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The new federal investment in early education and care promises to have a broad impact.

To explore the details, the Alliance for Early Success has shared a new webinar explaining what to expect.

The webinar’s Spanish interpretation is posted here.

“We are very, very excited about this,” Danielle Ewen says in the webinar about the new federal funding. Ewen is a principal at EducationCounsel, an Alliance member and an education consulting firm. “This is a major, major opportunity to change the trajectory of life for children and families and providers.

“When you look at the Build Back Better proposal, the early childhood provisions are the second largest piece. We have never been the second largest piece of a major piece of legislation, ever.”

Build Back Better is still making its way through the legislative process, so it may change somewhat. But here are some key components as they stand now.

Part of the bill addresses income and health care, including:

• creating a one-year extension of the Child Tax Credit, which helps for families who need it most

• expanding Medicaid and CHIP postpartum coverage to 12 months after a child’s birth in all states, and

• requiring 12-month, continuous Medicaid and CHIP eligibility for children, increasing coverage for about half of states that have not currently opted-in to this eligibility. This would protect children from cycles of gaining and losing health insurance as their family incomes go up and down

In the webinar, Lauren Hogan of NAEYC (the National Association for the Education of Young Children) explains that Build Back Better, “takes our field away from the scarcity situation that we have been mired in for so long. It addresses affordability for families and compensation for educators. It recognizes that child care is about workforce development and about child development.”

Khadija Lewis Khan, executive director of the Beautiful Beginnings Child Care Center in Providence, R.I., adds, “I don’t think there’s anything as important as helping build our children’s foundation, so that they can be successful in school in life. But now, there needs to be economic sustainability for the people that have invested in our youngest children.”

To achieve these goals, key features of the bill’s child care proposal include:

• a sliding fee scale – a typical family would save $100 per week on child care costs

• after a three-year phase in period, every family participating in eligible activities and earning 250% of the state’s median income (SMI) would be entitled to child care assistance. So 9 in 10 will be income eligible and receive full support, in contrast to only 1 in 6 who are currently eligible and actually receive subsidies

• states will be required to use payment rates that cover the full cost of high-quality care in their communities, and

• states must provide a living wage for providers

Build Back Better also calls for universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds. The details include:

• the program will be administered by the Department of Health and Human Services; the Department of Education will serve in an advisory role

• a mixed delivery system – with centers, family child care providers, and faith-based providers — that would meet equivalent standards

• programs would have to meet some Head Start standards, such as group size and student/teacher ratios. Directors and teachers would have to complete 1,020 hours of education to meet these requirements, and

• lead teachers would have to have a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood or an equivalent field within six years of beginning their programs

CLASP (the Center for Law and Social Policy) has posted estimates of how much child care funding individual states could receive from Build Back Better. The three-year total for Massachusetts is $1.3 billion. In addition, the First Five Years Fund has a list of frequently asked questions.

There is still a great deal more to do. Advocates have to keep making the case and paying attention to how these federal funds are distributed and used. However, there is also reason to celebrate what has happened so far. Early education and care is on the brink of a new day. As Ewen says, “Fifty years of advocacy, every minute you all put into it has led us here. We are so grateful, and together we will change the world.”