Current Issues

ECESF brings early care educators to the table

Early care educators bring important perspective to what is needed to make early care and education a loving and learning place for children, families, and educators. Educator work conditions directly influence the care and learning that the child experiences. Funding for and availability of teaching staff, along with program goals and priorities at the workplace, allow for or detract from an educator’s ability to make time to listen and reflect, learn from, and create a nurtured learning experience for a child, and partnership and resources to a child’s family. Understanding what works and what doesn’t at the level of where the service is provided is crucial to successful care and education. Educators’ expertise is essential to effective policy and program development.

Key to authentic involvement of teachers in decision-making is offering educators ongoing space and time to come together, information and background on what policy is under discussion, and an opportunity to reflect and share experiences, so they can best evaluate needs as a group rather than as an individual educator. In addition, policy-making and decisions too often happen in daytime meetings, and program decisions at the workplace are most often made without effective teacher involvement.

ECESF prioritizes educator involvement in decision-making at the workplace, as well as on policy and program development front—as a core issue and key areas of our advocacy. Read more about ECESF’s mission, vision, and principles, and what we do.

Key issues for early care educators