2002, the Coalition signed a contract with the Florida Partnership for School Readiness and began administering the $10.4 million in funds that were allocated for Early Care and Education Services. The ELC contracted services to the School Board of Alachua County and Child Care Resources (CCR). In November 2002, Florida voters approved the Voluntary Pre-kindergarten Education (VPK) program to be administered by the ELC. 2004/2005: December 2004, saw the passage of House Bill 1A in a special session of the Florida Legislature, implementing VPK. With the signing of the legislation into law in January 2005, by Governor Jeb Bush, Coalitions for School Readiness were transformed into Early Learning Coalitions following the dissolution of the Florida Partnership for School Readiness and the transfer of programs to the Agency for Workforce Innovation (AWI). 2006: The Early Learning Coalition of Alachua County has undergone dramatic change. Effective January 1, 2006, the ELC assumed the delivery of all direct services which it had previously contracted through Child Care Resources. Direct services administered by the ELC include: School Readiness Eligibility, Voluntary Pre-kindergarten, Resource & Referral, Screening and Assessment, Inclusion, Technical Assistance and Program Support, Family Involvement, Training, and Reimbursement services. Throughout this change, which required rapid expansion in both staff and facilities, there was no interruption in top quality service to families and children and no delay in reimbursement payments to child care providers.