Early childhood educators know that high-quality early childhood experiences matter.
We want the world to know about the amazing influence of quality early care and education - because 90% of a child's brain develops before kindergarten! We also know that quality early education can positively influence a child's continued growth beyond the early years.
Their experience with us as educators supports critical thinking and curiosity, helps them build better emotional regulation, helps them score higher in literacy, increases high school graduation rates and even inspires the pursuit of higher education.
Early childhood professionals have this great information that we want to share, in efforts to help families access these influential early childhood opportunities.
Advocacy is how we do that.
It's our vehicle to drive this awareness and action. Early childhood education advocacy is about so many things. Families who lack affordable options for early childhood education or care often miss out on the essential, lifelong benefits that these first years set children up for. There are so many direct impacts that quality early childhood education has on a child's life, and these aren't just speculation.
Research shows that a quality early childhood education experience raises a child's likelihood of graduating from high school.1 Many people don't realize that what they do for childcare for their toddler will have that big of an impact in their child's life. ECE advocacy is all about showing people just how critical these early years are.
For more on that, check out Understanding Child Development: How The Earliest Years Change Our Lives.
What our society does to support early learning impacts everything from each child's quality of life to the economy at large. Afterall, over 28% of the population have children at home and about 26% of children in the country are age 4 and younger.2,3
What does it mean to be an advocate for early childhood?
The word “advocacy” sounds like a rather technical term. The word alone can scare many child care practitioners and early childhood educators!
But advocacy does not have to be so intimidating. Basically, the word advocacy - in the early care and education field, means caring adults standing on behalf of children. These caring adults are everyday people, like you and me, working to increase awareness, influence elected officials, and help shape public policy.
These advocacy actions plead the case of children and their families, showing support for quality experiences and opportunities for all children. For example, we might be striving to see additional funding to improve low-income (which represents over 16 million children) families' access to quality early childhood education and preschool programs.
Advocacy can happen at many different levels with different methods. It can be informal and spontaneous, or purposeful and planned. Bigger is not necessarily always better; passion and consistency are what really make the difference.
Types of early childhood advocacy
There are various types of advocacy in early childhood.
Professional advocacy
A professional advocate for young children might be someone working in the role of a lobbyist or hired staff in an advocacy group. Politicians, attorneys and more can become professional advocates who dedicate their work to changing government policies, funding options and public awareness about the impact of a child's early years 0-5.
Organizational advocacy
Organizational advocacy in early childhood education includes both professionals and volunteers. There are many amazing organizations at global, federal and local levels that exist specifically to improve the access and quality of early childhood education.
Personal advocacy
Personal advocacy is about personal communication and relationship building--an individual's efforts to educate and influence people and policymakers with hopes of influencing subsequent legislation. This personal advocacy is where we really shine as early childhood educators!
If you work in ECE, your biggest influence as an advocate include your enthusiasm for your own work to benefit children, your belief in engaged teaching and high program quality, and your core knowledge and real-life experiences in the early care and education field.
Any early learning field professional can be a part of this community of equipped and passionate advocates. Caregivers and administrators have the foundation of knowledge and daily experiences that reflect the true climate of early care and education. They can use this expertise to impact those around them, leading toward more community recognition, increased community action, and improved policy and legislation toward increased quality and accessibility.
I know from years of experience that any position within the field of early care and education is time-consuming - though worth every moment!
So, how does a busy teacher or administrator find time to raise awareness and participate in advocacy? You just have to make the time. Deciding to make that time is your first empowering step!
With that decision, you give yourself permission and power to make a difference and support children toward healthy development even beyond the walls of your classrooms. I encourage you to make that decision and follow your heart. Your efforts in this vital role will impact your professional growth, as you affect one child at a time or affect a world’s worth of children!
Be assured, your actions will be worth the extra effort to impact the early care and education landscape toward a brighter future.
How to begin early childhood advocacy when you already work in ECE
Your first step is deciding to make the time to become an active advocate. Once you have made this decision, be encouraged! You already have valuable things going for you, including authentic experience in the field with knowledge and persuasive stories to share.
You have developed a core set of ethics and values that equate to wanting the best opportunities for children and families. The fact that you have devoted your career to working with children already speaks volumes to support your personal advocacy efforts. We are in a field of work that so often doesn't get the respect it deserves. Advocating for the importance of these early years is also advocating for the importance of what we do.
We know how powerful our work is—we have to help other people understand that too.
