More than $1 million planned for Planada program

Planada’s youngest learners will be getting some extra help thanks more than $1 million in federal funding for a new education program.

The Early Head Start Child Care Partnership grant is expected to allow the Merced County Office of Education’s program to provide services to 48 infants, toddlers and 2-year-olds in family child care, and education for 16 children too young for kindergarten.

The county’s Head Start will team with other child care programs and providers in the new center, which will be at Planada Elementary School.

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, headed a news conference Friday at the Fairside Head Start in Merced, where he announced the funding while surrounded by children.

“The needs are great,” he said. “There’s been studies after studies that have determined that early childhood education makes a difference in developing those cognitive skills.”

He went on to say that the children also could benefit from the social skills they develop by interacting with others in the program.

Early Head Start centers are for children younger than age 3. For a child to qualify, the family income must be below the federal poverty level, or $19,530 for a family of three, unless the child has a disability. Also, the child’s guardians must be working or going to school.

Giving those children an extra hand is vital in their development, according to Superintendent Jose Gonzalez of the Planada Elementary School District. Underprivileged children are the most at risk to fall behind.

“By the time they transition to the eighth-grade system, (they’re) already lagging one to two years behind,” he said.

The center on the Planada campus will use an existing building, though it will get some modifications, Gonzalez said.

Those growing up in Planada face challenges in the economically depressed community of about 5,000, where the unemployment rate is 28.9 percent, according to the latest numbers from the Employment Development Department.

The grant money is also expected to create about 11 jobs in Merced County.

Christie Hendricks, assistant superintendent for the county’s Early Education Department, said the child care provided by the program could help families trying to hold down jobs but unable to afford to pay someone to watch their children.

About 1,200 children are in Early Head Start in 16 centers across the county, she said.

Steve Gomes, the county superintendent of schools, said the Office of Education looks to meet its goals while working with others, like the federal government as well as the child care workers and teachers who will head up the center.

“Our organization seeks out collaborative partnerships, and this is a prime example,” he said.

This story was originally published January 16, 2015 at 11:21 AM with the headline "More than $1 million planned for Planada program."