Early care and education exists at the intersection of health, welfare, and education. Each of these fields is governed by its own set of values and political constraints, which can result in policy fragmentation and a lack of coherence. This fragmentation affects access to, and the quality of, the programs and services needed to support our youngest learners.
The Education program’s Enabling Conditions portfolio aims to positively influence the quality of early care and education programs and services for young children from birth through 3rd grade. This strategy focuses on creating the systemic conditions that enable equitable access to high-quality interactions between children and adults, and that foster positive learning environments, both nationally and in California.
Grants in this portfolio are organized under a series of major initiatives that focus on promoting the development of coherent early childhood education systems as a means of achieving equity, quality, and sustainability in early education programs.. This portfolio also includes support for policy advocacy, policy analysis, and applied policy and systems research.
This nationally-focused grantmaking initiative has a goal of ensuring that all professionals in the early childhood education workforce have the knowledge, skills, and institutional supports needed to effectively foster young children’s growth and development, including access to competency-based professional preparation and just compensation.
This initiative focuses on building the capacity of public agencies in California to use high-quality integrated data to inform policies and practices that will ultimately create an integrated, family-driven system of services for young children.
These initiatives support states in creating robust, functional early childhood education systems that have the capacity to provide universal access to high-quality and affordable programs for young children, from birth through third grade.
This initiative has a central focus on increasing the pay and improving the working conditions of early educators working in home, community, and school settings. It also seeks to promote authentic, unbiased, clear pathways for career advancement.