Mary Moody bought Silver Bluff Kids Early Learning Center in 2023, one of in western North Carolina at the time. The owners cited insufficient childcare subsidy funding.

Today, the Canton center, where around 75% of children rely on child care subsidy funding, is facing the same challenge, Moody said.

鈥淭he price of groceries, the price of supplies and materials, our insurance costs, like everything has increased 鈥� except our subsidy reimbursement rates,鈥� she said.

Childcare programs need more subsidy funding, advocates say, to make ends meet and serve low-income working and student parents. Advocates are asking for $101 million this short legislative session to increase the rates facilities receive through , which helps afford care.

鈥淚t鈥檚 about stabilizing the childcare sector right now, because before we can even think about expanding childcare programs, we have to sustain what we have,鈥� said Leanna Martin, director of early childhood policy and research at nonprofit .

Since the state legislature passed a full budget in 2023, the state has experienced a net loss of 262 licensed programs, according to from the Gov. Josh Stein鈥檚 office.

In March, Stein鈥檚 鈥渃ritical needs budget鈥� for the rest of the fiscal year.

Legislators went home last fiscal year without passing a full budget. Both the and proposals included around $80 million per year in subsidy funding to update rates.

Without increased subsidy funding, childcare will continue to become less accessible and more expensive, said Dan Rockaway, president of the and CEO of Sounds and Colors, which has four childcare centers in Wake and Orange counties.

鈥淚t鈥檚 what keeps parents in the workforce and classrooms open,鈥� Rockaway said. 鈥淏ut to truly work, subsidy rates also need to be better aligned with the actual cost of providing high-quality care, otherwise the gap continues to grow and access remains out of reach for too many families.鈥�

鈥業n free fall鈥�

Many childcare programs have had to make up for the loss of pandemic relief funding, which ran out in March 2025. The state encouraged programs to use that funding to increase teachers鈥� wages. When the money ran out, providers have had to find other ways to fill the gap and retain staff.

In Moody鈥檚 case, she has chosen not to hire an extra 鈥渇loater鈥� in order to maintain her staff鈥檚 wages. Instead, her and her assistant director fill in to maintain required child-to-staff ratios when a teacher is out.

鈥淭hat makes things really challenging now, really tight, and it has been since March of last year,鈥� she said.

Moody said she could raise tuition rates, but she knows parents cannot afford to pay more. Since her program is operating a waitlist, she has considered opening another center in the area to meet the demand.

鈥淏ut again, that鈥檚 the problem, is the funding,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 mean, the funding just isn鈥檛 there.鈥�

, which Stein established last year, has been studying funding and policy solutions to high costs and low access.

The group in January 2026, including creating a statewide subsidy floor, providing childcare for childcare employees, and offering childcare to public sector workers. The group has also discussed creating an endowment that multiple entities may contribute to.

Incremental changes will not be enough to recruit and retain teachers, said Henrietta Zalkind, director of the Down East Partnership for Children, a local Smart Start partnership serving young children and families in Nash and Edgecombe counties.

鈥淭he system is in free fall,鈥� said Zalkind, a long-time early childhood advocate. 鈥淎nd we need to acknowledge where we are.鈥�

She said direct funding to increase teachers鈥� wages would make the largest difference in the short-term, pointing to of education-based wage supplements from the from nonprofit Early Years. Child care teachers in North Carolina made an average of $14.20 an hour in 2024, .

What difference would higher subsidy rates make?

Right now, the rates programs receive cover less than half of the actual cost of care, according to from Candace Witherspoon, director of (DCDEE).

Higher subsidy rates would help child care programs relying heavily on the program keep their lights on, Martin said.

鈥淚t brings consistency into the system 鈥� and reduces that market volatility to ensure providers receive a reliable baseline that more closely reflects the cost of care,鈥� she said.

The $101 million ask would establish a floor rate for infants and toddlers based on a and increase rates for 3- to 12-year-olds based on . The floor rate would mean all facilities serving infants, 1-year-olds, and 2-year-olds would receive, at minimum, the average statewide rate based on age and quality level.

The based on location, quality rating, and age. Martin pointed to Randolph County, which receives $867 per infant in a five-star setting. In neighboring Davidson, programs receive $1,236 for serving the same age child at the same quality level. A floor rate would increase rates in Randolph County by $600 per child per month, Martin said.

Advocates in called for a floor for all ages. This session鈥檚 ask prioritizes care for infants and toddlers because it is the most expensive and hardest to access across the state. Establishing a floor would nearly double the amount many rural providers receive to care for the youngest children, Martin said, and send about $27 million to programs in rural communities.

鈥�(The request) is a practical, feasible approach that鈥檚 going to have the greatest impact on our childcare providers,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he increased reimbursement will allow them to reinvest into their staff, into their operations.鈥�

Increasing rates will also make it more likely that programs will participate in the program, which is voluntary, said Rockaway, president of the NC Licensed Child Care Association and CEO of Sounds and Colors.

鈥淚f subsidy doesn鈥檛 go up, then childcare centers are either forced to close if they鈥檙e heavily subsidized 鈥� or child care centers that are on a mix of subsidy and private parents can increase their rates, but then will take fewer subsidy children,鈥� he said.

What about waitlists?

Meanwhile, thousands of families are waiting for subsidies to afford care. , 55,166 children were receiving subsidies and 8,319 children were on waitlists.

Enrollment is slightly up and waitlists are slightly down , when 54,676 children were served and 10,892 children were on waitlists.

Local agencies administering subsidy funds had to start waitlisting families in fall 2024 when federal pandemic relief funding ran out, according to DCDEE in an emailed statement to EdNC:

During the pandemic, states received American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. This extra funding helped North Carolina pay for childcare subsidies and keep waitlists lower. This federal funding ended in September 2024. In order to comply with federal requirements, which do not allow the removal of vouchers from children already participating in subsidized programs, North Carolina instead had to slow enrollment into the programs which led to an increase in the waitlists for potentially eligible children.

Overall, the total available funding decreased significantly from June 2024 to September 2024鈥攆rom $617,789,488 to $557,023,832. This decrease in funding has reduced the number of children served through the subsidized child care program.

In order to tackle those waitlists, it has to make financial sense for facilities to participate in the program, Martin said. NC Child has done research on steps the state could take to eventually reimburse providers at the actual cost of care. This year鈥檚 ask is the first of four steps, eventually totaling $380 million per year.

鈥淚nvesting in the subsidy not only sustains the programs now, but it鈥檚 really sustaining our future, and it鈥檚 an economic imperative and an economic investment,鈥� Martin said.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has no regrets about universal childcare.

As she approaches the end of her second term in New Mexico鈥檚 top office, she acknowledges there are some things she would have done differently. In a recent interview, she called 20/20 hindsight a 鈥渧ery powerful tool鈥� that not enough politicians put to good use.

Moving the state toward a free childcare system 鈥� open to all New Mexico families regardless of income 鈥� isn鈥檛 on that list, however. The issue has turned into one of the defining public policy issues of Lujan Grisham鈥檚 tenure 鈥� which will come to an end later this year. The state鈥檚 heavily Democratic Legislature, initially wary of the program, has since voiced support and created a funding stream to continue the initiative for the next five years.

Still, the future of New Mexico鈥檚 free, universal childcare system is uncertain: Democratic candidates seeking the governor鈥檚 office have promised to double down on the initiative, while the Republicans question its fairness and financial feasibility 鈥� with one going so far as to file a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the rules underpinning the expansion.

Lujan Grisham defended her focus on childcare, asserting the state鈥檚 free, universal system will be a 鈥済ame changer鈥� for healthy child development and economic growth.

鈥淚n childcare, I really think we have done it as right as you can,鈥� she said.

鈥榊ou have to start there鈥�

Less than 20 years ago, most New Mexico lawmakers would have dismissed the idea of a universal childcare system in the state as more punchline than policy, said House Speaker Javier Mart铆nez.

鈥淧eople would have laughed at us if we talked about universal childcare back then,鈥� the Albuquerque Democrat said.

In 2011, Mart铆nez was fresh out of law school, working as a community organizer for immigrants rights. He and his colleagues started to notice a pattern: Many of the immigrant families they worked with attended organizing meetings with their young children in tow.

鈥淲e started thinking: What is the future of our organizing? And we landed on early childhood,鈥� he said.

Organizers and policymakers started to converge around a plan to secure voter approval of a constitutional amendment to draw on the state鈥檚 Land Grant Permanent Fund 鈥� then about $11 billion and now nearly $39 billion, according to an April report 鈥� to pay for a rapid expansion of early childhood programs. The proposal divided Democrats at the time. Mart铆nez said his frustration over the Legislature failing to send the issue to voters led him to run for office in 2014.

It took years, but that plan worked. In 2019, Lujan Grisham 鈥� then newly sworn in as governor 鈥� signed into law a bill to create the Early Childhood Education and Care Department, based on a plan proposed by Sen. Michael Padilla, an Albuquerque Democrat and longtime advocate for early childhood education.

The next year, the governor signed the Early Childhood Education and Care Fund into law with an initial investment of $320 million. That trust fund has grown to more than $11 billion, State Investment Council documents show.

The Legislature in 2021 approved a resolution to allow voters to determine whether to pull 1.25% more each year out of the Land Grant Permanent Fund, which long has benefited public schools, to boost both K-12 education and early childhood programs. Voters in 2022 overwhelmingly approved the constitutional amendment, which now sends more than $250 million a year from the growing investment fund to early childhood initiatives.

Eligibility for state childcare assistance with no copays also has expanded 鈥� growing to include families living at or below 400% of the federal poverty level by 2022. That eligibility limit for subsidized care 鈥� $132,000 for a family of four in 2026 鈥� covered the large majority of families in the state.

鈥淭here are very few states anywhere that really even thought about a way to create … a revenue stream so that you can start to make this affordable for parents 鈥� because you have to start there,鈥� Lujan Grisham said.

Women leading both of New Mexico鈥檚 legislative and executive branches also 鈥渃ontributes mightily鈥� to the state鈥檚 policy focus on childcare, she added.

Overwhelmingly, the work of childcare falls on women. Women make up about 95% of the early childhood workforce, with Black and Hispanic women working in childcare at a higher rate than the workforce at large, according to U.S. Department of Labor data from 2024. Research from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, found 14% of New Mexico childcare workers are immigrants.

Meanwhile, women 55% of the seats in the Legislature, outpacing the national average by more than 20 percentage points, according to data from the Center for American Women and Politics. Women hold 57% of New Mexico鈥檚 statewide elected executive positions.

There鈥檚 a connection between the women working in New Mexico鈥檚 early childhood education system and the women who work for them in state government, Lujan Grisham said.

鈥淢ostly women in childcare, mostly women in pre-K, women majority in the Legislature, women majority in statewide offices 鈥� I think there鈥檚 a lot of synergy there in the state about putting families first,鈥� she said.

Childcare costs, benefits

As any parent will tell you, childcare doesn鈥檛 come cheap.

That鈥檚 true even when the state of New Mexico is paying the bill.

This year鈥檚 House Bill 2 鈥� the state budget bill for fiscal year 2027 鈥� sets aside more than $1.2 billion for the Early Childhood Education and Care Department. That sum, a little over 10% of the state budget, includes $215 million for childcare assistance.

Lawmakers made sure during this year鈥檚 legislative session the free, universal childcare system will be financially stable for the next five years. Senate Bill 241, signed into law in March, will allow the state to draw up to $700 million from the early childhood trust fund over five years, in addition to setting up guardrails to ensure lower-income families are 鈥渇irst in line鈥� for assistance if the state鈥檚 economy takes a turn for the worse, Mart铆nez said.

Lujan Grisham acknowledged free, universal childcare is an expensive proposition 鈥� 鈥減ublic education is expensive, if it鈥檚 universal,鈥� she said 鈥� but she sees it as a boost for New Mexico鈥檚 economy and a balm to the state鈥檚 child welfare challenges.

The governor can recount the objections some New Mexicans have to free childcare: 鈥淚f people can afford to pay, they should. It should not be universal. … It doesn鈥檛 make sense to me. It feels like a giveaway.鈥�

But she argues an adequately resourced, universal system will inspire workers and companies to move to New Mexico, while allowing more parents to join the workforce.

That鈥檚 particularly true for essential workers like police officers and nurses, who often paid top-dollar prices for overnight or weekend childcare, Lujan Grisham added.

Meanwhile, quality childcare contributes to reduced family stress, calmer households, and long-term cognitive and academic benefits for kids.

While no-cost childcare for all families represents a major cost to the state, Mart铆nez said the policy will stick around 鈥� largely as a result of lawmakers being 鈥渞eally judicious鈥� in planning and setting up the program鈥檚 funding mechanisms.

鈥淎s long as I鈥檓 speaker, this is not one of those programs that are willy-nilly going to get axed by the whims of the political winds,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t took 16 years to get us here, and we will ensure that we deliver on that promise in perpetuity.鈥�

鈥榃e have to get it right鈥�

New Mexico will elect a new governor in November 鈥� and the next person to inhabit the state鈥檚 top office might not choose to prioritize early childhood education in the same way Lujan Grisham has.

Both Democrats in the governor鈥檚 race 鈥� former Congresswoman and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman 鈥� in recent interviews voiced their strong support for the state鈥檚 free, universal childcare initiative. They have promised, if elected, to keep it going, in addition to bolstering the state鈥檚 early childhood workforce through increased pay and expanded training programs.

When her child was young, Haaland said, childcare felt cost-prohibitive; she remembered hiring a babysitter just one time in her entire 鈥渓ife as a single mom.鈥� She said she mopped floors and cleaned bathrooms at an Albuquerque preschool cooperative to get a discount on her child鈥檚 tuition.

鈥淯niversal childcare would have changed my life,鈥� she said.

She described the state鈥檚 push toward a free, universal childcare system as a 鈥渨orthy investment鈥� that would create economic and educational opportunities for adults while improving academic outcomes for kids. Her affordability policy proposes cutting the red tape involved in revitalizing a disused storefront or building 鈥� including by turning it into a childcare center.

鈥淚t鈥檚 better for our economy. It鈥檚 better for our workforce. It鈥檚 better for our kids,鈥� Haaland said. 鈥淚 just think it would be a valuable asset for our state.鈥�

Haaland voiced her support for ensuring childcare workers have avenues for career advancement and better pay.

鈥淭hey deserve to make a sustainable living. … You can鈥檛 raise a child on minimum wage in New Mexico, so we absolutely need to do more to make sure that people can make sustainable wages,鈥� she said.

A father of three grown children, Bregman said his family pieced together childcare by counting on family members 鈥� particularly his wife 鈥� to watch the kids. With the introduction of the free, universal system, he said, 鈥渢imes have changed.鈥�

He argued quality early childhood education has the potential to yield long-term benefits for New Mexico children, who have long suffered from higher-than-average rates of poverty and lower-than-average academic performance.

If elected governor, Bregman promised to build on the promise of free childcare. He said he鈥檇 want to conduct a kind of census of the childcare industry to better understand workforce recruitment and retention strategies, quality improvement initiatives, and whether the state鈥檚 existing supply of childcare slots meets demand 鈥� including in rural and tribal communities.

鈥淲e have to get it right,鈥� Bregman said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e obviously spending a lot of money on it, but more importantly, we鈥檙e talking about the most important asset we have 鈥� our children.鈥�

GOP might 鈥榩eel back鈥� scope

Republicans running for governor, however, aren鈥檛 sold on the program.

Former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull and Albuquerque businessman Doug Turner voiced similar concerns about free childcare for all. Both said they support childcare assistance for needy families, but they expressed concerns about the financial sustainability and fairness of a program in which families that can afford to pay for childcare don鈥檛 have to.

鈥淚 think the state has a role to play in helping people who need help 鈥� and I think it needs to be done in an intelligent way [to] make sure that the programs aren鈥檛 abused,鈥� Turner said.

He also noted the current workforce can鈥檛 meet the childcare demand. 鈥淲e have a gap that we can鈥檛 really close very quickly,鈥� he said.

If elected, Hull said, 鈥淢y first step as governor is going to be to immediately evaluate the viability and the long-term sustainability of the program. … If we need to peel back the scope of it in the short term until we figure it out, then we need to peel that back.鈥�

He said he plans to work with staff of the Legislative Finance Committee on an 鈥渋n-depth dive鈥� into the childcare supply and demand 鈥� and how the state plans to make up the difference between the two.

鈥淭his is going down a rabbit hole that can get out of control and be far more expensive than I think anybody ever thought it could be,鈥� Hull said.

Duke Rodriguez, another Republican seeking the seat, took his objections a step further: He filed a against Lujan Grisham, with an eye toward invalidating the rules of her universal childcare expansion.

Rodriguez, joined by state Sen. Steve Lanier, R-Aztec, and Sandoval County father Zachary Anaya in filing the lawsuit, argues Lujan Grisham鈥檚 executive branch essentially went about the universal childcare expansion in the wrong way by creating the regulations in November, several months before the Legislature voted to approve funding for the program.

Rodriguez also has raised concerns the true costs could come in far higher than the state鈥檚 projections 鈥� potentially billions of dollars 鈥� and New Mexico can鈥檛 rely on federal funding.

鈥淚t will be 100% borne by tax revenues and appropriated by the Legislature,鈥� he said.

鈥淲hatever program we ultimately adopt … has to be built to last, not built to simply sound good,鈥� Rodriguez said. 鈥淚t would be terrible to make promises of access when the capacity is missing.鈥�

A state judge in the 2nd Judicial District Court ruled late last month in Rodriguez鈥檚 complaint that Lujan Grisham鈥檚 administration must pause the program or present an argument for why the initiative should not be permanently halted. A hearing on the matter is scheduled June 11.

Rodriguez called the ruling a victory.

Lujan Grisham, however, slammed Rodriguez in a statement on Facebook, calling him a 鈥渢hird-tier Republican candidate for governor鈥� and describing his complaint as 鈥渇rivolous鈥� and a 鈥渄espicable attempt to mislead New Mexico families and generate headlines for a campaign that is going nowhere.鈥�

She wrote, 鈥淯niversal child care is in effect and it is NOT being shut down, despite what this desperate candidate claims.鈥�

While Rodriguez expressed his support for assisting needy families, he said in an interview Lujan Grisham鈥檚 free, universal system 鈥渟ounds charming, but [is] probably unlawful.鈥�

鈥淚 think providing this kind of support for our New Mexico families is a truly valid aspirational goal,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut an aspirational goal should not be confused with unenforceable rules and regulations that would put providers at risk, that will put families at risk, and, most importantly, will put children at risk.鈥�

This first appeared on .

New research published in JAMA Pediatrics, a section of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found a statistically significant decrease in the number of Child Protective Services investigations in Flint after the implementation of Rx Kids.

The prenatal and infant direct cash support program and has since expanded throughout the state.

The study, done by researchers from the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Michigan State University, showed a 7-percentage-point decrease in the investigated allegation rate among infants born in Flint, which corresponds to a 32% decrease compared to the period prior to Rx Kids interventions.

鈥淚n the 3 years prior to the implementation of Rx Kids, the proportion of infants with an investigated allegation within the first 6 months of life was 21.7% (646 of 2971 infants) in Flint and 19.5% (3921 of 20124 infants) among control cities,鈥� according to the . 鈥淎fter implementation of Rx Kids in 2024, the investigated allegation rate decreased to 15.5% (165 of 1065 infants) in Flint, falling below the investigated allegation rate of 20.6% (1303 of 6317 infants) among the control cities.鈥�

Researchers estimate that the program prevented approximately 57 infants from experiencing a child welfare investigation in its first year alone, with a press release from the Rx Kids team celebrating the study as demonstrating the benefits provided by economic support during pregnancy and early infancy.

鈥淭hese findings, now published in JAMA Pediatrics, underscore the powerful role that economic stability plays in protecting children,鈥� said Dr. Mona Hanna, Rx Kids director and associate dean of public health at Michigan State University. 鈥淏y trusting families and investing in them during the earliest, most vulnerable period of life, we are not only improving health outcomes; we are preventing trauma before it starts. This is what community-driven public health looks like.鈥�

The study acknowledges a number of limitations with the study, including the fact that only one post-intervention year 鈥� 2024 鈥� was included. Additionally, the research included all infants born in Flint in 2024 after Rx Kids implementation rather than actual enrollment in the program, but noted that the high uptake rates of the program should mean that the estimates are very close to reality.

鈥淥ur research compared what happened in Flint before and after Rx Kids launched to what we saw in a control group and the results are clear,鈥� said lead author Dr. Sumit Agarwal, a physician and health economist at the University of Michigan, in the press release. 鈥淒uring the first year of Rx Kids, infants in Flint experienced fewer investigations for maltreatment. These results show that providing early economic support to families can make a real difference and should challenge us to rethink how we can proactively support families.鈥�

Another study author, Will Schnieder, associate professor of social work and faculty director of the Children and Family Research Center at the University of Illinois, added that while it is well-documented that poverty is one of the strongest drivers of child maltreatment risk, research into Rx Kids shows the opposite of that, which is that a financial buffer around the birth of a child can lead to fewer children being harmed.

Since launching in Flint in 2024, Rx Kids has expanded to 42 communities, and to an additional 20 communities across Michigan in summer 2026 鈥斅爐he program鈥檚 largest expansion yet.

