Massachusetts

Established in 2005, Boston's Universal Pre-K (UPK) program, administered by the Boston Public Schools (BPS), offers free preschool for the city’s 3- and 4-year-olds in both public school buildings and community-based childcare organizations. Within a few years, it became apparent that the original funding level of $11,000 per child was inadequate and unsustainable for community-based child care organizations. BPS then partnered with the Children's Funding Project to create a cost model that disaggregated program costs to expose differences based on program length and per-child and per-classroom costs. As a result, in school year 2022–23 BPS implemented a hybrid funding model for UPK classrooms in community-based programs. This new approach provides a base funding level per classroom that covers staff salaries and benefits and an additional funding allocation per UPK-eligible child enrolled in the program.

In 2022, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu signed an Executive Order on Inclusion of Daycare Facilities (IDF), which helps expand access to high-quality child care options throughout the city. For the previous 30 years, the IDF zoning regulations had required certain large developments to build child care programs on-site or contribute to the creation of off-site child care programs by contributing to a fund that supports and enhances child care across the city. The amount of each child care contribution had been subject to negotiation, resulting in inconsistencies in enforcement.

The 2022 executive order instead establishes a transparent formula for developers to adhere to, based on a Boston Planning and Development Agency assessment. In turn, their contributions are directed to a child care fund (instead of creating child care programs), providing a stable funding source for the City’s Office of Early Childhood to expand high-quality child care programs. As of May 2023, about 3 million square feet of development was under review, which is expected to generate an estimated $3.5 million in contributions to the child care fund. The Office of Early Childhood will use this money to expand high-quality child care programs and services in high-need areas of Boston by issuing grants to providers and providing training and technical assistance opportunities.

Source: City of Boston. (2022). Executive order issued to strengthen child care zoning regulations.

In 2022, Mayor Michelle Wu announced the creation of the City of Boston Office of Early Childhood (OEC) to further the City’s commitment to universal, affordable, high-quality early education and care for all children under five, making OEC a key partner to the state Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) and the Boston Universal Pre-K (UPK) program. The OEC aims to expand access to early education and child care programs, invest in Boston’s early education and care workforce, and serve as a central point of entry for residents looking for information on early education and child care programming and wraparound services for young children and their families.

With the support of the OEC, Boston's UPK program plans to integrate family child care programs as approved providers during the 2023–24 school year. This expansion means Boston UPK’s mixed-delivery system will include three types of settings: Boston Public Schools (BPS) classrooms, community-based organizations, and family child care. BPS and OEC will partner with 20 family child care providers, members of the UPK Advisory Board, and other experts to design the new family child care UPK program.

Source: City of Boston (2022). Office of Early Childhood Created to Prioritize Wellbeing of Young Children and Families.

The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) started the StrongStart initiative in phases, beginning in Summer 2019. The five StrongStart Professional Development Centers (PDCs) are administered by the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation. PDCs provide the state’s early education and out-of-school time workforce with training and technical assistance services. Professional development offerings include professional learning communities (PLC) and one-on-one coaching. PLCs consist of a facilitated group of educators and administrators who meet regularly to exchange expertise. One-on-one coaching is offered to family child care (FCC) owners, out-of-school time administrators, and center directors to work on all aspects of managing an early education program including curriculum development, quality improvement, and other strategies for meeting the needs of staff, families, and children. Coaches meet with participants for up to 20 hours over eight weeks, and coaching is offered in Cantonese, English, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish. StrongStart also offers a web-based tool that provides professionals with a credentialing system, a professional registry, and a Learning Management System where educators can take courses on a computer or mobile device.

Sources:

Massachusetts StrongStart. (n.d.). What We Do.

Massachusetts StrongStart. (n.d.). Free coaching for programs.

Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care. (n.d.). StrongStart Professional Development Centers.

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.

In 2005, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to createa 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).

Sources:
Bipartisan Policy Center (2023). Integrated Efficient Early Care and Education Systems
Strategies for Children (2008). A case study for the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care
Kagan, L. and Gomez, R. (Eds.). (2015) Early Childhood Governance: Choices and Consequences. Teachers College Press.

Since 2005, Boston’s mixed-delivery Universal Pre-K (UPK)  system has been offered to families with 4-year-olds for 6.5 hours per day, 180 days per year. Universal Pre-K programs in Boston are housed in Boston Public Schools, community-based providers, and family child care providers. Additionally, the city opened applications in March 2023 to include family child care providers in the cohort of programs eligible to offer UPK seats.

Sources:
Boston Public Schools. (n.d.). About Boston Universal Pre-K.
Boston Public Schools. (2022). Boston Universal Pre-K Program 2021-2022 Year in Review.
City of Boston. (2023). Steps Taken to Increase Availability, Variety of Preschool Seats for Boston Families.