Early Care & Education

Program provides subsidized child care services for Manatee County children whose families meet the eligibility criteria. A referral service is provided for all child care services for Manatee County children, regardless of income.

Services also include: developmental assessments, feedback and stimulation activities, observation of children with possible delays, and helps to locate and obtain additional evaluations and therapies if needed from other agencies in the community who would best serve the needs of the individual child.

Eligibility

• Manatee County resident with children ages 0-13 years

Phone: (941) 757-2900

Provider: Early Learning Coalition Location 600 8th Avenue West, Palmetto, FL 34221 (Intake). Child care services are provided at Manatee County licensed child care centers and/or licensed family child care homes contracted to provide services.

Hours: Monday - Thursday, 7 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Friday mornings by appointment

Website: elc-manatee.org

Program provides a daily afterschool literacy program, Reading Buddies, will be provided to students in grades K through 3rd grade over 36 weeks. Students will be recruited based on assessments that indicate reading below grade level. Teachers and paraprofessionals will provide small group instruction to each grade level utilizing IXL, a K-12 personalized curriculum. 

Services also includes snacks, have free time, and participate in 90 minutes of reading instruction. Additionally, fun literacy activities will be provided. Volunteers will provide one-to-one mentoring and reading activities two days per week with oversight. 

Eligibility

• Manatee County residents
• Student must be in 3rd grade
• Below grade level based on ELA FAST

Phone: (941) 741-3319 Ext 63059

Provider: Children's Home Society of Florida

Location: 1609 6th Ave E Bradenton, Fl 34208

Hours: Monday – Friday 3:30pm - 5:30pm

Website: https://chsfl.org/schools/manatee/

Program provides center based early childhood development services at six sites throughout Manatee County for children from six weeks to five years old.  The services are comprehensive and include education, health, including oral and mental health. family engagement and nutrition.

Services also include

Eligibility

• Manatee County residents
• Ages six weeks to 5 years
• Meet income qualifications for the program

Phone: (941) 827-2887

Provider: Step Up Suncoast, Inc. 

Location: Various sites throughout the community

Hours: Monday – Friday 8am-5pm; other times vary based on the age of the child

Website: stepupsuncoast.org

Program provides home visiting, school visiting, school readiness program that helps parents prepare their 2-5 year-olds for success in school and beyond. This provides 30 weeks of school readiness activities that are provided to the parents throughout the 30 weeks and are filled with activities that the parents can do at home and use role-play with their child. Program also provides books, activities, skills needed to prepare children for kindergarten. These activities are designed to involved parents as their child's first teacher and to ensure school readiness.

Services also include: Child Developmental Milestones/School Readiness, strengthen child's cognitive, early literacy, social/emotional and physical development. Empower parents by building confidence and removing barriers while involving parents in early literacy.

Eligibility

• Manatee County residents

• TANG eligible

• Have children ages 2-4 years old by Sept 1st 

• Meet income qualifications below 200% FPL

• Medicaid Eligible 

Phone: (941) 827-0188

Provider: Step Up Suncoast, Inc. 

Location: Child's home

Hours: Mon-Fri, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., other hours as necessary

Website: stepupsuncoast.org

Program provides age-appropriate workshops on identification and prevention techniques to children in Manatee County schools.

Services also include advocates that use puppets, stories, videos, music, and role-play during presentations to fully engage-young children and deliver education in manner that will make them remember and recognize child abuse.

Eligibility

• Manatee County resident 
• Be in elementary or middle school in Manatee County

Phone: (941) 345-1200

Provider: Manatee Children's Services

Location: Multiple locations within Manatee County

Hours:

• School hours

Website: https://www.manateechildrensservices.com/prevention-services/

Program provides a supplemental curriculum designed to be an intensive intervention for teaching language and early literacy skills to small groups of three-four and five-year-old children screened and deemed at-risk for reading failure. Staff provide curriculum materials, technical assistance, professional development, coaching, and child progress monitoring to participating early care and education practitioners, assisting them in implementing high-quality literacy instruction that supports children in achieving the age-appropriate literacy skills predictive of becoming successful readers in kindergarten.

Eligibility

• Manatee County residents
• Ages 3 and 5 and their preschool classroom teachers

Phone: (941) 212-4995

Provider: Early Learning Coalition of Manatee

Location: Various preschool sites throughout the community and virtual sessions as needed.

Hours: Monday – Friday; times vary based on the operating hours of the preschool center and weekends as needed.

Website: elc-manatee.org

Certified Parent Educators provide parenting and support services to expectant parents and parents of children birth through age four. Activities build on existing parenting strengths, minimized potentially harmful behavior, and focus on parent-child interaction, development-centered parenting, and family well-being.

Eligibility

• Manatee County resident
• Expectant parents or parents of children from birth through four years of age

Phone: (941) 827-0188

Provider: Step Up Suncoast, Inc. 

Location: Parent's homes

Hours: Services take place in family's home

Website: stepupsuncoast.org