OLYMPIA — The Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families has received a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support early learning across the state.

The grant is one of the HHS Administration for Children and Families’s Preschool Development Birth Through Five grants, according to a DCYF press release.

“In recent years we have steadily built our efforts to support children, families, and the early learning workforce,” said Nicole Rose, Assistant Secretary for Early Learning. “The Preschool Development Birth through Five grant will mean further improvement, better quality, and more opportunities for young children to learn and thrive in our state.”

The funding will be used to support early childhood needs assessments, strategic planning, family engagement, quality improvement, workforce compensation and direct services to young children across the country, the DCYF release said.

Some ways DCYF will use the funding to support children, families, and the workforce, according to the release, is by expanding the Help Me Grow collaboration, expanding the scope and role of Play & Learn models, building ongoing needs assessments and providing support for the workforce that serves children from birth through five.