Keep up to date with early childhood policymaking in Massachusetts

Now that summer is over, public policymakers are busy, making this the best time to keep up with everything that’s going on. Here are two ways to keep up with how early childhood policy is evolving.

Governor Healey is celebrating

Last week, Governor Maura Healey celebrated Massachusetts’ national leadership in making child care more affordable and accessible at an event at Community Teamwork in Lowell, Mass., where the governor was joined by state and city officials. You can watch the event in this video:

In a statement, the governor adds:

“Our nation-leading efforts have added thousands of new child care slots across the state, and we’re continuing to partner with the Legislature to make child care more affordable and support our hardworking providers.”

Key steps that Massachusetts has taken include continuing to support C3 stabilization grants that were originally funded by Covid relief funds. Massachusetts is the only state to continue funding these grants at same level that the federal government did.

As Amy O’Leary, executive director of Strategies for Children, explains, “C3 Operational funding was unimaginable in my days as an early educator. To think that there would be support that was not connected to a rate or attached to a child, support to help cover costs where there often are no other sources of money, would have been considered a dream.

“We proved that all wrong over the last few years, not only with the creation of the C3 funds, but spending every federal dollar, and then our state stepping in when that support from the federal government ended. We are a model for the country and will continue to be as we consider incredible opportunities to continue to deliver on the promise of supporting a high-quality system in Massachusetts.”

In addition to the C3 funding, Massachusetts has also budgeted $872 million for child care financial assistance to support low- and moderate-income families, and the state has allocated “$22.5 million for the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI) to maintain FY24 expanded universal access to high-quality preschool, with a focus on gateway cities and rural communities.”

Tune in and watch the meetings of The Department of Early Education and Care

Given the exciting early childhood investments that the FY’25 state budget has made, the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) will be very busy. To keep up, be sure to watch EEC’s September Board meeting which will be tomorrow at 1 p.m. The meeting agenda and the YouTube link are both posted here. The full fiscal year ’25 schedule of meetings is posted here.

Watching the Board meetings is a great way to stay on top of how new policies are being implemented. You can also track EEC’s focus from month to month and hear Board members’ discussions. To learn more about the Board members, be sure to read their bios.

Members of the public can attend Board meetings in person and can also sign up to share testimony at the start of the meetings. For more information or for testimony support, reach out to our director of policy Marisa Fear at mfear@strategiesforchildren.org.

State policymakers have made exciting progress. Join us in watching to see what they do next, and help us spread the policy news by sharing it in your early childhood community!