Policy Agenda
The Department of Early Childhood (DEC) partners with our community to weave together family and a system of support that ensures all children who grow up in San Francisco thrive and learn. To achieve our goals, DEC promotes policies and engages with institutions that care for and enhance children’s health, knowledge, and well-being at the local, state, and federal levels. As with DEC’s strategic plan, our policy agenda is rooted in our partnership with parents, early educators, and the field of early childhood, always focused on amplifying parents’ voices. DEC is diligent in creating opportunities by addressing the inequities in early childhood and strives to support families, so race is not a reliable predictor of outcomes for young children and their families in San Francisco. DEC promotes policy reform as an authentic means for power-sharing for the public good.
Our policy agenda presents current and emerging policy issues in early childhood that reflect DEC’s three core strategies:
Increases access to affordable and quality early childhood education (ECE), child health and development, and family support services to meet the needs of San Francisco’s birth-to-five children and their families.
Commits to developing and promoting policies and best practices that disrupt racially inequitable early childhood programming and eliminate disparate outcomes for all young children and their families, inclusive of Black, Latino, Indigenous, and Pacific Islander communities to address the over-representation of disparities that persist across early childhood development outcomes within these populations.
Families have the information, resources, and connections to peers and professionals to raise their children in San Francisco successfully.
As such, DEC’s policy agenda is organized into five core strategies to advance opportunities in support of teacher preparation and compensation, enhance program quality, and improve affordability and access; ensure universal developmental screening and promote access to health and mental health services for children and their families; and ensure that families have opportunities for social and professional connections, linkage to resources, and information on parenting and child development.
I. Early Learning
Build a system that improves equitable access to high-quality, affordable early care and education for all children from birth to five years of age so that they have the best start in life and enter kindergarten ready to succeed.
II. Systems & Infrastructure
Create a well-funded, coordinated, data-driven ECE system that leverages and maximizes services to families, children, and the ECE workforce, including health, community, and economic development, family support, social services, and recreational activities.
III. Early Educator Workforce
Maintain a highly qualified workforce that provides culturally and linguistically responsive early learning experiences for all children.
IV. Family Strength
Increase access to and knowledge of family resource programs and include parents as equal partners in framing policies that impact them and their children.
V. Child Health & Well-being
Access to a health system and supports that promote access to health and mental health services for children and their families, focusing on prevention and early intervention.
