EXPLORE: Quick GuidesSmarter Balanced test scores for 2022
Early Learning
Topic

Child Care

Child care has emerged as a key issue in the national discourse. The essential sector has long been in crisis. Families often can’t find or afford the childcare they need, child care workers often face poverty wages and young children, at a formative stage in brain development, often lack the resources and support necessary to spark their intellectual growth.
Commentary
April 20, 2021

Recovering from the pandemic by investing in our earliest learners

Universal high-quality preschool for three- and four-year-olds is a proven way to reduce the opportunity gap, lift families out of poverty, and stimulate the local economy.

Kelly Gonez
Early Learning
April 2, 2021

Amid pandemic, infants especially need quality child care, reformers say

Child care is far more than just babysitting, advocates say, it’s building the architecture of the brain at a pivotal stage in construction. 

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
March 11, 2021

What the federal stimulus bill means to California's child care sector

California, with almost 3 million children under age 5, stands to receive about $3.8 billion in federal relief.

Karen D'Souza
Career Preparation
March 5, 2021

Why I must earn a college degree as a parent of a young child

Returning to community college was no easy feat as a single mother and first-generation, low-income college student.

Melanie Gerner
Early Learning
February 25, 2021

Most California parents worry about their young children’s education amid pandemic

More than a third of parents surveyed said they have skipped meals or had to cut back on food for the children as a result of the pandemic. 

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
February 24, 2021

California educators pay a wage penalty for working with younger children, report shows

Preschool teachers and child care workers earn 38% less than their colleagues in the K-8 system, the report says.

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
February 18, 2021

How will expanded transitional kindergarten roll out?

Early childhood advocates applaud any increase in access to early education, which many see as critical to closing achievement gaps.

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
February 5, 2021

How the Biden administration will impact California’s child care crisis

Among other measures, $25 billion is intended to stabilize the child care industry.

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
January 19, 2021

How one California preschool program is helping youngest learners with math

A state-funded program is designing strategies for families to keep kids learning at home even when in-person preschool is canceled.

Sydney Johnson
Early Learning
January 5, 2021

Why California needs to ban preschool suspensions and expulsions, experts say

Harsh discipline at such an early age can have lasting consequences.

Karen D'Souza
Commentary
December 17, 2020

It’s time we gave women and young children their due

California’s Master Plan for Early Learning and Care is a template for a better life, not only for our youngest children, but for women as well.

Liz Simons
Commentary
December 8, 2020

New Master Plan for Early Learning and Care points way to California for all

When children have access to quality care and learning, parents also have the ability to seek more education, participate in the workforce, earn more and invest more in their children.

Linda Darling-Hammond and Kim Johnson
English Learners
December 7, 2020

Preschoolers learning English need to be identified, supported, says California’s master plan

The plan for the first time calls for requiring preschool programs to identify and report the languages spoken by children enrolled.

Zaidee Stavely
Policy & Finance
December 1, 2020

Inside California’s new master plan to reshape early education and child care

Gov. Gavin Newsom made early childhood education a central focus of his administration.

Karen D'Souza
Federal Education Policy
November 7, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden’s expansive education agenda expected to draw greater scrutiny

With Senate likely to remain in GOP hands, it is not clear how much of his detailed pro-teacher agenda, with a heavy emphasis on community colleges and affordability, could be implemented.

Louis Freedberg