Despite the relative increase in early care and education (ECE) investment over recent decades, access to infant and toddler care continues to be a hurdle for countless families across the nation. While access is a multifaceted issue, main contributors include a lack of available slots and the high cost of providing care to infants and toddlers.…

Leadership development in early education and care is one of the most pressing priorities in the field today. Since 2017, the Whole Leadership Framework has provided a conceptual model for national competencies for early childhood program leaders. This report discusses some of the many contributors and their significant contributions to the…

State-funded preschool is already offered in mixed-delivery settings in most states, meaning that along with public schools, children are also served in settings such as child care centers, Head Start agencies, and private schools. However, just 39% of 4-year-olds and 14% of 3-year-olds were enrolled in publicly-funded programs, such as…

Smart Start Illinois is a multiyear plan to provide every child with access to preschool, increase funding to child care providers to raise wages and quality, and reach more vulnerable families with early support. Launched with a $300 million investment in the fiscal year 2024 state budget, Smart Start Illinois has already yielded results. The…

This article theorizes the wait list as an underexamined vehicle of administrative burden. Wait lists are now common within the U.S. social safety net, yet little research has considered their administration. Drawing on a surprising case of Massachusetts' declining wait list for subsidized childcare, I find that administrative burdens were…

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) aims to assist all young children and their families in meeting educational, developmental and behavioral outcomes to enhance their quality of life. However, in the United States (US), the field of ECEC lags behind in policies and practices to develop and sustain quality ECEC leadership. Although…

This report presents key findings from the first three years of the Quality Support Program (QSP). The QSP is an initiative involving the delivery by Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) of free tailored professional development and support to approved providers and service leaders of eligible services across New…

State and territory child care and early education (CCEE) leaders typically support a range of professional development (PD) opportunities for CCEE providers. This highlight presents the "Professional Development Matrix for Quality Improvement" created by Douglass, Tout, and Doyle. The matrix provides a framework for organizing and…

Researchers, federal and state policy leaders and administrators, and center directors all seek to understand what drives high quality Early Care and Education (ECE). The Assessing the Implementation and Cost of High Quality Early Care and Education, or ICHQ (pronounced I-check) project, led by Mathematica and funded by the Office of Planning,…

The early care and education (ECE) sector in New Hampshire (NH) is a complex ecosystem that must account for families' needs and resources, the capacity and availability of the workforce, and the costs of providing services. This ecosystem is also bolstered (and constrained) by local, state, and federal policy. This series of primers, titled the…

Children develop within a context, and the nature or dynamics of a child's context can change the trajectory of their development. According to Bronfenbrenner (1979), children are affected and are impacted by individuals within various systems or environments. One of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems is the microsystem, in which children…

This fact sheet shares 2023 survey and focus group findings from early educators eligible for from the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund in the District of Columbia. Findings describe the perceived of the payments on the child care field. Early educators share that the Pay Equity Fund helps advance fair pay that reflects their credentials…

Investments in early childhood care and education (ECCE) have contributed to a growing demand for internationally comparable data. Yet data on access to quality ECCE are not routinely collected in many countries, leading to limited information on equitable access to ECCE, quality of provision, and the impact on learning and wellbeing outcomes.…

Child care and school are similar and interrelated, yet the comparison of school to child care seems contentious. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed pressure points in labeling these educational and care institutions essential--or not. This paper encourages collaboration between schools and child care as a vital component to reimagining education.

The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (CCDBG Act, as amended) is the main federal law governing child care programs for low-income working families. The CCDBG Act authorizes discretionary appropriations to support grants to state, territorial, and tribal lead agencies. Lead agencies use these funds to subsidize the child care…