Early childhood programs in MCPS are targeted to children and families affected by poverty, including children with disabilities, and provides them with additional time to acquire literacy, mathematics, and social/emotional skills for success in school and later learning in life. These programs provide opportunities for children to build school-readiness skills by increasing social interactions, building oral language skills, and fostering vocabulary development. In MCPS, 65 elementary schools have locally funded Prekindergarten and/or federally funded Head Start classes. MCPS has two regional early childhood centers, one at the MacDonald Knolls Early Childhood Center in Silver Spring, serving 100 Prekindergarten students and the other at the Up-county Early Childhood Center, temporarily housed at Watkins Mill High School in Gaithersburg, serving 80 Prekindergarten students. The Up-county center was relocated in January 2022, and is utilizing existing classrooms within the building. This project will provide funding for MCPS to construct a stand alone building for the Up-county center, as well as begin planning to further expand early childhood centers throughout the county. An FY 2023 appropriation was approved for planning funds. An FY 2024 appropriation was approved for construction funds to build the stand alone Upcounty Center.