TOPIC

Access, quality & alignment in early childhood education

Early Childhood Eduction

More than 24 million children ages 5 and younger live in the United States, and about one in eight of them—a little over 3 million—lives in California. Given the rapid brain development during a child’s first five years of life, which lays the foundation for all future learning, California has a compelling interest and responsibility to ensure that programs for young children provide a safe, socially supportive, and effective educational environment.

Considerable research shows that children attending high-quality preschool programs receive significant benefits. California has many good providers; but for a state that once led the nation in early childhood education, early childhood education today is marked by diminished investments in quality, low wages, and highly fractured oversight and implementation.

PACE’s work related to early childhood education is designed to help policymakers understand the challenges in current state policies and develop paths forward toward a high-quality, aligned early childhood system that benefits all California children.

Recent Topic Publications
cover
Findings from the Child Care Providers Focus Groups
As part of the CDSS-PACE Child Care Planning Project, PACE set out to learn how California’s childcare subsidy system and the CalWORKs program affects licensed and license-exempt childcare providers. PACE also wanted to understand the day-to-day…
cover
Lessons from San Francisco and Alameda Counties
California’s public investment in early care and education programs has quadrupled since 1996, rising to almost $3.2 billion annually in the 2000 fiscal year. This sharp climb in political will to expand and improve the quality of childcare has…
New Lives for Poor Families? Mothers and Young Children Move through Welfare Reform
Mothers and Young Children Move Through Welfare Reform
Policy leaders in Washington and the states are engaging a new debate over an old question: How can society best aid jobless mothers and enrich their children’s lives? The dramatic reform of family welfare policies in 1996, aided by robust economic…
New Lives for Poor Families? Mothers and Young Children Move through Welfare Reform: Executive Summary
Mothers and Young Children Move Through Welfare Reform: Executive Summary
Policy leaders in Washington and the states are engaging a new debate over an old question: How can society best aid jobless mothers and enrich their children’s lives? The dramatic reform of family welfare policies in 1996, aided by robust economic…