10 States and DC Receive New Round of PDG B-5 Grants
In September, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announced the latest round of Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5) grantees. Ten states and Washington, DC received 3-year renewal grants, totaling approximately $87 million in funding. Each of the grantees received 1-year planning grants in January 2023, which were used to conduct a comprehensive statewide birth through five needs assessment and in-depth strategic planning. These new funds are for states to carry out the activities in their strategic plans.
PDG B-5 is a competitive federal grant designed to improve states’ early care and education systems. The program seeks to empower state governments to strengthen the coordination of their various child care and early learning programs and investments. States can use funds for a wide range of efforts, including capacity building, increasing family engagement, creating infrastructure, providing direct services, and piloting new work.
Past rounds of PDG B-5 allowed states to apply for planning grants or renewal grants, but this round only offered renewal grants and explicitly listed who was eligible to apply: 22 states, DC, Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (ACF has not made which states applied publicly available.) The 2024 grantees are: New York, Kansas, South Carolina, North Carolina, DC, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, Michigan, Minnesota, and Tennessee.
In this most recent round, ACF included two “bonus options” where they encouraged states to focus their efforts. The first was supporting and strengthening the early childhood workforce by increasing pay and benefits. The second was social emotional development and mental health.
These investments are critical in supporting states in enhancing and coordinating their early childhood services and better serving young children and their families. FFYF will review state funding plans once applications become available. See below for an overview of which states have received PDG B-5 funding over time, along with their level of funding and the 2024 match amounts.
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