About
Our Vision
All Californians deserve the opportunity to live and raise a family in the place we love and call home. This starts with investing in quality child care so that families, providers, and communities can give the care that every infant and toddler needs.
When our youngest Californians are cared for, we create a California we can all stay and thrive in. Learn more about A Golden State For Kids
Why Now?
Every year:
Our country loses $122 billon due to lack of accessible child care
Families lose $78 billon in lost earnings and job search expenses
Employers lose $23 billon due to child care challenges
Communities lose $21 billon due due to lower tax revenue
The longer we wait to invest in child care, the more it costs Californians.
The time is now to prioritize child care and providers.
What is ECE?
Early care and education (ECE) provides young children with nurturing environments, responsive caregiving, and learning experiences that are essential to their growth and development. It promotes healthy brain development, social-emotional skills, and early learning foundations that are crucial for lifelong learning and well-being.
Whether you’ve heard it called child care, early childhood development, Head Start/Early Head Start, early intervention, daycare, early learning—all of these terms that describe services provided for children ages 0 to 3 fall under ECE.
In a state as big and diverse as California, child care can and should take many forms, from a professional provider showing a child how to play with others or a grandparent teaching their grandchild fine motor skills. If we want a golden future for all Californians, we can’t neglect the care and education a child needs in their first years.