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Official source

Child Care Scholarship Program Briefing 02.04.2026 8 Preschool Development Grant (PDG) Birth through Five Division of Early Childhood (DEC) awarded a one-year $14.75 million grant to spend in 2026 to update Maryland’s early childhood needs assessment, strategic plan, and to advance a number of priorities, including: Align fragmented elements into a unified system • Align ECE workforce advancement pathways. • Develop a centralized Pre-K enrollment system. • Expand Maryland EXCELS Find a Program tool - integrate publicly funded Pre-K programs. Expand program availability and sustainability • Transform CCRCs into regional Shared Services and Resource Hubs that connect to licensing and quality supports. • Redesign Maryland EXCELS to emphasize instructional quality using CLASS and LENA Grow. • Integrate HQIM into EXCELS and Pre-K through a curriculum review. Align and share information and data systems • Modernize Maryland’s Criminal Justice Information System to enable child care background check portability. •Modernize child care licensing systems. • Develop real- time dashboard of child care supply and demand.

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Page 8

Official source

Child Care Scholarship Program Briefing 02.04.2026 8 Preschool Development Grant (PDG) Birth through Five Division of Early Childhood (DEC) awarded a one-year $14.75 million grant to spend in 2026 to update Maryland’s early childhood needs assessment, strategic plan, and to advance a number of priorities, including: Align fragmented elements into a unified system • Align ECE workforce advancement pathways. • Develop a centralized Pre-K enrollment system. • Expand Maryland EXCELS Find a Program tool - integrate publicly funded Pre-K programs. Expand program availability and sustainability • Transform CCRCs into regional Shared Services and Resource Hubs that connect to licensing and quality supports. • Redesign Maryland EXCELS to emphasize instructional quality using CLASS and LENA Grow. • Integrate HQIM into EXCELS and Pre-K through a curriculum review. Align and share information and data systems • Modernize Maryland’s Criminal Justice Information System to enable child care background check portability. •Modernize child care licensing systems. • Develop real- time dashboard of child care supply and demand.