Bright From the Start Pre-K4

Goals and Objectives

Bright from the Start’s mission is to prepare Georgia’s children to succeed. The department’s vision is that high-quality early learning experiences are accessible to all children.

Bright from the Start’s strategic plan includes four goals toward which the department is working:

1. Establish comprehensive quality standards in early care and education.

2. Provide for a system of professional development for providers and staff.

3. Improve and expand organizational information.

4. Improve organizational effectiveness in Human Resource Management, Financial Resource Management, and Asset Resource Management.

To these ends, Bright from the Start has completed or is working on the following:

1. Developed the Georgia Early Learning Standards for children from birth through age three.in conjunction with other early childhood professionals.These standards, which are aligned with pre-kindergarten and kindergarten standards, were released in February 2006.

2. Developed a statewide birth-to-five professional development system, in collaboration with the state university system.

3. Created a technical assistance credentialing program.

4. Builds community support for early learning, and ultimately creating local “one-stop shops” with comprehensive information and resources for parents and caregivers of children birth-to-five (an initiative that has emerged from the state’s Maternal and Child Health Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems [ECCS] grant).

5. Reviews the state’s use of the quality and infant/toddler set-asides to ensure they are being used most effectively to support research-based initiatives.

6. Expands support services to after-school programs.

7. Coordinated a committee of early childhood professionals to develop a quality improvement system by first identifying indicators of quality.

8. Identifies quantifiable measures to determine success in meeting goals and objectives, and to monitor the department’s continuous quality improvement efforts.

Funding Bright From the Start

Funding is derived from the following sources: the state lottery, general state funds, the federal child care block grant set-asides (to enhance the quality and accessibility of child care), federal nutrition programs, and federal Head Start State Collaboration funds. Because of this, Lake Oconee Academy can offer the Pre-K4 program tuition-free to students.