
Rasheed
Malik
Senior Director, Early Childhood Policy
We are committed to advancing progressive policies with bold, family-friendly solutions that equitably support all children, families, and early educators.
Half of all Americans live in neighborhoods classified as child care deserts with little to no access to child care. We promote bold policy solutions to the child care crisis that will expand access and affordability, bringing an inclusive and racially equitable vision to life.
Child care is an investment in economic infrastructure, and lack of public investment negatively affects parent workforce participation, family economic security, and the U.S. economy. We need to establish comprehensive solutions that invest in all families.
Family-friendly policy solutions should respect the inherent values and rights of parents, infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and the early education field. We promote progressive policies that support the well-being of our youngest children and high-quality early learning in all communities.
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CAP works in partnership with allied early childhood advocates across the country to expand access to quality, affordable child care and early learning opportunities. StateOfChildCare.org and the Grassroots Movement for Child Care and Early Education are two collaborative initiatives that bring together the expertise of allies in early learning.
This project supports decision-makers in understanding how the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) affects low-income families and early educators.
StateofChildCare.org
Coordinated by the ECE Organizing Network, this initiative organizes a national network of grassroots allies fighting to expand access to early learning.
Grassroots Movement for Child Care
The Center for American Progress’ Early Childhood Policy team is committed to creating and advancing progressive policies centered on bold, family-friendly solutions that equitably support all children, families, and early educators. Key components of the team’s work include building actionable, inclusive, and racially equitable policies that serve all families regardless of income, geographic location, ability, gender, or race; believing in and supporting the inherent value and rights of young children (infants, toddlers, and preschoolers); valuing the early childhood teaching profession by providing livable wages and additional workforce supports; and building new systems with equitable investments in families.
The current process states use for setting child care subsidy reimbursement rates only looks backward, building low wages and scarce resources into the future of child care.
Governors must take the lead in instituting policies that fairly compensate early childhood providers for the skilled work they perform, incentivize the creation of programs in child care deserts, and relieve families of the high cost of care.
Both Democratic and Republican governors are taking bold action to support young children and their families.
The reauthorization and expansion of a key home visiting program could support better outcomes for Indigenous parents and young children.
Social determinants of health, such as access to secure housing, family employment and economic stability, education, and child care, must be the focus of federal policies to support infant and toddler health.
Congress has a narrow window to help preserve insurance coverage and improve both postpartum care and children’s health outcomes when the public health emergency ends.
Child care sites across the country are facing immense challenges hiring and retaining staff amid a shortage of good jobs, leaving parents struggling to find care and placing increasing stress on the workers that remain.
Child care often is treated like a private family issue, but lack of access has cascading negative impacts on child care providers, small-business owners, and broader communities.
With additional funding, an existing federal subsidy program could forestall closures and supply losses in the child care sector until policymakers secure meaningful investments.
Rasheed Malik testified before the House Budget Committee on July 20, 2022, on the importance of investing in early childhood programs.
New, comprehensive data on child care workers in center-based programs—analyzing their demographics, education, experience, and wages—reveal widening pay gaps and inequality.
Understanding how the key social determinants of health—including housing, employment, and education—affect perinatal health is critical to ensuring that federal policies support healthy babies and families.