Quality of Early Care and Education

Family-friendly policy solutions should respect the inherent values and rights of parents, infants, toddlers, children through 5 years of age, and the early education field. When families with young children don’t have the right to choose high-quality care and education experiences, children’s developmental health suffers alongside families’ economic stability and U.S. economic prosperity. The Early Childhood Policy team promotes progressive policies and strategies that support infant and toddler well-being as well as high-quality child care and early childhood education in state and local communities.

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Top 5 Actions Governors Can Take To Address the Child Care Shortage Report
Photo shows a woman in the foreground holding a baby with another teacher and toddlers in the background, in a room filled with toys.

Top 5 Actions Governors Can Take To Address the Child Care Shortage

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.

Anna Lovejoy

Promoting Equitable Access to Quality Child Care Report
Young girl sitting in chair reading in front of alphabet letters on wall

Promoting Equitable Access to Quality Child Care

Increased federal investments offer an opportunity to expand equitable access to quality child care for all children and families.

Simon Workman

The Build Back Better Act Substantially Expands Child Care Assistance Article
A man and his three children on porch

The Build Back Better Act Substantially Expands Child Care Assistance

The Build Back Better Act ensures child care assistance for 16 times as many young children as under current law, and in some states, it would help state child care agencies reach more than 25 times as many children and their families.

Rasheed Malik

These Interconnected Policies Would Sustain Families, Support Women, and Grow the Economy Article
Long-term caregivers and supporters rally in Los Angeles on July 13, 2021, for greater federal and local investment in the country's caregiving infrastructure as Congress debates the president's significant investment in quality home care. (Getty/Frederic J. Brown/AFP)

These Interconnected Policies Would Sustain Families, Support Women, and Grow the Economy


Together, the policies included in the Biden administration’s Build Back Better agenda would propel families’ and the country’s economic security by prioritizing child care, the child tax credit, paid family and medical leave, and good jobs that get Americans back to work.

The U.S. Child Care Crisis Explained Video

The U.S. Child Care Crisis Explained

The lack of affordable and high-quality child care has disproportionately pushed women out of the workforce for decades. It is long past time for the United States to provide adequate, sustained funding and end the child care crisis.

Erin Robinson, Darya Nicol, Jasmine Hardy, 1 More Hai-Lam Phan

6 Ways To Ensure Preschool Contributes to an Equitable Early Childhood System Report
 (A 4-year-old wakes from naptime at the preschool program at Paige Academy in Boston on January 27, 2017.)

6 Ways To Ensure Preschool Contributes to an Equitable Early Childhood System

The Biden-Harris administration has an opportunity to create a world-class preschool program that addresses racial and income inequities, but it must be part of a continuum of support for children from birth to kindergarten.

Laura Dallas McSorley

6 State Strategies To Improve Child Care Policies During the Pandemic and Beyond Report
 (A 4-year-old paints autumn leaves in a child care center in Arnold, Maryland, on November, 25, 2019.)

6 State Strategies To Improve Child Care Policies During the Pandemic and Beyond

As the child care market struggles to survive the impact of the pandemic, states can implement strategies to improve child care so that it better meets the needs of working families, children, educators, and employers.

Simon Workman, Katie Hamm

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