Expanding Child Care Availability for Underserved Populations

Integrate child care centers into regional development plans, including business districts, housing, and public spaces.

Embedding child care within regional development plans ensures communities are structured to meet the needs of working families from the outset. This approach calls for collaboration with zoning boards, city planners, and economic developers to designate areas in new and existing projects for child care facilities, particularly in high-traffic public spaces like business districts, mixed-use developments, and housing complexes.

Support early learning business development by helping with zoning, tax challenges, and site searches.

Encouraging early learning business growth requires addressing zoning and tax barriers that often hinder child care development. By working with organizations and local zoning boards, municipalities can conduct reviews of existing ordinances and streamline processes to attract child care providers.

Collaborate with research organizations to gather localized data on the long-term economic impacts of early learning infrastructure investments.

Data-driven decision-making is essential for crafting effective child care policies. By partnering with research organizations, local governments and development agencies can obtain localized data that captures the unique needs and impacts of child care investments in their communities.

Use frameworks like Redevelopment Ready Communities to promote early learning as a central aspect of community resilience.

Leveraging established frameworks such as Redevelopment Ready Communities allows planners and developers to incorporate child care infrastructure seamlessly into broader community improvement initiatives. Through partnerships with municipal governments and community development agencies, planners can assess current child care availability and identify gaps that impede family and workforce engagement.

Promote targeted child care programs that focus on economically disadvantaged communities, ensuring sustainable long-term economic benefits.

Communities benefit greatly from child care programs tailored to support economically disadvantaged areas, as these initiatives provide a pathway to stable workforce engagement and upward mobility. Development professionals and local governments can collaborate to design funding programs and incentives that make high-quality child care more accessible in underserved neighborhoods.

Advocate for increased public investment in child care infrastructure to enhance labor force participation, particularly for underserved populations.

Investment in child care infrastructure is a proven strategy for increasing workforce participation, especially among parents, including women with young children.

Encourage local and regional economic development leaders to support ECD investments as a strategy to improve both short-term workforce participation and long-term community resilience.

Economic development leaders play a vital role in advocating for early childhood development (ECD) as a strategic investment that benefits workforce readiness and economic resilience. By engaging ECD in discussions on community growth and business attraction, economic leaders can promote a comprehensive view of child care as fundamental to sustained economic strength.

Shift employer narratives to position child care as a universal workforce issue rather than a “women’s issue.”

Positioning child care as a universal workforce concern encourages broader engagement from all sectors. To initiate this shift, development professionals can host workshops or forums that engage employers and demonstrate how child care challenges affect productivity and workforce stability for all.

Promote public-private partnerships that scale child care access and reduce barriers for businesses to support their employees with child care options.

Public-private partnerships offer a sustainable path to expanding child care services while sharing the financial responsibilities across sectors. Development professionals can facilitate partnerships between local businesses, municipal governments, and nonprofit organizations to establish child care facilities that benefit the community and support workforce engagement.