How Can States Ensure a Cohesive and Streamlined ECE System?

During the pandemic, Congress provided over $52 billion in supplemental funding to states to help child care providers stay in business. This sudden influx of federal dollars ushered in a range of ECE policy reforms, such as changes in the way providers are paid and expansions to family income eligibility. It also brought about a renewed interest in the governance of ECE programs and functions.

Currently, no research consensus exists about a single, optimal state-level governance structure for early childhood programs. And, of course, simply switching to a different governance structure is not enough on its own to improve collaboration and reduce inefficiencies. “Structure is not sufficient. It's necessary. A lot of the other pieces have taken constant education and that work hasn't stopped and probably never will,” says Amy O’Leary, executive director of Strategies for Children, a nonprofit based in Massachusetts, one of the first states to consolidate early care and education funding and programs under one agency.

In recent years, a growing number of states have moved towards unified ECE governance to help administer the variety of programs states are responsible for, including child care subsidies, child care licensing, state-funded pre-K, IDEA Part B and Part C, child care quality improvement systems, and Head Start state collaboration offices. According to a recent analysis from the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, 12 states have established early childhood-focused departments. While the specifics of the governance structures vary between states, the reasons given for consolidation are generally the same. Consolidating programs into one agency can signal that early childhood issues are a top priority for a governor or legislature, improve service delivery for children and families, and reduce fragmentation of services while increasing collaboration and communication.

Consolidating state-level ECE governance is not a new idea. In 2005, Massachusetts became the first state to launch an independent, consolidated department with the creation of the Department of Early Education and Care. The department was created when two state agencies merged their early childhood offices: the Early Learning Services Office at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Childcare Services at the Department of Children and Family Services.

The push toward consolidation was influenced by brain research highlighting the long-term impacts of high-quality early education as well as the desire to create a system of universal pre-kindergarten to benefit the state’s young children. There was also a growing awareness that the current structure was in need of improvement. Prior to the creation of the new department, the state’s early childhood sector was described as “a labyrinth of separate bureaucracies and disconnected categorical programs” due to confusion over funding sources, overlap in services, and redundant and conflicting requirements for some providers. Public meetings held throughout the state made clear that providers wanted a change to a system they viewed as inefficient, redundant, and time-consuming.

What impact did this change have? Years of work on the part of advocates and legislators finally paid off in June 2004 when Governor Mitt Romney signed An Act Establishing a Department of Early Education and Care as part of the state budget. A few years later, a survey found that 60 percent of respondents viewed the new department as an improvement over the old structure, with 17 percent saying it was about the same. According to O’Leary, consolidation has not only improved administrative efficiency; it also gave ECE more political traction: “It has helped with public awareness when it comes to the importance of early education and care….We are now part of the Joint Committee on Education and most of our bills go through that committee. Before the change we were all over the place.”

While Massachusetts has had consolidated ECE governance for the past twenty years, Kansas has recently considered making a similar change. In her January 15th State of the State speech, Governor Laura Kelly lamented the fact that the state’s early childhood education services are currently “siloed in four different state agencies” and operate in “[a] system overloaded with bureaucracy.” Her solution? “Let’s put the functions of these agencies under one roof - the Office of Early Childhood.”

The focus on ECE consolidation is not a new one for Governor Kelly. She promised to consolidate ECE programs into a single cabinet-level state agency during her 2022 reelection campaign and commissioned a task force to create a blueprint for such a move in January 2023. Earlier this year, Governor Kelly announced the introduction of a compromise bill to consolidate nearly 20 existing state programs into a single entity, the Office of Early Childhood. “She has made it her signature issue for this legislative session and maybe even for the remainder of her term,” says John Wilson, president of Kansas Action for Children.

That bill looks likely to become law now that it has been approved by both the Kansas Senate and House. For his part, Wilson sees the potential advantages of such a move: “The long term outcome is a more streamlined and efficient early childhood system that our kids, parents, and providers deserve. And the reason it would become more streamlined is because we would bring funding streams into a single agency.”

Some states are pursuing the goal of a more streamlined and efficient system without the focus on a unified agency. South Carolina established its Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) via executive order in 2010. Tasked with improving the quality, availability, and coordination of services for children from birth to school entry, the ECAC is a collaborative body that includes the directors of state agencies, elected officials, state-level early childhood leaders, members of the business and medical communities, parents, and early educators. “The law requires that the agency directors serve so you know the person with leadership and authority is in that room considering whatever collaborative ideas are coming up,” says Kaitlyn Richards, government affairs liaison with South Carolina First Steps, the agency that coordinates the ECAC.

Perhaps one of the most significant accomplishments of the ECAC has been the creation of First Five SC, an online portal that connects residents to the full spectrum of services available to young children at both the federal and state level. Families are able to add their household information into an eligibility screener and quickly understand which of over 40 public services they might be eligible for. “First Five is an example of what you can do across organizations whether or not you’re consolidated,” says Karen Oliver, early childhood advisory council program manager at First Steps.

The Trump administration continues to cut federal staff tasked with administering early childhood programs, meaning more responsibility will inevitably fall to state officials. It will be interesting to see if states with consolidated governance are able to handle the devolution at the federal level better or differently than those with more dispersed governance. The question of how best to organize the governance of state ECE programs is therefore one that will only grow in importance over the next several years.