The Early Childhood Education and Care Department was launched on July 1, 2020. Their mission is to optimize the health, development, education, and well-being of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers through a family-driven, equitable, community-based system of high-quality prenatal and early childhood programs and services. They organize a range of programs including: child care services, early childhood special education, Early Head Start and Head Start, Families FIRST program, Family Infant Toddler (FIT) program, the family nutrition bureau, home visiting programs, and NM PreK.

Las Cumbres Community Services, Inc. began in 1970 with a structured program of day habilitation services for developmentally disabled adults residing in Los Alamos. We added a therapeutic preschool for children in the Española Valley in 1979. Services for children, adults, and families have continued to expand since then in order to best meet the growing and changing needs of Northern New Mexico. Our offices are located in Española, Los Alamos, Taos, and Santa Fe. In 2019 Las Cumbres expanded to the Borderland Region of Las Cruces, El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez. Today, the agency is one of the largest social service providers in New Mexico. Direct services are offered in Rio Arriba, Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Taos Counties, and along the Borderland region, while education, outreach, and referral activities make a strong impact throughout the state and country.

NMSBVI Albuquerque offers statewide outreach and preschool/kindergarten education services. Preschool/kindergarten is part of NMSBVI’s continuum of services offered to children throughout each stage of growth and development. The Preschool and Kindergarten Program serves children who are blind or visually impaired between the ages of 3 and 6 from Albuquerque and the surrounding areas. Students are required to have a diagnosed vision impairment that adversely impacts their capacity to learn in a more traditional classroom. All students are placed in the program by IEP committee decision held by the student’s resident public school system.