Revisiting the Promise of the Early Care and Education Workforce

Ten years after the National Academies’ Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation report, many in the field are still grappling with the same core question: what will it take to support an equitable, sustainable, and adequately compensated early care and education (ECE) workforce?

As attention to the importance of early care and education grows, educators continue to face workplace challenges, barriers to higher education pathways, and ongoing financial uncertainty.

Philanthropy has helped move the ECE workforce forward through investments in workforce infrastructure, higher education system alignment, centering family child care, and other strategies. This moment offers an opportunity for funders to reflect together on what progress has been made and where systemic action is still needed.

ECFC, the Early Educator Investment Collaborative, and the W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation hosted this interactive virtual conversation exploring current progress and persistent challenges across the field, including a guided discussion on what we are seeing in the places we fund.

ECFC members attending the Spring 2026 Member Meeting in Alexandria, Virginia will also have the opportunity to continue the conversation during an in-person luncheon on Wednesday, April 29, as we consider how philanthropy can help move workforce efforts from incremental change toward lasting systems impact.

SPEAKERS [Bios]

• Ola Friday, Executive Director, Early Educator Investment Collaborative
• Sara Slaughter, Executive Director, W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation
• Sherri Killins Stewart, President/CEO of Leaders Making it Possible, Inc.

EVENT & SPEAKER RESOURCES:

• Recording
• Speaker Bios
• Leaders Making It Possible, Inc. | Case Study: Building a Teacher Through a Comprehensive Workforce System 
• Early Educator Investment Collaborative
  • 2025 Progress Report 
  • Transforming Early Educator Lead Teacher Preparation Programs Through Multi-Partner Innovation, Grant report 2024
  • 2021 – 2024 Fund Cycle Report, Making the Case for a Focus on the Workforce
  • Compensation Capacity-Building Grants

Related reading and models shared in chat:

• Early Educator Compensation Works: Evidence on Impacts, Funding Models, and Policy Lessons | Center for the Study of Child Care Employment
• EDvance College: An affordable, inclusive, and dynamic remote BA degree program to accelerate degree attainment for ECE educators working full-time.
• YMCA of the East Bay | Head Start Apprenticeship Program
• TEACH Early Childhood Program