News

WCAX 3 Vermont
By Melissa Cooney
August 31, 2023
BURLINGTON, VT – Vermont’s groundbreaking Childcare and Early Childhood Education law, or Act 76, is now in place for Vermont families and providers, doubling the amount of financial assistance for families. The act makes a major investment in child care with the goal of increasing access, quality, and financial stability for child care programs and families. DCF Deputy Commissioner Janet McLaughlin says imminent changes will impact child care programs directly and parents indirectly. In July, most programs...

Cision PR Newswire
Provided by the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative
August 22, 2023
The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education today launched the Zaentz Navigator, an innovative, user-friendly, and interactive digital tool to help policymakers and leaders learn how cities and states across the country are working to structure, finance, expand, and advance early education and care. The Navigator is appearing at a time when it is needed most. Record spending on early education as part of...

Axios Indianapolis
By Arika Herron
August 16, 2023
Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch is all in on universal pre-K. Driving the news: Crouch told Axios on Tuesday that if she is elected governor next year she would push lawmakers to move Indiana's state-funded pre-K program, On My Way Pre-K, toward universal access more quickly. "We can't get there overnight because, quite honestly, we don't have the infrastructure or the people to be able to do that," she said. "But I think, because of the importance of...

Center on Child and Family Policy
Early Matters Podcast
With Katharine B. Stevens, James Heckman and Jorge Garcia
August 11, 2023
In this inaugural episode of the Center on Child and Family Policy's new podcast, Katharine Stevens interviews renowned economists James Heckman and Jorge Luis Garcia about their collaborative research on the transformational power of early childhood interventions to build human capital, and their new paper, "Parenting Promotes Social Mobility Within and Across Generations." They discuss what's essential to conducting rigorous research in social science;...

The Wall Street Journal
By Dana Suskind
August 11, 2023
Imagine being the parent of an infant or toddler a decade from now. Most aspects of child rearing won’t have changed, but others may well be transformed by the use of artificial intelligence. AI devices are likely to become electronic babysitters, just as previous generations of parents adopted television and video games as tools for lightening their caregiving duties....

The Boston Globe
By Samantha J. Gross
July 31, 2023
Less than 24 hours after negotiators inked a compromise on a $56.2 billion annual spending plan, House and Senate lawmakers, with little debate, voted Monday to send the fiscal year 2024 package to Governor Maura Healey. The chambers’ action on the budget legislation, representing a record level of spending, came nearly a month after the July 1 deadline for the start of the new fiscal year. The budget is now in Healey’s hands for the...

CPR News
By Jennifer Brundin
July 29, 2023
With the new school year just a couple of weeks away – and thousands of 4-year-olds taking part in universal preschool – there are still frayed nerves among some school districts and private child care providers. While thousands of families are happy to receive 15 hours a week of free education for their young child, behind the scenes a provider described it as a “debacle.” “There's just a big hesitancy to trust right now because...

Fox 13 Tampa Bay
By Allie Corie
July 27, 2023
When the bell rings on a new school year in just a few weeks, half the kindergartners in our area won't be ready. That's according to a recent study by United Way Suncoast, which covers Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. Families not having access to early childhood education has become a childcare crisis. The first few years of a child’s life are crucial to their development. "Ninety percent of the brain...

HR Brew
By Courtney Vinopal
July 26, 2023
Chobani is the latest company to add childcare to its suite of benefits to better support working parents. The yogurt maker, which has manufacturing facilities in South Edmeston, New York, and Twin Falls, Idaho, announced on June 21 it will partner with WeeCare, a childcare network focused on affordable options. Full-time, regular employees will be eligible to receive up to 10 days of prepaid childcare within the WeeCare network, as well as an annual stipend of...

The Colorado Sun
By Erica Breunlin
July 26, 2023
A preschool in Greeley that has shepherded countless kids through the first years of their education over the past 21 years may welcome its last class of 4-year-olds next month, eyeing an uncertain future as it dives into the state’s newly expanded preschool program. Nearby, a different preschool that caters to mostly children of low-income families has only been able to fill a quarter of its classrooms for the start of the school year and...

