Child Care

States Seek To Improve Early Childhood Outcomes Through Consolidated Governance Structures

In recent years, a number of states have moved to consolidate disparately administered early childhood programs into a single agency to improve coordination of services and reduce administrative burdens.

The Childcare Crisis Hampers Opportunity for America’s Families

In an op-ed published by Ms., Hailey Gibbs write about how a second Trump presidency could affect America’s child care crisis.

Child Care Expenses Push an Estimated 134,000 Families Into Poverty Each Year

Robust public investments can lift the weight of the child care affordability crisis off the safety net’s shoulders.

Project 2025’s Plan To Gut Checks and Balances Harms Rural America

The new authoritarian playbook would devastate rural America in many ways.

Project 2025’s Plan To Gut Checks and Balances Harms the American People

The new authoritarian playbook would devastate Americans in many ways.

Fact Sheets: The Harmful Effects of Project 2025, by State

These fact sheets provide insight into how Project 2025 would affect people in states across the country.

Executive Summary: Protecting Children From Extreme Heat Is Critical for Their Health, Learning, and Development

This fact sheet summarizes a recent Center of American Progress report highlighting the need for policymakers to take steps to develop heat standards for children and support infrastructure improvements to ensure schools, child care centers, and communities are safe and healthy places for children.

Protecting Children From Extreme Heat Is Critical for Their Health, Learning, and Development

As climate change intensifies extreme heat around the globe, policymakers must take steps to develop heat standards for children and support infrastructure improvements to ensure schools, child care centers, and communities are safe and healthy places for children.

Project 2025 Would Eliminate Head Start, Severely Restricting Access to Child Care in Rural America

If enacted, the elimination of Head Start would undermine economic growth and exacerbate inequalities among families with young children.

Lowering Costs for American Families

Join CAP for a conversation with Neera Tanden, Domestic Policy Advisor to President Joe Biden.

Fact Sheet: Using Federal Preschool Grant To Build State Early Learning Systems

The Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five program is a valuable tool for increasing families’ seamless access to early care and education programs.

2024 Summit on Education: Reset. Reframe. Reform.

Governors Are Calling for Investments in Early Care and Education

Echoing 2023, governors from both political parties prioritized child care and pre-kindergarten in their 2024 State of the State addresses.

Fact Sheet: Building an Economy That Delivers for Women

This fact sheet offers a brief summary of CAP’s “Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy,” which provides federal and state policymakers with the tools they need to center women in their economic plans and grow the economy.

Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy

This collection of policy recommendations reveals how policymakers can grow the economy by centering the changes that women need in their economic platforms.

States Are Taking Action To Address the Child Care Crisis

Federal COVID-19 relief funding for child care stabilization grants ended in September 2023, but a number of states have stepped up this year to address the child care needs of working families.

Data Dashboard: An Overview of Child Care and Early Learning in the United States

The Center for American Progress has developed a data dashboard that allows users to explore national- and state-level data trends on a range of child care and early learning topics, including access to affordable care, the child care workforce, Head Start, and exclusionary discipline policies.

Related Resources on Child Care and Early Learning

This webpage offers a list of resources that can help make the case for investments in child care and early learning at the state level.

How To Expand Access to Affordable, High-Quality Child Care and Preschool

This webpage provides a menu of state policy recommendations and examples of state policies to expand access to affordable, high-quality child care and preschool opportunities.

Messaging and Communications To Promote Early Childhood Education

This webpage offers guidance on messaging and communications to promote child care and early childhood education in states.

Early Childhood Education in U.S. States

This toolkit provides information and resources to help state policymakers advocate for increased investments in their state child care and early learning systems.

The Child Care Sector Is Still Struggling To Hire Workers

Amid a tight labor market and lack of sustainable funding, the child care sector’s shortage of good jobs persists, exacerbating its challenge to attract and retain workers.

Understanding the Self-Employed in the United States

This fact sheet explores the size, demographics, and key features of the self-employed population in the United States.

Reversing the Decline in Routine Childhood Immunization Rates Is Good Health, Equity, and Economic Policy

Policymakers can address the decline in routine childhood vaccination rates in the United States by improving access and boosting confidence in childhood vaccines, and by making vaccination the easiest and most sensible choice.