Everyone in Washington State was affected when COVID-19 shut down all but our most essential services.
Some of the hardest hit were the 14,000 Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) preschool children and their families. Already some of the furthest from opportunity, ECEAP families were potentially stranded, suddenly without food, child care or crucial family support.
Despite enormous obstacles, Bellevue School District (BSD) ECEAP adjusted course quickly, proving its deep commitment to young children and families and demonstrating how vital ECEAP is to the safety and well-being of our state’s children.
Within days of the Governor's "Stay Home, Stay Healthy" order, the BSD ECEAP program mobilized its resources. They provided:
Child Care
- Converted two preschool sites to child care facilities for essential workers, enabling those on the frontlines to continue protecting Washingtonians.
Food
- Organized food pick-up locations at many of their schools, providing hundreds of bags of food for families five days a week.
- Delivered groceries to families who could not pick them up.
- Provided free grocery vouchers to families in need.
Essential Material and Supplies
- Distributed laptops and hot spots to families who needed them.
- Collected and distributed hard-to-find necessities like diapers, wipes, toilet paper and cleaning supplies for families in need.
Education
- Provided free children’s books to families for pickup and front porch delivery.
- Created a Preschool tab on the Bellevue School District website: Learning and Resources for Student and Families page.
- On the Preschool Parent pages they provided resources for supporting student well-being, parenting, literacy, art, science, math, educational websites, motor skills, social emotional learning and family games.
- Created a comprehensive Remote Learning Plan for Preschool, accessible to any district family who needs it. Here families can find complete lesson plans, circle time, movement activities, family games, social-emotional resources, parenting information and much more.
- Continued to provide weekly instruction by creating private YouTube channels with individualized lessons. Children could see their teachers and engage in fun educational activities:
BSD’s creativity, resourcefulness and dedication proves that when the going gets rough, ECEAP gets going. Not even a global pandemic can stop them!
