MSDE Releases New Five-year Strategic Plan for Early Childhood System

Wednesday, December 16, 2020 - 12:00pm

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), in partnership with the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) and Department of Human Services (DHS), is excited to release Maryland Ready: A Path to School Readiness and Success, a new five-year strategic plan for the state’s early childhood system from the prenatal period through age eight. 

As a geographically and demographically diverse state, Maryland has a robust mixed-delivery system of early childhood programs and services to support families and their young children, empower parental choice and family engagement, and ensure successful transitions throughout the early years and into the early grades. 

Implementation of this plan will create a systemic foundation that puts a focus on equity, and prioritizes evidence-based models and program effectiveness. It will also allow our state to expand and improve our early childhood workforce and infuse the system with continuous quality improvement strategies. 

Maryland Ready: A Path to School Readiness and Success, developed with support from the state's Preschool Development Grant Birth-5, provides the diverse range of partners and stakeholders within our state early childhood system with a measurable series of steps to move ahead in ensuring that families and their young children have equitable opportunities to take part in high-quality early care and learning experiences that prepare them for school and overall success.

Maryland Ready: A Path to School Readiness and Success identifies specific goals for young children and their families in Maryland:

1.     Strengthen availability and access to the full range of early childhood programs and services;

2.     Improve and support program quality;

3.     Deepen family engagement;

4.     Ensure successful transition experiences between early childhood programs, and as children enter kindergarten;

5.     Expand and enhance early childhood workforce development; and

6.     Improve systems for infrastructure, data and resource management across our early childhood system.

You can access the full plan and 2 summary documents using the following links:

If you have any questions or comments, please contact MSDE at b5.msde@maryland.gov.