EYE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD
April 2023

Fighting for Big Investment in Child Care and Early Education

2023 is off to an exciting start – we’ve welcomed a new Congress and seen the introduction of the President’s FY24 budget proposal. In addition, states are making significant progress on child care and early education and working diligently to implement the remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) resources to move forward meaningful policy improvements. Still, more challenges lie ahead. Our team is working this year to balance the realities of the current moment with the longer-term fight for a child care system that works for all.

We appreciate the president's commitment to supporting early education by proposing significant investments in the sector in his FY24 budget proposal. We’ll continue to advocate for a more robustly funded child care and early education system by making clear what is at stake.The ARPA relief resources that helped sustain the child care sector in the wake of COVID-19 are expiring soon. As Congress negotiates its FY24 budget, we’re working to mitigate potential harms to the sector as a result of the impending funding gap. We urge Congress to prioritize child care and other programs that impact families as they set funding for the upcoming year.

During the last quarter, our team's work was featured in multiple publications including: Next City, The Hechinger Report, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Below are some of our latest resources to help support your work. The CLASP child care and early education team looks forward to continuing this critical work alongside all of you in 2023.

New Funding Could Mean 300,000+ more Children Gain Access to Child Care

Stephanie Schmit and Alycia Hardy estimate how increasing annual CCDBG funding could help states expand access to care for children, reduce costs for families, and increase wages for providers.

READ THE FACT SHEET

What you need to know

Centering Black Families: Equitable Discipline through Improved Data Policies in Child Care

Tiffany Ferrette, Alycia Hardy, and Alyssa Fortner outline the history of inequitable disciplinary practices in child care and early education—and in the context of American society more generally—while outlining recommendations for improvements in policy and practice.

Unionizing Home-Based Providers to help Address the Child Care Crisis

Alejandra Londono Gomez and Christian Collins explain the history and current landscape of the child care workforce, outlining the ways that the unionization of home-based providers could benefit workers, families, and the economy.

Family-Friendly Applications are Key to Equitable Access in Child Care

Alejandra Londono Gomez and Shira Small review the Office of Child Care’s new child care assistance application guide in this blog, highlighting ways states can simplify their application process to help more eligible families access care.

Child Care Equity for Infants and Toddlers Requires More Money and Intention

Alyssa Fortner and Shira Small explore inequities in infant and toddler child care assistance and how more funding is necessary to support families with infants and toddlers.

CLASP Recommendations to the White House Task Force on New Americans

Alejandra Londono Gomez joins the CLASP immigration team in proposing policies that will help immigrant families access child care and education for the Biden Administration’s Task Force on New Americans.

CCDBG FY 2023 State-by-State Appropriations Distribution Estimates and Increases

Alycia Hardy outlines the FY2023 Omnibus bill’s state-by-state allocation of Child Care and Development Block Grants (CCDBG) resources and the various ways states will benefit from the renewed CCDBG dollars.

FY2023 Omnibus Spending Package Includes Important Investments for Child Care and Early Education

Alyssa Fortner reviews the FY2023 Omnibus spending package, where it meaningfully supports child care and early education, but also where it lacks investment in other programs that support families with low incomes.

Did you know?

President Biden signed an Executive Order on April 18th,

delivering historic calls to action for federal agencies to support care workers, children, and families. The Executive Order includes more than 50 directives to cabinet-level agencies to expand access to affordable, high-quality care, and provide support for care workers and family caregivers. This is particularly exciting as we continue to celebrate Care Workers Recognition month, as recently proclaimed by the White House.

Presentations/Events

Society for Research in Child Development

On March 15, Alycia Hardy participated in a panel about CLASP's role in bringing research to policymakers and administrators in early care and education. She discussed the biggest challenges in connecting evidence to policy design and implementation.

United Parent Leaders Action Network

On March 9, Alycia Hardy and Alejandra Londono Gomez presented to parent leaders about the federal budget in advance of the President’s FY24 budget release.

Children’s Equity Project

On February 21, Tiffany Ferrette presented to the Children’s Equity Project Equity Fellows during their speaker series on personal growth and experiences in the child care and early education field.