New Orleans’ immigrant population is on the rise. Their ECE participation is not.

By Rhonda Broussard

Despite the rapid growth of Latine families in New Orleans, their participation in the early childhood system is limited. Only 5% percent of ECE students are Latine compared to 14% of Latine students in K-12 public schools.

In partnership with BanchaLenguas Language Justice Collaborative, Training Grounds, NOLA CARES PAResearchers, and ACE Consulting, Beloved Community conducted community engaged research to understand the experiences, barriers, and opportunities for Latine families with young children to access formal early learning programs. This report led to findings about family expectations, ECE workforce development and entrepreneurship support for Spanish-dominant educators, and infrastructure for the broader early learning ecosystem to support intersectional needs of Multilingual Learners (MLL).