The Michigan Department of Education says it’ll use 4-million-dollars in federal money to invest in the early childhood care workforce.
The funding comes in the form of a “Preschool Development Grant” meant to help helps kids from birth through age five.
Joy Milano manages the grant for the state education department. She says Michigan plans to conduct an “in depth workforce study.”
Milano says, "To try to first identify where do we have people working, where are there the gaps, what are the needs of people that are currently in the workforce and what has driven people out of the early childhood workforce so we can do better planning and understand what are the needs."
Milano says the state is currently searching for someone to carry out its studies and needs assessments.
The grant funding will also go toward increasing infant and toddler care opportunities…and reaching under-served children.