National Early Care and Education Workforce Center

The National Early Care and Education Workforce Center, an Administration for Children and Families (ACF) investment, supports research and technical assistance for states, territories, tribal nations, and local communities to improve the recruitment and retention of a diverse and qualified workforce across early care and education programs. The Workforce Center’s research and technical assistance activities will work together to:

• Build a career pipeline for the early care and education (ECE) workforce, including support for pursuing credentials and degrees while maintaining the strong diversity of the early childhood sector; and
• Identify and implement equitable approaches to increase compensation and benefits for early educators.

The National Early Care and Education Workforce Center work focuses on five key policy areas:

1.Qualifications and Educational Support: Policies and pathways that provide consistent standards for educators to achieve higher education.

2.Work Environment Standards: Standards for providing safe and supportive work environments for early educators.

3.Compensation and Financial Relief Strategies: Initiatives and investments to ensure compensation equal to the value of early educators' work.

4. Workforce Data: State-level collection of important data on the size, characteristics, and working conditions of the ECE workforce.

5. Financial Resources: Public investment in the ECE workforce and broader ECE system.
 

Upon the launch of the Workforce Center, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra said, “The new National Early Care and Education Workforce Center will help improve early care and education workforce recruitment and retention with a focus on career growth and better compensation for teachers, aides, and other caregivers."

The National Early Care and Education Workforce Center is led by Child Trends, BUILD Initiative, ZERO TO THREE, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood at University of Delaware, and the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at University of Massachusetts Boston.

The ACF Federal Project Officers are Amy Madigan and Kimberly Burgess Simms, Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD), and Nina Philipsen, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation.