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Child Care NEXT

Child Care NEXT is an initiative to support states that are ready to mount long-term campaigns to achieve transformative change in their child care policies and funding.

Child Care NEXT is transforming child care for America's next-generation needs

The COVID-19 pandemic brought chaos and devastation to our nation’s child care system, and with it, the lives of children, families, providers, and early childhood educators. As many have said, the challenges experienced in families and communities were not caused by the pandemic. They are a direct result of poor policy and investment choices our country has been making for decades – choices that reflect our nation’s racist and sexist beliefs about the worth of early care and education, who should do this work, and whose responsibility it is to secure child care that is responsive to the needs of young children and their families. It is no surprise that the impacts of the pandemic fell disproportionately on providers, educators, families, and children in communities that have been marginalized because of their racial and/or economic background.

If our policy choices created the vulnerabilities and inequities we witnessed in the child care system during the pandemic, we can undo them and put in place stronger policies and systems. To do that, we cannot continue to tinker around the edges and settle for marginal improvements. We need to mount sustained advocacy campaigns that demand a more ambitious and bolder future.

Child Care NEXT is funding collaborative state advocacy communities that are taking this on.

Child Care NEXT is supporting states so they can:

    • Authentically listen, engage, and share leadership with people who are most affected by child care policies and systems;
    • Advocate for transformative state policies and investments that will serve children, families, providers, and educators effectively and equitably; and
    • Build a sustainable base of political power in communities and states that will ensure progress is durable.

“Parents, providers, and early-childhood advocates on the ground know what the right next-generation systems for their states are. This is an effort to ‘call the question,’ about what we mean when we say child care is essential and get on with the work of actual implementation — and proving to policymakers what this transformation can mean for a state.”

Albert Wat, Senior Policy Director
Alliance for Early Success

Child Care NEXT Updates: