Home » State Early Childhood Policy Landscapes » Alaska Early Childhood Policy Landscape

Alaska

Alaska, like all states, has a unique early childhood policy landscape that is shaped by economics, demographics, political history, coalitions, and other factors that create a state-specific environment for policy advocacy.

State early childhood policy progress is dependent both on the state’s environment and the numerous efforts—by the organizations listed on this page, other organizations, parents, policymakers, practitioners, and more—who work both independently and collaboratively to achieve wins for young children.

2025 State Early Childhood Policy Environment and Progress

Early Childhood Landscape:

Research shows that family economic security is foundational to children’s overall wellbeing. Research also shows that widespread disparities in opportunity (especially by race) drive wide disparities in outcomes. States with policies that offer strong support to young children and their families are more likely to see 1) declining numbers of children in low-income households and 2) low racial disparity among those children.

Young Children in Low-Income Households: Declining

Approximately 35 percent (29,000) of the state’s children 0-8 live in households below 200 percent FPL (2022). This number represents a decrease from 36 percent (34,000) in 2017.¹

Racial Disparity Among Young Children Living in Low-Income Households: High

Black, Hispanic/Latino, and/or Native children aged 0-8 are significantly more likely to be living in households below 200 percent FPL than are Asian and non-Hispanic White children.²

Note: This data does not take into account the traditional subsistence way of life of Alaska’s rural Indigenous communities, where economics are different and households would not necessarily self-identify as “low-income.”

(NOTE: Selecting for age 0-8, state, and race can yield small cell sizes that can make percentages less accurate. Bars marked with S indicate data with extremely small cell sizes, which is not displayed. Bars marked with C should be interpreted with caution. Though the cell sizes are larger, they still fall below a threshold of reliability.)

Advocacy Landscape:

State Unrestricted General Fund Appropriations: Declining

Alaska’s governor signed the state’s fiscal 2026 budget into law in June of 2025, while announcing a series of line-item vetoes. Total appropriations from all fund sources, including both operating and capital, are $14.73 billion, a 4.0 percent decrease from fiscal 2025. The budget provides for total operating expenditures (excluding capital) of $11.85 billion in fiscal 2026, a 3.4 percent decrease from fiscal 2025. The enacted budget includes $5.10 billion in unrestricted general funds spending (a 1.8 percent decrease), $912.9 million in designated general fund spending (a 5.1 percent decrease), $1.99 billion in other spending (a 2.1 percent increase), and $3.85 billion in federal spending (a 7.7 percent decrease). The budget also calls for capital appropriations of $2.88 billion, a 20.4 percent decrease from fiscal 2025. Additionally, the budget includes a Permanent Fund Dividend of $1,000 for each eligible Alaskan. Total state revenue is estimated at $15.68 billion in fiscal 2026 (a 6.1 percent decrease from fiscal 2025), while unrestricted revenue is estimated at $2.33 billion (a 9.4 percent decrease from fiscal 2025).³

Key Revenue Sources After Federal Transfers:⁴

- - Property Taxes ($2,384 per capita)
  - Charges ($2,287 per capita)

Charges are public payments connected with a specific government service, such as tuition paid to a state university, payments to a public hospital, or highway tolls. Alaska does not levy a general sales tax or an individual income tax. Alaska also collects a relatively large amount of revenue from severance taxes, which are taxes on the extraction of natural resources such as oil and natural gas.

State Budget Rules:⁴

Alaska uses an annual budget. The legislature must pass and the governor must sign a balanced budget, and deficits cannot be carried into the following year. Alaska further limits spending growth according to population growth and inflation. The limit does not apply to the state’s Permanent Fund or capital projects. Otherwise, the state must amend its constitution to exceed the limitation. Alaska limits its total debt service (but not its total authorized debt).

Permanent State Funding Stream Dedicated to Early Childhood: No

There is no permanent state funding stream—such as lottery revenue, nicotine tax, or trust fund distributions—dedicated by statute to early childhood supports.9 (Examples of other states with such funding in place can be found in the Alliance’s Revenue and Early Childhood Finance resource center.)

