Close Gaps By 5

Close Gaps By 5 works to strengthen and expand parent aware as Minnesota's quality framework for early care and education programs By growing the number of available parent aware rated early care and education programs statewide and working to keep the rating standards strong and tied to what research says children need. This approach is systematically improving the quality of early care and education programs in Minnesota. The number of eligible programs that have earned ratings has grown significantly since the inception of parent aware, from just over 500 programs at the end of 2012 to nearly 2,941 as of december 2022. Of the 320,000 Minnesota children ages birth-five years who spend time in child care, nearly 100,000 were in parent aware-rated programs in 2022.the grant amount of $152,386 was the final distributed amount when the organization ceased to exist.

Close Gaps By 5 recognizes that building high-quality programs is not enough if families do not have the means to access them. The second focus of Close gap'Gaps's program work is on educating policymakers and the public about the importance of increasing investments to enable access to high-quality early care and education programs By expanding access to early learning scholarships for children in low-income families. The state adopted the early learning scholarship program in 2011. We have been leading partners in promoting the program to policymakers and the public since that time and have reached a level where an estimated 12,000 Minnesota children benefit from early learning scholarships annually.