That expansion is coming as the program is under heavy fire from top Republicans in the state Legislature, notably both House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) and House Appropriations Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton). Both have advocated to cut out all state funding for the program 鈥� $20 million 鈥� in addition to the significant cuts made to the program鈥檚 state funding in a unilateral decision from House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee at the end of 2025.

and have each launched a number of allegations, without evidence, against the program in recent months over what the money provided to families is used for, though a by Rx Kids in March shows virtually no spending on luxury or discretionary items.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jon King for questions: info@michiganadvance.com.

In 2025, one-third of states had a waitlist or a freeze on applications for childcare assistance for most families, through the Child Care and Development Block Grant, according to new data published in a from the National Women鈥檚 Law Center.聽

The number of states with a waitlist or freeze had increased from the prior year 鈥� from 13 in 2024 to 17 in 2025. But perhaps more concerning, said Karen Schulman, the center鈥檚 senior director of state childcare policy, is the total number of children on those waitlists. 

Between February 2024 and February 2025, the number of children on state childcare waitlists nearly doubled, to 225,000, according to the NWLC, which collected data from state childcare administrators across the 50 states and Washington, D.C. 

Those waitlists only grew as the months wore on. By the second half of 2025, more than 400,000 children were on waitlists in those states, marking a 78% increase from February. In the months since the data was collected, at least five more states, plus Washington, D.C., have implemented waitlists, and two more began freezing intake, according to NWLC. 

鈥淎 range of factors are pulling at states,鈥� Schulman said, 鈥渟o you have more families needing help but a strain on resources that provide that help.鈥� 

Some states are struggling to adjust to the end of pandemic-era funding, the last of which in September 2024, and many states are trying to balance tight budgets while also planning ahead for federal funding cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, she explained. Meanwhile, rising costs have changed many families鈥� financial circumstances, and more may be seeking out assistance. 

Plus, Schulman said, some states have increased the reimbursement rates paid to providers in an attempt to get more of them to participate in the subsidy program; that has redirected some of the dedicated funds for the program.  

It鈥檚 not a surprise that the CCDBG program, which is the main source of federal support for families struggling to afford childcare, is failing to reach everyone who qualifies for it. As of this year, it is to be serving only about one in six of all eligible children, due to inadequate funding. 

While the 400,000 children on waitlists make up a small slice of the total population of eligible children, that number is significant because it represents the families who have expressed a need for the benefit and are being denied it or told it will be delayed, Schulman explained. She also noted that the number of families seeking help is very likely underestimated because of complexities with data tracking. California maintains waitlists at the local level, rather than at the state level; Colorado has waitlists in some counties and frozen intake in others; and Georgia, although it doesn鈥檛 use the term 鈥渇rozen intake,鈥� effectively has a freeze in place since it only serves families meeting priority criteria. 

Whether it鈥檚 a waitlist or a freeze, “There are tremendous impacts for a family who is waiting for assistance,鈥� Schulman said. 

While families are waiting for a childcare subsidy, they may have to stretch their budgets to pay for care out of pocket. That could mean putting off other bills, such as rent and utilities, or struggling to afford food. 

鈥淭hey鈥檙e just meeting their basic needs if they have to pay for childcare themselves,鈥� Schulman said. 鈥淭hey might have to patch together unstable arrangements that could fall apart at the last minute and put their job in jeopardy. They may not be able to go to work at all, which could put them in even greater financial straits.鈥�

All of these outcomes, she said, could have impacts on the family鈥檚 future financial, emotional and physical health. 

Meanwhile, early care and education programs in low-income areas, where many families rely on subsidies to afford childcare, may face another set of repercussions. They could end up cutting already-low staff wages, Schulman said, or go out of business, putting their enrolled families in a bind. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 just a ripple effect throughout the whole community, affecting the economy of the community, the workforce of the community, whole neighborhoods,鈥� Schulman said. 

Kim Kofron, executive director of early childhood education at Children at Risk, a Texas-based statewide advocacy organization, said that one of the challenges is that families who join a waitlist may incorrectly believe that they鈥檒l soon circulate off it. 

Anecdotally, Kofron said, she hears that waitlists in Texas are about two years long. (The state had more than 110,000 children on its waitlist as of February 2025, according to the NWLC.)

鈥淒o they patch together some type of childcare with neighbors and friends? Do they go to a subpar childcare program because that鈥檚 what they can afford? Or do they turn down the job because 鈥� it鈥檚 cheaper to not work and not pay for childcare?鈥� Kofron said, outlining the options for waitlisted families. 

She added: 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of questions right now from providers of, 鈥業s it worth it? Is it worth taking subsidies when I can鈥檛 get more kids off the waitlist?鈥欌��

These outcomes are not theoretical for RB Fast, founder of Westwood Academy, an early care and education program in Denver. 

She remembers receiving an email in fall 2024 notifying her that one of the counties she serves was . (In Colorado, waiting lists and freezes are decided at the county level.)

鈥淚 really thought it would be a couple of months,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 was not ready for it to be semi-permanent and extended the way it has been.鈥�

Soon, she learned that two more counties would also be implementing a freeze. 

Back then, Fast鈥檚 program, which is licensed for 30 slots, was fully enrolled. She estimates that about two-thirds of those families paid with subsidies. Today, her program is underenrolled, with 22 children, and only three of those families pay with subsidies 鈥� two got in before the freeze began and the third is a child living with a foster family who was granted a temporary subsidy. 

For the remaining families, some manage OK, but others scramble each month, sending panicked emails asking if they can pay late or use a friend鈥檚 credit card for this month鈥檚 tuition. 鈥淵ou can tell they鈥檙e juggling to try to get tuition paid,鈥� Fast said.

She has also seen firsthand the way some families pull together substandard childcare arrangements in the absence of public assistance. Fast knows of a family that had to start leaving their toddler with the great-grandmother while the parents go to work. 

鈥淚鈥檓 sure she loves that child very much 鈥� but at 80, are you in place to give an optimal environment to a 2-year-old?鈥� said Fast, noting the level of attention and activity a toddler requires. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not about an inconvenience for one family or a handful of families,鈥� she said of the waitlists. 鈥淚t affects employers, extended families [and] children.鈥�

Fast is in the process of opening her second location, in a nearby suburb of Denver. That program will not be accepting childcare subsidies, she said. Nor will any future program she opens. 

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 feel worth it to me,鈥� she said. 

The word 鈥渄iscipline鈥� barely appears in the books, which invite adults to learn more about what drives a child鈥檚 behavior and to gain a deeper understanding of how the nervous system works. Campbell鈥檚 approach suggests that traditional consequences and rewards used by many parents and educators often address behavior at a surface-level, but lasting change comes from strengthening adult-child connections, fostering emotional security and providing consistent supportive experiences that drive growth. 

Along with one of her co-authors, Lauren Stauble, a colleague she met earlier in her career, Campbell developed a framework called Collaborative Emotion Processing, which helps adults and children navigate emotions together. She described it as “a way to teach and learn how to feel stuff with other people that builds long-term skills for emotional intelligence.鈥� It was designed to help children and their caregivers learn from each other and grow together, she said.

The popularity of her books and the CEP method has led Campbell to develop a number of other resources for caregivers and educators, including an for families and educators, a (which elaborates on the themes in the books) and a professional development for early educators.

In the conversation below, Campbell shares the origin story behind the CEP method and why parents and caregivers need to understand how the nervous system works in order to foster healthy development.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Collaborative Emotion Processing is rooted in understanding what behavior is and what it isn鈥檛. Can you describe the approach?

When we created the CEP method, we designed it to help us understand behavior as communication, really from the nervous system and not reflective of a kid鈥檚 character or a choice that they鈥檙e making in the moment. Folks often see behavior as a choice 鈥� that a child is choosing to be defiant or they鈥檙e choosing to throw something across the room or yell something in the moment. And we aim 鈥� with the CEP method 鈥� to focus on supporting kids through co-regulation, connection and skill building instead of trying to control or correct their behavior in isolation, with timeouts or things like that. And really shifting from “How do we stop the behavior?” to “What is this behavior telling us about what this kid needs right now?”

How did your experience as a teacher give rise to CEP, and is there research to support the approach?

Lauren Stauble and I were both early childhood educators at Lemberg Children’s Center, outside of Boston. She came to me at one point and she was like, “I feel like we鈥檙e doing something different in our classrooms than is happening in the rest of our school.” We started taking videos of one another teaching and interacting with students to see what we were really doing. We didn鈥檛 set out to create the CEP method and then research it. We kind of created a loose framework around what we felt like we were doing, and then set out to find that framework out in the wild. And we found bits and pieces of it in different spaces. Attachment research really informs that relationship space of helping kids feel safe and seen and supported, [and research] in relationship and interpersonal neurobiology helps us understand the brain and the nervous system. But we couldn鈥檛 find anything 鈥� that really encompassed everything we were doing. 

We reached out to Brandeis University 鈥� which our child care program was attached to 鈥� and connected with the psych department there and got to dive in and do the Institutional Review Board process of applying for research and navigating it, which is a beast in and of itself, as it should be. We weren鈥檛 trying to actually dive into research at first. We were just hoping to find a framework that encompassed what we felt like we were doing. In absence of a complete framework, we created the CEP method.

Why do you think the method resonated? What need is it filling for parents and educators?

I think it finally explains what they鈥檝e been experiencing. So many adults are told to manage behavior and just stay consistent and use consequences. And that doesn鈥檛 work for kids who often need the most support. And then we get the frustration, the burnout, the sense of like, 鈥淲hat am I missing? What am I not doing?鈥� I feel like CEP gives them a lens that makes behavior make sense and helps them understand a kid鈥檚 unique nervous system, which helps them see what鈥檚 driving this behavior. And it allows you then to shift your response out of that compliance state into a collaborative state. Recently, I was presenting to a group of parents and educators in Middlebury, Vermont, and afterward, a mom came up to me and she was like, 鈥淚鈥檝e read so many parenting books.鈥� And this is the first one I read where I was like, “Oh, actually now my kid makes sense to me.鈥�

What鈥檚 one thing that can help a parent use the CEP method with their child?

Focus on you. Start with you. Everyone [asks], 鈥淲hat do I do with my kid?鈥� And it鈥檚 why 鈥淭iny Humans鈥� is laid out the way it is, where you鈥檝e got to go through part one of the you stuff and the neuroscience and the why behind it before you get to part two about how to respond to your kid.

What does it look like when kids pick up on behavior modeled by adults? 

I had this little girl when I was teaching pre-K, one of my first years of teaching. She was 3, and this tiny little peanut. And her dad was dropping her off one day and he said, 鈥淗ey, last night she said the F-word to her brother. Do you know where she may have heard that?鈥� And I was like, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not a word we use at school, but did you ask her?鈥� And he was like, 鈥淣o.鈥� 

I called her over and I was like, 鈥淗ey, I heard last night you said the F-word to your brother when you were feeling mad. Where did you hear the F-word?鈥� And she was like, 鈥淲hen daddy drives.鈥� And he was like, “Yep, and goodbye.” What we model is so crucial. It鈥檚 why the CEP method has five components, and four of them are about the adult. When we are modeling this work, when we are showing up with our own self-awareness and self-regulation and empathy and social skills and intrinsic motivation, kids learn from it.

Bren茅 Brown comes up a little bit in your book. She has done such a great service by helping the word “vulnerability” enter the culture. Has her work shaped yours?

I agree. She is my queen. I鈥檝e had the privilege of diving into so much of her work, and I think she has shifted so much for us, with the understanding of vulnerability. The ability to see it as a strength and not a weakness is so crucial for emotional development.

What gives you hope? What are you hearing that should make people feel optimistic?

I am so stoked that we live in a time period when we鈥檙e even talking about emotional intelligence 鈥� It is so cool that we are talking about how nervous systems work. 鈥� The fact that this is part of the zeitgeist gives me so much hope. 

We just got some data back looking at our work in elementary schools, and we鈥檙e seeing a 60% reduction in behavior support calls in the first quarter. 鈥� It gives me hope that when we talk to kids about how their brains and bodies work, they鈥檙e so open, and they鈥檙e so curious, and they鈥檙e so receptive, and they want this. They鈥檙e hungry for it. And now we have the tools, the knowledge, the ability to talk to them. We know how to do that. And I feel really hopeful about that.

Despite having room to serve more children, Middletown day care owner Peggy Fuentes often has to turn away families in desperate need of care. Each of her toddler classrooms has 10 students 鈥� the state caps class sizes for that age group at 12 鈥� but to fill the remaining seats, she鈥檇 have to hire another employee. That鈥檚 because a decades-old state regulation says day care classrooms have to have one adult for every five children between 18 and 36 months old.

With operating costs climbing across the board, , Fuentes said it simply isn鈥檛 feasible to pay another salary to accommodate just two more children.

鈥淚 have an inventory of childcare spots that I鈥檓 reluctant to use because it is cost prohibitive,鈥� said Fuentes, owner of On My Way Early Learning and Childcare Center, which serves around 240 children under 13.

New York state has some of the strictest staffing requirements in the country 鈥� stricter, in fact, than New York City鈥檚. As state leaders allocate billions of dollars to address the childcare shortage in this year鈥檚 budget, a new state law could ease those requirements and unlock new day care seats at no additional cost to providers 鈥� but only if the state agency that oversees childcare decides to act on it.  

In December, Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation eliminating a provision that has prohibited the state Office of Children and Family Services from relaxing childcare staffing ratios. The new law leaves it to the agency to actually change the ratios; if it did so, the same number of workers could care for more children.  

State Senator James Skoufis, who introduced the bill in 2024, told New York Focus that adjusting the ratios is 鈥渕ore critical than ever鈥� amid the state鈥檚 ongoing efforts to scale up its childcare sector and provide more affordable care to working parents.

Childcare advocates who oppose the change are concerned having the same number of staff supervising more children would increase the risk of accidents and injuries and fail to address a root cause of the state鈥檚 childcare crisis: low wages for workers.

Supporters counter that looser ratios are consistent with set by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a professional membership organization that promotes high-quality early childhood education, and that alignment with the group鈥檚 guidance would offer flexibility to providers who already operate with razor-thin profit margins.

So far, OCFS has not indicated whether it plans to update the regulations. In a statement provided to New York Focus, OCFS spokesperson Daniel Marans said the agency is 鈥渃urrently assessing the viability of the requested ratio change, with the goal of supporting childcare providers without compromising our commitment to child safety.鈥� The law does not impose a deadline for OCFS to make the switch.

More than 60 percent of New York鈥檚 census tracts are classified as a 鈥渃hildcare desert,鈥� meaning that there are three or more children under 5 waiting for every available slot, according to the . Meanwhile, more than 16,000 children are specifically as a result of staffing shortages that have led programs to operate under capacity. While that鈥檚 not necessarily related to staffing ratios, some think easing them could help address the shortage.

鈥淲e can provide more resources to counties and to providers all we want, but if we don鈥檛 provide the very common sense flexibility that these providers require in order to effectuate creating more seats, then the money is only going to go so far,鈥� said Skoufis.

Skoufis introduced the bill after providers, including Fuentes, expressed their frustrations to lawmakers over being held to tougher ratios than their counterparts in New York City, where staffing requirements are set by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Day care providers in the five boroughs must have one staff member for every five children between 12 and 18 months and one for every six children who are 2 years old. In the rest of the state, it鈥檚 1鈥�4 and 1鈥�5, respectively. The discrepancies are even wider for older children.

Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi, who sponsored the bill, believes aligning ratios with New York City could help thousands of those families access a seat without burdening providers or taxpayers with additional costs.

鈥淐hildcare providers are operating on such slim margins that they frequently worry about going out of business,鈥� Hevesi said. 鈥淲e were looking for a way to give them some breathing room in an incredibly difficult climate without costing anybody any money.鈥�

Dede Hill, vice president of policy at the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, a social policy and advocacy organization, has a different perspective. 鈥淥ne thing that makes childcare in New York state so high quality is because we have low ratios 鈥� and that鈥檚 certainly not something we want to step away from,鈥� she said. Hill is a member of the Empire State Campaign for Child Care, which advocates for universal childcare.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think staffing ratios are the solution to the tremendous issues we have related to supply,鈥� said Hill. The key is more investment in the workforce, including higher pay for childcare workers, she said.

One reason providers are facing significant financial strain is that the state鈥檚 reimbursement level for its , which covers nearly all of the cost of childcare for low- and middle-income families, isn鈥檛 enough to provide high quality care, Hill said. With providers forced to absorb the shortfall, many are unable to offer adequate wages: In 2025, the annual average salary for childcare workers in New York , lower than 96 percent of other jobs.

Fuentes, who has owned her day care center in Orange County for 17 years, said she currently has to choose between raising tuition for all children in order to pay another employee and waitlisting families even though there is ample space to serve them. If OCFS chose to align statewide staffing ratios with New York City, she said, she could enroll around 15 more children without hiring additional staff.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a childcare crisis in New York,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f we can鈥檛 use our full supply of seats, then that crisis is just going to continue.鈥�

For Heidi-Jo Brandt, president of a union representing more than 8,800 providers outside New York City, the flexibility doesn鈥檛 seem worth it. Some revisions to standards may be appropriate, such as the current 1鈥�2 ratio for children under 2 in home-based care, she said, but a broader relaxing of staffing ratios could put children at risk. Research shows inadequate supervision is the main cause of injuries in childcare settings, including , , and from bottle warmers.

鈥淲hile it could have a tremendous impact statewide, our concern is always for the safety of children,鈥� said Brandt.

Some research indicates that high staff-to-child ratios and smaller group sizes are critical for children鈥檚 health, safety, and development, but data on the safety outcome of ratios like New York City鈥檚 is limited.

In recent years, as the childcare industry has reeled from a pandemic-driven dip in enrollment and rise in operating costs, have proposed loosening their childcare staffing ratios, increasing maximum group sizes, and relaxing other regulations to meet demand. Many states set ratios based on guidance from the National Association for the Education of Young Children; New York City鈥檚 ratios are roughly in line with the group鈥檚 recommendations.

Meanwhile, New York state has some of the most stringent ratios nationwide. It is that uses the restrictive ratios recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. Even New York City鈥檚 staffing ratios remain stricter than those in many other states.

Skoufis first introduced the bill after then-OCFS Commissioner Suzanne Miles-Gustave informed him that aligning statewide ratios with New York City would require legislation. At the time, he said, OCFS officials 鈥渕ade it crystal clear鈥� they wanted to pursue the changes, though he鈥檚 less clear on their position today.

In a January letter to current OCFS Commissioner DaMia Harris-Madden, Skoufis argued that it is 鈥渇inancially unreasonable鈥� to require a 1鈥�5 staff-to-child ratio for 18- to 36-month-olds with a maximum group size of 12.

Hevesi said that he believes the agency should 鈥渁ct sooner rather than later鈥� given the potential benefits.

鈥淢y instinct is that there鈥檚 going to be support to look at this and see what鈥檚 appropriate 鈥� but my role was just to take the handcuffs off and now they are free to do whatever they feel is appropriate,鈥� he said.

Buffalo day care owner Emily Thrasher pointed out that New York City and state regulations differ on other aspects of childcare: The city also has more lenient classroom space requirements than the rest of the state, as well as different age group definitions that determine other regulations. For example, New York City defines a toddler as a child between 12 and 24 months old, while New York state鈥檚 definition is 18 to 36 months.

Thrasher said full alignment with New York City鈥檚 standards would allow her small business to generate hundreds of thousands of additional dollars annually. That, in turn, would enable her to serve more families.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 even imagine how much that would compound for larger day care centers,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e could help more families, open more slots, pay our staff more. 鈥� The changes seem small, but it would make the biggest difference.鈥�

This story originally appeared in , a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. .

Effective July 13, the Administration for Children and Families will several Biden-era that sought to create more predictable, reliable payments to childcare providers. These include paying providers based on a child鈥檚 enrollment, rather than their attendance, which protects them against financial losses from unplanned events such as illness and family travel, as well as making subsidy payments in advance, rather than reimbursing providers the following month.

Both practices help to stabilize the industry by giving programs consistent revenue that allow them to plan and budget month over month, providers and experts said. 

Although the requirements will be rescinded, states will still have the option to pay based on enrollment and in advance of services 鈥� just as families who pay privately for child care have long done. There is nothing in the new rules to prevent states from continuing or starting those payment practices, noted Helene Stebbins, executive director of the Alliance for Early Success, a nonprofit that supports early childhood advocates across the 50 states. 

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 require it, but it doesn鈥檛 prevent it from happening,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou can 100% still do it.鈥�

But without the requirement, it鈥檚 likely that some states will reverse course. Already, three states 鈥� , Ohio and 鈥� have paused efforts to implement or extend enrollment-based pay, noted Daniel Hains, chief policy and professional advancement officer at the National Association for the Education of Young Children. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 one of those things that, absent that requirement, and given the fiscal situation states are in, states are not going to prioritize these changes if they’re not required to,鈥� said Hains, 鈥渁nd that鈥檚 going to have a negative impact on providers and, ultimately, families.鈥�

Currently, about now pay providers based on enrollment, according to an analysis from the First Five Years Fund that was published in March, while the other half still pay based on attendance. At least 10 states are paying providers up front for childcare subsidies, rather than in arrears, according to policy tracking from NAEYC. 

