Becoming an early childhood educator is more than a calling or a passion. This work requires specialized skills and expertise, and it carries an enormous responsibility. Yet for far too long, these educators have been undervalued. They deserve to be seen, respected, and fairly compensated for their essential work, and not asked to give endlessly while receiving far too little in return.
In 2025, Vermont took a monumental step forward by becoming the first state in the nation to introduce legislation that would formally recognize early childhood education as a profession and establish professional licensure for early childhood educators. Two key organizations behind the advocacy effort are the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children (VTAEYC), the state affiliate of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and Let’s Grow Kids, a time-limited, ten-year campaign to establish quality, affordable child care for Vermont’s youngest children and their families, which recently sunsetted. Over the course of its campaign, Let’s Grow Kids built a statewide movement of more than 40,000 Vermonters and helped historic investments in the early care and education system to lower costs for families and keep child care programs open.
One critical piece of the puzzle that is necessary for solving the workforce development challenge is ensuring support and resources for career advancement. Legislation and public investment are helping the early childhood education (ECE) workforce access support to increase their qualifications. TEACH scholarships, Registered and Youth Apprenticeships, Student Loan Repayment Assistance, grants, and bonuses have helped create a foundation for licensure, showing the appetite for increasing qualifications and tying public investment to quality and accountability standards.
This new bill builds on the foundation laid by Act 76. At its core, the legislation establishes a formal professional framework for early childhood educators in Vermont, defining what the profession is, who it includes, what early childhood educators do, and the standards that guide their work. The proposal would create a clear career ladder, with three professional licensure designations (ECE 1, ECE 2, and ECE 3) that align with increasing skills and qualifications.
Advocates say the goal is both recognition and clarity. “This was really designed to elevate the importance of early childhood educators, bringing them recognition, respect, and value, which was important to the early childhood educators who engaged in the process,” said Sharron Harrington, Executive Director of VTAEYC. “But equally important were clear career pathways, stackable credentials, and a way for educators to communicate their expertise,” she added. The legislation creates a shared system and language for qualifications, helping families understand who is caring for their children and the qualifications they have, while ensuring educators are fairly compensated and held to consistent professional standards across all settings. The legislation also includes a long on-ramp for the existing workforce, providing an eight-year, supported transition into the new professional structure. All early childhood educators currently working in regulated settings would qualify for a renewable transition license and access to support resources, ensuring that no educator is forced out of the field in the transition process.
The legislation did not emerge overnight; it is the culmination of a years-long, highly intentional process. Beginning in 2018, VTAEYC convened a statewide task force of early childhood educators across settings and roles to explore the recommendations in the nationally-developed Unifying Framework for the Early Childhood Education Profession and what they meant to early childhood educators in Vermont. The process involved structured conversations with more than 1,000 early childhood educators that were designed not only to explain what it could mean for early childhood educators to seek professional recognition, but also to offer a space to surface concerns and raise questions. The feedback from those conversations ultimately led VTAEYC to act on behalf of the early childhood education workforce in Vermont and formally begin the process to recognized early childhood education as a profession.
VTAEYC then submitted a comprehensive application to the Secretary of State’s Office of Professional Regulation (OPR), requesting a “sunrise review,” the formal process used to evaluate whether an occupation should become a licensed profession. After conducting an independent review, extensive research, and soliciting public comment, OPR concluded that early childhood education should indeed become a licensed profession. Those findings laid the groundwork for legislation now before the legislature.
Advocates say the Alliance for Early Success and its national network played a pivotal role in supporting this effort, particularly during the highly technical process of preparing the OPR application. Alliance staff, along with partners including NAEYC and other national experts, provided feedback, consultation, and research support that helped strengthen the request for a sunrise review. “We intentionally sought input from a number of different state and national experts in putting [the application] together. Technical assistance was invaluable in the development of that document,” said Jen Horwitz, former Policy and Research Director at Let’s Grow Kids and co-author of the sunrise review application. “We asked, ‘Are we missing anything? Does this look right? Are there other concerns we’re not addressing?’ We were able to talk with folks from the Alliance themselves to make sure the document was as strong as possible,” she added. Beyond the application itself, the Alliance also helped connect Vermont advocates with policy and research experts who could offer informed public comment during the sunrise review process. More than 100 comments were ultimately submitted through Vermont’s public hearings and comment portals, bringing a wide range of perspectives into the review. Advocates said that support from the Alliance helped ensure the process reflected both national expertise and the lived experience of early childhood educators in Vermont.
The effort to recognize early childhood education as a profession in Vermont was not some top-down regulation; it was rooted in what early childhood educators had been working toward for years. Through the statewide task force, early childhood educators helped shape the recommendations behind the bill and gathered feedback from across the state. Along the way, educators participated in roundtables with their colleagues and peers, and advocacy leadership circles and trainings designed to help them tell their stories and grow their advocacy skills and confidence. “It really comes down to this very intentional and thoughtful work that VTAEYC helped to facilitate on behalf of early childhood educators. This was something that was early childhood educator-led and initiated,” said Horwitz.
Early childhood educators have long made sacrifices to support the early care and learning ecosystem at their own expense, earning low wages and not receiving the professional recognition they deserve. Meaningful transformation is not possible without addressing this imbalance and recognizing that supporting the early childhood workforce is essential to building a high-quality, affordable, and equitable system for children and families. “It takes more than loving children to be an early childhood educator. Their qualifications are the number one indicator of quality in early childhood experiences in these settings,” said Harrington. “We have a mantra that came out of our advancing early childhood education as a profession initiative, ‘nothing about us, without us’…All the progress and investments in child care are only sustainable if we support the workforce. We need to recruit and retain early childhood educators, and they need to be well prepared. If we don’t do that, all of that great progress is in jeopardy.”
The historic legislation has moved through several stages in Vermont’s legislative process. A bill was originally introduced in the House and Senate at the start of the 2025-2026 biennium. The Senate began deliberations on their version of the bill, and the Senate passed the legislation as part of a broader legislative proposal, but the ECE-related language was ultimately removed in the House, as members wanted to have more time to discuss the proposal. At the start of 2026, an amended version was introduced as S. 206 and passed out of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee with bipartisan support. It went to a full Senate vote in March and passed with bipartisan support. The bill moved to the House but was not taken up for a vote before the session ended.
Vermont could soon become the first state to formally recognize early childhood education as a profession, honoring those who are foundational to children’s early learning and creating a system in which every child has access to skilled, respected, and valued educators for generations to come.