NAEYC announced today a three-year grant from the Gates Foundation to expand access to high-quality early childhood curriculum and strengthen NAEYC’s presence in the growing landscape of publicly-funded pre-kindergarten.
Early childhood educators do some of the most important work in our communities. Yet despite the skill and expertise the work requires, early childhood educators remain among the most underpaid professionals in the country.
On May 12, 2026, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announced changes to the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF).
Early childhood education programs play an important role in teacher preparation, “serving as field sites where emerging professionals can develop their knowledge, skills, and dispositions under the mentorship of experienced early childhood educators."
Carlyn Rahynes, founding principal of Learning Through Play Pre-K Center, reflects on lessons learned and the significance of NAEYC's 100th anniversary.
NAEYC promotes high-quality early learning for all children, birth through age 8, by connecting practice, policy, and research. We advance a diverse early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children.
This is an excerpt from the upcoming NAEYC book No Single Story: Amplifying the Voices of Asian American and Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Early Educators, Native Hawaiian by educator Nicol Russell.
There is a moment every early childhood educator knows. A child is deep in play, completely absorbed, doing something that looks, to an untrained eye, like nothing in particular.
NAEYC promotes high-quality early learning for all children, birth through age 8, by connecting practice, policy, and research. We advance a diverse early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children.
NAEYC promotes high-quality early learning for all children, birth through age 8, by connecting practice, policy, and research. We advance a diverse early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children.
Incredible learning unfolds in infant and toddler settings. The period from birth to age 3 represents a time of vast and exciting change as children move from early milestones to more advanced physical achievements.
Mayor Bowser’s proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget eliminates the salary component of the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund, a $60 million cut that would directly affect more than 4,000 educators.
In April 2026, the White House released its fiscal year 2027 budget request, providing insight into the President’s priorities for the year ahead, including federal early education programs like the Head Start and CCDBG.
Families are eligible for child care subsidies only if their assets do not exceed $1 million, as self-certified by the applicant. However, federal statute or regulations do not further specify which assets should be included or excluded.
The Spring 2026 issue of Educating Young Children is focused entirely on the preschool-to-kindergarten transition and reading it this week hit me differently than it might have at any other time.
The survey results and accompanying testimonies demonstrate a clear crisis of affordability for the early childhood education field and the children and families they serve.
