FPWA believes that access to early care and education programs is an essential support for low-income families. Children need high-quality early care experiences that foster positive personal development and prepare them for future academic success. Parents need reliable, nurturing early care programs where their children are kept safe while they are at work. FPWA urges all levels of government to make a commitment to working families and their children by investing in policies that provide child care assistance for all families in need, eliminate barriers to access such as high co-payments, create high-quality educational programs for children, and promote the early care field and workforce. FPWA advocates for policies that increase access to subsidized care for low-income working parents and promote higher-quality learning for children in care, including policies that will:

• Increase the availability of and access to subsidized child care services for low-income working families in need.
  
• Ensure that all children participating in early care and education programs receive high-quality, developmentally appropriate care.
  
• Provide child care providers and their workforce with the support they need to create and sustain quality programming, including compensation levels and career development opportunities that reflect their important contributions to early education.

Examples of key priorities in Early Childhood Education include:

State

• Eliminate the child support requirement for families seeking subsidized child care
  
• Address county-by-county disparities in New York State’s child care co-payment system

• Ensure that community-based child care programs are funded at levels that allow them to sustain high-quality early care and education programs
  
• Address barriers to enrollment at publicly-funded child care centers

For more information contact Vani Sankarapandian, JD Senior Policy Analyst.