Start with Equity Arizona: Expanding Access, Improving Quality, Advancing Equity
November 2023
Authors: Dr. Shantel Meek, Dr. Brittany Alexander, Dr. Eric Bucher, Dr. Xigrid Soto-Boykin, Dr. Evandra Catherine, Dr. Cinthia Palomino and Dr. Afua Ameley-Quaye
Arizona's young children deserve access to fair, high-quality early learning experiences in the years before kindergarten. A well established research base has shown that high quality early care and learning opportunities are associated with an array of short and long-term outcomes across education, health, earnings, and employment. Unfortunately, the early care and education landscape in Arizona has lacked sustained investment over the past two decades, at a time when other states have increased investments in young children. In addition to a lack of sustained funding, subpar policies have impacted both access to and quality of care for Arizona's youngest. The impacts of these systemic shortfalls impact children from historically marginalized communities most, including Latino/a children, Black children, Indigenous children, children in rural communities, children in low-income households, and immigrant children, among others.
In its new report, Start with Equity – Arizona (SWE-AZ), the CEP deeply examines Arizona’s early learning systems, with an emphasis on how those systems have attended to— or failed to attend to—the needs of Arizona’s children, particularly those from historically and contemporarily marginalized communities. We review the data, research, and policy landscapes in the state across 10 domains, and provide a set of actionable recommendations across state government that have the potential to transform the early learning landscape, bridge opportunity gaps, and positively impact the lives of Arizona's children and families for years to come.
This report builds from the 2020 report published by the Children’s Equity Project in partnership with the Bipartisan Policy Center, Start with Equity: From the Early Years to the Early Grades, which takes a national look at the scope of inequities in the early care and learning system.
Suggested citation:
Meek, S.E., Alexander, B.L., Bucher, E., Soto-Boykin, X., Catherine, E., Palomino, C., Ameley-Quaye, A. (November, 2023). Start with Equity Arizona: Increasing Access, Improving Quality, and Advancing Equity in Arizona’s Early Care and Learning Systems. The Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University. Retrieved from: https://cep.asu.edu/resources/Start-with-Equity-Arizona
About Start with Equity Arizona
Start with Equity Arizona: Increasing Access, Improving Quality, and Advancing Equity in Arizona’s Early Care and Learning Systems provides an in-depth examination of early care and education across Arizona.
Developed by the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University, the report reviews Arizona’s early childhood landscape through data, research, and policy analysis. It examines how children and families access early learning opportunities, the quality of those opportunities, and how different parts of the state’s early childhood system serve children from diverse communities.
The report places particular attention on children and families who have historically encountered barriers to opportunity, while examining how policies, funding, program standards, workforce conditions, and access to services shape children’s early learning experiences.
Understanding Arizona’s Early Care and Education System
Early care and education in Arizona includes a range of programs and services rather than a single statewide system. Families may interact with child care centers, family child care, public pre-kindergarten, Head Start and Early Head Start, early intervention and special education services, Tribal early childhood programs, and other state and local initiatives.
Start with Equity Arizona examines how these different parts of the system fit together and where differences in access, funding, quality standards, eligibility, and services can affect children and families.
The report begins by looking at Arizona’s birth-to-five population and the structure of the state’s early care and education system before examining individual policy areas in greater depth.
Early Childhood Education Quality in Arizona
What constitutes high-quality early care and education is a central focus of the report.
Start with Equity Arizona examines research on early childhood program quality and child outcomes along with Arizona’s systems for defining, measuring, and supporting quality. Topics include:
- Arizona’s early childhood quality framework
- Child-to-adult ratios and group sizes
- Quality Rating and Improvement Systems
- The cost of providing higher-quality child care
- State investments intended to improve early learning quality
The report considers not only whether children can access early care and education, but also the conditions children experience once they are enrolled.
Child Care Access and Affordability in Arizona
Child care is one of the largest components of Arizona’s early childhood system.
The report examines child care subsidies, provider reimbursement rates, licensing requirements, funding, and access to care. It also looks at the relationship between public investment and the ability of families to find early care and education that meets their needs.
These issues are closely connected. Provider reimbursement, operating costs, workforce compensation, licensing requirements, and public funding can all influence the availability and quality of child care options for Arizona families.
Public Pre-K and Head Start in Arizona
The report separately examines public pre-kindergarten and Head Start, two important components of Arizona’s early learning landscape.
Its Head Start analysis considers the program’s role in Arizona, existing research on Head Start, and state and local approaches related to expanding early learning opportunities. Public pre-K is also examined as part of the broader question of how Arizona provides early education before kindergarten.
Looking at child care, pre-K, and Head Start together provides a broader picture of the different early learning systems Arizona families may encounter before their children enter elementary school.
Arizona’s Early Childhood Workforce
High-quality early learning depends heavily on the educators and caregivers who work directly with young children.
