Children, Youth and Families Department: New Mexico PreK Program Options

During the 2005 legislative session, the New Mexico legislature passed the New Mexico Pre-Kindergarten Act and provided funding to develop and implement a voluntary pre-kindergarten program for 4-year-old children throughout New Mexico. The Public Education Department (PED) and the Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) have joint responsibility for the implementation of NM PreK.  The 2015 legislature expanded the NM PreK Program by providing funding for three-year-old children. CYFD is referring to pre-kindergarten services to three-year-olds as Early PreK.

The purpose of New Mexico PreK and Pilot Early PreK is to:

• Increase statewide access to voluntary high quality early childhood education programs
• Provide developmentally appropriate early learning activities for New Mexico children that focus on school readiness
• Expand early childhood community capacity
• Provide high quality early childhood education programs based on the comprehensive framework as described in the New Mexico PreK and Early PreK Program Standards

CYFD is seeking applicants to provide the following NM PreK and Early PreK Program Options:

• New Mexico PreK Basic Services: 450 Instructional hours (90 hours of family engagement activities per program per year) for children who turn four years of age before 12:01 a.m., September 1st and are not age-eligible for kindergarten. Group size of 20 children with a 1:10 ratio.
• New Mexico PreK Extended Day Services: 900 Instructional hours (90 hours of family engagement activities per program per year) for children who turn four years of age before 12:01 a.m., September 1st and are not age-eligible for kindergarten. Group size of 20 children with a 1:10 ratio.
• New Mexico Early PreK Basic Services: 450 Instructional hours (90 hours of family engagement activities per program per year) for children who turn three years of age before 12:01 a.m., September 1st and are not age-eligible for Pre-kindergarten. Group size for single session is 16 children with a 1:8 ratio, and group size for double session is 14 children with a 1:7 ratio.
• New Mexico Early PreK Extended Day Services: 900 Instructional hours (90 hours of family engagement activities per program per year) for children who turn three years of age before 12:01 a.m., September 1st and are not age-eligible for Pre-kindergarten. Group size for single session is 16 children with a 1:8 ratio.

Amount: The current per-child reimbursement rate is posted in the New Mexico PreK website; see: https://www.newmexicokids.org/content/announcements/. In addition, a limited amount of funding may be available for transportation and school start up and safety.

Eligibility: Early childhood education programs that are licensed by CYFD and in good standing and do not operate under the auspices of the New Mexico Public Education Department; Tribal early childhood education programs; BIE schools, and BIE contract and grant schools with early childhood education programs. Programs currently funded or previously funded by CYFD for NM PreK must be (or must have been) in satisfactory contract compliance.

Link: http://cyfd.org/for-providers/rfp

Note: A pre-application meeting will be held on April 7, 2015. A non-binding letter of interest is also due on April 7 in order to be placed on the procurement distribution list.

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