The particulars of how and when a provider gets paid can seem like a technicality, but to an early care and education program operator, that may be the difference between financial solvency and ruin. 

The administration first announced these proposed rule changes in early January, before opening up the issue to public comments. NAEYC included more than a dozen provider voices in its to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees ACF.

A program director in Louisiana explained why the Biden-era policies help to keep her in business.

鈥淒uring cold and flu season, if childcare providers were only paid based on attendance rather than enrollment, many of us simply would not survive the winter,鈥� the director wrote. 鈥淢ost of our families have multiple children, and when one child gets sick, it often spreads through the entire household. Enrollment-based pay is the only model that reflects the real cost of maintaining stable staffing, ratios, and operations.鈥�

A program director in Kansas wrote, 鈥淐hildcare is a tough job. Providers don’t need any additional obstacles. 鈥� Having to wait for reimbursement for a month or more can have a significant impact on a provider’s financial well-being in their program.鈥�

And a director in Maine pointed out that a child whose spot is funded by subsidies should not be treated any differently than one from a family who is paying private tuition. 鈥淲e cannot predict attendance,鈥� she wrote. 

The Maine director鈥檚 point is one that motivated the Biden administration鈥檚 2024 rules, Hains said. The in 1990 establishing the Child Care and Development Block Grant, which authorizes the CCDF, sought to have states鈥� subsidy payment practices 鈥渞eflect generally accepted payment practices of childcare providers鈥� who receive payments privately from families, to maximize choices among low-income families seeking care, Hains explained. The Biden rules to get states back in compliance with that original intent. 

Stebbins, of the Alliance for Early Success, said she couldn鈥檛 think of a single other industry that operates in the way that early care and education does. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 Business 101,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 paid for two kids in childcare. I always paid in advance. I paid if they were sick or we went on vacation. Why is this such a big leap?鈥�

Now that this issue is being returned to the states, she said, it鈥檚 on policy advocates and the early childhood community to help make the case to state leaders why enrollment-based pay and prospective pay are so essential. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 good for the field 鈥� because it creates a stable, predictable source of income, and it is aligned with how private pay works in the industry,鈥� Stebbins explained, laying out the argument. 鈥淚t treats kids who are on subsidy 鈥� low-income children 鈥� just like everybody else.鈥� 

Those outcomes, she added, have ripple effects across communities and entire states. 

鈥淎 stable industry is good for the kids and the programs. There鈥檚 less turnover and uncertainty about income,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 good for the state economy because it allows parents to work.鈥�

On the other hand, attendance-based payments may disincentivize programs from accepting families who pay with subsidies altogether, said Casey Peeks, senior director for early childhood policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. 

The enrollment-based pay and prospective pay are only two of the 鈥渇our critical levers to improving the sector鈥� that the Trump administration is rolling back, Peeks said. The third is the use of grants and contracts to provide direct childcare services, which allow states to enter into agreements with providers to reserve slots for certain populations of children. The reversal of that practice may mean that some families, particularly those with infants and children with disabilities, could have more trouble finding slots for their child. And the final lever is capping the maximum amount a family can pay out-of-pocket for childcare, which the Biden-era rule set to 7% of household income, based on federal affordability standards. 

The co-pay limit isn鈥檛 perfect, Peeks acknowledged, but 鈥渋t gives this peace of mind to know how much you鈥檙e going to pay,鈥� she said. 

In Ohio, one of the that has not yet capped co-pays at 7%, the limit is 27% of income, which can be crushing for some families. 

鈥淚 think knowing how much of a burden this [childcare] expense is 鈥� it rivals mortgage payments and rent payments 鈥� to take away a lever that exists for affordability and offer no alternatives puts families who are already struggling in a really difficult spot,鈥� Peeks said.

Much of the conversation about how much and what type of screen time is appropriate for young kids is focused on the use of digital technology at home, under the purview of a child鈥檚 parents and primary caregivers. But the reality is that a of children age 5 and under spend at least part of their week in an early care and education setting, where screen time may be less visible, but is often present in some form. And when communication between parents and early educators falls short, young children may end up spending more time with screens than experts recommend 鈥� and their parents intend. 

In early learning environments, screen use varies widely, said Rebecca Parlakian, senior director of programs at Zero to Three, a nonprofit focused on early childhood development. Some settings are screen-free, while others set parameters like time limits or restricting screens for educational use only, and others allow children to watch movies or short videos for entertainment. 

鈥淒epending on who cares for your child and what the practices are, it could go the whole range,鈥� Parlakian said.

Although expert guidance around screen time has begun to move away from offering clear duration-based limits, there is still a large body of research informing best practices around children and digital media 鈥� and that research emphasizes the importance of in-person, hands-on and relational interactions for young children. But often, program staff and parents are not communicating with one another about how much or what kind of screen time a child is getting in each environment, said Kate Blocker, director of research and programs at Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development. 

鈥淲e have to acknowledge that has to apply across the contexts they鈥檙e in and is not repeated,鈥� Blocker said. 鈥淭he communication gaps are really real, I think.鈥�

Although some states are beginning to whether and how screens can be used in early care and education settings, a program鈥檚 approach to screen time is more often driven by the philosophy and preferences of its owner or director. In the absence of clear, cohesive guidelines for the field, that can be a daunting task, said LaTonya Richardson, owner and director of The Academy of Learning and Early Care, a licensed, nationally accredited family child care program in Jacksonville, Florida. 

鈥淭echnology in early childhood is not a black-and-white thing,鈥� Richardson said. 鈥淲e need clearer guidance, and we need realistic goals.鈥�

Many of the best-known early childhood advocacy and membership organizations do offer some recommendations for programs around screen use. The National Association for Family Child Care, for example, includes guidelines for 鈥渢elevision and computers鈥� in its , including limits of 30 minutes of screen time per day for children over age 2 and none for those who are under 2. But the field lacks a set of go-to guidelines that all program leaders and staff can reference, much the way that many families view the from the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

Instead, Richardson said, her approach has evolved over the years as she鈥檚 learned in real-time what works well for children and what doesn鈥檛. 

Today, she and the other two teachers in her program use some technology with the 12 children they serve 鈥� who range in age from 7 months old to 5 years old 鈥� but they keep it brief and reserve it for times when a screen can add something to the learning experience. 

鈥淭echnology is used as a tool, not as a replacement for teaching,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e believe children learn best through play, conversations and movement.鈥�

When screens come out, Richardson said, they are used with intention. 

Earlier that week, one of the program鈥檚 teachers used a tablet during circle time to play short videos of a few nursery rhymes the group had recently read together. It was intended to recap the lesson and deepen the children鈥檚 understanding of the stories, Richardson said. 

One video was of Humpty Dumpty. In it, the kids could see Humpty Dumpty falling, in motion. They could watch as he cracked into several pieces. Another video was of Jack and Jill. The children were able to see Jack and Jill tumbling down the hill. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 to give them something else than we鈥檙e already doing so they can see and feel and interact in different ways when we鈥檙e using the tablet,鈥� Richardson explained. 

The older kids can also access a tablet to practice concepts like counting or the alphabet. Her staff limits this activity to five minutes at a time. 

鈥淚f a child wants to see the tablet, they know now, when they see the hourglass, 鈥楳y time is up.鈥� There鈥檚 no getting upset. They put it down and move on to the next thing,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all about guidance, support and making sure everyone鈥檚 clear on what the role is when it comes to using those devices.鈥�

It helps when those messages are communicated consistently across both home and school settings, Richardson added. 

At one point, she held a workshop for families to help them understand what healthy technology use looks like for young children, and to understand the trade-offs of granting their kids screen time at home. Some parents expressed that their children were getting into the car after pickup demanding a tablet, and they didn鈥檛 know how to set boundaries. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 not to shame any parents,鈥� Richardson said of the workshops and resources her program provides to families. 鈥淚t鈥檚 to work with them so they can work with us.鈥�

At the Primrose School of Evergreen, a private early learning program located in the heart of Silicon Valley, parents overwhelmingly view technology as a positive, said owner Bejal Patel. 

The preschool is part of Primrose Schools, a national chain of more than 500 early care and education centers. Patel鈥檚 center is piloting a new learning app from Primrose Schools called Balanced Learning that will be made available to all programs this fall. The app was designed for children ages 3, 4 and 5 and is intended to complement the hands-on activities and lessons that children are working on in the classroom. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 so much external content that might be fun and flashy … but we鈥檙e trying to get kids to think critically, solve a real-world problem,鈥� said April Poindexter, head of curriculum and innovation at Primrose Schools, about the new learning app. 鈥淪o it requires active engagement.鈥�

One experience children may have on the app, she said, would reinforce a learning unit on gardening and pollinators. In the classroom, children may learn about gardening and taking care of the earth. Outside, they may plant seeds and tend to the school鈥檚 real garden. In the app, they can read further about pollinators or design their own pollinator garden based on information found in the app. 

Another app experience, Poindexter said, offers children an opportunity to view short videos about age-appropriate social challenges, such as starting a new school, and then use a handheld mirror to observe their own facial expressions. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 all designed to be short, sweet, brief and very purposeful to what they鈥檙e learning,鈥� Poindexter said. 

Primrose centers, she added, do not use any digital media for entertainment and do not introduce any children under age 3 to screens. 

Patel, the owner of the Primrose location in Silicon Valley, said that aligns with her school鈥檚 approach. 

鈥淪creens don鈥檛 enter classrooms until preschool,鈥� she said. 鈥淚nfants and toddlers 鈥� that鈥檚 non-negotiable. At this age, we know there鈥檚 no app that can replicate what a caring adult and a sensory bin can do for a 2-year-old鈥檚 development. When children reach preschool age, that鈥檚 where technology enters, but very carefully.鈥�

Children may use the Balanced Learning app up to twice a week, for no more than 15 minutes, Poindexter noted. 

Patel acknowledged that the transition away from the app can be a challenge for children and staff, but noted that, 鈥渨e鈥檙e fighting neurochemistry, not kids.鈥� 

Children get a two-minute wrap-up cue on the app. Patel鈥檚 staff also offer verbal reminders and try to empower the children by letting them turn the tablet off and put it away themselves. Sometimes the kids try to bargain for more, Patel said. They鈥檒l say, 鈥淚 just want to finish this,鈥� Patel said. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e given our teachers certain things to say, like, 鈥業 know it鈥檚 hard to stop,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淲e always try to positively redirect a child into doing something else.鈥�

Sometimes there is a disconnect between that approach and what happens at home. Some parents, Patel said, may give their child an hour or two to watch whatever they want. 

鈥淲e do sometimes get worried that we have to start all over again [when] Monday hits,鈥� Patel said. 

Still, despite these challenges, Patel feels strongly that children in the program benefit from having some exposure to technology, rather than none at all. 

鈥淭he best thing is to not pretend that this thing doesn鈥檛 exist,鈥� she said. 

She offered an analogy. If a child is not allowed to have any cake on his birthday for the first 10 years of his life, and then is given a cake on his 10th birthday, he might be inclined to eat the whole thing. Whereas if he鈥檇 had one slice of cake each year on his birthday, he may have learned how to consume the sugar in moderation.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e teaching the kid to learn things in small quantities,鈥� she said. 鈥淯sing the iPad or screen time for smaller chunks is better than not having limits.鈥�

Blocker, of Children and Screens, offered a counterpoint. 

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important to acknowledge there鈥檚 no evidence that a lack of technology is bad,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no research to indicate that not having it in there is a problem.鈥�

Blocker and other child development experts pointed out that screens are not the primary risk here. It鈥檚 actually what screens are replacing 鈥� hands-on learning, real-world experiences, free play and close caregiver interactions 鈥� that is the bigger concern. 

鈥淓very minute a child is spending on a device isn鈥檛 spent on serve-and-return or physical development,鈥� Blocker said. 鈥淩esearch is pretty clear young kids don鈥檛 learn as well from screens. What is the screen taking away? That鈥檚 one primary challenge: making sure it鈥檚 not displacing vital developmental inputs.鈥�

Parlakian, at Zero to Three, would not necessarily suggest that technology should be absent from early care and education programs altogether, but noted that when it is present, it must be used thoughtfully and intentionally. That kind of approach, though, places the burden on already-overextended program leaders and teachers. 

There may be value in children seeing a concept they’re learning about come to life in a video. Children may understand the book 鈥淭he Very Hungry Caterpillar鈥� better if they get to pair it with a video of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, she said. But there is no place, Parlakian feels, for screen use that is strictly for entertainment in early care and education programs. 

鈥淟ife is entertainment for young children,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here should be plenty to explore, experiment and solve in their setting.鈥�

Nancy Burnside has devoted three decades to caring for children. At age 46, she jokes that she tried to leave the industry several times to pursue careers in retail and event planning, but she always came back to early childhood education.聽

In 2015, Burnside returned to her home state from Georgia and reopened her parents鈥� Kosciusko childcare center, now called 3 Steps Daycare. She knew running the family business would be more of a passion than a lucrative job, but she never imagined things would be so hard. 

鈥淢y mom worked 16-hour days,鈥� Burnside said. 鈥淚 grew up in this industry 鈥� But this is the worst I鈥檝e seen it.鈥�

Over the last year, 75 of the 200 children attending her daycare dropped out. Those kids were all on the state鈥檚 voucher program, which helps low-income families access childcare that makes working possible. Burnside is losing $28,000 a month, hasn鈥檛 taken a salary in two years and is providing free care for five children whose families cannot pay, as well as discounted care for an additional seven children. 

Burnside鈥檚 center is suffering like 89% of centers recently from the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative. One year after the state ran out of pandemic-era funds that propped up a fragile system, hundreds of childcare providers across Mississippi struggle to stay open while thousands of parents remain on a waiting list for vouchers. Last year saw the greatest number of closures in nearly a decade, as .  

Out of 229 centers surveyed in the report, more than half reported having to terminate staff as a result of the pause, and nearly half reported caring for children whose parents weren鈥檛 paying. 

鈥淲hen you walk through, everybody says, 鈥榊our building is full.鈥� I know it鈥檚 full 鈥� that鈥檚 because I鈥檓 not charging,鈥� Burnside said. 

Despite and advocates, the Mississippi Legislature failed to allocate any money toward the state鈥檚 childcare voucher program. 

If the state doesn鈥檛 put up money for the program, centers will continue to close.

Burnside can鈥檛 fathom why Mississippi doesn鈥檛 prioritize early childhood education, especially in a crisis of this magnitude. She said there is a misconception that her work is babysitting. She said she has only ever thought of her center as a learning institution. It鈥檚 where children master life skills as simple as tying their shoes and as fundamental as making their first friends. 

鈥淭his is where they start,鈥� Burnside said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know anything else more important.鈥�

Darren Brewer, a single father born and raised in Kosciusko, knows firsthand the importance of quality childcare. Brewer pays out of pocket for the care his 2-year-old daughter receives at Burnside鈥檚 center, but he believes he may qualify for vouchers now that his family is down to one income. He hopes to apply once the waiting list is resolved. Brewer applauds the center鈥檚 staff for recognizing early symptoms of ADHD and autism in his son, now 5, and for referring him to further testing. 

鈥淚t helped us with the doctors to know what to do and all that,鈥� Brewer said. 

Brewer recognizes the importance of that early intervention, along with the countless birthday parties, graduations and everyday acts of love that have taken place at the center. 

鈥淢s. Nancy helps more people out than anybody in this town,鈥� Brewer said. 

A potential solution that could be 鈥榟uge鈥�

Mississippi鈥檚 parents and childcare providers have one last hope for restoring money to the voucher program 鈥� a funding model that advocates proposed last year. That model would put unused money from the federal program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families toward the childcare voucher program. 

The Mississippi Department of Human Services is the agency overseeing the voucher program. For months, officials there said it was not possible to use more TANF money than the state already devoted to childcare. Currently, Mississippi transfers the maximum 30% of TANF funds to the state-run voucher program. 

However, advocates have pointed to other states that have legitimately and successfully transferred additional money by creating a revenue stream that utilizes TANF funds separate from the 30% limit. 

In January, department officials and said they were 鈥渆xploring鈥� the funding model. 

Now, Mark Jones, chief communications officer at MDHS, says the agency is finalizing a plan to use advocates鈥� model. The department has not made an official announcement. Jones would not say how much money his department would allocate or how many families the additional money would serve. 

Jones estimates that $60 million is needed to resolve the waiting list. Before the Legislature decided against it, lawmakers to the voucher program. Advocates say that while any amount will help, families and educators will continue to suffer if the state doesn鈥檛 put up the full amount. 

鈥淎s long as we have that waiting list, we know that children, working parents and providers are going to continue to struggle,鈥� said Matt Williams, director of research at the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative. 

Still, Williams believes any allocation of money through this new TANF model would help establish the framework for the state to access more funds for the voucher program in the future. He said the implementation of this funding model would be a 鈥渉uge, positive development.鈥�

At the height of the crisis, the department reported a waiting list of 20,000 families. On April 22, Jones amended that number, saying it included duplicates and that there are currently 9,400 families waiting for vouchers. 

Even when the system is not in crisis, it is a far cry from reaching all the people for whom it was designed. Many families don鈥檛 know they qualify, or they may fall off the program due to red tape. 

Experts in Mississippi do not have solid estimates about how many eligible families go without care. But across the country, the voucher program eligible families, leaving far more without needed help in covering childcare costs. 

Meanwhile, Burnside doesn鈥檛 think she can make it past January if the families she works with don鈥檛 regain lost vouchers. She knows that closing would be an enormous loss for her community, where her center has been a lifeline for generations.  

Today, she serves many of the children of Kosciusko natives who attended the center when her parents owned it. She鈥檚 watched parents dropping off their kids become grandparents dropping off their grandkids. 

鈥淚鈥檓 like, 鈥業 bet you didn鈥檛 think you would never come back on this road,鈥欌�� Burnside laughed. 鈥淏ut they do.鈥�

If her business is forced to shut down, she does not know where those caregivers will go to continue working and supporting their families.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

Affordable preschool options are few and far between for Hannah Miller, a Waik艒loa mom of a 2- and 4-year-old. 

For more than three years, Miller has relied on a free early learning program run out of a church in Waimea. 

The program has taught her two children new skills, like counting to 10 in Hawaiian and socializing with other kids, Miller said, while also introducing her to a community of other parents. But the program is set to close in the fall as federal funding runs dry for up to 17 early learning sites across the state.

鈥淲e feel like we have nothing for him, so he鈥檚 just going to be home with us,鈥� Miller said about her son, who still has another year before he鈥檚 eligible for kindergarten. 鈥淲e鈥檙e heartbroken.鈥� 

Across the state, early learning programs are struggling to stay afloat amid potential federal funding cuts and reluctance from state lawmakers to fund preschool and child care initiatives this year. While the state faces an ambitious goal to provide preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds by 2032, the future of the initiative remains unclear as one of its champions, Lt Gov. Sylvia Luke, takes a  amid a state investigation.   

Most early learning bills this year requested state funding to build the teacher workforce or keep child care and preschool programs afloat. But nearly all the proposals died as lawmakers faced significant budget constraints from federal funding cuts and Kona low storm damages amounting to $1 billion mid-way through the session. 

鈥淭hey鈥檙e supposed to vote their priorities, and it was just not a priority this year,鈥� said Malia Tsuchiya, early childhood policy and advocacy coordinator at Hawai驶i Children鈥檚 Action Network. 

But failing to invest in early learning programs could have significant consequences for working families and the state鈥檚 economy as a whole, Tsuchiya said. High-quality preschool and child care not only prepare kids for school, she said, but they also allow parents to reenter the workforce and maintain stable employment. 

While Hawai驶i runs some of the highest quality public preschools in the nation, it ranks among the worst states for 4-year-old children鈥檚 access to these programs, according to a  from the National Institute for Early Education Research. 

Coming off a challenging legislative session, advocates worry that momentum around universal preschool could further stall as Luke steps away from office. Luke led lawmakers in appropriating hundreds of millions of dollars for  in 2022, but investments may slow unless lawmakers continue to make early learning access a top priority, Tsuchiya said. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to need our lawmakers to support that investment,鈥� Tsuchiya said. 鈥淥ur priorities shouldn鈥檛 come and go because one person goes.鈥� 

Funding Shortfalls 

O驶ahu parent Danielle Alefosio faced multiple roadblocks when she tried to enroll her 4-year-old daughter in preschool last summer. Some programs had waitlists, she said, while others required $200 to $300 deposits that her family couldn鈥檛 afford. 

But Alefosio found another option: Parkway Village Preschool in Kapolei, which opened as the state鈥檚  last year. Since starting school, Alefosio said, she鈥檚 seen her daughter progress from speaking in gibberish to talking in full sentences and develop a love for learning. 

鈥淭hey鈥檙e top tier,鈥� she said. 

Parkway Village is one of two preschool-only charter schools in the state, which serve a total of roughly 180 students and are tuition-free. The two schools receive $171,000 per classroom in state funds, but advocates say it鈥檚 not enough to run high-quality programs and entice others to join the charter school model. 

Providers need roughly $275,000 to $285,000 to run a charter preschool classroom, said Caroline Hayashi, president of the Waik墨k墨 Community Center. The center works as a nonprofit partner with , which serves nearly 100 students. 

