Qualifications & Educational Support

★ PRIORITY FOCUS AREA

Policies and pathways that provide consistent standards for educators to achieve higher education

Creating equitable conditions for the early care and education (ECE) workforce requires multiple, integrated strategies. The National ECE Workforce Center recognizes this need and organizes its work around five essential policy areas, or key topics, identified by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) Early Childhood Workforce Index as being critical for supporting the ECE workforce and higher-quality services for children and families. Each of these policy areas directly impacts the ECE workforce’s ability to thrive.

For a deeper dive into the status of qualifications and educational supports, including state progress in this space, see the Early Childhood Workforce Index chapter on this topic, and for more resources to support your own efforts to improve access to qualifications and educational supports, see the section below.