Network Blueprint

The Ascension Parish Early Childhood Ready Start Network (RSN) is comprised of publicly funded early care and education programs, including school system pre-K, Head Start, early learning centers, and family child care sites committed to creating and implementing a bold local vision for early childhood. Ascension RSN supports 18 school-based sites, 1 Head Start Center, and 28 early learning centers. The Network Performance Profile Rating is Proficient and showed an increase from 4.92 to 5.00 from 2022 to 2023.

Families in Ascension want the best for their children, including high-quality early care and education opportunities. The Ascension RSN diligently engages with early learning center and community partners to provide access to early care and education to ensure children are on track to kindergarten readiness. The Ready Start Network has created a community and coalition of stakeholders dedicated to a shared vision and plan for early care and education for all children in Ascension Parish.

Growth of Ascension Ready Start Network

• 2021-2022 Awarded the LDOE Community Supply Building and Access Expansion Grant. Through the work from this grant, the Network saw the most significant increase in access and toppled over 1000 publicly-funded seats for families in Ascension
• 2024 Awarded the ECE Fund State Match through a local partnership with Ascension Parish Government. This program started the Parish Seats Program that awarded child care subsidies to families and started Workforce Scholarships for local ECE teachers to pay for child care tuition for their children
• 2024 Awarded the LDOE Workforce Grant to research and analyze the landscape of the early childhood educator workforce and determine recommendations
• 2024 Awarded the Early Educator Investment Collaborative Demonstrative Project administered by the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children to learn from the workforce in Ascension and, with stakeholder collaboration, create and implement compensation enhancements to support the early childhood workforce 
• 2024 Partnership with Ascension Lions Club to conduct free screenings for 3 and 4-year-olds 

STRATEGIC PLAN

Goal 1:  Increase access the number of publicly funded seats to increase access to highly-quality early childhood education for birth to four year olds.

Goal 2: Improve the Network Performance Rating from Proficient to Highly Proficient.

Goal 3: Identify and reach traditionally underserved populations and expand family support to at-risk families.

Goal 4: Identify and reach traditionally underserved populations and provide expanded family support to at risk families.

Goal 5:  Increase opportunities to identify and provide research-based interventions that foster development of executive functioning and language/ literacy skills by implementing a universal developmental screening plan for children ages birth to four.