Charter schools can work with their nonprofit partners to raise money to cover funding gaps, Hayashi said. But it鈥檚 not possible for nonprofits to cover such significant shortfalls, she said, and insufficient funding from the state could discourage other people from starting their own charter preschools. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 more sites where this could really work,鈥� Hayashi said. 鈥淏ut in order to make that a reality, the key is making it more financially sustainable.鈥� 

Parkway Village Preschool faces a budget shortfall of roughly $100,000 per classroom 鈥� or $400,000 for the entire year, said Trisha Kajimura, vice president at Parents and Children Together, which serves as the preschool鈥檚 nonprofit partner.  would have helped to close the gap by raising state funding to $250,000 per classroom, which is closer to the true costs of operating charter preschools, Kajimura said. 

The bill passed through the House but died when it failed to receive a hearing in the Senate Education Committee, chaired by Sen. Donna Kim. The bill did not have an appropriation amount, although the Hawai驶i State Public Charter School Commission estimated the proposal would cost $790,000 in addition to the existing funds charter preschools receive. 

Funding shortfalls are also affecting early learning programs targeting low-income, rural communities.

A handful of nonprofits across the state run a network of family and child interaction learning centers, which provide free educational programs to infants and toddlers and their caregivers. The programs have historically relied on roughly $20 million from the federal Native Hawaiian Education program. 

But one of the primary nonprofits, Partners in Development Foundation, is in the last few months of its three-year grant, and there have been no opportunities to reapply for federal funding, said president and chief executive officer Shawn Kanaiaupuni.

Nonprofit leaders like Kanaiaupuni asked state lawmakers to fill the funding gap earlier this year, warning that  could close if the federal government stopped awarding grants through the Native Hawaiian Education program.  would have set aside an unspecified amount of state funding to support the programs, but the bill died when it failed to receive a hearing in the Senate Education Committee. 

Partners in Development was able to find other sources of funding to keep 19 of its locations open, but it plans on closing 17 family learning sites in the fall, including all four of its Kaua驶i programs. The closures will affect more than 1,000 children and 1,000 caregivers, Kanaiaupuni said, although she鈥檚 hopeful some county funding will come through to save four sites on Maui. 

鈥淗ow much can our families sustain?鈥� Kanaiaupuni said. 鈥淭he impact is really devastating.鈥� 

Other nonprofits operating similar family learning programs are able to keep their sites open for now, but the future of federal funding remains uncertain. The proposed version of the 2027 federal budget eliminates funding for the Native Hawaiian Education program entirely, and there鈥檚 no guarantee that the federal education department will award grants in a timely manner even if Congress appropriates the money, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda said. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge impact on our communities,鈥� Tokuda said. 鈥淲e need to continue to make sure that this funding is available and that it鈥檚 awarded and it gets to where it needs to go.鈥� 

Pre-K Needs A Champion

Despite a tumultuous session for early learning programs, Tsuchiya said she鈥檚 still optimistic the state can reach its goal of providing preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds by 2032. The state has renovated and constructed 81 preschool classrooms in the past three years and plans on opening another 26 this summer, according to the School Facilities Authority, the agency tasked with building new preschools.  

As of October, the state projected it needed to build  to provide universal access to preschool by 2032. 

But the state needs continued investments in preschool expansion to maintain its progress and hit its 2032 goal, Tsuchiya said. While the School Facilities Authority requested $31 million for preschool construction, lawmakers set aside $20 million in the most recent version of the budget. 

Early learning providers have also raised concerns that the teacher workforce can鈥檛 keep up with the state鈥檚 demand for new classrooms.  aimed to address the problem by setting aside state funds for an apprenticeship program, which would allow prospective teachers to work in early learning classrooms and get paid while earning their early educator credentials. 

鈥淢y desire here is to focus more on the workforce pipeline to make sure we have these early childhood education workers ready to fill these buildings as they get built out,鈥� said Rep. Andrew Garrett, who introduced the bill. He estimates the program would cost roughly $8 million. 

The bill failed to pass out of conference committee.

Moving forward, it鈥檚 critical for preschool access to remain a top priority for state officials, said Kerrie Urosevich, executive director of Early Childhood Action Strategy. While Luke has pushed for the aggressive expansion of preschool access in recent years, Urosevich said, she鈥檚 worried progress could stall unless the governor or next lieutenant governor continues to champion the issue. 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it has enough momentum on its own,鈥� Urosevich said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 going to require a champion.鈥�

This was originally published on .

But now, in the wake of a new focus among Ohio lawmakers on supposed fraud in the state鈥檚 childcare system, they are on the verge of ditching the idea altogether. A under consideration would require providers to be paid based on attendance rather than enrollment as they are by parents who pay out of pocket.

In December, conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley posted a video claiming to uncover widespread fraud in Minnesota鈥檚 childcare program, particularly among daycare centers run by Somali American residents. The video went viral and reached federal officials, and the Trump administration cited it as motivation to pursue an and various efforts to restrict federal childcare funding. Despite the video offering no verified evidence of fraud 鈥� and the fact that the state was several cases of fraud in its childcare system 鈥� some states have responded by intensifying their focus on supposed fraud. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott agencies to launch investigations into childcare fraud, while Idaho鈥檚 Department of Health and Welfare heightened reviews of funding. (The reviews found of providers guilty of any wrongdoing.)

Shirley鈥檚 video sparked an immediate reaction in Ohio, according to Tamara Lunan, a childcare organizer with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. The state has the Somali American population, just behind Minnesota. in Columbus, Ohio claimed centers were receiving public funding for nonexistent children even though evidence at least two of those claims. According to the at The Ohio State University, just 0.43% of all the providers who accept vouchers through the state鈥檚 publicly funded childcare program were found to be misusing funds in 2025. In a of 124 complaints sent to the state鈥檚 Department of Children and Youth last year, the agency found no evidence of fraud in 100 of them.

In January, Ohio lawmakers two proposals 鈥� House Bills 647 and 649 鈥� they said were aimed at combatting fraud in the state鈥檚 publicly funded childcare system.  

Marquita McClendon, who has operated a childcare program in Cincinnati since 2023, acknowledged that fraud exists. 鈥淏ut I feel like the systems that we already have in place already do the job necessary,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e changing laws over an unsubstantiated claim. It鈥檚 just beyond me.鈥�

The state made some changes ahead of implementing the new enrollment-based payment system that have led to sacrifices for providers. It a requirement for counties to use presumptive eligibility, which allows families to receive childcare vouchers if they already qualify for another program like food stamps, and allows parents to enroll immediately once they get a new job, rather than waiting weeks for their paperwork to be approved. Some providers accept children into their programs during that interim period anyway, Lunan said, but often aren鈥檛 paid for all of that time. The state also reimbursement rates for some types of in-home providers and increased the threshold for children to qualify as full time, which allows providers to be reimbursed at a higher rate. 

鈥淭here were things taken away from us,鈥� McClendon pointed out. With those reductions, she鈥檚 making $10,000 less each month, she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in the red.鈥� The loss of revenue has meant she can鈥檛 buy new equipment for the children in her care or do field trips this summer as she normally would. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 run an effective program,鈥� she said.

If providers were paid based on enrollment, it would help them weather children鈥檚 absences for illness or snowstorms, 鈥渢hings that providers can鈥檛 possibly be able to plan for when they鈥檙e making their budgets,鈥� Lunan said. It 鈥渨ould help to stabilize the programs.鈥� Instead, 鈥淧roviders are hemorrhaging income based on these changes,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 killing their bottom line.鈥�

Reversing the decision to pay based on enrollment is just one of the changes included in the legislative proposals Ohio lawmakers have put forward in the name of fighting fraud this year. Some others have since been toned down or removed. initially that would have given the state鈥檚 Department of Children and Youth the power to cut off funding or suspend a license for any provider merely suspected of fraud, waste or misuse of dollars without a hearing. That language has since from the bill; now those actions can be taken if 鈥渆vidence demonstrates鈥� that a provider knowingly engaged in fraud or misuse of funds. But providers remain concerned about lawmakers giving the attorney general more power to prosecute perceived fraud, which in the bill. 

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to see childcare providers get penalized because the state made an overpayment to them,鈥� Lunan said. Both overpayments and underpayments are included when states calculate their payment error rates, and those can be due to the state government鈥檚 error, not providers acting with ill intent. Her organization is pushing for the state to create a committee made up of childcare providers that could distinguish between clerical errors and actual, intentional fraud. 

The original proposal for , introduced by Republican lawmaker Josh Williams, would have mandated the installation of cameras in all childcare programs that receive government funding to 鈥渁llow visual inspections in real time,鈥� . It would have given the Department of Children and Youth the ability to view the footage at any time. McClendon pointed out that she has diaper changing stations in her classrooms. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no way to protect my children鈥檚 privacy,鈥� she said, calling the idea 鈥渁 bit extreme.鈥�

While that idea has since been abandoned, lawmakers have adjusted the bill to facial recognition for children who attend programs that receive public funding. Such technology won鈥檛 work on young children, particularly infants, given how rapidly their faces are developing and changing, McClendon and Lunan pointed out. McClendon also noted the challenge of keeping kids still long enough to take a photograph. Lunan pointed out that there is already an existing mandate for programs to have an attendance system in place that takes pictures of parents when they sign children in.

An made to that bill the storing of photos of the children. But many parents are still opposed, Lunan said: a against mandating facial recognition has been signed by nearly 900 people. 

Lawmakers are also reducing the time given for allowing a child to be checked in retroactively, if their attendance was originally missed, from 30 days to seven. 鈥淭hat would be a tremendous hardship,鈥� Lunan said, on both providers and the parents who are the ones who have to go into the system and fix the problem.  

The legislation calls for spending up to over two years on data analytics to detect patterns of fraud or abuse. The facial recognition proposal alone would be 鈥渆xpensive for the state and providers, diverting scarce public dollars and provider time away from care itself and toward unnecessary surveillance infrastructure,鈥� said Ali Smith, senior project coordinator at Policy Matters Ohio, . Lunan agreed. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 need funds to come out of childcare,鈥� she said. What Ohio childcare providers need instead, she said, is more funding, not less. 鈥淧roviders are not defrauding the system. They are barely breaking even 鈥� most providers are in the red,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he conversation really needs to shift from fraud to funding.鈥�

The anti-fraud bills 鈥渨ould just destabilize childcare, or destabilize it further, because it鈥檚 already unstable,鈥� Lunan said. 

New Mexico has recently launched the United States鈥� first model, followed by Vermont and that are working to build capacity to support similar systems.

A national spotlight has also been cast on New York City鈥檚 efforts after promises on the campaign trail from Mayor Zohran Mamdani to expand free care for children as by the end of his term in late 2029.

The conversation is growing at several different levels, with some states focusing on pre-K access and others looking into providing care even earlier. But, most are grappling with major roadblocks in scaling larger 鈥� and universal 鈥� initiatives, including questions on funding models and accountability.

Shael Polakow-Suransky, a former chief academic officer at the New York City Department of Education, and the current president of Bank Street College of Education, spoke with 社区黑料 about childcare trends and what it鈥檒l look like to create higher quality programs as states look to expand access.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

To kick off our conversation with the idea that there is a lot of movement around early childcare right now and accessibility to it, what are we seeing across the country and what are states investing in or considering legislation around?

We’re not getting any help right now from the federal government. During the Biden administration, it was the opposite. There were federal funds flowing to states specifically to do this work, and that’s part of how you got some really interesting, innovative stuff happening in states not that long ago.

Vermont is one of, I think, only two states now that have a really strong program to for early educators. Kentucky guaranteed for childcare workers that their own children or deeply subsidized care. 

New Mexico is one of the most interesting examples right now because in November 2025, they launched universal childcare. 

One of the things that is striking about their strategy is that they created a dedicated permanent revenue stream for it, 鈥� so it’s not conditioned on the federal government being able to support it, or an annual tax appropriation. That makes it stable in a way that’s unusual. They have also specifically said that competitive educator compensation is a goal which is really different.

D.C. is the other place that has done something similar to this. In 2018, they created a that had an explicit call around pay parity [for early care workers], and it gave people initial one time payments [up to $14,000]. Then, they created a salary scale based on educational attainment. They were also trying to push people to get the training that they needed to deliver at a high quality, and during the phase of that project, the employment in the sector grew by 7% and retention rose to over two thirds.

In most places, including New York City, early childhood folks鈥� turnover is five times the rate of what you see in K-12 settings. That turnover is a function of the low wages and and sometimes the lack of training as well, because if you’re not doing well in your job, you don’t want to stay in it.

In New York, a lot of our workforce is actually in poverty. More than half of New York’s early educators are relying on public assistance. We have more than 16,000 children statewide who can’t be served because of vacant positions and this is where we actually have state funding for childcare seats, but we don’t have people to fill those positions. So I think those models of D.C. and New Mexico are really worth looking at other states.

What about missed opportunities that aren’t being considered when lawmakers are drafting legislation or proposing new funding?

When you think about elected officials and who they’re accountable to, the most clear promise you can make is X number of seats for X communities. 

We’re going to have for 2-year-olds in New York City, 鈥� that is the thing that will stick in the minds of the public. That other layer, on quality, is harder to boil down into a sound bite.

When you create access, you could create a system that actually does damage if you don’t have quality. Quality is defined by what are the adults able to do with children once they have this time with them? We want it to be something that has real educational impacts, 鈥� and taking advantage of this incredible moment of brain development where 90% of your brain architecture is built by the time you turn 5.

What does high quality care look like? What are signs for parents to look for?

A quality learning environment for early childcare allows kids to move around freely and explore and interact with each other and with adults and the materials that are in the space, whether it’s blocks, or art supplies, or a dress up area, or a water or sand table.

In low-quality settings, a lot of times what’s happening is kids are in some way, physically restrained from moving, and this is done in the name of safety. In that low-quality setting, you don鈥檛 have enough adults, the physical layout of the space isn’t totally safe for a toddler to be wandering around and the kinds of things that are going to be interesting for that toddler to pick up and stick in their mouth are not available.

In a low-quality environment, that child is maybe sitting in a high chair or in a playpen, and there’s an iPad going that they’re looking at which is not able to interact with them and is not supporting that development. You may be keeping the child physically safe, but if they aren’t able to interact and move, their brain development is not going to progress the way it needs to.

You want to set up the physical space, and you want to have the staffing to support that flexible movement and exploration, because that is how our brains develop 鈥� through those types of interactions with people and with materials. If the person is so stressed, either because their own life is so stressful because they’re not able to make ends meet and or their work environment is so stressful because they’re understaffed and working really long hours, that connection is lost.

When we talk about opening seats across the country, what are the odds that these seats are going to be low quality care programs?

There’s been research done over the years that has looked at the quality of early childhood settings and in general, that number of really good settings are like 20 to 30% of what we have. That doesn’t mean that the other 70% are low quality 鈥� it’s a spectrum. My guess is probably only 10%, maybe 15%, fall into that low quality bucket, but there’s a lot in between that high quality and low quality that needs work.

How can states and lawmakers take more accountability when they are considering opening more spots up to ensure that it is leaning toward the highest level of care for the youngest kids, especially developmentally?

Building a living wage is the most important thing because that brings people into the workforce. It encourages people to stay in the workforce. And as people stay, they develop experience and relationships with children. You can’t do that without training. So that’s the other big piece of this, what are we doing to train people well?

From birth to 3, there’s not a requirement anywhere in the country that you have to have a teaching license to teach at that level and there can’t be that requirement given the current compensation structure. So then, what is the requirement? If you’re not going to ask people to have a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree, 鈥� how do you provide them with training and support that will enable them to accelerate learning and development for children?

The goal is that you build in the resources for professional development for the existing folks who are already in the field, and then resources for people to get trained as they enter the workforce as well. 

I’ll give you one example. Bank Street has partnered with New York City during the pre-K initiative because the state actually does require a master’s degree for pre-K teachers here and that’s a relatively new requirement, so there are a lot of teachers who were working before that requirement went into place, and are now out of compliance with that law.

The city asked us at Bank Street to design something specifically for that group that would be attuned to the fact that they already have lots of knowledge and skills and they don’t need to start from the beginning. 

We created something called the Advanced Standing Program, which is a mastery based program for teachers who are already pretty experienced, and so they can do it much more quickly than a normal master’s degree. They get credit for their experience, so the cost is lower, and it’s historically been paid for partially by the city or by nonprofits where the folks are working. 

So, creating those kinds of programs that are really responsive to the real needs of folks in this workforce, as opposed to a compliance requirement that pushes a lot of people away.

There’s some examples now of universal childcare, but in most states, it is pretty limited to low-income families or at a pre-K level. So, when we’re talking about this quality issue, I want to get into equity also. Childcare programs may be getting some of the highest needs students. How does the issue of quality play a role in development and readiness by the time these students enter the K-12 system? 

The achievement gap that we see in K-12 schools between wealthy and low-income students 鈥� which is usually like a 20 or 30 point spread in achievement when you look at third grade or eighth grade test scores or high school graduation rates 鈥� is visible beginning at 18 months.

If you study toddlers, the same exact graph shows up between upper-income and low-income children. So why is that? 

We know that’s exactly that moment where language development is happening in the brain, and so if a child is sitting in front of a TV all day by themselves, or iPad or and no one’s talking to them, no one’s interacting with them, then they’re going to be really low scoring around that language development.

There’s not much that’s different between upper income and lower income children except for the fact that upper income families have much more access to quality care. If we can provide that quality care across the income spectrum, there’s a shot at closing those achievement gaps later on.

We’ve talked about New York City a little bit, and I know through several decades, there’s been a push and pull around expanding this early childhood care access under each mayor. Can you talk a little bit about the history of what New York City has tried, what’s new now under Mamdani’s proposal and whether that will be effective or not?

One of my big regrets, I was senior deputy chancellor under Mayor [Mike] Bloomberg for his third term in office, and it was around that time that we started to expand pre-K, but it was a very modest expansion. As someone who came up as an educator in middle schools and high schools, I didn’t really know what I know now about the power of early childhood. I don’t think any of us at the DOE in those days, other than folks working in the early childhood division who weren’t at the decision making table, understood how powerful the impact on educational equity is if you invest in early childhood. 

It took Mayor [Bill] de Blasio making the pre-K commitment as part of his first mayoral campaign to make that the focus for the Department of Education and for the city as a whole. They added 60,000 new seats in pre-K, then expanded pre-K as well in the second term. 

Mayor [Eric] Adams made lots of promises about working on this but really didn’t move the ball. 

What Mayor [Mamdani] campaigned on is that there’ll be free childcare for kids from birth to 5. It鈥檚 beginning with expanding the number of seats for 3-year-olds and expanding 2-year-olds. It鈥檚 a fairly modest expansion in this first year, and I think the question that will face the mayor over the rest of this term is how do you get to that larger goal where everyone has access and and how do you do it in a way that pairs access with quality? 

I think they’re off to a good start.

I want to pose the question you said Mamdani鈥檚 team will have to answer. How do states lead large scale expansion and ensure quality as they try to expand to everyone?

One of the lessons that we learned from the pre-K expansion is that you need to pay attention to the existing ecosystem and not lose capacity as you build capacity. 

One of the downsides of the pre-K expansion during de Blasio’s term was that they put a lot of the seats into public elementary schools, and the teachers became part of the UFT. They got regular salary the same way any K-12 teacher, which is great, but then the nonprofits that were running childcare programs as part of the initiative didn’t have the funding to match those salaries, and so a lot of people left the nonprofit daycare centers 鈥� and even worse, family childcare, which are small businesses run out of people’s homes that usually serve children birth to 5, were not initially included in the strategy.

We actually saw a loss of childcare seats in the birth to 3 space when some of those folks went out of business. 

I think part of the solution this time around, particularly because we’re working with younger children, is how do you support family childcare as part of this? How do you help improve the quality and the economic viability of that? 

Last question just to wrap us up. What you had talked about during your time at the NYC Department of Education with not paying attention to childcare, I think is something that was universal for lawmakers early on too. This conversation has really picked up in the last five years or so. How likely is it to continue seeing such acceleration in this movement?

I think one of the interesting things about childcare is it’s a bipartisan issue in most places in the country. 

The governor of Ohio, a Republican governor, has done massive investments in early childhood. Nebraska, Louisiana, lots of red states have really prioritized this, and the reason why is that more than three quarters of families have both parents in the workforce, so people need childcare. They need a place for their children to be. They need to be able to afford it, and they want it to be safe, and they want their children to be learning.聽

From an educational equity standpoint, we need that quality in order to sort of solve our broader problems in terms of achievement gaps in our school system. 

We haven’t seen as much investment in the second Trump administration, but the first Trump administration actually saw the biggest increase in early childhood funding since the Clinton administration. Biden went even further. Those were both a Republican president and a Democratic president actively investing in this. We have Republican governors and Democratic governors actively investing in this.

This is something that really speaks to people, and so I think for that reason, we are going to continue to see new public funding flow to this. It may not come as fast as I would hope, but we’re on the trajectory in the right direction.

That began to change in 2022, when Kentucky became the first state in the country to roll out an initiative making most early childhood educators automatically eligible for childcare subsidies. 

