Every day, millions of American families drop off their young child(ren) at child care or preschool. There are many reasons why parents choose a particular program—cost, location, the teachers, shared values, the program’s focus—one thing is universal: As parents walk away from the classroom in the morning to start their own day, each of them hopes that they have made the right decision and that their child will have a rich and fulfilling day, supported by a loving and affectionate caregiver, and a quality and supportive environment.

The need for high-quality early childhood education has never been greater. Increasingly, children are growing up in families where parents are working—out of necessity as well as choice. Furthermore, research continues to affirm the short- and long-term benefits for children who participate in high-quality early learning programs. However, parents face significant barriers when searching for high-quality care, and even more if they need accessible child care services for their children with special needs. Wait-lists are long and employers might be inflexible, high-quality programs are expensive, and parents often lack the necessary tools to evaluate program quality.

There is a critical need to better understand the components of high-quality programs to ensure policy solutions adequately support and promote access to quality for all families.

Why does quality matter?

A large body of research has demonstrated the critical importance of the first three years of a child’s life. The experiences and interactions children have in these early years significantly affects brain development and helps to establish the foundation for future learning. Warm and responsive interactions can create a nurturing and stable environment that enables the development of secure attachments between children and their caregivers—both those within and beyond their families. These attachments support children as they develop a sense of self and begin to understand their emotions, and they lay the foundation for establishing successful relationships at later ages.

The positive effects of high-quality early childhood programs on specific, short- and long-term outcomes for children, families, and communities, have been quantified by numerous research studies. In the short- to medium-term, children enrolled in high-quality early learning programs are less likely to need special education services during their K-12 years; in the long term, those participating children are more likely to be employed and less likely to be dependent on government assistance. The positive effects are larger, and more likely to be sustained, when programs are high quality. In addition, the impact is greatest for children from low-income families. Differences in children’s cognitive abilities by income are evident at only nine months old and significantly widen by the time children are two years old. Children living in poverty are more likely to be subject to stressful home environments—which can have lifelong impacts on learning, cognition, and self-regulation—while parents living in poverty have limited resources to provide for their families and high barriers to accessing affordable, high-quality child care. High-quality early learning programs staffed by warm and responsive adults can help mitigate these effects, offering a safe and predictable learning environment that fosters children’s development.

What does high quality look like?

All states have regulations or licensing standards that child care providers must meet in order to legally operate in the state. These regulations provide a baseline standard and are primarily focused on protecting children from harm rather than on advancing child development and early learning. While these standards are critically important to children’s well-being—mitigating risks from inadequate supervision, poor building and hygiene standards, and unsafe practices—they do not address the comprehensive needs of young children. As such, meeting licensing requirements serves only as a baseline providing the fundamental components necessary for operation rather than an indication of program quality. In addition, states have varying requirements when it comes to determining exactly which providers need to be licensed, often making exemptions for faith-based programs or based on the number of non-relative children served. As a result, significant numbers of children attend license-exempt programs that are not required to meet even the minimum licensing standard.

Moreover, the key to a high-quality program is what happens inside the classroom or family child care home, namely the interactions that take place between the teacher and child. In a high-quality program, teachers engage children with learning strategies that are tailored to the age of the child and use an appropriate curriculum to structure the learning experience. A variety of supports are needed to facilitate these interactions so that high-quality teaching and learning can occur. As such, the quality of an early childhood program is dependent on the following three key factors.

1. Interpersonal interactions: The learning environment created by a teacher is critical to the quality of an early childhood program. The experiences that a child has in their earliest years shape their development, and teachers play an important role in creating those experiences. A well-trained and highly skilled teacher tailors their interactions to fit the needs of the child—using responsive language, engaging all children in classroom activities, fostering independence, and creating a language-rich environment. Effective early childhood teachers proactively prevent and redirect challenging behavior and respond to children’s needs with respect, warmth, and empathy. The experiences children have with teachers in their earliest years can also set the tone for their interactions with teachers in later grades and thus are crucial to promoting positive attitudes about school and approaches to learning.
2. Physical Environment: Children need a physical setting—both inside and outdoors—where they can play, explore, and learn safely. The learning environment needs to include engaging and developmentally appropriate materials and be arranged to promote independence and exploration based on children’s different stages of development. The physical environment should include accommodations for children with special needs.
3. Program support Structure: A high-functioning operating environment is an essential element of a quality early childhood program. This administrative operational support takes a number of forms. First, programs need effective leaders who can provide instructional support to teachers as well as sound business management to the overall program. These multiple leadership functions are complex and often need to be fulfilled by more than one person. Second, external to the immediate program, programs need a series of structural supports, including access to professional development, quality improvement resources, stable and sufficient funding streams, and a pipeline of well-trained teachers. These external supports recognize that early childhood programs do not operate in a vacuum and rely on the wider early childhood system.