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.

Providing Affordable, Accessible, and High-Quality Child Care

Sustainable public investment in the child care sector is critical to advancing women’s economic security, particularly by boosting maternal labor force participation and improving wages for those working in the female-dominated sector.

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.

RELEASE: CAP Report Analyzes Costs of Child Care for Infants and Toddlers, Need for Increased Public Support

Child Care Spending Generates Massive Dividends

Major child care investments pay for themselves through a range of benefits, including improved child and family health, bolstered educational outcomes, and economic recovery.

RELEASE: New Interactive Reveals the True Cost of Quality Early Childhood Education in Each U.S. State

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.

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.

4 Reasons the U.S. Economy Needs Comprehensive Child Care

Building the infrastructure for a robust child care system would have wide positive reverberations for the nation’s businesses and broader economic recovery and growth.