Novel at the time, this program 鈥� which, in effect, provides free childcare to early childhood educators in licensed programs through an expansion of the state鈥檚 Child Care Assistance Program 鈥� caught the attention of leaders in dozens of other states and has been replicated widely in the years since. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just happening in one type of state,鈥� said Diane Girouard, state policy director at the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a nonprofit that advocates for high-quality early learning experiences. 鈥淚t鈥檚 happening in [states] big and small; blue, red and purple; rural and non-rural. States are just seeing that it鈥檚 working. It鈥檚 unique. It鈥檚 a really good workplace benefit.鈥�

The idea to make early educators automatically eligible for childcare assistance was conceived as a strategy to help recruit and retain early childhood educators in the wake of the pandemic. By 2022, many families needed childcare to return to a normal work schedule but often couldn鈥檛 find spots for their children because early care and education programs were so severely understaffed, leaving slots unfilled and entire classrooms vacant. 

The model was so successful in Kentucky that other states took notice and began to fund their own versions of an effort to provide childcare assistance to early childhood educators, primarily through pilot programs. More recently, some states have even moved to make the program permanent. 

Last month, both and enacted laws making most early childhood educators automatically eligible for childcare assistance. Iowa鈥檚 governor signed a bill on April 9, while Kentucky鈥檚 program was made permanent a few days later, on April 14. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e psyched,鈥� said Sarah Vanover, director of policy and advocacy at Kentucky Youth Advocates and one of the champions of this program in the Bluegrass State. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e known for being frugal and conservative with money,鈥� Vanover said of Kentucky鈥檚 legislature, which is overwhelmingly Republican. 鈥淎nd yet this is something we鈥檙e investing in. When you have that dialogue with [program] directors, they鈥檒l tell you they have been able to open classrooms and keep staff.鈥�

The reason states have continued to invest in this type of program, Vanover and other state leaders shared in interviews, is because it works. By delivering free or discounted childcare to early educators 鈥� many of whom have jobs with low wages and few, if any, benefits 鈥� several states have seen workers who are more willing to stay in their jobs. And some educators who had left the workforce to stay home with their young children are finding it鈥檚 just enough of an edge to lure them back into their teaching positions, surveys and program directors have shared.

Since 2022, leaders from 38 other states have reached out to Vanover about the model, she said. Many of those leaders have gone on to pursue some form of the program. At least a dozen states, including , , , and , currently have at least a pilot program in place providing childcare assistance to early childhood educators. Two others, New Jersey and West Virginia, have introduced related bills. is the only state known to have initially offered and then ended this type of program, and in that case, it was the result of a severe budget deficit, Girouard said. 

While the model has spread, no two initiatives are exactly alike, Girouard added.  

Kentucky and Iowa, for example, make this benefit available to early childhood educators regardless of income, while most other states only have enough funding to increase the income threshold above what is available to all families in their states. In Rhode Island, for instance, the state鈥檚 childcare subsidy program is available to all families with an income less than 261% of the federal poverty level. For , that income cap increases slightly, to 300%. 

And Kentucky鈥檚 program includes any staff member working in a center-based early care and education program 鈥� from teachers to administrators, cooks to early intervention specialists. 

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 run a childcare program without the assistant teachers, without the nutrition staff, without the administrators,鈥� Vanover said. 鈥淚f you’re looking at doing this without the other staff, you鈥檙e going to have teachers get shuffled around. It鈥檚 essential for the whole program to take advantage of it 鈥� every employee.鈥�

Meanwhile, a in Maine 鈥� called the 鈥渃hildcare employment award鈥� 鈥� has emerged as unique in a couple of ways. 

Maine鈥檚 program provides at least a 50% discount on childcare for early childhood educators, according to Heather Marden, co-executive director of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children, a state affiliate of NAEYC. For staff who were already eligible for childcare subsidies before the pilot, the state also covers the cost of their co-pays, which can run anywhere from $3,000 to $8,000 a year, Marden said.

Importantly, Maine鈥檚 program is distinct in that it allows home-based childcare providers 鈥� a group often left out of this benefit 鈥� to participate. (The legislation that made Kentucky鈥檚 program permanent also allows home-based providers to use the benefit for the first time.)

A recent of Maine鈥檚 pilot program found that it has had a positive impact on workforce retention, noting that nearly every participant was considering leaving the field before receiving the award.

Moreover, the report found, many of those participants were weighing whether to leave the workforce altogether to stay home with their children, rather than looking for jobs in other fields. The discounted childcare has put enough money back into their pockets that they have been able to stay.

Marden noted that while that鈥檚 good for each individual teacher, it鈥檚 also good for entire communities. 

鈥淭he impact of retaining one educator is pretty incredible,鈥� she said, explaining that a single educator gained or retained opens up licensed classroom slots for four to 12 children. 

Maine鈥檚 childcare employment award program was serving 511 children from 313 families as of September 2025, with nearly as many children and educators on the waitlist. The state has funded the pilot at $2.5 million a year for the past two years, and it just hasn鈥檛 been enough to reach everyone, Marden explained.

While many early childhood leaders in Maine want to see the pilot program funded at a higher amount, the reality is that it will likely soon cease to exist altogether. During the recent legislative session, which ended in mid-April, policymakers did not fund the pilot for another year. As of now, the program is slated to end after June 30.

In Iowa, uptake has been strong. As of September 2025, more than 3,600 children from 2,153 families had taken advantage of the benefit, according to data from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. And a survey conducted by the state agency, the results of which were shared in January 2025, found that 87% of participants remain in their roles, and 12% began working in childcare as a result of the pilot. 

Hollie Allen, co-owner of Vine Street Child Care, a large center-based program in West Des Moines, Iowa, said that at least 13 of her teachers 鈥� out of about 60 people on staff 鈥� are enrolled in the program. They still owe co-pays between $35 and $100 per week, depending on factors like household income and number of children, she said, but that鈥檚 a big improvement over the full cost of a spot in her program.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 understand why they鈥檙e calling it free childcare. It鈥檚 not,鈥� Allen said, but added that, compared to the $360 per week she charges for an infant slot, 鈥減aying $67 is awesome.鈥�

The program has been a 鈥渄ouble boon鈥� for Allen, she said, because she was previously giving staff who weren鈥檛 eligible for other financial support a 50% discount on childcare at Vine Street 鈥� and losing money on those slots in the process. Now, with the state鈥檚 childcare assistance program covering the cost of early childhood educators鈥� childcare, Allen has been able to give every person on payroll a $2 per hour wage increase. 

鈥淚t was a big cashflow injection for our program,鈥� Allen said. 鈥淭hose across-the-board wage increases were critical.鈥�

In other states, such as Rhode Island, where the pilot program has been extended through 2028, the impact on turnover in the field has been real but modest, said Lisa Hildebrand, executive director of the Rhode Island AEYC. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 still helpful,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he intent is there. It鈥檚 still retaining some educators. But it could be a lot better.鈥�

Hildebrand added: 鈥淲e just need way more money in the system. This is not going to solve all the problems. It鈥檚 a little bit of Band-Aids. You鈥檙e giving free childcare to educators because you鈥檙e not paying them enough that they can afford childcare on their own. You鈥檙e still not paying people enough, and that鈥檚 the problem.鈥�

CHIRENO 鈥� Every day, Courtney Bush has to figure out who can pick up her kids.

It鈥檚 not an easy decision, even after wrestling with it for years.

With no child care options or after-school programs in her rural East Texas town, Bush sometimes leaves work early. And when that isn’t an option, she calls her sister in Lufkin 鈥� which is about 34 miles away 鈥� or a friend in town.

Bush grew up in , otherwise known as Chireno, a rural community of about 1,300 at the south end of Nacogdoches County. Her children now go to public school there. Chireno is one of 263 chronic child care deserts in the state, according to , a nonprofit that advocates for greater access to child care, especially for the state鈥檚 youngest residents.

The report, released earlier this month, found East Texas is home to the most chronic child care deserts, ZIP codes that have lacked professional child care options for at least three years.

Children At Risk鈥檚 report has tracked child care deserts across the state. The lack of affordable, quality child care poses quandaries for Texas families 鈥� and the state鈥檚 economy. A U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation report estimated that the .

Kim Kofron, the executive director of early childhood education for Children at Risk and one of the researchers who analyzed the child care desert map, believes two things cause East Texas鈥� predicament: it鈥檚 mostly rural, so getting operations up and running, and keeping them so, is difficult; and while there is a population of younger families living in rural East Texas, there aren鈥檛 always enough children to keep a center open.

Child care, which often teaches children basic life skills as well as provides foundational knowledge in literacy, is to prepare children for kindergarten and the rest of their education. And more parents, moms especially, because they don鈥檛 have adequate resources. This is leading to a growing number of children in families who rely on state support.

Community members say there hasn鈥檛 been professional child care for younger children for more than a decade. Families often turn to friends and family to watch their children 鈥� a job that often goes unpaid and unregulated.

Jacqueline Woodson, a grandmother in Chireno, has become her family鈥檚 go-to child care provider.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been generational, us having families take care of the kids because there was nothing in the area for child care,鈥� Woodson said. 鈥淧eople have to go all the way to Nacogdoches (city) to put their kids in child care.鈥�

Improving access to child care is difficult. State lawmakers have tried to help parents pay for it, but that鈥檚 only one part of the equation. Kofron said the state needs to truly look at how the system operates and find ways to smooth speed bumps for providers and to simplify the process for parents.

Sherry Durham, the senior director of child care for Workforce Solutions Deep East Texas, doesn鈥檛 want to see regulations eased, because child care businesses deal directly with some of the most vulnerable Texans. But she does believe more can be done to tell providers about grant programs and mentorships that will help those people who want to open a child care center.

Kofron believes the state is on the right track to begin addressing some of these concerns. Lawmakers in 2025 called for to study the state鈥檚 child care landscape and come to the next legislative session in 2027 with recommendations for a path forward. Kofron hopes the new map will provide that task force with a foundation for those recommendations.

Child care deserts expanding

Using data from the Texas Workforce Commission, Children At Risk has published a map of child care deserts every other year since 2017.

A child care desert, generally, is a geographic region where families lack access to regulated child care centers. can be large-scale, serving dozens of children in classroom settings, or they can be home-based operations that serve only a handful of children at a time.

Children At Risk has four classifications for child care deserts.

The first is simply areas where the number of children who need child care is three times higher than the capacity of local providers. There are 413 of these across the state.

The second is a subsidy desert, where the number of children who need a scholarship, which is state-funded, is three times higher than the available scholarships. There are 884 of these.

The third is a Texas Rising Star desert, where the child care centers are not certified with the Rising Star program. Rising Star is a state program that enforces expectations for the quality of child care families receive. There are 938 of these.

And the fourth is a new classification this year: chronic deserts. These are areas where the need for child care has been three times higher than the available options for three years in a row or more. There are 263 of these.

There are four regions in the state struggling the most with chronic child care deserts: East, Deep East, Northeast Texas and the Brazos Valley. Combined, these regions stretch from the Louisiana border to College Station.

In the Deep East Texas workforce development region that includes Angelina, Nacogdoches and Polk counties, 52 of the 82 ZIP codes are deserts. Durham wants to eradicate those deserts, and she believes the way to do that is through improving communication.

Ideally, she would have the time to establish better connections with rural community nonprofits and churches so they can spread the word about what resources the state currently has to offer. However, she鈥檚 new to the job and came at a time when workforce solutions were undergoing some changes in leadership and mindset. But she believes that improved communication is on the horizon.

鈥淭exas Rising Star and the Texas Workforce Development Group can offer support in the beginning to establish child care,鈥� Durham said. 鈥淲hether it’s a larger center or a smaller home center with maybe five or six children, the same support is available to both.鈥�

Parents may leave labor force

A lack of options in chronic deserts puts parents of young children in a precarious situation. Parents can either find a friend or a family member to watch their kids, or one parent can stay home.

The first option only works if there is someone around who can take on an extra child or two, and it鈥檚 not guaranteed. The second option is the path many families take, but it comes at a cost.

For Bush, whose children are now 6 and 11, a lack of child care options in Chireno over the years led her to job hop in search of a flexible schedule. At times, she could rely on friends or family members, often when they had chosen to stay at home to care for their own children, but she always felt guilty for asking so much of them.

She even left the workforce for six months because she didn鈥檛 have any better options. The small family relied on a single income, which just wasn鈥檛 sustainable.

鈥淚 feel like everybody has to work nowadays in order to make it,鈥� Bush said.

More Texas children are growing up in low-income households. And this is putting a strain on Texas鈥� social safety net. There were 106 new subsidy deserts in 2025 that weren’t there in 2024, according to Children At Risk, which means the need for scholarships outpaced the available funding threefold.

Scholarships, also called subsidies, pay for part of the child care tuition for children who qualify. The child must be under 13, have working parents or parents in school whose income is below a certain threshold that is dependent on the number of children in the household. For example, the monthly income for a family with two children in must not exceed $5,216.

Income levels aren鈥檛 the only rule that governs who gets a scholarship. The providers who accept scholarships for kids must follow several protocols that govern a variety of topics, including pick-up and drop-off rules.

Lawmakers in 2025 designated to child care subsidies. The entire designation was eaten up by inflation costs and failed to provide any substantial improvement to the child care system.

Without adequate resources for employees, Durham worries companies won鈥檛 choose to move to Deep East Texas. And she worries that young East Texans won鈥檛 be prepared for kindergarten.

Child care can help prepare kids for school

Young children typically have five years before they go to a traditional school and those years are exceedingly formative.

鈥淪o if they live in a chronic desert for three or more years, that鈥檚 a majority of the child鈥檚 life in a desert,鈥� Kofron said. 鈥淭hat is not only hampering mom and dad from going to work, it鈥檚 also hampering that child鈥檚 ability to get ready for kindergarten.鈥�

Kindergarten readiness is a of a child鈥檚 success down the road. By the time a 5-year-old starts kindergarten, they should be able to speak clearly, recite their alphabet and correctly hold tools, such as pencils or scissors. They should also have some basic ability to regulate their own behavior.

While parents can ensure their children have these foundational skills, studies have shown that high-quality child care can give children a big step up. This is part of the goal of program 鈥� to establish a standard of education for children aged 0 to 5 that prepares them for that first day of school.

However, a growing number of counties lack child care facilities that are state-certified. There were 88 more rising star deserts in 2025 than there were in 2024, for a total of 938.

Improvements in South Texas

Despite the dire concerns registered by Children At Risk, there were some bright moments of success in Texas鈥� child care landscape.

Cameron, the Concho Valley and the Lower Rio Grande Valley saw the highest rate of providers being added to the Texas Rising Star roster. And 60 new providers were approved to accept child care scholarships in the last year, Children At Risk found, though the organization would like to see that number grow exponentially.

Plus, more home-based child care providers have opened across the state in the last year, which means there are more options for families seeking child care. There still aren鈥檛 as many providers as there were before 2020, but it is an improvement.

In Deep East Texas, Durham said she wants to hear from those at-home centers that aren鈥檛 registered yet, like Woodson, who takes care of her family鈥檚 youngest members. Durham wants to connect them with more state resources and which might provide a clearer picture of what options are available in rural communities.

Registering home-based centers could also give the state a better understanding of the region鈥檚 needs and make more informed recommendations for the future.

Durham said she鈥檚 optimistic for the future. She sees the conversation around child care growing and believes there is a legitimate interest in finding solutions.

Kofron is excited to see what the task force assigned to investigate the state鈥檚 child care subsidy program learns. She hopes that the task force looks at her organization鈥檚 data to inform their recommendations.

She wants them to deeply consider how the state governs early childhood education and what can be streamlined. Finding ways to simplify the process for child care providers and the families they serve could do a lot to improve the state鈥檚 system.

鈥淎nd then it comes down to the funding,鈥� Kofron said. 鈥淲e have to make sure that we have enough funding in the system to give families the support they need so they can get back to work and support their families.鈥�

This first appeared on .

It would be nearly fifty years later before the country would again seriously consider building such a system, as proposed in the 鈥� though that attempt ultimately stalled when the childcare provisions from the final package that passed.

In the intervening decades, even as most families came to rely on and , childcare largely remained something families had to sort out on their own, with limited state and federal assistance.

But polling data shows that for publicly-funded childcare exists, even as federal legislative efforts have waned. In pockets of the country, there has been state-supported investment in childcare, often due to frustration with low wages, high turnover, poor outcomes and unworkable conditions. In the past three years, for example, New Mexico and Vermont have passed groundbreaking childcare policies, strengthened infrastructure and increased access. 

Childcare has gained visibility and some political leaders, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Vice President Kamala Harris and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, have elevated childcare as a key economic issue for voters. But childcare has more often been a secondary issue in political campaigns, rather than a career-shaping priority for candidates. It鈥檚 typically a bullet point for family policy or affordability, rather than the key legislative accomplishment vaulting a candidate to public office. 

That may be starting to change.

As more early care and education policies are enacted, the leaders involved in those endeavors have an opportunity to use their experiences to run for higher office. 

In Vermont, Aly Richards 鈥� who led a statewide advocacy organization focused on improving access to high-quality childcare for nearly a decade 鈥� this month that she is running for governor. She will compete in a Democratic primary in August, and the winner will face Republican Gov. Phil Scott in the general election this fall.

The organization Richards spearheaded, Let鈥檚 Grow Kids, drove efforts to pass Act 76, a landmark legislation that brought to Vermont鈥檚 early care and education system, funded largely by a new payroll tax. The state raised reimbursement rates for early childhood programs, and provided breaks to most families to cover the cost of care.

Could Richards鈥� success in passing childcare policy translate to support from voters in her run for governor? 

In a conversation with Rebecca Gale, Richards explains why childcare is an ideal upstream issue to tackle affordability for families, why other states keep calling her to ask for advice on their own childcare systems, and how the governor鈥檚 office might be the best next step for someone who knows just how central quality childcare is for families 鈥� and states 鈥� to thrive. 

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

You began with Let’s Grow Kids a decade ago. What was the intended goal at the time, both for the organization and for you personally?

The only focus was the mission. I really had no thought of what I was going to do with myself afterward, because I’m a really mission-oriented person and it was such a gift for me to have a goal and a deadline.

I like to think about what is the one thing a human can do to make the biggest positive impact in the world. And when I realized early childhood education was that lever just sitting there 鈥� where our inaction is causing all this detrimental harm to our society and the action [needed] is very clear and concrete 鈥� it felt obvious. It’s within our power to [change]. And when you do, it has this immeasurable impact downstream on all these things that we care about.

So the mission was to make that impact through Let鈥檚 Grow Kids 鈥� like an entrepreneurial-minded enterprise that would do whatever it takes to meet this deadline and this mission of putting in motion a system of high-quality, affordable childcare for the whole state. And we did that.

And while the job is not completely done, we set it in motion in the machinery of the state government. So we really were able to back away having done exactly what we hoped 鈥� creating the machinery, the dedicated funding, the ecosystem that will carry it forward and an aspirational model. We showed it’s possible to do this.

What are two or three key changes that you view as central to the state’s early care and infrastructure system?

The No. 1 change is dedicated public investment, because the problem with childcare in this country, since the beginning of time, is that there’s not enough money in the system from parents, who are the only payers.

To fund the system to be functional, to pay early childhood educators a livable wage, to have enough supply to meet the demand 鈥� you need a dedicated permanent funding stream. You can have more childcare, it can be higher quality, it can pay wages and it can meet the needs of your community. But that’s the No. 1 thing.

Two and three are the mechanism by which we did it. We basically took a system that already was in place and pushed the public investment into the hands of Vermonters through reduced childcare costs. By going up to that [the threshold in which a Vermont family can now qualify for childcare subsidies], you’re making and you’re seeing reduced childcare costs, which is making life more affordable. We also increased the reimbursement rate to programs.

It put money in the hands of Vermonters to make it more affordable. It put money in the hands of early childhood education programs so they could actually run their programs, pay higher wages and meet the needs of their families. And that’s why I think we’re seeing the implementation work so well. It’s adding more spaces, adding more businesses and reducing costs for families at the same time, which is what’s spurring our economy. It’s the one area of growth we’re sort of seeing in Vermont right now.

There are still very few leaders who鈥檝e built their careers around childcare policy. Do you see this as a structural roadblock to progress? I envision it as sort of a 鈥淟ego ceiling鈥� 鈥� a barrier built piece by piece through fragmented policy and underinvestment, that could be taken apart if priorities shift. What would change if more leaders made childcare a signature issue?

Yes, yes and yes. Let’s bust that Lego ceiling into a million pieces so they’re on the floor when you step on them accidentally, like in my family all the time.

Look, it is exhilarating for me to be moving into this new world of politics from that background in early childhood education and policy, because it’s not just early childhood education. It’s problem-solving in a dynamic way for the issues we face in the 21st century.

I spent my last decade working to solve this deep crisis that dogged Vermont and has dogged the rest of the country. I grew up in Vermont. I went out of state to change the world, working on Obama’s first campaign. I was so excited by his leadership potential, and yet I was so dismayed by the lack of action in D.C. because people who didn’t agree with each other didn’t speak to each other anymore.

I know enough to know that’s not how real change happens. You have to be in the room together. You have to be able to have reasonable agreement and disagreement.

So I raced home to Vermont and started working for the governor, and started realizing 鈥� talking to Vermonters from all walks of life 鈥� that what was broken in D.C. was not broken here in Vermont. We still talk to each other, and at the end of the day we can get pizza together and a beer even if we disagree. I quickly realized that early childhood education was one of these rare things where if you go upstream, it will solve all these other problems. It’s a way of viewing the world that I think we must focus on in the 21st century. We have real structural issues in Vermont and in this country. We have to go upstream, understand what those structural issues are and change them.

