WASHINGTON – September 30, 2026 – St. Louis Regional Public Media, Inc., also known as Nine PBS, has been awarded over $11 million in year one of a five-year cycle through the Ready To Learn (RTL) grant program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education.
The grant will fund the creation of the Everyday Literacy Alliance, a national initiative designed to strengthen literacy outcomes for children ages two to eight through evidence-based and accessible media, family engagement and community learning strategies.
“America’s Public Television Stations congratulate local public television station Nine PBS on being chosen to receive the latest Ready To Learn grant,” Kate Riley, President and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations.
“The Ready To Learn grant program is essential to public television’s early childhood programming and educational services for the country’s earliest learners delivering proven research-based educational media. Public television stations reach our nation's children for free every day regardless of income or zip code through their local public television stations and amplify that impact with community resources delivered in-person through trusted local partnerships where it is most needed.
“Nine PBS has a longstanding commitment to education and has been a strong partner in this work throughout the history of Ready To Learn. We know they will be exceptional stewards of this next round of Ready To Learn funding.
“As a locally-controlled public television station in the St. Louis region, Nine PBS is a trusted community partner and has a deep history of leadership among local public television stations across the country maximizing local community engagement. This experience will ensure that the full benefits of Ready To Learn are extended to communities small and large throughout the nation.
“We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the recognition of public television’s essential mission to deliver extraordinary educational content and resources to our nation through Ready To Learn. This grant will allow Nine PBS, and all local public television stations to continue to build on a proven record of supporting the nation’s youngest learners and their parents, teachers and caregivers.”
Through this grant, the Everyday Literacy Alliance will support the national expansion and the creation of supporting multimedia resources of Teaching in Room 9, Nine PBS’s award-winning kids’ program that features local teachers and helps young learners get ready for school. By partnering with Fred Rogers Productions, producer of beloved programs like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, the Everyday Literacy Alliance will also create and nationally distribute Fredosaurus Rex, a new multiplatform show that uses storytelling and music to help preschoolers build foundational reading skills. In addition, the Alliance will launch Read it, See it (RiSi), a free and safe interactive shared-reading platform designed to promote joyful family literacy experiences while strengthening children’s conversation, comprehension, and storytelling skills.
“The Everyday Literacy Alliance is built around a simple belief: when kids thrive, communities thrive,” said Amy Shaw, President and CEO of Nine PBS. “By combining educational media, family engagement and community-based learning, this initiative will help children develop literacy skills in new and innovative ways. The St. Louis region reflects many of the same opportunities and challenges that communities across the country face, and we truly believe it's an ideal place to develop and test this initiative. We are deeply grateful for this extraordinary investment and the trust the federal government has placed in Nine PBS to lead this work and expand it nationwide.”
“As in the past, the high-quality educational content created through the Ready To Learn federal investment will reach every part of the country and support an extensive community engagement through local public television stations across the nation,” continued Kate Riley.
“We are grateful to our bipartisan supporters in Congress for their continued recognition of public television’s critical education mission through their annual appropriation for Ready To Learn, including in FY 2026 which is funding this grant award.
“Because Ready To Learn is reliant on annual appropriations, America’s Public Television Stations call on Congress to continue to fund this important program that has delivered over 30 years of proven and trusted educational content and changed the lives of countless millions of children. We look forward to a strong future for this program and the lasting impact it will continue to have on the lives of our nation’s youngest learners.”
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About APTS
America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) is a nonprofit membership organization ensuring a strong and financially sound public television system and helping member stations provide essential public services in education, public safety and community connections to their local areas and the American people. For more information, visit www.apts.org.
Contact:
Stacey Karp
202-654-4222
skarp@apts.org