National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) promotes high quality early learning for all children ages birth through age eight by connecting research, policy, and practice.

NAEYC advances a diverse, dynamic early childhood education profession and supports all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children.

State allies can call on NAEYC to:

Center and elevate the diverse voices, strengths, perspective, expertise, and needs of early childhood educators working in all settings in our collective policy-and decision-making.

NAEYC can connect allies with State Affiliates and educators and help root their advocacy and policymaking in the expertise of educators across settings. Strategies include direct engagement with individual educators, as well as surveys and focus groups that yield qualitative and quantitative data and stories that help identify emerging issues, and that can be shared with policymakers, the press, and the public through reports, as well as traditional and social media. Since March of 2020, NAEYC has conducted surveys of educators and higher education faculty to gauge their well-being, understand the challenges they are facing, and gather their perspectives on solutions.

Provide guidance on an ECE state policy agenda and advocacy strategies that specifically support and advance an equitable, well-prepared and well-compensated early childhood education profession.

NAEYC offers resources, recommendations, thought partnership, and guidance to state allies and advocates to help them increase educators’ equitable access to higher education and professional development; increase educators’ wages and access to benefits; and respond to deregulation and “culture war” challenges with positive solutions. NAEYC also supports the Commission on Professional Excellence in helping states align with recommendations outlined in the Unifying Framework for the Early Childhood Education Profession.

Support federal-state and non-partisan electoral advocacy strategies on a range of legislative and policy issues that impact early childhood education and educators.

NAEYC provides supportive guidance to help advocates understand what’s happening in Congress and the Administration, and engage in timely federal-state advocacy strategies that center the voices, experience, and expertise of educators, including those working in advocacy teams with family members (issues may include but not be limited to those related to CCDBG, ECE tax strategies that support the workforce, WOIA, and HEA). In election seasons, NAEYC also supports educators and advocates working on non-partisan electoral advocacy strategies to keep child care, early learning, and the ECE workforce front and center.

Support ECE systems – and the individual child care and professional preparation programs within them – in implementing high quality programs standards that help increase equitable access to high quality ECE.

NAEYC holds consensus-driven, research-based foundational ECE guidelines on behalf of the ECE field, including: Developmentally Appropriate Practice, the Code of Ethics, the Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators, the Early Learning Program Standards, Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education, and NAEYC’s standards for quality ECE professional preparation. NAEYC is able to help states align with and implement these guidelines with early childhood education programs, and embed them within ECE quality assurance systems.

On the Ground:

NAEYC is partnering with the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood to support implementation of quality assurance systems for both the ECE higher education programs and ECE early learning programs. Using NAEYC higher education accreditation and NAEYC early learning program accreditation as the foundation, NAEYC and the state have adapted the accreditation systems to the state’s context and co-created technical assistance to support the programs in meeting national standards for child care and professional preparation program quality.
NAEYC has provided policy and advocacy strategic guidance and resources to partners in several states – including Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Utah – as they faced proposed or enacted changes to group sizes, ratios, educator qualifications and ages, etc. NAEYC has also provided connections across states to learn from one another and identify what resonates with policymakers. NAEYC has also shared with these states and many others resources on positive regulatory improvements happening in states, like zoning improvements.

NAEYC has been a critical partner in the preparation of the early childhood workforce, and the building of our Quality Improvement System… We rely heavily on the valuable technical assistance around the Unifying Framework and the Professional Standards and Competencies, as well as the infrastructure that the NAEYC accreditation system provides, which allows us to focus our resources on building and delivering quality improvement supports to providers.”

CT Office of Early Childhood

“We rely heavily on NAEYC’s knowledge of child care quality. When we were in tough deregulation battles in our state, NAEYC proactively reached out to us to see how they could help. They’re our go-to resource for quality best practices and research proving that lowering safety standards doesn’t improve child care accessibility. When providers in our state were struggling with obtaining and affording liability insurance, NAEYC hopped on a call with advocates and providers to hear their experiences and offer resources on what we could do to find relief. I appreciate their willingness to spearhead solution finding and take the time to meet directly with providers in our state and hear their concerns.”