In 2007, Iowa launched a Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program (SWVPP) that offers universal access to at least 10 hours of care per week for all 4-year-olds. The funding comes from the K-12 state funding formula, which stipulates that programs serving 4-year-olds receive 50% of the K-12 state aid amounts. SWVPP serves children in a combination of public and private schools and community-based child care settings. It is offered in collaboration with a targeted program called Shared Visions, which provides quality care for children experiencing various risk factors. In November, 2022, the state learned it would lose out on $30 million in federal Preschool Development Grant funding, which may have an impact on future expansion efforts. learn more: Iowa Voluntary Preschool Program for Four-Year-Old Children Sources:Iowa Department of Education. (2020). Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for Four-Year-Old Children.National Institute for Early Education Research. (2022). Iowa.Iowa Capital Dispatch. (2022). Iowa will not receive $30 million in federal aid for child care.

In 1999, Kansas established the Children's Initiatives Fund (CIF) to promote the well-being of Kansas children. CIF is sustained through Kansas’s portion of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which generated $52 million for the CIF in FY 2021. Most CIF funding is allocated to the Early Childhood Block Grant, which supports pre-K as well as care and education for children ages 0-3. Learn More: Kansas Children's Cabinet Annual Report

Formed in 2021, Kansas Children’s Cabinet’s Kansas Early Childhood Data Trust is an early childhood integrated data system. The system supports sharing of demographic, program, individual, and family data for early childhood programs and children receiving services from birth through age 5. The private data is shared between the Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund, Kansas Department for Children and Families, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Kansas State Department of Education, and Kansas Department of Corrections for specific projects through data-sharing agreements. The goal of the Trust is to improve the quality of data, maximize use of existing data, and identify needs and gaps in service delivery. The Data Trust was enacted under an agreement between the 5 state agencies in the Kansas Children’s Cabinet. The Children's Cabinet and this project receive Preschool Development Grant Renewal Funds. Learn More: Kansas Early Childhood Data Trust Other Sources:Kansas Office of the Governor. (2019). PDG Renewal Grant Proposal

SB 234, known as the Keeping Kids Close to Home Act, is a California law passed in 2019 that prohibits localities from requiring family child care (FCC) providers to obtain a zoning permit or business license to operate a child care program in their home. The law also states that landlords cannot evict FCC providers or refuse to rent to them because they plan to operate a child care business out of their home. This applies to small FCC providers, who care for up to eight children, and large FCC providers, who care for up to 14 children.  The Keeping Kids Close to Home Act also specifies that home-based child care programs can operate in many types of residences, including single-family homes, condominiums, apartments, townhomes, duplexes, and all other multi-family buildings. It went into effect on January 1, 2020.  LEARN MORE: KEEPING KIDS CLOSE TO HOME ACT Sources: Child Care Law Center. (n.d.). Know the Law: The Keeping Kids Close to Home Act. Sullivan, E. T. (2023). New State Laws Will Ease Housing Burdens on Home-Based Child Care Providers. EdSurge.

Created in 2012, the Kentucky Center for Statistics (KYSTATS) maintains the Kentucky Longitudinal Data System (KLDS), a statewide longitudinal data system that includes data on kindergarten readiness, birth statistics, and early learning programs’ enrollments/ratings. The KLDS functions as a data warehouse for data from multiple agencies, including Kentucky Department of Education and Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. The warehouse links and merges demographic, program, and individual level-data from early learning services through workforce for evaluation, research, monitoring, and public information purposes. The individual data is deidentified with a unique identifier. Data is accessible via request with a data-sharing agreement required for all deidentified individual level data. KYSTATS, which builds upon the work of the state’s P-20 Data Collaborative, was given authority to maintain the KLDS through KRS151B.132. KYSTATS is funded through state appropriations, federal Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grants, other grants, and user fees. Learn More: Kentucky Center for Statistics (KYSTATS) History

Since 1998, Kentucky has allocated 25% of funds from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement to early childhood care and education programs. In 2021, the annual revenue directed towards the state early childhood office was $7.4 million. Learn More: An unexpected windfall for early childhood education

In 1990, voters in Aspen approved a referendum to increase the city’s sales tax by 0.45 percent to provide “affordable housing and day care,” both in the city and in the surrounding Pitkin County community. The tax was extended by voters in 1999 and in 2008 by 66% and 67% of the vote, respectively, and will remain in effect through 2038. The annual revenue generated by the tax has hovered between $1 million and $1.6 million over the years.  The revenue is used for a wide range of purposes related to early childhood education, including child care subsidies for families. Just over half of the revenue is allocated to Kids First, an Aspen government program that assists families and child care providers throughout Pitkin County. For child care subsidies, Kids First assists families whose income is up to 500 percent of the federal poverty level. The program also offers grants to child care providers for quality improvements, professional development, and infant and toddler operational support, as well as bus passes for employees, training and technical assistance, substitute staff, quality improvement coaches, and grant writing and resource development assistance.  learn more: kids first Source: North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. (n.d.). City of Aspen.

