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infant and toddler workforce to meet the unique needs of very young children, and the methods in place to increase the proportion of infants and toddlers in higher quality care, including any partnerships or coordination with Early Head Start and IDEA Part C programs.

Lead Agencies are required to spend 3 percent of their total CCDF expenditures on activities to improve the supply and quality of their infant and toddler care. This is in addition to the general quality set-aside requirement.

7.5.1 What activities are being implemented by the state/territory to improve the supply (see also section 4) and quality of child care programs and services for infants and toddlers? Check all that apply and describe Effective Date: 10/01/2018

Establishing or expanding high-quality community- or neighborhood-based family and child development centers. These centers can serve as resources to child care providers to improve the quality of early childhood services for infants and toddlers from low-income families and to improve eligible child care providers' capacity to offer high-quality, age-appropriate care to infants and toddlers from low-income families Describe: CCDF monies are used to fund resources to improve to the quality of child care providers for infants and toddlers through the Sixpence Child Care Partnership Grants. Seven school district grant recipients are partnering with the local child care providers to provide coaching, professional development, and funding for equipment, materials and minor facilities modifications, and parent engagement/education. The grantee school districts connect local child care providers to district resources and the child care providers are statutorily required to achieve a Step 3 in our state's 5 Step QRIS by the end of the three year grant term. These child care providers must also serve infants/toddlers who qualify under at least one categories of at-risk; low income being one of those indicators. The child care providers have an agreement with the state to accept child care subsidy. In addition to the Sixpence Child Care Partnership Grants, Sixpence funds, which are comprised of public and private monies are used for grants to school districts in partnership with local community providers to operate high quality early care and education programs. These programs are statutorily required to meet the Nebraska Department of Education's early childhood program rules. These quality indicators allow these early childhood programs to be rated at a Step 3 in our state's 5 Step QRIS. Intensive parent engagement and education are a required component of these grants. In addition to the Sixpence grants, the privately funded Communities for Kids Initiative supports individual communities in assessing and establishing a plan to address their Nebraska Page 283 of 314