Childcare is a perfect example. Take Vermont. We have jobs. It’s a misconception that we don’t. We just don’t have anyone to fill them. A large reason is because we can’t find or afford childcare.

I paint this picture for you because to me that is the whole basis of the answer to your question. [Childcare] needs to take the country by storm, and it’s starting to in places like Vermont. 

You鈥檝e mentioned that other states have reached out to you about making childcare more affordable. How do you see this conversation changing if you become governor?

Well, it puts it out in the universe in a very different, meaningful way. Affordability will make or break this country right now. And here’s a concrete example of making life more affordable tangibly for your citizens.

So I’ve been all over the country, honestly 鈥� in person and on webinars in the past couple of months 鈥� spreading the model of what we did in Vermont through Let’s Grow Kids.

Can you imagine the National Governors Association having a childcare meeting where we all say: What’s worked in your state? What hasn’t worked in your state?

Who are the leaders? Get them together, accelerate this 鈥� because it’s great for your citizens and great for your economy. And it’s now a low-risk proposition because states have already done it and showed it’s possible.

I think there’s an amazing opportunity there.

Hicks said her husband had hoped to spend those days at home bonding with his son and helping her before returning to work, but life had other plans. After she gave birth, their son was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit for ten days, which consumed all of his time and meant he had to return to work immediately after they brought their son home from the hospital. 鈥淚t would have been so nice for him to experience our son, taking him home,鈥� Hicks said. 

Instead, Hicks was 鈥渏ust completely alone鈥� with a newborn while her husband was working, she said. 鈥淚 was just in a daze.鈥� Her memories of the time are clouded, she now thinks possibly by postpartum depression, which she believes would have been prevented if her husband had been able to take paid family leave to be with her and their son. His absence in those early days also set up a 鈥渨eird imbalance鈥� where Hicks felt she had to take on more than her share of parenting. That pattern, once established, can be hard to undo. Studies that, if fathers take parental leave, they are more involved in domestic work later on. Meanwhile, her husband lost out on spending time with their son when he was a newborn who changed daily. Given that such young babies sleep a lot during the day, Hicks distinctly remembers telling her husband to rush home from work while her son was awake. 鈥淚 was like, 鈥楬urry, his eyes are open,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 those little moments he didn鈥檛 get to experience.鈥�

Paid family leave 鈥渋s something that you want to be there for your worst days and your best days,鈥� Hicks added.

Hicks, who is now co-director of Freedom Virginia, a political advocacy organization, was part of an effort that has now ensured that future Virginia parents won鈥檛 have to experience what she and her husband went through. On April 22, Governor Abigail Spanberger legislation into law that makes Virginia the 15^th state to pass a paid family and medical leave program.

The program will start paying benefits in December 2028 and is expected to cover private-sector workers, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families. Eligible workers will receive of their average weekly wages up to a cap for up to 12 weeks a year to welcome a new child, care for a family member with a serious health condition, or recover from their own medical events. Employers will have to give them their jobs back when they return. 

鈥淢illions of families across Virginia won鈥檛 have to choose between their paychecks and taking care of themselves or their loved ones or bonding with a new baby,鈥� said Elizabeth Gedmark, vice president at A Better Balance, a nonprofit advocacy organization. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a really strong program.鈥�

Virginia鈥檚 statewide paid family and medical leave program is also the first to be passed by a Southern state, which advocates say could create more momentum for the policy nationwide. Spanberger called it a 鈥渉istoric step forward鈥� in a after signing the law, saying, 鈥淭hanks to this landmark law, millions of Virginians will no longer be forced to give up their paycheck when they welcome a child, or when their loved one faces a serious illness.鈥� 

鈥淭his is a really huge victory for families in Virginia, for the movement nationally, and for the whole region,鈥� Gedmark said.

Advocates have been fighting to enact paid family leave in Virginia for about a decade, Hicks said. The coalition of organizations behind it was able to learn from the that had already passed bills. It also courted the support of small business owners who wanted to be able to offer such a benefit and compete with larger entities but couldn鈥檛 afford the overhead. Those business owners needed 鈥渁 state program that evens the playing field against large corporations,鈥� she said. There was also pressure to compete with Virginia鈥檚 neighbors: Lawmakers in Maryland a paid family leave bill in 2022, while Washington, D.C. has had a program since 2020.

But Hicks said momentum for paid family leave in Virginia 鈥渞eally picked up鈥� about five years ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The crisis 鈥渟howed us that social structure and social net that everyone needs,鈥� she said. At the same time, younger candidates, especially women, started winning seats in the state legislature, bringing new perspectives and life experiences, Hicks said. Freedom Virginia intentionally supported candidates who said they would support paid family leave. Paid family leave legislation 鈥済ot really close鈥� to passage in the last two years, she said, but ran aground on opposition from former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who bills that the general assembly had passed. 鈥淭he support was there, and it was growing,鈥� she said.

Then Spanberger, who has school-aged daughters, ran for governor to sign such legislation into law. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a really long time since we鈥檝e had, not just a governor with school-aged children to understand what working families are going through, but someone who鈥檚 had the experience of motherhood and giving birth,鈥� Hicks noted. Both Hicks and Gedmark said they think Spanberger鈥檚 vocal support for family leave helped her win. 鈥淚t just goes to show, if you campaign on giving workers and their families concrete action that improves their lives and helps pocketbooks,鈥� Gedmark said, 鈥渋t鈥檚 a really good political strategy.鈥� 

Both Hicks and Gedmark argued that it matters to have a state in the South enact paid family leave. Nearby states will 鈥渇eel pressure to act,鈥� Gedmark said, 鈥渂ecause they鈥檙e competing for the same talented workforce, competing to try to draw in business.鈥� It will also offer other Southern states a relatable example. They can no longer write off paid family leave as something only happening in coastal blue states like California and New York, Gedmark said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a similar culture, there are similar industries, even similar weather, which matters a lot,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n the South, they all want to keep up with the herd.鈥� She expects to see more states in the region follow suit.

Gedmark also believes Virginia鈥檚 example will ripple across the country. Advocates in other states are already starting to talk to A Better Balance about replicating the state鈥檚 success, she said. 

She also thinks it will create momentum at the federal level. 鈥淎s the saying goes, 鈥楢s goes the South, so goes the nation,鈥欌�� she said. First, there is the fact that Virginia is right next door to D.C. and many lawmakers鈥� staff live there. But there鈥檚 also the fact that Virginia will prove that this isn鈥檛 a policy that can only exist in deep blue states. 鈥淭here is so much that can easily be dismissed if it seems to be sort of just a coastal elite thing,鈥� she said. Now it 鈥渃an no longer be dismissed.鈥�

Recently named as Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction, Conway brings extensive experience improving early childhood systems, studying teacher-child interactions and leveraging data to drive performance.

Before coming to Virginia in 2018, she helmed the closely watched early education efforts in Louisiana, and played a key role in redesigning the state鈥檚 approach to measuring early childhood education quality. As the assistant superintendent of early childhood in Louisiana, Conway led implementation of (CLASS), a rigorous national measure of classroom quality that evaluates the quality of teacher-child interactions in real time, and contributed to significant improvements in the state鈥檚 early childhood system.

When Conway became a leader in Virginia鈥檚 school system, she was determined to build a common framework for measuring the quality of early childhood programs but knew the state required its own approach. The early childhood landscape was fragmented: family childcare providers, Head Start programs, early childhood special education services and school-based pre-K programs were all operating largely in isolation. Conway helped change that.

Working with providers, community members and legislators, she helped in 2020 that moved oversight for all early care and education programs to the Board of Education and the Virginia Department of Education, laying the groundwork for what would become the (VQB5).

The VQB5 system is, in Conway’s words, an “apples to apples” way of measuring early childhood experiences across every type of provider. Twice a year, about 1,200 certified individuals from the local community gather data on Virginia’s early learning environments by observing those settings in person; additional observations are conducted by contractors from Teachstone, the company that developed CLASS.

Conway also implemented the , which exemplifies her data-first orientation. This statewide framework for assessing children’s preparedness as they enter kindergarten gave Virginia a clearer picture of where children stood at the threshold of formal schooling. It also exposed the gaps that early childhood investment needed to close. 

The literacy and math results that Conway sees across Virginia’s 131 school divisions are not where she wants them. Her response is characteristically collaborative. As she puts it, the task is to “roll up our sleeves and work with 鈥� our school division leaders, our principals, our educators and all of the support staff and coaches to get kids the education that puts them on track for success.”

In Virginia, where the governorship regularly flips between parties, bipartisanship is essential to enacting policy change, Conway said. She consistently works across party lines, making the case that school performance, workforce participation and long-term economic competitiveness all depend on early childhood progress. 

As she settles into her new role, Conway discusses school readiness, teacher-child interactions, bipartisanship and how her personal experience has shaped her views on education.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

How does Virginia define school readiness?

I have been working in Virginia for nearly eight years with different governors and with stakeholders across the state to improve school readiness. And that has been the True North for the entirety of my experience here. And really, by focusing in on improving school readiness, it allowed us to think very differently about how we work with all of the places that kids are served before kindergarten to improve school readiness outcomes. If you can improve school readiness outcomes, then you then open up all sorts of opportunities for kids throughout school and beyond. 

There is no single birth to 5 provider that could serve all kids. You need family childcare and [center-based] childcare and Head Start and Early Head Start and early childhood special education and the schools which offer preschool and pre-K to work together to offer opportunities to families 鈥� that put them on track for success. Although Virginia had taken some steps to measure readiness for all kids entering kindergarten, we didn’t have good information about the quality of those experiences. 

To what extent are you applying the Louisiana playbook to Virginia?

There are two things that we learned from Louisiana. The first is that 鈥� kids who were in classrooms that had higher quality teacher-child interactions learn more over the course of that year. We don’t ever standardize test toddlers 鈥� it’s not appropriate. It would be a little bit of a fool’s errand to try to test a 2-year-old in that way, and we certainly would never want to do it with stakes. [The second] is that [CLASS] could be used regardless of a teacher’s credential or curriculum use. It provided a way to compare the thing that matters most 鈥� the kind of secret ingredient: these teacher-child interactions. But it鈥檚 less input focused than something that says, 鈥淵ou have to use this particular curriculum鈥� or 鈥淵ou have to have this particular credential.鈥� In fact, more than 10 years [later] it is still the system of measure in Louisiana. And if you look at some research done by the University of Virginia, you see tremendous gains in quality of interactions across the board, including in very low-income and historically underserved areas from New Orleans to the Mississippi Delta.

How does this approach play out in Virginia?

We realized Virginia had different community members, different parents, different perspectives. And so we worked with the to pilot an effort to think differently about how we might organize early childhood funding. We rolled VQB5 out statewide two years ago. So we have two years of results [from] over 12,000 classrooms. And in each of those classrooms we look at 鈥� the quality of teacher-child interactions. We completed 31,000 classroom observations last year, about 2.2 million minutes of insight. These are 60- to 80-minute observations, very rigorous. There’s an infant tool, there’s a toddler tool, and there’s a preschool tool. All of that data goes into determining their ratings, and all of that information is put on a website for families to be able to use. 

Have priorities in Virginia shifted with the Spanberger administration, or was it more of a continuation?

It has been a very intentionally bipartisan effort across different administrations. [Democratic Gov. Ralph] Northam [who served from 2018 to 2022] and first lady Pam Northam were really intentional as they worked on a potential early childhood law. When [Republican] Gov. Glenn Youngkin [who served from 2022 until Spanberger took office on Jan. 17, 2026] came on 鈥� improving K-12 outcomes was part of his vision for Virginia as well as supporting workforce participation.

During the pandemic, Virginia had some of the lowest [employment] rates, so the biggest drops in terms of moms participating in the workforce. So there was a real bipartisan effort at the time that he came in around investments in making sure that parents can access care so that not only will the kids benefit, but that parents can come back to the workforce. And over that period, you saw some of Virginia’s very low unemployment and very historic workforce participation. 

Virginia has made historic investments in early childhood. When I started [in 2018], it was . This year, the initial proposed budget has us at . Virginia is not getting full credit for it, relative to other states. Most people think of childcare as being federally funded. Virginia’s program is now two-thirds state funded.

What motivates you? You’re a mom yourself, you’re from Virginia. What鈥檚 a story you think about that helps to center you when you’re doing this work? 

My ability to be a working mom is because of childcare. Growing up, my mom did work, although part-time, and many people in my family are in education. My mom is a Ph.D. and was at the University of Virginia School of Education. 

As I became a mom, I realized that there’s just no greater act of trust than leaving your child in the hands of an early childhood [provider]. Across three children, I did everything from home-based childcare to pre-K in a school. And I had such tremendous respect for what was being provided to my children and that it enabled me to be successful at my career and to be able to earn money for my family.

I felt so grateful that I didn鈥檛 have to face this trade off of: I’d like to be able to work and also be able to know that my kid is well taken care of. And that is the trade-off that we often hear from folks who are working very hard, but whose salaries do not cover the cost of care.

And the thing that sort of struck me more than anything else coming out of the pandemic is that 鈥� human beings learn in the context of relationships with adults.

鈥淲ith pain in my heart, I told my son I couldn鈥檛 pick up or drop off my grandson at school anymore,鈥� said Hernandez, who asked to be identified by her first initial and last name in order to protect her safety. 鈥淚 was scared. If they take me when he鈥檚 with me, what would they do to him?鈥�

She cares for her two grandchildren, ages 5 and 6, while their parents are at work. The 5-year-old, who has been diagnosed with autism, attends a preschool with specialized resources. Outside of preschool, Hernandez is the only one his parents trust to care for the boy.

鈥淚 dropped him off, picked him up, went on his school field trips, cooked for him after school,鈥� recalled Hernandez. She took three buses to get to the school, a daily roundtrip commute between two and three hours, while carrying a stroller and diaper bag.

But Hernandez had to pull back. 

The nation鈥檚 child care system relies on the contributions of immigrants like Hernandez. early care and education providers identify as immigrants, and home-based child care 鈥� the most arrangement in the U.S. 鈥� has a of immigrant providers than center-based programs.

Over the past year, immigration enforcement activities have intensified, leaving providers and families anxious and unsettled. Since he took office, Trump has expanded immigration enforcement and a policy that prohibited immigration activity in certain spaces, including schools and places where children congregate. The administration has also made financial investments in federal immigration enforcement.

These investments and policy shifts have disrupted the child care workforce nationwide, heightening fear and instability among providers. caregivers and child care providers of young children have reported noticing the impact of immigration enforcement activities in their community, according to the RAPID Survey Project at the Stanford Center on Early Childhood. Some have left the field altogether. 

A conducted by economists Chris Herbst and Erdal Tekin found that increased arrests by federal immigration officers in the first six months of the Trump administration are associated with 39,000 immigrant child care providers leaving the workforce. It also found that, as a result of the increased arrests and shrinking child care workforce, 77,000 American-born mothers also .

Below are the stories of five immigrant women providing home-based care for relatives and neighbors. Located in California, Colorado, Illinois and Texas, they all reported that intensified immigration enforcement has disrupted their work, with ripple effects on the children and families they serve. 

Some shared that the young children they care for have expressed fear that their parents could be arrested. Some said they had to change their routines to limit their time in public spaces, and that parents were doing the same. Others said parents stopped taking their older kids to school. 

These vignettes 鈥� which draw from interviews conducted in Spanish that have been translated and edited for clarity 鈥� offer insight into the experiences of immigrants caring for our nation鈥檚 youngest children. 

A. Hernandez

Home State: Illinois
Place of birth: Mexico
Number of years providing child care: 6
Still providing child care: Yes
Number of children cared for 2听

After visiting family in the U.S. in 1991 when she was 16 years old, A. Hernandez fell in love with Chicago and decided to stay. She started working at a local restaurant, where she met her husband. She married at 17, had four children and eventually became a stay-at-home mom. 

Her children are now adults, and she provides child care for their kids. It鈥檚 not uncommon: working parents rely on a grandmother for child care.

But after President Trump was inaugurated, Hernandez said she put cardboard on her windows so no one could see inside and barely left the house. 

When she could no longer bring her grandson to and from preschool, his parents changed their work schedules as best they could to account for the disruption in child care. They eventually enrolled their son in a busing program, but the process took over a month, she said. On the days they could not adjust their work schedules, they opted for him to stay home with Hernandez. He missed over a month of school, and a number of sessions with his speech therapist.

鈥淚t affected him a lot. Before, he was starting to speak and sing. He was more conversational,鈥� Hernandez said. 鈥淣ow, he struggles. His communication is more sounds and gestures. He missed over a month of his therapies, and it shows.鈥�

Hernandez said she鈥檚 been anxious for months. Once her grandson was enrolled in the busing program, she decided she could pick him up at the bus stop. She began returning to her routine, but said she constantly felt 鈥渓ike someone was following her.鈥�

Then, in November 2025, a Chicago child care provider was at an early learning center on the same street where Hernandez’s daughter works. It happened while children were being dropped off.

Hernandez recalled hearing the news. The child care provider 鈥渨as doing something good, working with children. Now we have to explain this to children, that we鈥檙e all at risk,鈥� she said.

Worried for their safety, Hernandez and her husband opened a naturalization case in November with the hope of gaining U.S. citizenship. The legal proceedings are expensive, so to help make ends meet, Hernandez has picked up an overnight shift at a fast food chain. (She is typically paid $75 a week to care for her grandchildren.)

Hernandez has tried her best to shield her grandchildren from the increased presence of immigration officers in their neighborhood. 鈥淢y eldest grandson saw officers near his school,鈥� she said. When he told her about it, he said he was afraid they were coming to take him. 鈥淭heir uniforms are green. He said that the 鈥榞reen men鈥� were coming to take children in black vans. I told him, 鈥楴o, they won鈥檛 take you.鈥欌��

Carmela Enriquez

Home State: Colorado
Place of birth: Mexico
Number of years providing child care: 20
Still providing child care: Yes
Number of children cared for: 4

In 2001, Carmela Enriquez came to the United States from Mexico, joining her family in Colorado. She was 15 years old, and enrolled in a local high school as a ninth grader. In 11th grade, she was warned that she would not have access to federal financial aid because, at the time, she was an undocumented immigrant. 

Knowing that her family wouldn鈥檛 be able to help cover the cost of college, she dropped out of high school. 鈥淚 was sad, because I always liked school,鈥� said Enriquez. 

In 2004, Enriquez got married and the next year, she gave birth to her first son. Soon after, her cousin approached her about caring for his infant, who was around the same age as her son. He liked the idea of his baby being watched by someone in the family while he was at work. Since then, different family members have relied on Enriquez for child care. Today, she cares for four of her nephews, in addition to her two youngest children, who are 2 and 6 years old.

Enriquez said she changed a number of daily routines immediately after Trump came back into office. She typically picked up her four nephews from her sister鈥檚 house, but assuming there would be more immigration officers stationed at high-traffic roads, she changed her route. 

鈥淚 tried not to drive on busy streets,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut when it snows in Colorado, I noticed they weren鈥檛 removing the snow as fast on the roads I traveled on as on the main streets. I told myself I had to stop my fear of officers, because I was also scared of being in a car accident.鈥� 

A few months later, Enriquez began volunteering for a local group that alerted community members if federal immigration officers were nearby. Her eldest child, now in college, warned his mother not to participate.

鈥淗e said, 鈥楴o, don鈥檛 go. You shouldn鈥檛 go outside. If you need something from the market, I鈥檒l go,鈥欌�� Enriquez recalled. 鈥淚t makes me sad that my children, born here, are scared.鈥�

Enriquez said she has witnessed people get arrested by immigration officers, and fear has swept across the community. 鈥淟ast September, there was a local celebration for child care providers. There was food, flowers. Only three providers, myself included, showed up,鈥� said Enriquez. 鈥淭here had been immigration officers seen on a nearby street. I couldn鈥檛 tell providers to come anyway. I can鈥檛 take away their fear.鈥�

鈥淲e are essential workers. We care for children whose parents work in agriculture, dairy farms, food transport,鈥� said Enriquez. 鈥淚鈥檓 crying because I see so many kind providers, and the quality care they give to children. There鈥檚 people saying this country is not ours, and that if [immigration] officers mistreat us, we deserve it. But no one deserves to be treated that way.鈥�

E. Hernandez

Home State: Texas
Place of birth: Mexico
Number of years providing child care: 12
Still providing child care: Yes
Number of children cared for: 7

E. Hernandez, A. Hernandez鈥檚 sister, moved to Texas from Mexico with her husband in 2013, when he relocated for work. Then five months pregnant, she became friendly with a neighbor, who mentioned she could not find before- and after- school care for her 7-year-old son.

鈥淚t started as a favor. [The neighbor] said it would be difficult to leave her son with someone she didn鈥檛 know,鈥� said Hernandez, who requested we refer to her by her first initial and last name in order to protect her safety. 鈥淚 said I鈥檇 take care of him. I鈥檇 drop him off at school, pick him up, and care for him until she came home.鈥� 

Hernandez cared for her neighbor鈥檚 son until the family moved 15 months later.