Start with Equity Arizona examines several issues affecting the Arizona early childhood workforce, including:
- Early childhood educator compensation
- Mental health and well-being
- Education and professional development
- Workforce supports
- State and local approaches to strengthening the early childhood workforce
The report treats workforce conditions as an important component of program quality because early educators are responsible for creating the relationships and learning environments that children experience each day.
Inclusion of Children With Disabilities
Children with disabilities and developmental delays are another major focus of the report.
The analysis reviews Arizona’s early intervention and early childhood special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and examines opportunities for children with disabilities to participate in inclusive early care and education settings alongside their peers.
Dual Language Learners in Arizona
Arizona is home to children and families who speak a wide variety of languages. The report notes that, using the data available at the time of publication, approximately 42% of Arizona children under age five were dual language learners.
Start with Equity Arizona examines policies and practices affecting dual language learners in early childhood education, including access to learning environments that support children’s language development.
The report also considers the availability and quality of demographic and language data, which can affect how effectively policymakers and early childhood systems understand and respond to the needs of multilingual children and families.
Exclusionary Discipline and Early Childhood Mental Health
The report examines discipline practices in early childhood settings, including policies related to exclusion from early learning environments.
It also discusses infant and early childhood mental health consultation, an approach designed to support educators, programs, children, and families in addressing social-emotional and behavioral needs.
Together, these topics help illustrate how early childhood systems can address children's behavioral and mental health needs and how policy choices can affect children's continued access to learning environments.
Tribal Early Care and Education in Arizona
Arizona’s early childhood landscape cannot be fully understood without considering Tribal communities and Tribal sovereignty.
Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized Tribal nations, and the report dedicates a section to Tribal early care and education. It discusses Tribal early care and learning, Tribal Child Care and Development Fund programs, and Tribal Regional Partnership Councils.
The report emphasizes the importance of the distinct role Tribal nations play in Arizona’s early childhood landscape and the importance of state-Tribal relationships when considering early childhood systems and policies.
Supporting Children’s Holistic Development
Early learning is only one part of healthy child development.
Start with Equity Arizona also examines children’s holistic development and family well-being, recognizing that early childhood outcomes are influenced by interconnected factors across children’s homes, communities, health, education, and economic environments.
This broader perspective allows the report to consider early care and education within the larger set of systems that shape children's experiences during the first years of life.
An Arizona Early Care and Education Policy Agenda
In addition to documenting Arizona’s early childhood landscape, Start with Equity Arizona presents an Early Care and Education Policy Agenda beginning in the latter portion of the report.
The agenda draws on the report’s review of research, data, and existing state policies and identifies proposed actions across the areas examined in the report.
For policymakers, early childhood leaders, educators, researchers, advocates, and community organizations, the report can therefore serve both as a detailed overview of Arizona’s early childhood system at the time of publication and as a resource for understanding policy proposals developed by the Children’s Equity Project.
Who Is Start with Equity Arizona For?
The report is designed to be useful to a wide range of people working with or studying Arizona’s young children and families, including:
- State and local policymakers
- Early childhood educators and program leaders
- Child care providers
- Head Start and Early Head Start leaders
- Researchers
- Early intervention and special education professionals
- Tribal early childhood leaders
- Family and child advocates
- Community organizations
- Students studying early childhood education or public policy
Readers can use the report to better understand the structure of early childhood education in Arizona, explore individual policy areas, review available research and data, and examine the Children’s Equity Project’s recommendations.
Start with Equity Arizona Launch Event
Frequently Asked Questions
Start with Equity Arizona is a Children’s Equity Project report examining access, quality, and equity across Arizona’s early care and education systems. It combines research, data, policy analysis, and an early care and education policy agenda focused on Arizona’s young children and families.
The report covers child care, public pre-kindergarten, Head Start, early childhood program quality, the early childhood workforce, children with disabilities, dual language learners, exclusionary discipline, infant and early childhood mental health consultation, Tribal early care and education, and children’s holistic development.
The report primarily focuses on Arizona’s early childhood and early learning systems, including the state’s population of children from birth through age five.
Yes. The report examines Arizona child care access and quality, child care subsidies, provider reimbursement rates, licensing, funding, and other factors that influence Arizona’s child care system.
Yes. The report includes a dedicated section on Head Start in Arizona, Head Start research, state investment, and examples of state and local approaches related to the program.
Yes. The report examines Arizona’s IDEA early intervention and special education services as well as inclusion of children with disabilities in early care and education settings.
Yes. A dedicated section examines Arizona’s dual language learner population and policies and practices related to supporting multilingual children in early care and education.
Yes. The report includes an Early Care and Education Policy Agenda based on its review of Arizona data, research, programs, and policies. These recommendations represent the Children’s Equity Project’s proposed approaches for addressing the issues discussed in the report.