Political Alignment: Unaligned

During the legislative session, Alaska’s House was controlled by a Democratic-leaning coalition, with an Independent serving as Speaker. The Senate was controlled by a bipartisan coalition with Republicans holding leadership roles (Senate President, Majority Leader) alongside Democrats (Rules Chair). The Governor was a Republican.⁶

Types of Common Ballot Measures Available:⁷Six

- Voter-initiated state statutes, which earn a spot on the ballot when sponsors collect signatures according to the laws governing the initiative process in Alaska. In Alaska, all initiatives are indirect.
- Legislature-initiated constitutional amendments. These are voted onto the ballot when both houses of the Alaska State Legislature agree to put them on the ballot by a 2/3rds vote.
- Bonding propositions can be placed on the ballot by the state legislature.
- Veto referenda. When citizens of Alaska disagree with a statute or legislative bill enacted by the state legislature, they can collect signatures to force the issue to a vote. If enough signatures are collected, the bill is placed on the statewide ballot.
- Automatic ballot referrals. In Alaska, there is one such question, by law, every ten years–the question of whether to hold a constitutional convention.
- Advisory questions. The state legislature is allowed to put statewide advisory-only votes on the ballot; often, these advisory votes ask whether the citizenry would like to see a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in a future year.

Early Childhood Policy Advocacy Organizations Include:

Early Childhood Policy Advocacy Multi-State Initiatives Include:⁸

2025 Policy Progress:

Highlights from the state’s early childhood policy advocacy community include:⁹

Because Alaska has two-year legislative sessions, most policy bills pass in the second session. Given that this is the first year of the session, the state had a limited number of bills pass through the entire legislative process.

SB95 and SB96, already signed into law, re identical to the child care bill that passed the legislature last year, but due to a court challenge related to the single subject rule, these bills (and three others on different topics) had to be repassed this session. The first bill, SB95, will increase access to child care assistance for families up to 105 percent of SMI. Around 18,000 additional children will qualify for child care assistance. SB96 is the second of the pair of child care bills that were repassed this legislative session. This legislation provides tax credits for investments in child care to businesses in specific sectors.

The legislature also allocated $5 million in state funding for Alaska’s child advocacy centers to backfill a loss in federal funds. This was the conclusion of a two-year advocacy effort to ensure the funds made it in the FY26 budget. Significant grassroots advocacy for this funding resulted in it being maintained, despite a very bleak state budget picture. It had broad bipartisan support.

RECENT ADVOCACY SNAPSHOT:

The Future of the CCDF Rule Is Not Clear, but Alaska, Maine, and Others Are Continuing Its Improvements

October 23, 2025

Though the Trump administration has recently been sending signals that they intend to do away with the rule entirely, state advocates report the CCDF Rule has sparked many of the recent positive changes in child care policy across the country.

NOTES:

¹Kids Count Data Center, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Children Ages 0 to 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, January, 2024.

²National Center for Children in Poverty, Children Ages 0 through 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, October 2024, NCCP analysis of ACS 5-Year Estimates – Public Use Microdata Sample 2018-2022.

³National Association of State Budget Officers, Proposed and Enacted Budgets, FY 2026.

⁴Urban Institute, State Fiscal Briefs, April 2025.

⁵Alliance for Early Success, State Examples of Dedicated Funding Streams, 2025

⁶Alaska House control flips from predominantly Republican coalition to mostly Democratic coalition, News from the States, November 2024.

⁷Ballotpedia, Ballot Measures by State, Kids Count Data Center, 2025.

⁸Alliance for Early Success, Multi-State Initiatives for Early Childhood Policy Advocacy, July, 2024.

⁹Alliance for Early Success, State-Wide Advocacy Highlights Survey, April-October, 2025.

Ongoing Grantee Areas of Advocacy:

Our lead ally in Alaska is Alaska Children’s Trust (ACT), the statewide lead organization focused on the prevention of child abuse and neglect. ACT serves as advocate, convener, and catalyst for building a state that ensures children grow up in safe, stable, and nurturing environments. ACT influences public policy and, as the home to KIDS COUNT Alaska, produces reliable data, makes policy recommendations, and provides tools needed to advance sound policies that benefit Alaska’s children, youth, and families.

Alaska Children’s Trust is working to advance early childhood policies in several areas that align with the Alliance’s birth-through-eight policy framework: