Virginia Governor Ralph Northam launched a new Children’s Cabinet focused on quality and access to early education, nutrition and food security and safety for children and youth. The new budget includes $6 million to expand the Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP) in all kindergarten classrooms to provide data on children’s skills upon kindergarten entry beyond literacy. Funding also will provide professional development to teachers and school divisions to help them understand how to effectively use the readiness data, raise the per pupil rate for the state-funded Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) programs, provide classroom observations in all VPI programs and professional development to support VPI teachers, reports state.