Raw transcript is available as the primary artifact for this meeting, so downstream LLM parsing can use the original source material directly.
This meeting still exposes the raw source and transcript artifacts directly.
Meeting metadata file x175646.json.
Transcript file 2025-07-04_general_mayor-announces-every-child-ready-initia_x175646.srt.
♪♪ ♪♪ -Good morning. Good morning, everyone. -Good morning. -Good. Thank you all for joining us today. I want to first start -- I'm going to start first by thanking Mayor hero, not just for adjusting my mic, but for his leadership and his commitment to Seattle's children and families. My name is Dwane Chappelle. I'm the proud Director of the Department of Education and Early Learning. I also want to thank the amazing team here at Tiny Tots for hosting us today. And let's give them a round of applause. [ Applause ] And the Odessa Brown's Children's Clinic, which is right upstairs. I also must acknowledge our city staff, our educators, and community partners, this moment is possible because of your shared dedication. Since 2018, the citizens of Seattle have shown their commitment to the children of our community by passing the FEPP Levy. To date, that commitment has helped more than 70,000 young people across the city. That's right. 70,000 young people across the city access high-quality life-shaping opportunities. Today marks the next step in that commitment as we launch the next phase of that commitment with the Every Child Ready initiative. This is a commitment to ensure every child in Seattle is ready to start for kindergarten, every child is ready to start learning in K-12, and it's also to ensure every start is ready to launch -- every child is ready to launch into college and careers. This bold new investment strategy that reflects what we know to be true, which is the earliest years of a child's life are the foundational. The more we can do to ensure every child is set up for success before they start school, the greater the impact we will have on the rest of their life. Every Child Ready initiative ensures that more families, especially those who don't qualify for federal or state funding but still need support, can access free or affordable childcare and preschool. That includes extended daycare for working families, services for children experiencing homelessness, and culturally responsive early learning rooted in community. But this initiative is also something bigger, addressing the entire continuum of support that spans through a child's entire educational journey in our community, from free preschool and childcare to K-12 enrichment and health supports, and tuition-free college through the Seattle Promise. That's right. Every Child Ready is about creating a strong, seamless pathway for every child from cradle to college and career. Our investments are designed to remove barriers and advance racial equity, and surround young people with caring adults and opportunities that they need to thrive. The initiative includes renewing the Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise Levy, which makes transformational investments in our youth and families. We're seeing a real impact from the investment we've made in our students' lives and learning. Last year, we served more than 2,100 children were served through the Seattle Preschool program and most of them were children of color. And nearly two-thirds of the black girls in the program started Kindergarten Ready fully ready to learn. [ Applause ] In K-12, over 19,000 students participated in DIL-led -- in DIL-funded after-school and summer programs, and students receiving extra academic help made real progress in math and reading. And through our Seattle Promise, 1460 Seattle Public School graduates enrolled in college tuition-free, and nearly 70% of them were students of color. We believe in a Seattle where every child is ready, not just for kindergarten, but for life. And we invest in families early when we stay with them through every stage of learning, we create stronger communities, stronger outcomes, and a stronger city. So thank you for being part of this vision, for continuing to make it real. So with that said, what I'm going to do is introduce our phenomenal mayor. But before I call him up, I just want to share, as a councilmember, Mayor Bruce Harrell championed the 13th year Promise scholarship which guaranteed that every graduate could attend South Seattle Community College tuition-free in their first year and inspired the creation of the Seattle Promise Program. He is a strong advocate for Seattle youth, creating opportunities for them to thrive. Working to expand mentorship programs, youth employment opportunities, and mental health supports through investments and the Reach Out initiative. Without further ado, let's give a warm welcome to Mayor Bruce Harrell. [ Applause ] -Thank you, Dwane. Thank you, Dwane. So, I'm very excited. This is my excited face if you haven't seen it before. It sort of looks like my serious face but this is my excited face. I had a chance to talk to a few Cleveland Eagles, a few Franklin Quakers, a few Rainier Beach Vikings, 20-25 champions, kids going to Stanford and Rutgers. I read about that. There's a few Bulldogs roaming around. But I want to say that yesterday I spent some time at Denny International School [preview truncated]