Over the past 13 years, Hernandez has cared for more than a dozen children through a variety of arrangements 鈥� some steady, others occasional. She began by watching the children of her husband鈥檚 coworkers and, once her eldest started school, connected with local parents in need of after-school care.

Today, Hernandez looks after her own three children and provides care for others as needed. She regularly supports one family during school breaks and, in health emergencies, steps in for another family, sometimes caring for all five of their children 鈥� four of whom she said are immunocompromised.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a favor,鈥� Hernandez said. 鈥淭hese are children who are ill, so I always say yes 鈥� even if it鈥檚 two in the morning.鈥�

Such flexible, around-the-clock care is especially common among home-based providers. At some point, children requires care during nontraditional hours.

Last year, Hernandez was advised by a local parent to pursue a child care license so she could provide long-term care to more families. (In Texas, child care providers are from a license if they do not care for more than one unrelated child or sibling group.)

鈥淚 was so excited. I鈥檝e always loved children, so I decided to call the local agency,鈥� said Hernandez. When asked over the phone to provide her Social Security Number, Hernandez specified she had anIndividual Taxpayer Identification Number (). 鈥淭he woman on the phone said that Texas does not give child care licenses to people without a Social Security Number,鈥� Hernandez said.

Though she鈥檚 been unable to get licensed, she continues to care for children. 鈥淚 do it for the good of the community, for the good of our children,鈥� she said.

Blanca Luna

Home State: California
Place of birth: Mexico
Number of years providing child care: 5
Still providing child care: Yes
Number of children cared for: 3

Blanca Luna immigrated to California from Mexico in 2016, when she was 24 years old. She arrived with her then 15-month-old daughter in order to join her husband in the U.S. 

She now has two children, 12 and 9 years old. As a stay-at-home mom, Luna began to meet local parents when her youngest son started kindergarten in 2020. 

鈥淚n our town, many parents work in agricultural fields. Agricultural workers continued to work during the pandemic [stay-at-home orders], and they needed child care because many centers closed,鈥� said Luna. 鈥淚 wanted to help because they couldn鈥檛 stop working. I started providing child care, even if it was an hour or two 鈥� If it were me who needed help, I would want someone to help me. I did it out of love, community.鈥�

Luna has continued to provide child care to local families, usually when school is closed for holidays. She provides regular child care on weekdays to a 3-year-old girl, and is compensated between $300 and $400 a month. She also occasionally provides before- and after- school care for two other children. One of those families pays her $25 per day. The other doesn鈥檛 pay her at all.

Over the past few months, Luna said she has been approached by two local parents who do not have American citizenship about whether she would take care of their children if they were arrested by immigration officers. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have the heart to say no. But it is a concern for me,鈥� she said. 鈥淭aking care of a child needs money, and I don鈥檛 have an income. Only my husband does.鈥�

Those fears weigh heavily on the children in her care, Luna said, particularly their mental health. The threat of family separation creates instability, especially when 鈥渃hildren see parents being beaten, mistreated and humiliated.鈥�

Luna said there are efforts to support families in her community, but they fall short.

鈥淚鈥檝e seen resources like food banks. That鈥檚 good. But people can鈥檛 pay rent with food,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think people want to go to work safely and build a better future.鈥�

Yanet Martinez

Home State: California
Place of birth: El Salvador
Number of years providing child care: 17
Still providing child care: Yes
Number of children cared for: 6听

Yanet Martinez immigrated to the U.S. 17 years ago, fleeing domestic violence in her home in El Salvador. Her five children stayed behind. 

In 2019, Martinez said she qualified for 鈥� a program for victims of criminal activity 鈥� that has since changed to a, a program for victims of trafficking.

She found her way to Los Angeles and picked up a series of odd jobs. Today, she works at a local community center as a promotora, a Spanish term similar to a community liaison or resource navigator. She鈥檚 also a local child care provider.

Four of her children have immigrated to the U.S. She has nine grandchildren, and cares for six of them. She also occasionally cares for her neighbor鈥檚 children. 

, federal immigration officers and state troopers arrived at a local park on horseback and in armored vehicles in the neighborhood where Martinez lives. One of her children witnessed the raid.

鈥淢y daughter was on the way to work, but she ran back inside. I had a doctor鈥檚 appointment, and I chose not to go. It was chaos. I saw tanks 鈥� tanks I haven鈥檛 seen since I was a girl during the [Salvadoran Civil] war,鈥� said Martinez. 鈥淎nother time, one of my sons saw federal agents at a parking lot close to his job. He managed to see them in time and hid, but six of his coworkers didn鈥檛 make it to their cars. The agents pushed them to the ground, beat them and took them away.鈥�

Despite fearing for her safety, Martinez continues caring for her grandchildren, bringing them to and from school. On a local bus, in transit to pick up one of them, Martinez said, 鈥淚鈥檓 still working in the community. I鈥檓 still providing care for my grandchildren. I do it with fear, with precaution. But I do it.鈥�

Reporting for this article was supported by New America’s Better Life Lab Story Fellowship.

]]> /zero2eight/the-reading-crisis-is-real-so-is-the-tool-we-keep-ignoring/ Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:30:00 +0000 /?post_type=zero2eight&p=1031467 The latest Nation’s Report Card results didn’t arrive as a warning; they arrived as a verdict. Reading scores are down again, and the gaps are widening. Lower-performing fourth and eighth graders posted the worst scores in more than 30 years. Not one state improved its eighth-grade reading score.

In response, the national conversation has kicked into high gear. More than a dozen states have rewritten literacy laws, banning discredited instructional methods and mandating phonics-based curricula. Districts are overhauling materials. Parents are being urged to act in a multitude of ways: reading more at home, hiring a tutor, trying multiple apps.

I’ve spent decades as a classroom teacher, literacy coach, researcher, and now training future educators. I’ve worked with children who thrive and children who need extra support with reading. And I’ve seen how often parents are sent searching for complicated solutions while underestimating the impact of what happens in ordinary moments at home. That鈥檚 overlooking something both simpler and more immediate: Families already have powerful, evidence-based tools at their fingertips, and they don’t cost anything.

This isn’t a critique of schools. The evidence of what’s possible when schools commit fully is compelling: Louisiana became the only state to fully rebound in reading post-pandemic. Mississippi climbed from near the bottom of national rankings to the top ten in fourth-grade reading. Systematic, structured literacy instruction works when it’s implemented well. 

However, the best outcomes happen when classrooms and homes work together. The current reading crisis has exposed how much everyday language, attention and early habits have been neglected in shaping literacy, long before a child is ever formally tested.

Start with something deceptively simple: conversation. Reading is not just about decoding words on a page; it’s built on language. When parents narrate what they’re doing, ask questions and engage children in back-and-forth talk, they are building vocabulary and comprehension in real time. This isn’t enrichment. It’s the foundation strong readers stand on, and it happens in the car, at the kitchen table and at the checkout line.

Then there’s the way reading itself gets treated. Too often, it becomes something children think only “counts” as reading if it鈥檚 from a book. But literacy lives in the real world. A grocery list. A recipe. Street signs. Instructions. When children see that print carries meaning in daily life, they begin to understand why reading matters at all. 

And yet, in a culture saturated with screens and subscriptions, one of the most effective tools is analog: the public library. It’s easy to overlook because it’s free. But access to physical books 鈥� and the sustained attention they encourage 鈥� offers something many digital experiences do not. At a time when families are told to download more, the better advice may be to step into a quieter space and let a child linger with a book.

Honesty about the basics matters too. Letters and sounds are not outdated or trivial; they are essential. Helping children learn the alphabet, recognize letters in the environment or spell their own name is not busywork. It is preparation for the moment formal instruction begins and a base for whether that instruction sticks.

Perhaps most urgently, parents should stop being told to “wait and see” or 鈥渢hey鈥檒l grow out of it.鈥� These may sound reassuring, but in reading, it can be costly. Unlike spoken language, reading does not develop naturally without direct teaching. When a child consistently avoids reading, guesses at words, or becomes visibly frustrated, those are not quirks to outgrow. They are early warning signs. 

The earlier parents and educators respond, the easier the path forward, and the window for intervention narrows quickly. What looks like a behavioral problem in fourth grade often traces back to a foundational gap that could have been caught in kindergarten.

None of this will single-handedly reverse national test scores. But that’s not the point. The point is that in a moment when the literacy conversation is dominated by policy, programs and products, the most immediate and equitable intervention available risks being overlooked entirely: what families do every day.

The NAEP data tells a story of stratification: scores rising for high-performing students while struggling students fall further behind. That divide is not about capacity. It is, in part, about access to the kinds of early language experiences that wire children for reading before they ever enter a classroom. Debates about curriculum mandates and state laws are worth having. But while those debates unfold, children are sitting at kitchen tables tonight.

Parents are not a backup plan for struggling schools. They are a child’s first and most consistent teachers. The reading crisis is real. But so is the quiet, largely untapped power sitting in ordinary moments.

If better outcomes are the goal, the question shouldn’t stop at what schools will do differently next year. It should also demand answers about what’s already possible today 鈥� and why anyone has been told it isn’t enough.

]]> /zero2eight/kids-in-state-funded-preschools-hit-record-high-but-program-quality-varies/ Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:13:03 +0000 /?post_type=zero2eight&p=1031479 If state-funded preschool programs are in a race, then it鈥檚 clear that some states are approaching the finish line while others have lost momentum. 

So said Steve Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, which has just published its examining state-funded preschools. 

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the story this year 鈥� that the race is highly uneven,鈥� said Barnett. 鈥淓ven as some states are racing toward the finish line, more states are moving in the wrong direction. A few states never entered the race. They鈥檙e not running.鈥�

The research center has been publishing the State of Preschool Yearbook since 2003, measuring state-funded preschool programs against a set of quality standards and tracking programs鈥� enrollment and funding. For the first time, six states hit all 10 of NIEER鈥檚 , which measure factors such as teacher credentials, staff professional development, curriculum supports, class sizes and staff-to-child ratios. One of those states, Georgia, became the first with a universal preschool program to meet all 10 quality indicators 鈥� a feat that NIEER is touting widely and which Barnett said made the Peach State a 鈥渟ymbol鈥� for everyone else. 

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to choose between serving all the kids and building a high-quality program,鈥� he said. 鈥淕eorgia shows you can do it and not break the bank.鈥�

In the 2024-25 school year, state-funded preschools saw record high enrollment and funding, though the pace slowed considerably from the prior year, according to NIEER鈥檚 findings. 

State-supported preschool programs now serve a combined 1.8 million children nationally, including 37% of 4-year-olds and 9% of 3-year-olds. The states that contributed most to the enrollment gains are California, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Missouri, adding more than 52,000 new preschool seats.

Federal, state and local governments spent a combined $17.7 billion on preschool, with more than $14 billion of that amount coming from states. More than half of states increased their funding for preschool, including Michigan and New Jersey, which increased spending by more than $100 million each. Meanwhile, 17 states spent less, with Arizona, North Carolina and Texas among those seeing the biggest declines. Another six states do not have a state-funded preschool program, as defined by NIEER: Idaho, Indiana, Montana, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Thus, the high-stakes race metaphor. 

鈥淵ou have states moving ahead,鈥� Barnett reiterated. 鈥淏ut you have states faltering, states that didn鈥檛 make much progress.鈥�

Part of the explanation for the faltering states, he said, is that they have less federal funding to prop up these programs than they used to. But that鈥檚 not the full story, since even in some states with budget deficits, , they managed to increase funding for pre-K. 鈥淚t is about how you set your priorities,鈥� Barnett said. 

This report found that enrollment for 3-year-olds in public pre-K is at an all-time-high, though Allison Friedman-Krauss, lead author of the report, clarified that it鈥檚 only marginally higher than it was the previous year and that it still lags far behind enrollment for 4-year-olds. 

Several states have pledged to serve all 3-year-olds, including less populous ones like Vermont and New Mexico and more populous ones such as Illinois and New Jersey. 

It takes time to build those programs, though, Friedman-Krauss and Barnett said, so the progress on serving 3-year-olds is expected to be slow and incremental. 

As for Georgia, it joins an elite group of states that are lauded by NIEER for quality, including Alabama, Hawaii, Mississippi, Michigan and Rhode Island.  

Each of the 10 quality benchmarks represents an improvement in preschool quality that can be felt by children and families, Barnett said. 

鈥淐hildren鈥檚 experiences can be tremendously different between programs that have all of this in place and programs that have little in place,鈥� he said. 

For example, he added, 鈥渙ne of the keys to good early childhood education is the teacher-child relationship.鈥� It is much more likely for that relationship to be strong and for children to get individualized support for their learning and development when a teacher has fewer children in her care.  

And better-prepared teachers, he said, are going to have more realistic expectations about what the job entails and will be more likely to stay in their positions for longer. That matters for young children, who benefit from consistent, stable caregivers and teachers. 

To meet all 10 benchmarks, Georgia its staff-to-child ratios and maximum classroom sizes, said Susan Adams, deputy commissioner for pre-K and instructional support at the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.

As of fall 2024, Georgia has reduced maximum preschool class sizes to 20 and set ratios at one adult to 10 children, Adams said. The state has also achieved salary parity for preschool teachers, so that they now align with the earnings of K-12 teachers, she added. 

What sets Georgia鈥檚 preschool program apart is that it is maintaining a high-quality learning environment while serving more than 70,000 children per year across Georgia鈥檚 159 counties. 

The changes to ratios and maximum classroom sizes did reduce the number of preschool slots statewide, but the state is midway through a four-year effort to build back that capacity, by adding 100 new classrooms each year, Adams said. 

NIEER is tracking a number of other states that, with just a few changes, could join Georgia in providing universal access to high-quality pre-K, including New Mexico, which will be on par with Georgia once it meets the benchmark that requires all lead teachers to have a bachelor鈥檚 degree in early childhood education. 

While Barnett believes NIEER鈥檚 close tracking of state-funded preschool programs helps with accountability, he clarified that Georgia and other states are not improving their programs just so they can check another box in a report. 

鈥淭he rationale for the leadership is not to get the acclaim or recognition from us,鈥� he said. 鈥淭heir rationale, really, is we need to provide a better program for kids.鈥�

]]> /zero2eight/head-start-programs-face-funding-squeeze/ Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:30:00 +0000 /?post_type=zero2eight&p=1031379 This article was originally published in

When Rickencia Clerveaux McClean’s son was around 18 months old, she noticed he wasn’t speaking the way she expected. He pointed instead of asking. He struggled with food textures. McClean looked ahead at his future in public school with some dread.

Fortunately, she said, there was an opening at Head Start at Action for Boston Community Development in Dorchester 鈥� the same program her younger sister had attended years before. Now her son is three, eating applesauce with his classmates and using his words.

“I feel like ABCD helped him navigate first before he was able to go to a public school,” said McClean, whose 2-year-old daughter is enrolled there, too. “That’s the best pathway for any kid who’s having a difficult time on their own.”

McClean, 27, is a student at Roxbury Community College working on the requisite classes for the nursing program. Head Start, she said, is what makes that possible.

She is among the lucky ones these days. Massachusetts has lost 1,300 Head Start slots over the last three years, as the federal government has level-funded the program, and there is worry that more seats could be in jeopardy.

The 60-year-old federally funded program for children from low-income families is navigating what advocates describe as a painful stretch of uncertainty.

The Trump administration’s , released earlier this month, includes $12.3 billion for Head Start nationally 鈥� the same level as the prior two fiscal years. While that has forced programs to reduce the number of families they serve, it is a retreat from that the administration might seek to eliminate the program entirely.

“It has been an incredibly unpredictable year, from both policy changes to funding instability,” said Michelle Haimowitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association, which advocates for Head Start programs in the state. “Flat funding itself is a pretty sharp cut to programs every year, given increasing costs from things like health care and rent and utilities, as well as the need to continue to raise wages for our educators.”

Head Start provides early education, health, nutrition, and family support services to children from birth to age five.

In Massachusetts, it serves more than 11,000 children annually across 28 programs and employs about 4,000 early childhood professionals, according to the . Families receiving Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children, SNAP benefits, or disability assistance, as well as children in foster care or experiencing homelessness, qualify automatically.

Massachusetts is one of the few states that supplements the federal program with state dollars, contributing $20 million on top of the $189 million in annual federal funding that comes to the state, according to the .

The Massachusetts Head Start Association is asking the Legislature for a $4.56 million increase 鈥� enough to fund a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment for program staff.

“Just because you close a classroom here or there doesn’t mean the children aren’t there to fill it,” said Haimowitz. “Programs need to make terrible choices between access and being able to staff the classrooms they are able to maintain.”

State financial support has crept up in recent years, but Gov. Maura Healey鈥檚 proposed 2027 budget kept its recommendation at $20 million, as does the version advanced through the House on Wednesday.

“We know it’s a tough budget year,” Haimowitz said. “And at the same time, we need to make sure our programs have what they need to keep as many classrooms open as they can.”

Compounding that financial pressure is a bureaucratic disruption that began a year ago. On April 1, 2025, the Trump administration five of Head Start’s 10 regional offices, including the Boston office that had served Massachusetts and the five other New England states. Massachusetts programs were reassigned to the Philadelphia regional office, which now carries twice its previous caseload.

Haimowitz said several programs in the middle of federally approved construction projects have nearly missed contractor payment deadlines because approvals that once flowed through the Boston office have stalled.

“Those bureaucratic slowdowns can seem really minor, but if you’re a contractor who’s been hired to build a Head Start program and your check hasn’t been clearing 鈥� that’s not minor,” she said.

The funding pressure came to a head last fall, when the federal government shutdown cut off grants to six Massachusetts programs with November award dates. operated by Self Help Inc. in Brockton and Norwood closed, leaving roughly 550 children without care and more than 150 staff furloughed.

McClean, who sits on ABCD’s policy council, has been tracking the funding uncertainty alongside other parents.

“Everybody’s on the edge, because we don’t know exactly the certainty of what can happen,” she said. A Haitian immigrant trying to carve out an education and a life for her family, McClean said the Head Start program is not 鈥渏ust like a place you drop your kids. It’s a family. It鈥檚 a community.鈥�

She said the program is not only crucial to her children鈥檚 development, but also makes it possible to work toward her goal of becoming a nurse. If her Head Start program is cut, McClean said, 鈥淚鈥檒l have to drop out of school.鈥�

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

]]> /zero2eight/assistant-teachers-key-to-early-education-yet-state-policies-dont-reflect-that/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:30:00 +0000 /?post_type=zero2eight&p=1031348 Early childhood classrooms are typically led by a pair of teachers. 

To a child in their care, their roles may be indistinguishable. Both teachers play with them, read to them, sing to them and guide them throughout the day. 

But each pair consists of a lead teacher 鈥� the senior professional in the classroom 鈥� and an assistant teacher, who may serve in more of a supporting role but, in many programs, acts as a co-teacher. 

Assistant teachers, despite their status as the junior educator, are 鈥渁n integral part of the teaching team,鈥� said GG Weisenfeld, associate director of technical assistance at the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). They are participating in children鈥檚 brain-building, actively contributing to their learning and development, she said. 

Yet in most early care and education settings, and in most states, the policies and pay for assistant teachers do not align with that reality. 

When it comes to teacher qualifications, NIEER recommends that, at minimum, assistant teachers hold a Child Development Association (CDA), a nationally recognized credential for entry-level early childhood educators, or have equivalent preparation from at least nine credits of coursework. This benchmark for teacher qualifications is accepted by other leading organizations in the field. 

Often the first credential in an early educator’s career, the CDA introduces teachers to foundational child development concepts, the conditions of a safe learning environment, how to establish healthy relationships with families and more. 

鈥淗aving that basis,鈥� Weisenfeld said, 鈥渁llows that person some comfort and knowledge to be able to鈥� serve confidently in an early learning setting.

But only one-third of state-funded preschool programs have policies in place that require these minimum qualifications for assistant teachers, NIEER found in a . 

Weisenfeld, who authored the report on assistant teachers, said the findings were 鈥渢roubling,鈥� noting that having low or no qualifications can justify low wages and trap teachers in a cycle where they can鈥檛 afford the education needed to advance in their careers. 

It鈥檚 critical to have skilled teachers working with young children, Weisenfeld added. 鈥淚f we want the child outcomes 鈥� they need to be qualified and then they need to be supported once in the classroom.鈥�

The report also found that only 30% of state-funded preschool programs met NIEER鈥檚 minimum standard for professional development of at least 15 hours of in-service training for assistant teachers. 

In a field where low wages and scant benefits affect early childhood educators in every role, assistant teachers fare worst of all, earning an average of $11.88 per hour as of 2022, according to . 

That financial reality makes it difficult for states to set higher standards for assistant teachers. Instead, it鈥檚 becoming increasingly common, Weisenfeld noted, for states to see that they aren鈥檛 filling open positions for early childhood educators and to respond by 鈥� allowing teenagers to fill teaching positions, instituting higher adult-to-child ratios and loosening training and licensing requirements.

鈥淐utting qualifications so you can justify inadequate salaries is not a good thing,鈥� Weisenfeld said. 

She added: 鈥淭o me, the strategy should be to help people raise their qualifications, help support people getting the qualifications, and ensure they are adequately compensated for their work.鈥�

It鈥檚 not the norm, but a few states are pursuing that strategy. New Mexico is one of them. 

