Press Release: 2023 Legislative Agenda Targets Child Care Crisis
CHILD CARE AWARE OF WASHINGTON
Contact: Ryan Pricco, Director of Policy and Advocacy
Ryan@Childcareawarewa.org
Mobile: 253-267-4966
Child Care Aware of Washington releases legislative agenda with focus on child care workforce
Tacoma, WA – Over the last several months, Child Care Aware of Washington (CCA of WA) convened a representative group of child care educators from around the state to develop a proposal to address the child care crisis. Their voices informed the organization’s 2023 Legislative Agenda, which calls forward the need to provide urgent and critical relief for the child care workforce in Washington.
The organization’s 2023 agenda identifies and requests strategic investments to shore up a workforce that has long struggled since before the pandemic, and continues to struggle as important federal and state relief programs sunset. Washington lost 10% of its childcare workforce throughout the pandemic, and child care workers in our state rank in the 3rd percentile of all occupational wages.
See the details of our Legislative Agenda
CCA of WA’s agenda supports DCYF’s decision package (state agency request for new funding and/or policies), the recommendations of the Child Care Collaborative Task Force, and lays the foundation for a child care system that is high-quality, affordable, and accessible for all of Washington’s families.
“Washington’s legislature has taken bold and impactful steps towards building one of the best child care systems in the nation.” says CCA of WA Director of Policy and Advocacy Ryan Pricco. “The Early Start act created effective quality assurance for families and the Fair Start for Kids Act provided critical relief to families struggling to afford child care. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare that these bolstered pillars can’t realize their full potential without a strong base to support, and for child care, that base is our workforce. Solutions called forth by DCYF’s decision package and the early educator legislative agenda provide the most effective vehicles for the legislature to continue building on our progress and stabilize a child care workforce that our state’s economy so heavily relies upon.”
CCA of WA is a non-profit organization that works to ensure that every child in our state has access to high-quality child care and early learning programs.
