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Funding for Key Early Learning Programs, FY2026
Each year, Congress determines funding levels for all of the federal defense and non-defense discretionary programs, including those that support the care and education of children from birth through age …

Child Care Number of the Week
Updated each week with the latest child care and early learning stats you need to know.

2025 FFYF Federal Guide to Early Learning and Care Programs
The 119th Congress has the opportunity to invest in America’s children, working families, and the economy through high-quality child care and early childhood education. This resource book is an introduction …

Child Care Funding Letters Draw Record Number of Inaugural Signers
Each year, Members of Congress submit letters requesting robust funding for child care and early learning programs. Historically, letters requesting funding for child care have been bipartisan and incredibly popular. …

The First Five Questions for: Andrew Zimmern
In the latest installment of FFYF’s First Five Questions series, Sarah Rittling sat down with award-winning chef, restaurateur, and advocate Andrew Zimmern for a conversation about the intersection of child …

FAQs on Child Care, Early Learning, and the U.S. Department of Education
In March, President Trump signed an executive order that directs the Secretary of Education “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the …

Head Start and Early Head Start: The Program Overview
Head Start is a federally funded program that delivers comprehensive early learning, health, nutrition, and family support services to children ages 3 through 5 experiencing poverty and their families. More …

New Resource Reveals Notable Changes in Price and Supply of Child Care
This week, Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA) released their annual report, Child Care in America: 2024 Price & Supply, which provides updated data on the current child care landscape …

Reforming Regulations and Decentering Deregulation
Child care costs are high, child care workforce compensation is low, and regulations are burdensome. In an effort to find a solution there have been growing conversations around deregulation without …

FY2026: Community Letter to Appropriators Calls For Robust Funding for Child Care and Early Learning
WASHINGTON – The First Five Years Fund (FFYF) and a coalition of 146 major early education advocacy organizations from 36 states have a new letter to Congressional appropriators calling for …

STATEMENT: FFYF’s Sarah Rittling on the House Ways and Means Budget Reconciliation Plans
On Monday afternoon, the House Ways and Means Committee released the full text of their bill to reauthorize the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 ahead of Tuesday’s markup. …