Advancing Equity in Early Care and Education Systems
June 2021
Authors: Dr. Shantel Meek, Dr. Iheoma U. Iruka, Dr. Evandra Catherine, Dawn Yazzia, Dr. Walter Gilliam, Dr. Kent McIntosh, Dr. Veronica Fernandez, Dr. Darielle Blevins, Dr. Oscar Jiménez-Castellanos and Dr. Eugene Garcia
In 2020, the Children’s Equity Project released two reports, Start with Equity: From the Early Years to the Early Grades, in partnership with the Bipartisan Policy Center and funded by the Heising Simons Foundation, and 14 Priorities to Dismantle Systemic Racism in Early Care and Education, in partnership with the Equity Research Action Coalition at UNC Frank Porter Graham, National Association for the Education of Young Children, National Head Start Association, Council for Professional Recognition, National Black Child Development Institute, National Indian Child Care Association, The Education Trust, and The BUILD Initiative.
Together, these reports present a wide ranging, actionable equity policy agenda, organized around 14 key priorities, for early care and education systems. This policy agenda attends to critical levers to ensure equitable access, positive experiences, and outcomes that are not associated with demographic characteristics in learning systems for our youngest children and their families.
The American Rescue Plan Act includes a number of targeted investments in children and families, including $39 billion to stabilize and support the nation’s struggling child care system, the largest infusion of resources to the child care system in history.
This unprecedented infusion of resources provides a unique opportunity to make tangible headway on building equitable learning systems.
Suggested citation:
Meek, S.E., Iruka, I.U., Catherine, E., Yazzie, D. A., Gilliam, W., McIntosh, K., Fernandez, V., Blevins, D., Jiminez, O., Garcia, E. (June, 2021). Advancing Equity in Early Care and Education Systems: with the American Rescue Plan Act. The Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University. Retrieved from: https://cep.asu.edu/resources/advancing-equity-through-american-rescue-plan-act
About Advancing Equity in Early Care and Education Systems with the American Rescue Plan Act
Published by the Children’s Equity Project in 2021 and updated in December 2021, Advancing Equity in Early Care and Education Systems with the American Rescue Plan Act examines how states and Tribal communities could use federal pandemic-relief investments to address longstanding challenges across early care and education systems.
The brief builds on CEP’s Start with Equity policy agenda and applies its 14 priorities to the funding opportunities created by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). It addresses areas including child care funding, the early childhood workforce, program quality, children with disabilities, dual language learners, family engagement, discipline, data systems, and family child care.
What Did the American Rescue Plan Act Provide for Early Childhood Programs?
Enacted in March 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Rescue Plan Act included major investments in child care and education. The law appropriated approximately $14.99 billion in supplemental Child Care and Development Block Grant funding and $23.975 billion for child care stabilization grants, totaling nearly $39 billion in child care funding. It also appropriated $1 billion for Head Start.
CEP’s brief examined how states and Tribal communities could connect those temporary federal investments with longer-term goals related to access, quality, workforce supports, inclusion, family engagement, and other components of early care and education systems.
A Framework Focused on Access, Experiences, and Outcomes
The report organizes early childhood equity around three interconnected areas: access, experiences, and outcomes.
Access considers whether children, families, and early childhood providers can equitably access resources, services, funding, and high-quality early learning opportunities.
Experiences considers what happens after children and families enter early childhood systems, including educator support, program quality, bilingual learning, family partnerships, culturally responsive practices, and inclusion.
Outcomes focuses on the use of disaggregated data, continuous quality improvement, monitoring, and accountability to identify and address disparities across demographic groups.
This framework allows the brief to consider not only how public resources are distributed, but also how those investments may affect children's everyday experiences within early learning systems.
Investing in Child Care and Early Learning Systems
A central focus of the brief is how public funding can support stronger child care and early childhood education systems.
Among its recommendations, the authors proposed prioritizing resources for programs serving historically underserved communities, increasing access to comprehensive services, strengthening early childhood mental health supports, improving facilities, and connecting child care with programs such as Head Start and Early Head Start.
The brief also emphasizes the role of data and outreach in helping policymakers understand which providers and communities receive resources and where gaps in access remain.
Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce
Several of the 14 priorities focus directly on the early childhood workforce.
The report discusses compensation, benefits, professional development, coaching, mental health supports, leadership opportunities, and access to higher education and credentials. It also recommends examining disparities in pay and job positions and improving access to professional opportunities for bilingual educators, Indigenous educators, and educators of color.
The workforce section connects educator working conditions with broader questions about program quality and children's learning experiences.
Equity in Early Childhood Program Quality
The brief also examines how quality in early childhood education is defined and measured.
