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.
As 2023 legislative sessions are underway, advocates have been preparing to ensure that legislators understand the strong opportunity to equitably support young children, their families, and communities through policy and budgetary investments. Take a look at some of the leading 2023 state policy priorities in early childhood.
Mississippi just celebrated the ten-year anniversary of its launch of a collaborative pre-k program, a mixed-delivery model that allows families in communities to choose the setting and style that works for them. The 2013 debut allocated $3 million for 11 early learning collaboratives. By 2023, $24 million is enabling Mississippi to support 35.
Advocates in several states fought for and won policy changes that demonstrate the bold and inspirational thinking that can advance a state more toward a more diverse, effective, prepared, and well-compensated early childhood workforce.
New Futures learned that many coalition partners did not engage in advocacy because many of their funding sources prohibited advocacy or gave unclear guidance on allowed activities. To overcome this barrier, New Futures developed their Advocacy Field Grant program with support from their Alliance for Early Success grant.
Alaska leaned in to state-funded preschool this year, with Governor Mike Dunleavy signing into law the Alaska Reads Act in June. The new law includes a small competitive grant program to develop pre-K programs in districts where none exist, or to expand and improve existing pre-K programs.
Alliance allies at the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children (LPIC) mounted a successful campaign to protect social-emotional learning (SEL) standards in early education and K-12 schools after the Louisiana’s state school board proposed to remove them from the state’s early learning development standards.
The Alliance for Early Success has released its 2022 50-State Progress and Landscape Report, an annual report on policy wins and trends in state early childhood policy across the country.
After a three-year break, the Alliance for Early Success hosted CONNECT22—a three-day event that brings together state advocates, national early
Allies at the Alabama School Readiness Alliance (ASRA), VOICES for Alabama’s Children, and Alabama Partnership for Children championed legislation that led to a historic state investment to child care and pre-k – a new and improved QRIS system that includes generous incentive payments to providers and provides coaches to help programs improve their quality and adding 125 classrooms to the First Class Pre-k program.
Alliance allies at the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness (OPSR) manage The Oklahoma Clearinghouse for Early Childhood Success and partner with public and private organizations to ensure that there is cross-sector representation in decision-making and funding. OPSR aims to elevate best practices and inform implementation across early childhood systems in Oklahoma.
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© 2024 Alliance for Early Success
The Alliance for Early Success does not endorse or advocate for specific legislation or candidates.
