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Donate here to support our scholarship fund! Help us make quality early childhood education available! Founded in 1981,The Lake School is a small, private, non-profit preschool located in the Lake Merritt neighborhood of Oakland. The school’s curriculum is based on the philosophy that children are naturally curious and eager to learn.

Hilltop Children’s Center is an internationally recognized school and professional development institute of early learning in Seattle. Hilltop has been providing and promoting child-centered early education for children aged 2 to 10 since 1971. Our vision: Hilltop honors and trusts children, engages families, and inspires educators to create a more just and joyful world. Our mission: Hilltop is transforming early childhood education through play, collaboration, and reflection: in our classrooms with children, partnerships with families, and professional development with educators.

At the Pacifica Co-op, we offer an age appropriate, hands-on program which focuses and meets the individual needs of the whole child and enhances their cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development through play and discovery of the world around them. We believe that together, as parents and staff, we can enhance the growth, development and self-esteem of each child, all the while promoting a deeper understanding and respect of each child’s unique qualities. Our main goal is to create a loving, nurturing, supportive environment for our students and families to learn, grow, and empower one another.

Lyme Nursery School is a non-profit, cooperative nursery school whose purpose is to promote the social, emotional, physical, intellectual, and artistic growth of young children. This is accomplished by fostering self-esteem, self-control, respect for others, and a sense of security with both peers and adults. In order to meet the educational needs of young children, the school provides an enriching environment that stimulates learning, imagination, and creative expression, and encourages the development of each child’s communication and problem-solving skills. In addition to the social and academic aspects of our program, LNS places great emphasis on time spent outdoors, helping children to explore the environment and world around them.

Easterseals of Southeastern Pennsylvania's mission is to provide exceptional services to ensure that all people with disabilities or special needs and their families have equal opportunities to live, learn, work and play in their communities. With this mission in mind, and as the needs of the disability community evolve, so do we. The definition of disability is broadening, going beyond physical conditions to include invisible, emotional, social and educational challenges. Easterseals is working hard to change the way the world defines and views disability by making profound, positive differences in people’s lives every day. We are proud to serve more than 7,000 individuals and their families in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Philadelphia, Montgomery, North Hampton, Berks and Lehigh counties.

The Childcare Network of Evanston’s mission is to empower children and families through access to quality early childhood education, family supports, and a coordinated system of care. CNE links children to early education and provides families with comprehensive supports and connections to community resources. Through collaboration with community partners, and supported by local, state and federal funding, CNE aims to create a community hub, a service model including education, wellness, mental health and other supports for underserved children and families in our area.

Nestled in the nation’s capital in the richest museum complex in the world is the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center, a model early childhood program that places children at the center of every experience. The vast collections are the foundation for the culturally diverse curriculum, which offers a rare opportunity for learning. As an organization, SEEC is a leader in the field of museum-based education and influences practice within museums and schools. Our educators apply best practices recognized in the early childhood field and enrich the children’s learning through an object-based approach to teaching, sharing the rich stories associated with these objects in ways that make the curriculum deeper and richer. Museum educators within the program build on the practice established within the SEEC model, serving as content experts on the museums and blending theory and practice as a basis for outside consulting and professional development.

Cottonwood Preschool is a non-profit corporation, founded in 1981 by a group of dedicated parents who identified a need for a pre-school program that was different than others in the Littleton area. These parents imagined a preschool where their cooperative efforts could create a stimulating and exciting learning environment for their children. They created a school where parents could play a direct role in their child's education. Today, Cottonwood Preschool is one of a handful of parent cooperative preschools in the Denver area. We continue to have a very dedicated group of parents who are committed to carrying on the tradition of excellence at Cottonwood. Cottonwood embraces a developmental, play based philosophy of learning, which supports and respects the child as he/she is. Cottonwood supports the knowledge that children learn best through play and hands-on experiences. Through the guidance of carefully selected teachers, the child will have the opportunity to explore and enrich his/her world socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually toward optimal growth.

We recognize the incredible ability that exists within people on the autism spectrum. Empowering through education, the McCarton Foundation helps young people with autism realize their full potential and celebrates their extraordinary talents. Every day we work to transform lives through: The McCarton School, where we continue to achieve unprecedented success in educating young people with autism Research, as we further develop our methodology by testing new strategies and techniques to teach people on the autistic spectrum more effectively Training professionals and parents around the world how to use the knowledge we gain Inspiring Events, like McCarton Foundation’s Genius of Autism, where we celebrate the remarkable talent possessed by autistic youth With one in every sixty-eight children in the United States identified as being on the spectrum, chances are that you—and most of the people you know—are somehow connected to a young person with autism. Join us in our mission to empower these young people today.

Founded by Atlanta volunteers in 1888, the mission of Sheltering Arms Early Education & Family Centers is to empower families and strengthen communities by providing 1) high quality, affordable child care and  early education, 2) comprehensive support services for families, 3) professional development, and 4) community building partnerships.   Each day, 2500 children and their families are served in 16 neighborhood centers serving 6 metro Atlanta counties.  Sheltering Arms serves working families of all income levels by providing government child care subsidies and income-based scholarships generated by fundraising. Sheltering Arms, a United Way funded agency, has been nationally recognized for its success in preparing children for school success. 

Our vision is an environment where parents and staff work together to ensure every child has the opportunity to fulfill his or her potential to the highest degree, following the inspired work of Maria Montessori. Mission To offer every child the possibility of a Montessori education, regardless of the parents' financial position, because Dr. Montessori believed in the potential within every child To provide diversity to such a degree that every child will assume the world is full of people in every color, with many languages, with many beliefs because Dr. Montessori believed that peace and tolerance can only begin with the children To find staff members who truly believe in the special creative power within every child and are determined to find the one work that will open the door to unleash that power because Dr. Montessori saw that work, when correctly motivated, heals the soul To provide multiple and regular opportunities for parents to learn how best to contribute to their child's inner growth because Dr. Montessori believed that adults, if unaware, could impede the child's natural development To create the most beautiful, fully-integrated Montessori environment, inside and out, in the Phoenix area because Dr. Montessori was very clear on how the meticulous care of the environment spoke to the child

Inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s Waldorf education system, the mission of Desert Marigold School is to provide an educational context that emphasizes not only intellectual achievement, but also the imaginative, artistic, and moral growth of its students. By addressing their heads, hands and hearts, the school will encourage students to be life-long learners and independent thinkers as well as self motivated, self-disciplined, creative, adaptable and responsible individuals. We seek to establish and maintain a school that provides an individualized, nurturing approach to educating its students, preparing them not only for higher education, but for the rest of their lives. We will require and use an active partnership of teachers, families and the community, as well as a continued affiliation with the world-wide Waldorf movement to achieve the following goals: 1. To ensure each child’s excellence in core academic skills by providing a curriculum enlivened with the arts of painting, music, drama, movement, singing, sculpture and hand work. 2. To educate according to age and development, so that learning and growth are united. 3. To present the curriculum in multiple and integrated ways, so students have many different opportunities to learn concepts, as well as see the relationship to the larger whole. 4. To nourish the spirit of curiosity so that students continue to learn long after the end of formal training. 5. To encourage fundamental values and life skills, including responsibility, perseverance, integrity, self-discipline, trustworthiness, craftsmanship, friendship and compassion. 6. To make available this quality of education for all ethnic and socioeconomic sectors in our community.