Washington, D.C. — As climate change escalates and natural disasters become increasingly frequent and intense, parents and caregivers face more challenges keeping young children safe.
New analysis from the Center for American Progress—in collaboration with Start Early, the Early Opportunities Initiative, and the Children’s Environmental Health Network—examines how the changing climate affects the child care and early learning sector by placing child care professionals on the front lines of the climate crisis. The authors offer specific, actionable recommendations to guide state and local policymakers in better protecting the early childhood sector from worsening climate threats.
Key recommendations include:
- Increasing investments to support, train, and promote the overall resiliency of the early childhood workforce.
- Promoting early childhood providers’ ability to make facilities improvements by creating flexibility in current infrastructure funding and securing new investments.
- Integrating climate resiliency and emergency response into governance structures, data collection, and community partnerships to support early educators’ preparedness and recovery training.
- Developing climate emergency communication tools and practices to connect caregivers with trusted sources of timely, accurate information about climate threats.
- Implementing policies that help the child care system adapt to new conditions in the context of a changing climate.
“Climate change is getting worse, and America’s children are the most vulnerable to its effects. Child care professionals play a key role in protecting them, but our broken child care system means support is extremely limited,” said Hailey Gibbs, associate director for Early Childhood Policy at CAP and co-author of the report. “In the years ahead, the onus will fall on state and local lawmakers—alongside parents, grandparents, and the support of the broader community—to help keep kids safe, support recovery efforts, and boost climate resilience in the early childhood sector.”
Read the report: “Child Care Professionals Are on the Front Lines as Climate Change Risks Children’s Health and Development” by Hailey Gibbs, Nadia Gronkowski, Hester Paul, Joan Lombardi, and Nsedu Obot Witherspoon
For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Mishka Espey at [email protected].