CEP's authors recommend incorporating equity-related indicators into quality improvement, monitoring, and accountability systems. Examples discussed in the report include culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum, family engagement, inclusion, discipline practices, bilingual instruction, and disaggregated data collection.
The brief also discusses Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) and proposes reviewing whether providers serving historically underserved communities can equitably access quality-improvement resources and supports.
Exclusionary Discipline and Early Childhood Mental Health
One of the report's priorities addresses harsh and exclusionary discipline in early childhood, including suspension, expulsion, corporal punishment, seclusion, and inappropriate restraint.
The authors recommend pairing restrictions on these practices with investments in educator training, coaching, social-emotional supports, and infant and early childhood mental health consultation. The report also discusses collecting discipline data disaggregated by characteristics including race, ethnicity, language, gender, socioeconomic status, and disability.
Inclusion of Children With Disabilities
The brief dedicates a priority to protecting the rights of children with disabilities and expanding access to early intervention, preschool special education, and inclusive early learning environments.
Its recommendations address developmental and behavioral screening, evaluation, service access, physical accessibility, inclusive placement, educator preparation, data systems, and technical assistance for early childhood providers.
Family Engagement and Family Leadership
Families are another major part of the brief's early childhood systems framework.
The report recommends expanding opportunities for families to participate in decisions affecting early childhood programs and policy, including family committees, planning processes, compensated participation, translation services, and family-engagement staff. It also references the Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework as one potential model.
Family Child Care and Home-Based Providers
The brief gives specific attention to family child care and other home-based early care providers.
CEP's recommendations included increasing these providers' access to stabilization and other resources, supporting family child care networks and shared-services hubs, expanding access to training and coaching, and creating pathways to licensing for home-based providers who want to become licensed.
Supporting Dual Language Learners
The final priority focuses on dual language learners and bilingual early childhood education.
The brief recommends expanding dual language learning opportunities, investing in bilingual educators and learning materials, improving data collection on children's home languages, and supporting Native language preservation programs in Tribal communities.
The report also discusses curricula, books, assessments, professional preparation, and other resources available in children's home languages.
Tribal Communities and Early Childhood Investment
The brief specifically addresses states and Tribal communities and notes the federal government's government-to-government relationship with Tribal nations. The authors emphasize Tribal consultation and include Tribal-specific considerations throughout recommendations involving funding, workforce development, language preservation, data systems, and early childhood services.
The 14 Early Childhood Equity Priorities
The ARPA brief applies CEP's existing 14-priority framework across areas including:
- Equitable distribution of public funding
- Integration across early learning environments
- Monitoring and accountability
- Early childhood workforce equity
- Workforce preparation and development
- Equity in definitions and measures of program quality
- Culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy
- Equitable classroom-quality measurement
- Harsh and exclusionary discipline
- Rights and inclusion of children with disabilities
- Data-driven continuous quality improvement
- Family leadership and engagement
- Family child care and home-based care
- Dual language learning opportunities.
The brief uses each priority to identify ways the authors believed ARPA investments could support broader changes within early care and education systems.
Why This Resource Still Matters
Although the American Rescue Plan Act was enacted as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the principal funding streams discussed in the report were temporary, the brief documents a broader approach to early childhood systems investment.
It provides an example of how policymakers and system leaders can consider funding alongside workforce conditions, program quality, disability inclusion, multilingual learning, family participation, data infrastructure, and other interconnected parts of early care and education.
Frequently Asked Questions
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was a federal law enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among many other provisions, it provided approximately $39 billion for child care through supplemental CCDBG funding and child care stabilization grants, as well as $1 billion for Head Start.
ARPA appropriated $14.99 billion in supplemental Child Care and Development Block Grant funding and $23.975 billion for child care stabilization grants. Eligible stabilization uses included personnel costs, rent and facilities expenses, supplies, and mental health supports.
It is a 2021 Children’s Equity Project policy brief applying CEP’s 14 early childhood equity priorities to the federal investments made through the American Rescue Plan Act.
The report addresses funding, early childhood workforce conditions, program quality, monitoring and accountability, culturally responsive curriculum, discipline, disability inclusion, data systems, family engagement, family child care, and dual language learners.
Yes. The law appropriated $1 billion in additional Head Start funding for fiscal year 2021, with the appropriation available through September 30, 2022.
The major ARPA child care and Head Start funding streams discussed in this 2021 brief were time-limited. For example, states, territories, and Tribal organizations generally had through fiscal year 2023 to obligate the supplemental child care funding, while the additional Head Start appropriation was available through September 30, 2022.
The report can still be used as a historical policy and systems-building resource because it connects public investment with issues such as workforce support, program quality, inclusion, family engagement, data systems, and multilingual learning.