In 2022, the Louisiana Department of Education partnered with Ochsner Health to launch a virtual therapy program for educators. This program was designed to respond to ongoing mental health challenges faced by educators during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. It covers four virtual therapy visits for Louisiana public school teachers and support staff at all K-12 school systems and early childhood centers serving children from birth to age four. Additional visits are available for $37.50 (30-minute visits) and $75 (60-minute visits). Appointments are available during daytime and evening hours Monday through Friday and on Saturdays. Funding for this three-year initiative is provided through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund. Learn More: Louisiana Department of Education Virtual Therapy Sources: Louisiana Department of Education. (n.d.). Virtual Therapy through Ochsner Anywhere Care. Louisiana Department of Education. (n.d.). Virtual Therapy through Ochsner Anywhere Care: Frequently Asked Questions.

Established in 2016, Lume’s Early Childhood Apprenticeship allows participants to receive certification as a Child Development Associate after two years of training. The Lume Institute at University City Children’s Center, in partnership with the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE), has developed the Early Childhood Education Apprenticeship program. SLATE provides financial support for apprenticeship training, and participants are trained by the Lume Institute. The apprenticeship begins with 135 hours (5 weeks) of early childhood teacher training with participants hired as an Early Childhood Worker at a rate of $9.50 per hour. This training is followed by 480 hours of on-the-job training, after which participants receive a Child Development Associate credential and can be promoted to an Assistant Teacher position earning at least $10.50 per hour. After another 1.5 years of work/training experience, apprentices receive the Department of Labor certification as a Childhood Development Associate, resulting in wages of at least $13 per hour. Learn more: Lume Institute Sources: Lume Institute. (n.d.). Workforce Development. City of St. Louis, Missouri. (n.d.). LUME Early Childhood.

In 2005, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to create a cabinet-level department focused on early childhood learning and care—the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC). Massachusetts administers five programs serving children: the Child Care and Development Fund; Head Start Collaboration Office; Child and Adult Care Food Program; Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B, Section 619; and state pre-K. Grouping these interconnected programs under one agency can help states improve efficiency and allows for better alignment of eligibility, monitoring, and quality improvement requirements and activities (Kagan & Gomez, 2015). Learn more: Local Governance for Early Childhood: Lessons from Leading States Sources:Bipartisan Policy Center (2023). Integrated Efficient Early Care and Education SystemsStrategies for Children (2008). A case study for the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and CareKagan, L. and Gomez, R. (Eds.). (2015) Early Childhood Governance: Choices and Consequences. Teachers College Press.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Children and Families hosts three dashboards: the Early Childhood Education Dashboard; Child Welfare Dashboard; and Children's Behavioral Health Dashboard. These dashboards are data visualization tools that provide public-use demographic and program data on multiple services for young children, including high-quality care, QRS ratings, early childhood services, evidence-based services, foster care, and licensed early childhood providers. Learn more: Maine Child Welfare Data Dashboard

In July 2023, Maine lawmakers passed LD 1799, “An Act to Expand Maine’s High-quality Early Learning and Care for Children by Increasing Public Preschool Opportunities in Communities,” moving Maine toward a mixed-delivery universal prekindergarten (UPK) system accessible to all four-year-old children. UPK is funded by Maine’s school funding formula, with money distributed directly to school districts, who operate classrooms either as stand-alone public programs, in licensed community-based child care programs, or in Head Start programs.  The bill stipulates that Maine’s UPK program must be accessible to 60% of the state's four-year-olds by the 2024-25 school year, 80% by the 2025-26 school year, and 100% by the 2026-27 school year. UPK in Maine is funded by the state’s school funding formula, as well as an $8 million federal Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5) renewal and funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.  LD 1799 also created the Expansion of Public Preschool and Early Care and Education Commission, which was tasked with reporting to legislators on the Department of Education’s efforts to expand UPK across the state. The Commission recommended more funding for ongoing and start-up costs, more flexibility in credentialing early childhood educators, and more coordination to cultivate partnerships between school systems and community providers who provide public prekindergarten.  As of March 2024, only 43% of Maine public school districts offered UPK. Advocates assert that the biggest barrier to expansion is the state’s education funding formula, because it doesn’t provide enough money for programs to hire the additional staff necessary for early learning programs. Advocates also suggest that the formula incentivizes school districts to open partial-day programs, because they aren’t reimbursed more for full-day programs.  LEARN MORE: MAINE UNIVERSAL PRE-K Sources: Maine Senate Democrats. (2023). Senator Vitelli bill to expand access to child care and early education in Maine signed into law. Davidson, A., & Muhlendorf, A. (2024). Maine Leaders Have Choices to Make About How to Expand Preschool While Maintaining Quality Standards. National Institute for Early Education Research. Maine State Legislature. (2023). Expansion of Public Preschool and Early Care and Education Commission. Maine State Legislature. (2023). Summary of LD 1799. Bartow, A. (2023). Lawmakers work to make preschool available everywhere in Maine. WMTW News 8 Portland. Feinberg, R. (2024). Why Maine is lagging on its goal of universal pre-K. Maine Public Radio.