(Estimated Total for all Awards is $200,000)

      Since the Castle Foundation helped pioneer progressive and high-quality kindergartens in the 19th century, the trustees have supported improvements that lead to better teaching, better facilities, and better outcomes for children. As one of America’s oldest foundations, we believe that high quality early education gives our children and families the best chance for equal educational opportunity. Excellent preschool education leads to substantial academic results, including greater earnings, greater ability to focus, less incarceration, more successful careers, greater educational attainment, and healthier lifestyles.

      To encourage quality augmentation, the Castle Foundation encourages applications to improve quality as measured by the ten NAEYC accreditation standards. The primary standards are:

Standard 1: Relationships
The program promotes positive relationships between all children and adults to encourage each child’s sense of individual worth and belonging as part of a community and to foster each child’s ability to contribute as a responsible community member.

Standard 2: Curriculum
The program implements a curriculum that is consistent with its goals for children and that promotes learning and development in each of the following areas: social, emotional, physical, language, and cognitive.

Standard 3: Teaching
The program uses a variety of developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate and effective teaching approaches that enhance each child’s learning and development in the context of the program’s curriculum goals.

Standard 4: Assessment of Child Progress
The program uses a variety of formal and informal assessment approaches to provide information on children’s learning and development. These assessments occur in the context of reciprocal communications between teachers and families, and with sensitivity to the cultural contexts in which children are developing. The program uses assessment results to inform decisions about the children in their care, to improve teaching practices, and to drive program improvement.

Standard 5: Health
The program promotes the nutrition and health of children and protects children and staff from illness.

Standard 6: Staff Competencies, Preparation, and Support
The program employs and supports a teaching and administrative staff that have the qualifications, knowledge, and professional commitment necessary to promote children’s learning and development and to support families’ diverse needs and interests.

Standard 7: Families
The program establishes and maintains collaborative relationships with each child’s family to foster children’s development in all settings. These relationships are sensitive to family composition, language, and culture.

Standard 8: Community Relationships
The program establishes relationships with and uses the resources of the children’s communities to support the achievement of program goals.

Standard 9: Physical Environment
The program has a safe and healthful environment that provides appropriate and well-maintained indoor and outdoor physical environments. The environment includes facilities, equipment, and materials to facilitate child and staff learning and development. These small capital improvements are popular ways to improve a school’s learning effectiveness.

Standard 10: Leadership and Management
The program effectively implements policies, procedures, and systems that support stable staff and strong personnel, fiscal, and program management so all children, families, and staff have high-quality experiences.

The Request for Proposals requires that applicants submit completed applications by the posted due dates for 2025. The completed application will have the following:

• A cover letter requesting the funds and indicating the Board of Director’s commitment to quality improvements The letter must be signed by the preschool’s board chairperson and the signature of the preschool director;
• A short description of the preschool, its enrollment, the current description of the teaching force, an operational budget, a budget indicating the cost of increasing quality, a copy of the most recent audit if available, and a short history of the preschool. Please also indicate the preschool’s current accreditation status or of the school’s intention to apply for accreditation;
• A list of the governing board;
• A complete description of the need for improved quality. Please refer to the ten NAEYC standards and indicate how a grant, generally up to $30,000, would improve quality. Please include a timetable for the improvements and how the funding would enable the preschool to improve;
• Finally, please indicate what additional resources are available from the school or other external donors will be used to match or augment the Castle Foundation grant. This is not required to be considered, but applications that seek additional external and internal resources to improve the school’s quality will be favored Castle Foundation funding.

Applications for this initiative should be discussed with the Foundation’s Executive Director before applying. Applications may be submitted by any of the three due dates listed for 2025 and early submissions are encouraged.