Work Environment Standards
Standards for providing safe and supportive work environments for early educators
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 work environment standards, 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 work environment standards, see the section below.
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Browse Other Key Topics
Compensation & Financial Relief Strategies
Initiatives and investments to ensure compensation equal to the value of early educators’ work
Financial Resources
Public investment in the ECE workforce and broader ECE system
Qualifications & Educational Support
Policies and pathways that provide consistent standards for educators to achieve higher education
Workforce Data
State-level collection of important data on the size, characteristics, and working conditions of the ECE workforce