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What Do We Know About Building and Sustaining the Child Care and Early Education Workforce? Cross-Cutting Themes from a Literature Review, Environmental Scan, and Data Scan

This brief describes three themes from a literature review: the field’s need for more and better data, the role of higher education in CCEE workforce dynamics, and the mismatch between the needs of a diverse CCEE workforce and existing strategies.

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Early Educator Wage Growth Under Massachusetts’ C3 Program

This analysis examines wage growth among center-based early care and education (ECE) programs, using monthly application data submitted by nearly 3,000centers from July 2021 to September 2024. The study found that C3 likely helped educators amidst broad inflation and supported wage growth—but meaningful gaps remain, and ensuring compensation reflects the true value of this work…

Published 2026

Designing a Wage Increase Pilot: A Framework for Supporting Early Educators in Contra Costa County

This report provides a framework for Contra Costa County to launch a wage supplement pilot. The concept includes details on a proposed pilot design and a framework for pilot implementation, evaluation, and budget.

Published 2025

Child Care Workforce Retention Incentives

This evidence review from the Prenatal to Three Policy Center outlines how workforce incentives can help reduce turnover and create stronger and more engaging teaching environments for educators and children.

Published 2025

Related Key Topics

Compensation & Financial Relief Strategies

Investments and initiatives to ensure compensation equal to that of a skilled professional, accounting for an educator’s qualifications, expertise, and experience

Qualifications & Educational Support

Policies and pathways that strengthen career pathways and access to degrees and credentials and provide consistent standards for educators to achieve higher education