National Women's Law Center

The National Women’s Law Center offers state-level data analyses, materials, and technical assistance to advance policies that support women and their families, across issues that are central to the lives of women and girls, including child care, home-based child care, family leave, housing policy, nutrition programs, and tax policy and credits.

NWLC provides: state-level policy analysis, annual reports and research materials, messaging guidance, communications trainings, and technical assistance to advance policies that support women and their families. They also foster a learning community for advocates to enhance peer learning and routinely connect advocates with one another who working on similar issues or facing similar challenges. Child care, family leave, tax policy, housing policy, pregnancy accommodation, and child nutrition programs are just a few of the many areas central to the lives of women and girls where NWLC’s policy work intersects with state early childhood policy advocacy.

State allies can call on NWLC to:

Provide state level analysis and research that helps them fight for child care and early education investments and advance better, more equitable child care and early education policies.

NWLC has extensive research on child care issues for low-income families, communities of color, and early childhood providers, and educators. Resources can focus on strategies for addressing the expiration of pandemic relief funding for child care; the role of family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care; the impact of child care on women’s economic security; and policies that enhance the resiliency of the child care system for the long-term.

Provide analysis of federal and state legislation on child care policies and investment, income support programs, and tax and budget policies.

NWLC equips state-based advocates and grassroots organizers with the knowledge of federal and state policy they need to be forceful advocates in their states. This includes one-on-one technical assistance as well as conference calls, memos, fact sheets, and convenings that facilitate peer-to-peer learning and strengthen state-federal feedback loops.

Provide state-specific data on state child care policies and the use of child care funds.

NWLC tracks, reports, and analyzes state decisions around key child care policies and the use of federal child care funds. NWLC can help state advocates develop their agendas and identify priorities for improving their child care policies and ensuring effective and creative use of federal and state funds to support child care and early education.

Provide guidance and expertise around child care and dependent care tax policies.

NWLC can provide technical assistance to advocates seeking guidance around state tax policies regarding child and dependent care, including providing policy analysis and legislative language. Provide assistance with messaging strategies for support of child care and early education policies. In addition to offering monthly communications strategy workshops, NWLC can offer specific guidance on messaging and campaigns for child care and early education.

On the Ground:

Advocates in Rhode Island relied on NWLC to help them understand and compare RI eligibility levels for Child Care Assistance to nearby states and the federal standard.
NWLC provided a federal policy overview for advocates in North Carolina who were looking to understand the difference between proposed budgets in the U.S. House and Senate as they related to child care, early childhood education, and Black maternal health.
In Vermont, advocates met regularly with NWLC to discuss the pillars of comprehensive child care legislation, including income eligibility, cost modeling, and mixed delivery, as well as to brainstorm messaging strategies and respond to legislators’ concerns.

“We have relied heavily on NWLC’s up-to-the-minute knowledge of early childhood education policy on Capitol Hill. NWLC is a valuable resource for staying in the know on the DC landscape and key in uplifting parent voices in the fight for quality, accessible early childhood education for all families.”

Benjamin Gies, Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence (KY)

“As a longtime advocate, I constantly rely on the NWLC’s resources about federal and state child care policy. Having access to this kind of help to get comparable information about rates, eligibility, and other policies across the US and for nearby states is very helpful.”