Rosemount Center

For over 40 years Rosemount has offered comprehensive services including dual language early childhood education for children ages 0-5 and family support services for their parents, including at-risk pregnant women. Rosemount serves 163 children in 17 classrooms in Ward 1 of the District of Columbia and home-based services are provided to an additional 77 children and at-risk pregnant women throughout the District. Nearly 80% of Rosemount’s families live at or just above the poverty level and are enrolled in federally funded Early Head Start (EHS) spaces or are subsidized through the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). Families who pay full or partial tuition choose Rosemount because of its reputation as a safe, nurturing center that provides bilingual education. Rosemount makes an important contribution to the District by ensuring that young children—regardless of their economic or ethnic backgrounds—receive a stimulating environment in which to flourish. Rosemount is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and is recognized as a Gold-Level Center by OSSE.

Rosemount offers and coordinates a range of comprehensive services including:

• Delivering our research-based dual language (English/Spanish) curriculum to 240 children – 163 in 17 classrooms at the Center and 77 through our home-based program;
• Offering and coordinating a range of comprehensive family support services, including referrals for medical, mental health, and other appointments, and bilingual community resources.
• Including parents in all Rosemount activities and ensuring that parents set and work toward family-centered goals;
• Providing a developmental disabilities inclusion program for all enrolled children identified with special needs; and
• Ensuring 100 percent of children receive physical health exams, dental exams, Medicaid or medical insurance coverage, TB tests, and immunizations.

 

A Model Early Childhood Education Center

Imagine an early childhood education center serving 240 children from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds in a state of the art facility and through a home visiting program, offering a platform for dual language learning, funded by Early Head Start, DC government subsidies, and tuition – and supplemented by a development office addressing underfunding of costs per child.  Is such a concept achievable?  Indeed it is.  Witness the Rosemount Center.

What is such an institution worth?

To the District of Columbia? Rosemount is uniquely positioned to serve infants and toddlers (ages 0-3), a population that has grown and has relatively few child care and development alternatives within Ward 1.  To parents?  The comfort and security of an all-day, year-round early childhood development program, licensed by the District of Columbia and recognized by NAEYC, where children are loved, nourished and educated. 

To the Mount Pleasant neighborhood? Rosemount has been recognized for its preservation efforts by Historic Mount Pleasant and provides an island of stability in north Mount Pleasant.  Its convenient location, accessibility to pedestrian traffic, motor vehicles and public transportation has proven an asset for the neighborhood.

To a visionary early childhood education expert?  David Kirp, professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, published an article in the New York Times last year praising Rosemount Center as a model that “illustrates how Head Start can do a great job of serving well-off as well as poor kids.” Rosemount serves families living at or below federal poverty lines, many of them immigrants, with Early Head Start dollars, along with children whose parents pay partial or full tuition for them to attend. As Kirp’s article points out, there is evidence to suggest that “poor students benefit academically from being educated with middle-class youngsters.” So, what is the value of a model early childhood education center such as Rosemount?

...Priceless!