Assistant teachers in New Mexico鈥檚 state-funded pre-K classrooms are required to have an associate degree in early childhood education (or be actively enrolled in a program to earn one). If they have an associate degree in another field, they must earn 12 college credits in early childhood education, said Elizabeth Groginsky, the secretary of New Mexico鈥檚 Early Childhood Care and Education Department. 

To work in one of the state-funded pre-K classrooms, assistant teachers must also complete 44 hours of mandatory foundational training and an additional 24 hours of training annually. 

Lead teachers in these classrooms, in contrast, must hold a bachelor鈥檚 degree in early childhood education and complete additional hours of professional development. They also earn more money, as is typical for more seniority across professions. 

鈥淭he important thing,鈥� Groginsky said, 鈥渋s they are both considered teachers and are both bringing a full set of knowledge and skills to advance the education of young children.鈥�

Across early care and education settings in New Mexico, assistant teachers must earn a minimum wage of $18 an hour (about $37,000 per year for a full-time teacher), the secretary shared. Assistant teachers in state-funded, community-based pre-K classrooms are also eligible for the , which ensures that teachers with an associate degree and up to three years of experience earn $45,000 and teachers with an associate degree and more than three years of experience earn $50,000.

鈥淭he idea is we鈥檙e moving up the compensation to reflect the level of education and the skills that both the lead teacher and the assistant teacher bring to the classroom,鈥� Groginsky said. 

Alabama is another state that meets NIEER鈥檚 benchmarks for assistant teacher qualifications and professional development and that Weisenfeld praised for its 鈥渂rilliant鈥� approach to building a pipeline of assistant teachers in high school.

Assistant teachers in Alabama鈥檚 First Class Pre-K Program are required to have a CDA credential or equivalent coursework in child development, and complete at least 20 hours of professional development each year. 

A number of K-12 schools in Alabama offer a pathway for high school students to pursue and complete their CDA, qualifying them for assistant teaching positions in the state鈥檚 preschool program upon graduation, said Milanda Dean, director of workforce development at the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education. From there, teachers can participate in Alabama鈥檚 to earn their associate degree and even bachelor鈥檚 degree.

鈥淲e鈥檙e helping them earn their credentials,鈥� Dean said, 鈥渁nd growing our workforce.鈥�

Although the exact roles and responsibilities of assistant teachers do vary from program to program, it is important that these educators are recognized for the strengths and skills they bring to the classroom, said Ami Brooks, secretary of the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education. Assistant teachers are not there just to wipe the tables, walk kids to the bathroom or put the cots out for naptime, she said. 

鈥淲e want to honor the early childhood development knowledge he or she is coming in with,鈥� said Brooks, 鈥渁nd use that to partner with the lead teacher so they can work together to help the children develop.鈥�

]]> /zero2eight/north-carolina-home-based-head-start-program-supports-kings-mountain-child-care/ Sat, 18 Apr 2026 16:30:00 +0000 /?post_type=zero2eight&p=1031285 This article was originally published in

In 2024, Mama Freda鈥檚 Tiny Tots Child Care opened as first in-home child care program in North Carolina.

The licensed family child care home (FCCH) in Kings Mountain is one of four of its kind across three states that the nonprofit, formerly known as East Coast Migrant Head Start Project, has opened in recent years to serve agricultural workers and their families.

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The organization started launching home-based child care programs two years ago because of their convenience for families, their intimate environment for children and parents, and their fit for rural communities, Grow Early Learning staff told EdNC on a recent visit to Mama Freda鈥檚.

鈥淲e鈥檙e able to serve closer to where families actually live, and 鈥� it鈥檚 more affordable,鈥� said Andrea Martinez Langlois, Grow Early Learning鈥檚 family child care home manager. 鈥淲e can provide all the services that (we can at) the center level, just more intimate. And I like that we can bring people like Arikco in who has built such trust with families.鈥�

Support from Grow Early Learning has guided Arikco Watkins, owner of Mama Freda鈥檚, from opening the program in 2024 to creating a place of learning and consistency for families during an uncertain period.

Grow Early Learning, a grantee of the federal early childhood program Head Start, operates and one family child care home in North Carolina that together serve 24 of the state鈥檚 counties.

As Watkins opened Mama Freda鈥檚 with new support, federal policy change and government shutdowns have threatened Head Start programming across the country.

Last fall, the federal government shutdown 鈥� the in U.S. history 鈥� across 10 states. Ten of those centers were in North Carolina. At the time, Grow Early Leaning CEO Javier Gonz谩lez said the shutdown disrupted care for 250 children across the state.

When the federal government reopened on Nov. 13, however, challenges remained.

For many years, federal policy limited immigration enforcement officials from entering places of worship, hospitals, and schools 鈥� including 鈥� based on their status as 鈥�,鈥� or locations where people access activities essential to their well-being.

In January 2025, an executive order and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed these locations鈥� protected status, allowing immigration enforcement to occur in locations central to communities鈥� well-being. Across the country, Head Start providers witnessed the negative consequences of this federal action, from decreased attendance rates to detainment and family separation.

In response, 12 Head Start associations addressed a letter to Congress in March 2026 demanding changes to these policies. As lawmakers look to end a driven by disagreement over DHS funding in light of immigration enforcement tactics, the asks lawmakers to place restrictions on DHS to 鈥渆nsure that ICE and CBP agents no longer conduct enforcement actions at Head Start, child care, or other early learning programs with young children.鈥�

鈥淚t is essential to protect the children served by these programs nationwide so that parents can feel secure knowing their children are safe while they work, attend school, and support their families and the economy,鈥� reads the letter.

Last fall, some of the parents whose children attend Mama Freda鈥檚 caught word that immigration agents were nearby.

Watkins had already discussed a plan with Grow Early Learning staff. She was able to communicate with parents and assure them that agents were not allowed in the home without a judicial warrant. Parents picked up their children, some telling Watkins their preferences in case they were separated from their children. Watkins sent them home with extra food and told everyone to text her when they made it home. Everyone was safe.

But it鈥檚 not just during emergencies that Grow Early Learning鈥檚 support has made a difference for Watkins and her program, she said.

鈥淪ometimes I sit and I cry because 鈥斅營鈥檓 serious 鈥斅營鈥檝e never had this opportunity, or even had this support,鈥� she said.

The difference made by funding and coaching

Grow Early Learning鈥檚 funding, technical assistance and coaching, and emotional support has changed the experience of owning and operating a family child care home, Watkins said. She knows what it鈥檚 like to do it all on her own.

After getting married and having kids in her early 20s, Watkins said she struggled to find child care for her own children and wanted a job with more flexibility. She drew inspiration from her mother, Freda, who took care of the neighborhood鈥檚 children when Watkins was a child. She decided to open her first family child care home, which offered 24/7 care, and ran it for seven years on her own.

鈥淲e wear many hats,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e are the cooks, we are the teachers, we are the disciplinarian. We are the secretary. We have to do it all.鈥�

The wide range of demands, along with the isolation that comes with limited adult interaction, are common reasons for burnout in the field.

In North Carolina, the number of family child care homes has decreased by 17% since 2018, according to the state鈥檚 .

Watkins鈥� winding journey, including running a child care center for a brief time before considering leaving the field altogether, brought her back to in-home care. When she left a job as a teacher at a local child care center to pursue opening a new program of her own, she did not know how she would find the funding or the children.

鈥淪omething was like 鈥� you need to do it, you need to do it,鈥� she said. Watkins moved forward with getting a new license and named the program in memory of her late mother.

The same day Watkins left her job, she got a call from Destiny Simmons, a family child care home specialist at Grow Early Learning. Simmons had been searching for new licensed programs to partner with the organization.

Simmons not only helped Watkins find children and open her program, but she also visits every two weeks to coach Watkins and meet with families. As part of the Head Start model, Simmons provides case management services to families. She connects them with resources from health to education and helps them set and meet goals.

Four children in Watkins鈥� program are funded through Grow Early Learning, but the coaching and high-quality curriculum provided by Grow Early Learning improves the experience for all children in the program, Watkins said.

And the consistent funding has allowed Watkins to hire other staff, including one full-time and two part-time employees. Watkins said having a team of adults on site makes the job less stressful and isolating 鈥� and improves the care and education they are able to provide to children.

鈥淲hen you think of a family child care home, it鈥檚 just you,鈥� Watkins said. 鈥淏ut then when you鈥檝e got a team that comes in, and not just a team, but (it) becomes family.鈥�

Supporting 鈥榟ow we get food on our table鈥�

For 50 years, Grow Early Learning has served agricultural workers鈥� child care needs across the country, including an estimated workers residing with their families in North Carolina.

The federal 2024 Appropriations Act , allowing migrant and seasonal Head Start programs to serve any child who has one family member whose income comes primarily from agricultural employment and removing prior restrictions based on federal poverty guidelines.

Grow Early Learning鈥檚 explains that these new eligibility requirements have created more opportunities for families to enroll children at one of Grow Early Learnings鈥� campuses 鈥� including four children enrolled at Mama Freda鈥檚.

鈥淭his is how we get food on our table,鈥� said Martinez Langlois of the agricultural families Grow Early Learning serves. 鈥淭his is a population that is important and a daily part of everyone鈥檚 lives. So the idea that us together can support that is beautiful.鈥�

New ways to reach families

In recent years, Simmons and Martinez Langlois have built Grow Early Learning鈥檚 first family child care programs from the ground up.

鈥淲e started from ground zero,鈥� Simmons said.

They knew that small, in-home programs would help them better serve rural places with small pockets of children, where larger centers do not make sense. And they knew many families prefer the family-like environment, especially for their youngest children. Nationally, infants and toddlers are more likely to be served through in-home programs than centers, .

The Grow Early Learning team had to find families that needed care and providers who were willing to partner with them and locate physically close enough to the families. They had to address a host of logistical challenges home-based programs face, like navigating zoning and homeowners association rules. They also walk new providers through the licensing process, which can be confusing and overwhelming.

鈥淲e have connections where we can bring you from zero to licensed,鈥� Martinez Langlois said. 鈥淲e make it happen.鈥�

They have learned a lot, and they know there is a need for more facilities.

鈥淲e suffer through the same struggle that most people in rural areas suffer with, which is there is more children who need care than there is (individuals) available to provide it,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o we are constantly looking at: we know there鈥檚 a population here, there are no providers right now, but there may be soon, and contacting either licensing specialists or regional specialists.鈥�

Growing Early Learning has partnered with the Southwestern Child Development Commission鈥檚 , one of several efforts in North Carolina to reverse the trend of home-based program closures.

Finding the right people and building relationships takes time, Martinez Langlois said.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 make providers pop out of thin air,鈥� she said.

Creating community, giving back

Building relationships with parents, too, takes time. But Watkins鈥� care for her parents, in addition to support from the Grow Early Learning team, has built a community at Mama Freda鈥檚 that protects its members鈥� well-being.

When Watkins encountered a language barrier with some of her parents who primarily speak Spanish, for example, she prioritized finding a solution in a translating device to make sure she could communicate with them, and she is in the process of hiring a staff member bilingual in English and Spanish. More recently, outside of the family care home facility鈥檚 operating hours, she hosted a Halloween party and planned an Easter egg hunt for the spring 鈥� both events that she plans with parents鈥� schedules in mind to make sure as many of her families as possible can attend and be in community with one another.

鈥淚 center it around them,鈥� said Watkins of her approach to engaging with students鈥� parents, adding that the care she provides is reciprocated by parents in both words and actions.

鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing just how supportive they are and how they appreciate. It shows me that they appreciate what I do for their babies,鈥� she said.

Simmons added that relationships between parents have also helped parents navigate the state鈥檚 early childhood health and education system and its requirements, like registering children in kindergarten or signing up for Medicaid.

鈥淚 feel like they advocate for each other because it鈥檚 so intimate,鈥� she said.

Supporting each other extends to times of uncertainty at the federal level. When navigating the moment of potential of immigration enforcement last fall, Martinez Langlois said Grow Early Learning provided specific mental health support to families, like a therapist coming to the family child care home after the incident.

Watkins also said she checked in with parents on how they were feeling and what she or Grow Early Learning could do to support them.

鈥淚 love my job so much because I can help,鈥� Watkins said, 鈥淲hen you take the time out, and you give back to others, it鈥檒l come back to you. It always does.鈥�

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

]]> /zero2eight/pay-equity-fund-for-d-c-s-early-educators-faces-possible-elimination/ Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:30:00 +0000 /?post_type=zero2eight&p=1031251 鈥淚 love my job,鈥� is one of the first things Ashley Ross says, as she sits down to talk about a looming pay cut that she might be facing. She鈥檚 worked at Gan HaYeled, an early childhood program in Northwest D.C., for almost 20 years, and was recently promoted to split her time between two roles: a pre-K classroom teacher and a teacher resource coordinator, who works with other educators to solve problems that arise in the classroom or at home.聽

Throughout her career, Ross said she has seen a number of incremental pay bumps, including an increase after she earned an associate degree in 2021. That year, her salary was about $47,000. But the most significant change in her income came in 2022, she said, when Washington began implementing the D.C. Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund in an effort to boost wages in the child care sector. The initiative provided funds to make early educators鈥� salaries equivalent to K-12 public school educators.聽

Ross received an additional $14,000 that year and her pay has continued to increase. Today, she makes around $67,000. The additional income has allowed her to buy a home and enroll her children in after school activities like boxing and gymnastics.聽

The Pay Equity Fund 鈥� the first program of its kind in the United States 鈥� has been as a model for improving early educator retention, creating stability for a workforce largely made up of women, , in an industry with one of the in the country.聽

But despite its popularity with educators and advocates, the fund has faced instability over the years and now it鈥檚 on the chopping block. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Friday, April 10 that included a to the Pay Equity Fund, which would eliminate the wage supplements that provided the city鈥檚 early childhood teachers with higher salaries. 

Bowser that what she hears most from families is that they want more opportunities for child care and they want it to be less expensive. But the Pay Equity Fund is 鈥渘ot a child care affordability fund, it’s more of an income support fund for child care workers,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t does not respond to what people are saying.鈥�

Ross is one of more than in D.C., who would be drastically impacted by this change. Without the extra dollars she receives through the program, her salary would drop precariously, to the point that making the commute to work in D.C. wouldn’t make much economic or logistical sense. She lives over an hour away by car, and with her experience, education and credentials, she could likely find a job in the public school system where she lives in neighboring Prince George鈥檚 County, Maryland. A job like that would bring benefits and a stable salary, she said. 

鈥淵es, everyone loves the Gan,鈥� she said, referring to the early childhood center where she works. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a special place. But everyone has to live in the real world. They have to pick between the love for their job or their income. Without pay equity, it doesn鈥檛 make any sense,鈥� Ross said. Her partner has encouraged her to think about the long term, but she said she鈥檚 having a hard time asking herself,鈥淚f they cut the money for me, what is the plan?鈥�

The Struggle for Consistent Funding

Created through the District鈥檚 budget and administered by the , the Pay Equity Fund initially delivered direct payments to eligible educators. During its first year, early childhood teachers received a one-time payment of , depending on their role and employment status. In 2023, the fund offered teachers up to four quarterly payments of up to $3,500 each. Then , the model shifted: instead of educators applying individually and receiving direct payments, licensed child care programs that met the requirements could opt in and receive funding through a payroll formula. 

The voluntary program was designed to help providers recruit and retain staff by offering more competitive wages, and its reach has been substantial. was distributed to over 4,000 home- and center-based child care providers during the initiative鈥檚 first two years, and went to 365 child care facilities in 2024.

This isn鈥檛 the first time the program has faced instability. In April 2024, Bowser suggested fter a , the D.C. Council , but advocates warned that with the increase in participation, more money was needed. That same year, to make budget recommendations for the program, which led to the Early Childhood Educator Pay Scales Amendment Act of 2025, a measure that for early educators. 

Some centers in the city, including the Gan, absorbed the cuts so that the teachers’ paychecks would be unchanged, said Noah Hichenberg, director of Gan HaYeled. 

To be fully funded in fiscal year 2027, the Pay Equity Fund , said Anne Gunderson, a senior policy analyst at D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. The program has grown more expensive because of its success, she noted. While the program had lower participation in its first few years, it has since grown in popularity. from Mathematica shows that after the first two years of implementation, there was an in D.C., about 7% higher than the estimated levels in the absence of the program. 

Gunderson said more teachers have enrolled in the program, stayed in their positions and gone back to school to pursue an associate or bachelor degree, with the goal of being able to earn a higher income upon graduation. 

鈥淭he fact that we鈥檙e able to increase utilization is a good thing,鈥� said Gunderson. 鈥淣ormally this would be something that would be celebrated.鈥� Instead, it has resulted in a more expensive program, limiting the number of educators who are able to take part. 

LaVonda Butler-Means, an assistant teacher at Gan YaHeled, is one of the teachers who was motivated to pursue a higher level of education. The first year of Pay Equity her salary jumped from $43,000 to over $50,000. Encouraged, she enrolled in an accelerated program to get an associate degree, for which she estimated cost her around $26,000 out of pocket. Her goal was to become a lead teacher at the Gan after graduating in May, a move that would bring her a $10,000 raise. If the fund is eliminated and the increase doesn鈥檛 come through, she said she will have to look for another job.

鈥淭here is no way I can go back to make what I was making and sustain life,鈥� Butler-Means said.  

One of the challenges of building a sustainable funding pathway for the Pay Equity Fund, explained Jamal Berry, president of Educare DC, an early learning program, is that it takes time to see the impact. that access to high-quality child care is a worthwhile investment, but the success of programs are often realized across a child鈥檚 education, which do not always translate into an immediate win. 

But leaders at programs participating in the Pay Equity Fund do report benefits, including lower staff turnover. 

Hichenberg credits the Pay Equity Fund with elevating the quality of care and stabilizing the workforce at his program. Of the 27 educators who work at the Gan, 23 have been there for more than three years since the Pay Equity Fund began. He anticipates it will be much harder to hire people at a lower salary level if the program gets cut. 鈥淚ts鈥� not just a burden or headache, it’s a more volatile experience for our youngest learners,鈥� he said.  

Staff turnover at Educare DC has also fallen since the Pay Equity Fund was implemented, and more staff are receiving additional education credentials, said Ronnell Nathaniel, the program鈥檚 vice president. Like at the Gan, her staff has benefited from the pay increase. Some teachers have shared that they鈥檙e purchasing their first home, she said, though the fact that the funding is in jeopardy has worked to undercut the staff鈥檚 sense of security and stability. 鈥淭he inconsistency is every year,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou have to be concerned about that.鈥�

Gunderson anticipates that the impact of gutting the Pay Equity Fund would be felt most keenly in programs serving infants and toddlers, which are the most expensive to maintain because of high staffing ratios. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e the first to go,鈥� she said. Without a dedicated funding stream for the Pay Equity Fund, each budget cycle poses tough choices about which programs to fund and which to cut.  

鈥淲e鈥檝e scored a touchdown and now we鈥檙e fumbling the ball,鈥� said Berry. 鈥淪tates like New Mexico and New York are moving in this direction,鈥� he gestured forward with his hands, 鈥渁nd we are moving backwards.鈥�

Advocates Prepare to Push Back

Advocates are gearing up for a fight to save the program. Ahead of the budget release, educators and supporters turned out in protest at the John A. Wilson building in downtown D.C., where the local government is headquartered, as part of a . The national is slated for May 11, and advocates are encouraging child care providers to close or operate on a reduced schedule to show the impact of their services. 

But as compared to 2024, when the program first came under fire, it鈥檚 been harder to galvanize support for saving the program. LaDon Love works at Spaces in Action, a grassroots advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. that played a significant role in the 2024 effort to save the Pay Equity Fund and is involved again this year. Love said that when she goes and speaks to early childhood educators, they think the major fight is behind them. 鈥淲e won, right?鈥� she said. Many do not realize their salaries are on the line again.  

When asked if the parents feel some outrage at the cuts and how it could impact the teachers who look after their children, Butler-Means shrugs. 鈥淪ome take it really seriously,鈥� she said. 鈥淥thers it doesn’t matter to them as long as their kids have somewhere to go.鈥� 

There are a few options that advocates and policymakers are exploring to keep the fund intact. One route involves creating a dedicated funding stream for it, similar to what has done in shoring up their own early childhood infrastructure. Another solution is to develop a new for Washington, D.C., which would increase revenue by adding a broad-based value-added tax to businesses. Experts believe this tax could raise as much as $500 million, and could be routed to social services programs that are on the chopping block, like the Pay Equity Fund. But, a tax like this would likely require a phase-in or implementation lag of a year, meaning that programs that could be funded by it would face a shortfall in the interim. An indefinite pay cut may loom too large for Ross and Butler-Means, pushing them out of their current roles, even with the possibility of a more stable funding source in the future. 

But there is something positive to have come from all of this, said Hichenberg, the Gan鈥檚 director. 鈥淭he Pay Equity Fund has given all of us a gift of what is possible when pay is raised, and that has been beautiful to see,鈥� he said. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 a stabilized workforce, more content teachers, more robust work-life balance and vacations,鈥� he added. 鈥淚t has allowed our core group of educators to stay stable for a number of years and allowed us to move forward as a school, improving quality in the classroom and smoother transitions for the parents. These have always been our goals. But the Pay Equity Fund has been the element of stability that has allowed for it.鈥�

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