State Leaders Pay First-Time Visit to COE Early Childhood Pre-school Readiness Program
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The College of Education’s early intervention resource agency for young children with
developmental delays and disabilities, PM Ready is nearing its third full year as a program in Memphis. Recently, state leaders with
the Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD) paid the program a first-time visit to see its progress.
“It’s always a joy for us to be able to visit our providers and see what they’re doing in real-time and to interact with the kids and the staff,” said DIDD Assistant Commissioner Kelly Hyde.
Hyde, along with other leaders from DIDD and the Tennessee Early Intervention System (TEIS) toured PM Ready’s facility at the Porter-Leath & University of Memphis (PLUM) Early Learning Academy in Orange Mound, which opened in 2022.
PM Ready currently provides services to twenty-four children ages 0-5, according to Program Manager Charmaine Sego. These are typically children who have been diagnosed with autism or have social and communication or behavioral delays that may make preschool challenging. The program’s goal is to teach essential skills desired for successful entry into preschool while working with the child and family.
“We were excited to let them see our productive partnership with Porter-Leath, which is unique to Memphis and for them to see our facility and the high-quality therapy that we provide,” said Sego.
“It was great to be able to see this facility,” Hyde said at the end of the visit. “To see the kids in action and some of the developmental therapists here was awesome. The building is very impressive, and the classrooms are very spacious. I’m glad we were able to tour .”
PM Ready and the other two Project Memphis programs, Home & Community Early Intervention Resource Agency, and Vendor Services, serve over 200 children in the Memphis area. PM Ready will soon be relocating from the Orange Mound facility to the Porter-Leath Early Childhood Academy on Alice Avenue in South Memphis to provide early intervention services in an Early Head Start site.