25 Years of Child Care Policy
For a quarter-century, CLASP has been a leader in the child care and early education space, ensuring that families with low incomes have access to child care that meets their needs and support to achieve economic security. CLASP’s Child Care and Early Education (CCEE) team has been instrumental in developing and promoting legislation and policies that ensure children and families have equitable access to the resources and care they need to thrive.
The CCEE team has been influential in key moments of child care and early education history. For example, in 2014 the team played a significant role in advancing the reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant, and during the Great Recession and COVID-19 pandemic, led the charge to secure over $50 billion in relief resources for children, families, and child care providers. Whether supporting policies that impact immigrant families’ access to care, advocating for fair wages for the child care workforce, advancing racial equity, or providing technical assistance to states and providers, the CCEE team has always put the well-being of all families and children first. And the team has greatly enhanced and enriched its work by collaborating with a diverse array of partner organizations.
To celebrate the CCEE team’s 25-year anniversary, CLASP is hosted a hybrid celebration on September 25 in Washington, D.C. This event was an opportunity for CLASP and the CCEE team’s alumni, friends, and partners to celebrate some of our greatest achievements and learn about the bold vision for the next 25 years – and beyond.
Check out a few words from allies, partners, and policymakers who we have worked with over the years!
If you are interested in joining our distinguished list of event sponsors, please click below to make a sponsorship pledge today. Please email Stephanie Schmit, Director, Child Care and Early Education, or CLASP Development Team.
Thank you to our sponsors who have made this event possible:
Albert Wat, Senior Policy Director at the Alliance for Early Success:
Congratulations to CLASP’s 25th anniversary! CLASP has been one of the major influences of our country’s child care system over the past couple of decades. Along with its partners, its work on the reauthorization of CCDBG in 2014 fundamentally shifted our country’s approach to child care to focus equally on both quality and access.
It set the foundation for future investments and policy changes at both the federal and state levels to promote quality care that continue to reap benefits for children, families, and early childhood educators to this day.
Through the years, CLASP’s work has consistently centered equity – whether it’s their work on examining inequitable access to care, preventing suspensions and expulsions, and the intersection of early care and education and immigrant children and families.
The Alliance for Early Success especially appreciates their decades of responsive support to state advocates and administrators, who see them as a go-to national resource on early care and education in this country.
We hope that in the next 25 years, we will continue to work with CLASP and others to harness all of the activism, energy, and bold thinking in the ECE field that came out of the pandemic, and form a more perfect child care system for all in our country.
Monica Hobbs Vinluan, Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:
I have long admired CLASP’s ability to uplift the nuances and complexities of policy approaches while at the same time, helping us understand the big-picture implications on children and families.
The organization’s innovation and commitment to advancing racial equity is intentional and purposeful. CLASP shows up as a collaborative partner with other organizations and can always be counted on to provide valuable insights and push the work forward.
The staff are caring and humble in how they center lived experiences and strive to achieve justice.
I’m grateful for the many years that I have had the opportunity to partner with CLASP and look forward finding new ways to making an impact on the lives of children and families.