High-quality early care and education (ECE) for children is critical to positive child development and has the potential to benefit not only children and families but society at large. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated longstanding challenges in the early care and education sector, affecting centers and providers, families, children, employers, and the economy. Measures to manage the pandemic led many providers to close while those still operating faced increased operating costs alongside enrollment limitations. This further constrained access to quality and affordable care, disrupted the continuity of early learning for children, and affected workforce participation for parents.

As federal and other sources of recovery funds are reaching towns, cities, states, and tribes, there are opportunities to ensure affordable, high-quality options in the immediate term and lay the groundwork for longer term sustainable improvements.

This webinar will help inform decisions at this opportune time, drawing on the principles provided in the reports, Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education and Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8. After a brief overview of the effects of the pandemic on early care and education, the webinar will focus on a discussion of investment strategies and policy implications for a pandemic recovery that can contribute to developing the kind of early care and education that is needed.

This event is part of the 2021 Fall Webinar Series of the Hauser Policy Impact Fund. It will also inform a rapid expert consultation from the National Academies’ Societal Experts Action Network. This publication will assist decision-makers seeking to mitigate the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic while laying the groundwork to build a high-quality early care and education system for the longer term.

Moderator:

Jacqueline Jones, Foundation for Child Development

Advisory Committee Member, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

Panelists:

Elizabeth U. Cascio, Dartmouth College

Erdal Tekin, American University

Miriam Calderon, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Policy and Early Learning, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

Elizabeth Groginsky, New Mexico Secretary for Early Childhood Education

Gwendena Lee-Gatewood, Chairwoman, White Mountain Apache Tribe

Teresa Mosqueda, Seattle City Councilmember