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.

In 2016, Kelly M. Schulz, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, announced a $2 million award from the United States Department of Labor’s ApprenticeshipUSA Expansion Grant to invest in the state’s registered apprenticeship programming, which includes a Child Care Development Specialist apprenticeship. At the end of 2020, Governor Larry Hogan announced that the Maryland Department of Labor had received a $6,012,924 award from the U.S. Department of Labor for a State Apprenticeship Expansion Grant. These funds increased the scope of services offered to Registered Apprenticeship sponsors, employers, and apprentices. In 2021, the program received $3 million in funding for Maryland’s registered and youth apprenticeship programs. Registered apprenticeships allow employees to have a full-time job, learn through a combination of on-the-job training and classroom instruction, and earn a salary. The state’s youth apprenticeship program, Apprenticeship Maryland, is offered in 15 county school systems and 151 employers; it accepts high school juniors and seniors, providing them with a head start on their future career. While enrolled in this program, apprentices work a minimum of 450 hours with a certified employer while receiving high school credit. Learn More: Maryland Department of Labor Sources: Maryland Department of Labor. (2016). Maryland Awarded $2 Million for Apprenticeship Program. Maryland Department of Labor. (2020). Governor’s Budget Provides $7.5 Million for EARN Maryland and a Record $3 Million for the State’s Apprenticeship Program. Maryland Department of Labor (2020). Governor Hogan Announces Maryland Awarded Over $6 Million for Apprenticeship Program.

In 2023, Maryland launched an expansion of its Prekindergarten Program under the Blueprint for Maryland's Future (HB-1300), with the goal of providing free, full-day Pre-K to all three- and four-year-olds from families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level (FPL), with subsidized options on a sliding scale for families earning up to 600% FPL. Overseen by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), the program relies on a mixed-delivery model in which public schools and private providers share responsibility for Pre-K slots, with a goal of filling half of all slots through private providers by the 2026-27 school year. A 2024 survey found that only 13% of private child care providers planned to participate, while nearly 40% said they would not. Providers cited staffing shortages, new teacher qualification requirements, concerns about increased state oversight, and in some cases, a simple lack of awareness of the program. In 2023-2024, Maryland served 38% of four-year-olds and 7% of three-year-olds. Learn More: Blueprint for Maryland's Future Sources: Maryland State Department of Education. (n.d.). Blueprint Pillar 1: Early Childhood Education. Maryland State Department of Education. (n.d.). Prekindergarten Expansion and Improvements. National Institute for Early Education Research. (2025). Maryland Increases Pre-K Investments as States Hit New National Records for Preschool Enrollment. Keefe, A., & Beinart, M. (2024, July 31). Maryland's pre-K expansion plan proves to be unpopular with child care providers. Maryland Matters.

In 2022, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) partnered with the Center for Early Learning Funding Equity (CELFE) at Northern Illinois University to develop a cost estimation model that accurately reflected the true cost of care for providers across the state. CELFE found that the cost of providing high-quality care in Massachusetts far outpaced subsidy reimbursement rates, and that geographic disparities in reimbursement rates existed across regions of the state.  Using data from the CELFE study, EEC proposed and implemented reforms to the rate structure for FY 2024, supported by $65 million for rate increases in the Healey Administration’s FY 2024 budget. EEC’s rate reform proposal, implemented on February 1, 2024 and made retroactive to July 1, 2023, gave Massachusetts child care providers a 5.5 percent increase to their daily per-child reimbursement rates. The reform also consolidated six reimbursement regions into three to reduce regional inequities in rate amounts and increased the consolidated rates for center-based care to 81 percent of the highest cost of care in the group of center-based providers.  In February 2026, the Board of Early Education and Care voted to approve the Healey Administration’s proposed increases to reimbursement rates for FY 2026, authorizing a $20 million investment to support child care providers whose reimbursement rates lag significantly behind median private tuition costs.  learn more: massachusetts cost estimation model Sources: Hawley, T., Portillo, M., & Nyman, S. (2023). Cost Estimation Study Final Report. Center for Early Learning Funding Equity. Danks, A. (n.d.). Massachusetts Early Education and Care Cost Model. American Institutes for Research. Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. (2024). Building Blocks: Status of Child Care Reform in Massachusetts and What Comes Next. Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care. (2026, February 11). Healey-Driscoll Administration Announces Higher Reimbursement Rates for Child Care Providers.

Since 2010, the Massachusetts' Department of Early Education and Care (DEEC), Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), and Department of Higher Education have hosted the Education-to-Career (E2C) Research and Data Hub, the state’s P-20 longitudinal data system. It includes data on licensed and funded childcare programs (early care and education and after school/out-of-school time programs), public and charter prekindergarten, and early educators. The system functions as a data warehouse and links data through data sharing agreements across multiple agencies including the Executive Office of Education, Children’s Trust, DEEC, and DESE. The warehouse and system provides information at the program and demographic level for public use and private individualized information for agencies or approved data requests. The system was expanded in 2015 and 2019 with support from the federal Statewide Longitudinal Data System grants. Learn More: About the Education to Career Research and Data Hub

In 2023, New York City established the Mayor's Office for Child Care and Early Childhood Education, which aims to provide equitable, high-quality, and affordable early education and care for the city’s families. The office is expected to coordinate strategy and planning across city agencies, encourage innovation through partnerships with various stakeholders, and focus on effective communication, policy advocacy, and public engagement, as part of the city’s Blueprint for Child Care and Early Childhood Education, a plan from 2022 that outlines ways to improve the accessibility, equitability, and quality of care in New York City’s early childhood system. Learn more: Mayor’s Office for Child Care and Early Childhood Education Sources: Amin, R. (2023, February 10). Adams creates new City Hall office for child care, early childhood education. Chalkbeat New York. Office of the Mayor, New York City. (2023, February 10). Mayor Adams Announces Creation of First-ever Mayor's Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education [Press release].