Early Learning Nation

Welcome to Early Learning Nation (ELN), your go-to source for the latest curated insights from early-learning specialists and captivating original content, all aimed at fostering the development of an Early Learning Nation, one community at a time. At ELN, we prioritize science and strive to make it accessible and practical for everyone. We will accomplish this by featuring interviews with respected leaders in the field, as well as through engaging digital storytelling, practical tips, actionable items, in-depth articles, interactive activities, and news stories. Our podcasts will showcase the challenges and triumphs of communities both locally and around the world. We are dedicated to sharing effective practices wherever we discover them.

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Wisconsin is Cutting State Funding for Child Care. Providers are Taking a Stand

1 month ago | earlylearningnation.com | Elliot Haspel

On Monday, child care providers across the country participated in the fourth annual Day Without Child Care, closing their doors and gathering to demand a better child care system with more public dollars.
The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Is Long Overdue for Reform

1 month ago | earlylearningnation.com | Elliot Haspel

You’d be forgiven for having trouble keeping up with the alphabet soup of family-related tax credits. Most of the policy attention has rightfully been on the child tax credit (CTC), which is typically a credit parents claim that provides general assistance for child-rearing and is claimed by 93% of taxpayers with children. This tax credit is often used for essentials like food, diapers and clothing, or to pay off debt, though it can also offset the cost of child care.
What the Looming Child Tax Credit Expiration Means for Your Family

2 months ago | earlylearningnation.com | Rebecca Gale |Dianne Kirsch

Rebecca Gale is a writer with the Better Life Lab at New America where she covers child care. Follow her on Instagram at @rebeccagalewriting, and subscribe to her Substack newsletter, "It Doesn't Have to Be This Hard."
‘Chainsaw Approach’ to Budget Cuts Leaves Military Families as Collateral Damage

2 months ago | earlylearningnation.com | Elliot Haspel

Collateral damage is primarily a military term, and it is perhaps the best way to describe what some families of America’s service members have become in the face of Elon Musk and the Trump administration’s chainsaw approach to cutting government spending.
Staying Engaged In Uncertain Times

2 months ago | earlylearningnation.com | Mark Swartz

Amid the evolving policy environment in Washington, early care and education advocates are weighing how best to preserve successful programs and stave off harmful budget cuts. Congress is already considering reductions to programs that affect many of the most vulnerable young children and their families, including Medicaid, which provides health care and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food.
KIPP’s Night Kindergarten in Newark: a Rare ‘Bright Spot’ in COVID’s Dark Days

Mar 20, 2025 | earlylearningnation.com | Linda Jacobson

This article was co-published with the New Jersey Monitor. Rachel Hodge worked as a housekeeper at a hospital and was earning an online degree in social work when schools shut their doors due to COVID. Spending hours in front of a laptop with a 5-year-old just didn’t fit into the picture. But in the fall of 2020, her daughter Vanessa was set to start kindergarten at KIPP Upper Roseville Academy in Newark, New Jersey.
How COVID Shaped Child Care and Early Learning

Mar 13, 2025 | earlylearningnation.com | Kendra Hurley

In March 2020, when states and cities ordered widespread school closures in hopes of curbing the spread of COVID-19, many local leaders urged child care programs — especially family child care providers — to stay open for the nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, grocers and other essential workers who needed child care in order to work. So began the United States’ crash course on the importance of child care to its entire economy.
Could New York Become the First Major City to Offer Universal Child Care?

Mar 4, 2025 | earlylearningnation.com | Bryce Covert

New York City could well become the first major city in the country to enact a universal child care program, as candidates in the mayoral race line up to support it and advocates roll out a concrete plan to achieve it. Four candidates attended an event last November where the nonprofit New Yorkers United for Child Care launched a five-year plan for expanding care: City Comptroller Brad Lander, State Sen. Jessica Ramos, State Sen. Zellnor Myrie and State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.
The Power of Early Relationships

Feb 25, 2025 | earlylearningnation.com | Rebecca Gale

Our country is in the midst of a loneliness epidemic, and Isabelle Hau, director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, believes this sense of disconnect starts quite early in life. For adults to feel more connected to one another, they need strong relationships in early childhood.
Flipping the Script on Universal Child Care

Feb 18, 2025 | earlylearningnation.com | Elliot Haspel

Consider two neighboring towns, Potato and Potahto. Both have collected $1,000 in taxes and their goal is to ensure that all residents end the harvest season with at least 10 of the tubers. Potato spends its money on fertilizing everyone’s soil and making sure they have good seeds and good tools, as well as hiring monitors to ensure the farmers are treating their farmhands well. When the harvest comes, everyone’s plot produces at least 10 spuds.