Why this matters for families

In recent years, an increasing number of local governments have invested in early care and education (ECE). According to an analysis by CityHealth, 53 of the 75 largest U.S. cities (71%) have enrolled 30% or more 4-year-olds in state or locally-funded pre-k programs, and 65 cities add local dollars to state and federal funds to support early care and education. A mix of factors drives the growth: increased recognition of the importance of high-quality education in a child's first five years, the high costs to families of child care, a focused strategy by local leaders to attract families and employers, and insufficient funding at the federal level. The return on investment for early care and education is significant, with evidence that quality services boost children’s long-term academic outcomes, has rapid impacts on maternal employment and families’ economic mobility, and generates new revenue for businesses and local economies. Cities and counties across the country have passed local initiatives on early childhood education investment due to broad public support.

Our approach

Getting public programs approved and funded takes enormous effort, but it's only half the battle. After the bill is signed and the money is appropriated, another challenge awaits: delivering a new service to people that is on time, on budget, and working as expected. Despite the importance of implementation, few mechanisms exist to help public servants stand up new and innovative programs. Launching and expanding public early care and education services is no exception. People want these programs to work, but a wall of complex funding streams and regulations complicates the path forward.

Even when no playbook exists, there are strategies to smooth implementation. Loose networks of public servants tasked with similar demands emerge to bridge knowledge gaps, sometimes self organizing into more formal structures designed to share lessons, pitfalls, and solutions.

The Early Care and Education (ECE) Implementation Working Group — a group of early education program leaders from 15 different locations — is such an effort. The working group has met monthly with the primary goal of building a trusted foundation as a group and co-designing the priorities and focus areas of the group. Each month, the group takes on thorny implementation questions, examining how different teams have approached them, what challenges they have faced, and how they have navigated. These conversations are candid, open spaces for participants to share frankly about their challenges. To this end, confidentiality is critical. However, where possible, the lessons from these conversations will be distilled into research briefs published by the New Practice Lab.

What we hope to learn

As a result of ECE Implementation Working Group conversations, the New Practice Lab has shared summaries of insights and lessons learned on the following topics: