FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Will Bohlen, [email protected]

NAEYC Receives Multi-Year Grant to Advance High-Quality Early Childhood Curriculum and Expand Reach in Pre-K–3 Settings

Funding from Gates Foundation will support professional development, position statement updates, and thought leadership across P-3 systems

WASHINGTON (June 2, 2026) — The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) announced today a three-year grant to expand access to high-quality early childhood curriculum and strengthen NAEYC’s presence in the growing landscape of publicly-funded pre-kindergarten. The funding from Gates Foundation supports work through 2028.

The $3.8 million grant across three years builds on NAEYC’s prior work championing the creation and dissemination of a landmark report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) on high-quality curriculum. The new phase extends that foundation by creating resources and programming designed to accelerate adoption of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) and increase NAEYC’s engagement with public school districts, which increasingly are the primary providers of pre-k education.

“Public school districts are central to the early childhood landscape, and NAEYC has a critical role to play in supporting their efforts to deliver high-quality, developmentally appropriate experiences,” said NAEYC CEO Michelle Kang. “This investment will allow us to deepen our reach, sharpen our resources, and continue building the field’s capacity to put children first.”

The grant will fund a range of interconnected initiatives, including:

• Pre-conference and annual conference programming at NAEYC’s Annual Conference focused on high-quality curriculum and assessment, designed for educators and school system leaders, with subsidized registration and logistics to expand access.
• A practitioner cohort model offering ongoing virtual convenings to help conference participants continue developing their practice after the event.
• Revisions to key NAEYC position statements on technology, curriculum, literacy, and mathematics, ensuring NAEYC’s foundational guidance reflects current knowledge.
• Professional development courses grounded in DAP and aligned to the NASEM report.
• Communications support to share grant-funded tools and content broadly across the field.

An advisory group of national leaders will help guide conference content and cohort programming across the grant period.

About NAEYC

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a professional membership organization that works to promote high-quality early learning for all young children, birth through age 8, by connecting early childhood practice, policy, and research. In 2026, we celebrate 100 years of advancing a diverse, dynamic early childhood profession and supporting all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children. Today, the association comprises tens of thousands of individual members of the early childhood community and 50 Affiliates across the country, all committed to delivering on the promise of high-quality early learning.

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