Expand ECEAP Eligibility - Don't leave kids behind!

It's a big week in Olympia - our bill to expand ECEAP to thousands more children is up for a hearing in the House!

 

22,468.

That's how many low income kids arrived at kindergarten not ready to succeed in 2016. These are children that live in families below 185% of the poverty level, the current cut-off for the free and reduced school lunch program. Unfortunately, almost half of those kids did not qualify for ECEAP. Why? Because ECEAP has one of the most stringent and outdated pre-k eligibility levels in the country. We need to update our eligibility to line up with the national research consensus on kindergarten readiness and make sure our state is preparing its citizens for a successful future. 

  

On Friday the House is having a hearing on HB2659, which would raise ECEAP eligibility from 110% of the federal poverty level to 185%. Click here for a great issue brief. 

 

Please call or email your representatives and ask them to support House Bill 2659.  And if you have experience with this, tell your own story!    

 

Our message:   

Don't leave thousands of kids behind!  Children eligible for free and reduced lunch can rarely afford high quality pre-k like ECEAP, and when they arrive at kindergarten behind, they stay behind.   

 

Two Easy Ways to Contact Your Lawmakers

 

Option #1: Call the Hotline 1.800.562.6000

 

Option #2: Email Through District Finder

The other option is simply to email your lawmaker through the district finder. This allows you to look up who your lawmakers are and send an email directly to them. District finder  

 

And stay tuned - we have an ECEAP eligibility bill coming up in the Senate next week that would raise the over-income allotment from 10% to 25%, and we'll be sending out an alert late this week! 

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