CBS Colorado
By Tori Mason
July 26, 2023
Preschool providers around the state are learning they won't get as much funding as they planned. The Department of Early Childhood is changing how they'll fund Universal Preschool. Previously, the state planned to fund preschools based on their capacity. Now, the department will fund preschools based on the number of students enrolled. Restoration Christian Academy in Aurora has space for 24 children, but currently, only 11 are enrolled. Director Shirley Harris has been hard at...

Center on Child and Family Policy
By Katharine B. Stevens
July 24, 2023
Key Points
While proponents widely characterized BBB’s early care and education legislation as building on the core strengths of the existing federal childcare program — the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) — BBB actually mapped out a striking departure from it.
BBB would have greatly increased government regulation of early care and education, substantially reduced state flexibility and parental choice, institutionalized a federally defined concept of quality that has no...

Detroit Free Press
By Clara Hendrickson
July 20, 2023
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an education budget Thursday that increases per-pupil spending, provides free school meals and enables more families to enroll in Michigan's state-funded preschool program. Whitmer celebrated the education budget saying it will ensure educational equity for children in Michigan. "We know that potential is universal, but opportunity is not. And when we make investments in the education of our kids, we're creating opportunity for all," Whitmer said at a bill signing ceremony in...

Huffpost
By Jonathan Cohn
July 8, 2023
Sixteen 4-year-olds are standing side by side inside a brightly decorated classroom, grinning and giggling and fidgeting only a little bit as they prepare to sing about the sun. They are rehearsing a performance for their upcoming “graduation” from their year in one of Boston’s free pre-kindergarten programs. When the song starts, they move nearly in sync: rocking from one side to the other, putting their hands in the air to wave and then picking up...

EdSurge
By Emily Tate Sullivan
June 27, 2023
In late April, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis sat down at his desk to make some phone calls. The governor, on this day, was calling to deliver good news. He wanted to personally congratulate some of the 22,087 families who had matched with their first-choice provider for Colorado’s free, universal preschool program, which launches this fall. A parent named Katie, in Summit County, was among those who received a call from the governor. “Oh, thank you so much....

CBS Bay Area
By Kenny Choi
June 23, 2023
SAN FRANCISCO – There's a tug of war in San Francisco between Mayor London Breed's office and early education advocates over a voter-approved business tax and proposed budget cuts. For more than 30 years Andy Reed has been guiding children to see the world from different perspectives, make good decisions, and lay a solid foundation for their education. "It's always fresh. It's always a new discovery no matter how many years we've done it," said...

CBS Colorado
June 21, 2023
More than 2,700 families have accepted matches in the first two rounds of Colorado's Universal Preschool program. That's according to the Department of Early Childhood. Ninety percent of children were matched to their chosen providers. Children who are a year out from kindergarten are eligible for free preschool for up to 15 hours a week or about five half days. Families can go online, enter their information, and find providers either home-based, center-based, or school-based, and pick...

The New York Times
By Claire Cain Miller, Alicia Parlapiano and Madeleine Ngo
June 21, 2023
For two years, the United States has been effectively running an experiment in federally funding child care providers. The $24 billion disbursed in pandemic relief has been the largest investment in child care in U.S. history. Child care providers have used the money to raise teachers’ pay, buy supplies and pay mortgages. In September, those funds expire, one of the last of the pandemic-era safety net benefits to...

Boulder Daily Camera
By Amy Bounds
June 20, 2023
The Boulder County Commissioners on Tuesday voted 2-1 not to approve a proposal to create a special taxing district to fund early childhood education. The proposed special district would have encompassed the Boulder and Weld county areas of the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts. Weld County approved the proposal on Monday. If both counties had approved the proposal, organizers would have needed to collect signatures to get the measure included on the November...