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.
FIELD NOTES | With debate swirling about “tri-share” and other child care cost-sharing models, Kids Win Missouri Executive Director makes the case that states should focus less on debating models and more on designing to the state’s unique needs and landscape.
Nebraska advocates demonstrated how the Alliance for Early Success’s flexible funding and expert support can help state advocates turn a promising idea into measurable progress for young children and the adults who care for them. Advocates recognized that tax credits could be a powerful tool for strengthening the state’s child care system—but only if families, providers, and employers actually used them. First Five Nebraska designed a package of credits paired with a communications and outreach strategy. Their approach also offers a simple playbook for other states.
The Alliance for Early Success has released it’s annual report on state early childhood policy progress, and it shows—while headwinds are increasing—early childhood advocates are working together and adding capacity to get hard-fought wins for young children and their families.
An audience of early childhood policy advocates learned about the solutions New Mexico policymakers chose to implement over more than a decade, and the advocacy strategies that influenced them. Guests included Elizabeth Groginsky, Secretary, New Mexico Department of Early Childhood Education and Care; Matthew Henderson, Executive Director, OLÉ Education Fund; and Jacob Vigil, Chief Legislative Officer, New Mexico Voices for Children.
In 2015, Let’s Grow Kids, a statewide advocacy organization, was launched in Vermont with a clear goal: secure affordable access to high-quality child care for the state’s families by 2025. Let’s Grow Kids has now officially ended its operations, and that is by design. The organization was designed from the start to be a time-limited, ten-year endeavor to reach the unprecedented outcome it achieved in Act 76, which passed in 2023.
Alliance responsive support provider Children’s Funding Project is helping advocates across the country win dedicated streams of public financing to support young children. Establishing dedicated funding for ECE can be an effective way to ensure these programs don’t get left out during the budget process.
Connecticut’s Early Childhood Education Endowment, seeded with an initial $300 million investment, marks the culmination of years of work by early education advocates fighting for sustainable, long-term funding.
After years of advocacy, Zero to Five Montana—along with other advocates, parents, and providers—has succeeded in passing a new early childhood endowment: the new Early Childhood Special Revenue Account.
FIELD NOTES | As state policymakers work to address the huge budget shortfalls created by the federal government’s enactment of H.R. 1, state early childhood policy advocates are the next line of defense. And they need big investments in capacity to get the job done.
After working with Alliance Responsive Support providers at the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, advocates uncovered a new funding stream for home visiting, which ultimately nearly doubled the state’s available home visiting funds.
