Pomona Unified School District

The purpose of this grant is to promote the idea of school readiness by creating centers and programs that offer an array of services, including early care and education, health and social services, parenting education and support. Programs will be responsive to local needs and will contain elements to improve schools' readiness for children.  The target community of this program is children 0-5 and their families in the 91766 and 91767 zip codes of Pomona (an urban community located on the eastern border of Los Angeles County). 13,300 children from 0-5 (9% of the total population) live in the targeted zip codes. Average family size (4.2), percentage of births to teen mothers (14.6%), single fathers caring for children (6.6%) and grandparents caring for children (9.3%) is significantly higher than Los Angeles County. More than one-third of the children 0-5 live below the poverty level with 72% of the PUSD students receiving free or reduced fee meals.  While there are neighborhood pockets of Asian and African American residents, the majority of the population is Latino (79% of the PUSD students with 46% classified as English Language Learners). Academic achievement is low with 49% of the adult residents in 91766 and 38% of the residents in 91767 leaving school before high school graduation. This program is located in SPA 3.  Sites for this program are located at participating elementary schools including Alcott, Barfield, Kingsley, Madison, Mendoza, Montuve, Philadelphia, Pueblo, Vejar and Washington. All School Readiness grants are 48 months in length across 5 fiscal years.  Major program activities include: home visits with socialization sessions for 220 infants and toddlers (ages 0-3), Pre-Kindergarten Academies for 300 children ages 4-5 with no preschool experience, outreach to 22,000 newborn babies at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center for 600 families with children 0-5, general health screening, publication and dissemination of Children's Resource Directory to 600 families with children 0-5, cross training of preschool and kindergarten teachers, community childcare providers, elementary school office managers and health aides, inclusion of license-exempt providers in staff in-service training to improve quality of childcare for 80 children 0-5,  and School Readiness Advisory Committee.