The Alliance for Early Success is a 50-state resource for early-childhood advocates as they pursue the big, sustained impact that will ensure every child in every state, birth through age eight, has an equal chance to grow, learn, and succeed.
The New England Regional Early Childhood Advocate Convening brought together advocates and funders to facilitate cross-state learning, align advocacy and policy goals, and build relationships. Topics included coalition building, family economic security policy, healthy families policy, and case studies of early childhood advocacy by New England states.
It is no secret that early childhood educators face challenges in Wisconsin and beyond, and yet plans to make the system more equitable are often missing the voices of these practitioners themselves. In Wisconsin, a new study that centers the voices of Wisconsin early educators from traditionally marginalized groups is already having an impact on policy in the state.
State allies in the Alliance for Early Success network recently gathered to discuss the challenges the family child care workforce is facing. The group focused on two growing challenges: the rising cost of liability insurance and the availability of coverage. Allies were joined by NAEYC who shared findings based on recent surveys conducted with child care providers.
When advocates at Rodel in Delaware began planning a targeted messaging strategy for increasing child care subsidies, the Alliance connected them with Child Care Aware of America, who helped them build a dashboard that quantifies the gap in child care supply and demand at the local level. This allowed advocates to create fact sheets about the shortage of child care in each state legislative district and, ultimately, win more than $10 million in additional subsidy and reimbursement funding.
In the early, crushing days of Covid, early childhood advocates in Massachusetts began to talk to each other daily on Zoom about making a way through the pandemic. These meetings were small at first, but grew over time. Four years later, “The 9:30 Call” is still happening and has an invite list of more than 2,000. More important, it is now a powerful, statewide conversation and a tool for ongoing and unprecedented advocacy.
In lean budget times, successful advocacy can often take the shape of avoiding deep cuts or even planned eliminations to vital programs. This year, early childhood advocates in the District of Columbia and Louisiana leveraged grassroots voices and strategic messaging to defend investments in child care programs.
Virginia advocates have have turned the Child Care NEXT principles and support into a string of wins for children, including, in the 2024 session, an historic commitment by the governor and legislature that means $1.1 billion will be available for child care services for low to moderate income families over the next two years.
Early Childhood advocates in Alabama are celebrating the creation of a new child care tax credit. As part of a “Working for Alabama” bill package, House Bill 358 provides opportunities for employers, for-profit child care providers, and nonprofit child care providers to apply for funds. The Alabama legislature unanimously passed the bill and the governor signed it into law in May, 2024.
While Kentucky was the first state to make child care staff automatically eligible for subsidies, about a dozen states have followed the lead of the Bluegrass State and either implemented a similar policy or are actively considering it. It is estimated that about 234,300 child care workers with children under the age of six and 294,000 children would benefit from the Kentucky model if all 50 states plus D.C. implemented a similar policy.
Things are looking up for young children, parents, and child care providers in California thanks to transformational legislative wins over the summer of 2023. These policy achievements did not happen by chance, but were the result of a coordinated effort that was fueled by the grassroots organizing of parents, providers, and thousands of organizations speaking with one voice.