Understand who your elected officials are
Your first-hand knowledge and real experiences need to be shared with policymakers to help them stay informed, identify importance of issues, and assist them in developing early childhood legislation. Making personal connections is a form of "Grassroots lobbying" - as we connect with policy makers to "lobby for" (advocate for) our message. To find your elected official(s) in your state:
- Do an online search to pull up your state government’s website and then search for your elected official within that site (using your geographical information).
- Call your state capitol and ask for contact information for your elected official(s).
- Watch your local news media for information about area policymakers.
Write out the message you'd want to share with the world about early childhood
A core base of your advocacy effort is your message.
This message is your expression of what you feel others should know, and why it is important for them to know it! This message might include:
- Your personal values and ethics regarding early childhood issues
- Which systems you feel would benefit the early care and education community
- Stories from your own experiences in ECE (This tends to be the most influential because it shows the relevant, real-world issues that need to be addressed.)
- Key issues you want to support in early childhood (ex: funding for early childhood education, legislation that removes barriers for early childhood educators, access to food for families, etc...)
Write down the values of each of your elected officials
This one might seem strange, but if you give a little time to research the elected officials in your area, you can usually see pretty easily what their values are. Look at what they vote on, what they campaign over, etc... The legislators’ ideals will primarily shape their policy making. There might be places where your message intersects with their existing values or platform. Those points will probably be the most persuasive.
Edit your message
Now look back at the message you wrote out, and consider how each elected official in your area might respond to it, based on the values they have. Then edit your message accordingly. Make sure you wind up with a written message that is...
- Concise and easy to understand - even by those who may not be familiar with terms and concepts that are central to the early care and education field.
- To the point – mentioning three to four key points at most.
- Consistent – repetition and reinforcement will strengthen those message points and be more likely to get attention.
- Factual and thorough – do your homework and have stories and sound research to back up the ethics and values you present in your message.
- Tailored to your audience – you will adjust how you “present” your message, depending on what type of activity you do and to whom you are presenting it.
- Non-accusatory -do not complain or accuse others but rather think in terms of doing what you can to positively improve the situation.
- Useful - once you have your message, you can choose how to best deliver it.
Your message creation steps include identifying your key points, identifying research and facts that will support your points, and identifying personal experience that will also support your points.
You want to share why your early education message is important, and how you can prove your case to convince them that change could make a beneficial difference.
Email your elected officials
Elected officials are very responsive to communication from their own constituents (the people who may or may not vote for them). It is important to contact your own elected officials because they are the ones who will create and approve (or disapprove) many policies that affect early care and education.
Email allows you to share want you want to say, think about your communication before you express it, and is relatively easy with low intimidation.
You can also attach research pieces to support your message. Email is a great first time advocate activity since it is quick and simple!
This is a common route to contact elected officials, though response to this method varies. Emails will be most noticed and effective when it is personalized – include your name, address, and telephone number, so that the elected official knows it is from a constituent.
Be sure to write “FROM A CONSTITUENT” in the email subject line! Make it brief and to the point. Elected officials are busy (just like you!) and may need to glance at things quickly. Make your point right away!
Sometimes advocacy organizations will give you the opportunity to participate in a “form email” type of action alert about a specific agenda item. You may use their form, but if you have another moment, you can use that notification to draft a more personal email that also includes your message.
Writing a full letter to your elected official is another way to share your message, document your research, and educate an elected official.
While you can send a typed letter, handwritten letters have the most impact. Using a pen and paper assures the recipients that the letter is indeed from you, and that you invested time in writing to them. Be sure your handwriting is legible! If you are more comfortable typing, that is fine – but be sure you sign it by hand! You can also respectfully ask for a response.
Call your elected officials
Phone calling can be the quickest and easiest way to share your message if you are comfortable with that type of communication. Phone communication presents the risk of responding quickly to dialogue, so if this quick response idea does not make you comfortable, the written communication methods may be more effective for you.
Before you make the call, plan what part of your message you want to share. Be prepared to either talk with someone, or to leave a message if necessary. If you leave a message, plan to call back if you do not hear from the elected official’s office within a week. Identify yourself to the person that answers the phone (it may be the elected official, or it may be a staff person) and mention you are a constituent!
Take advantage of a community connection you have with your elected official. Find something you both have in common (you are both parents, you live on the same block, you both enjoy football, etc.). Remember, your tone of voice may speak louder than your actual spoken words! Keep your voice calm and your dialogue professional. Always thank the elected officials and their staff members for their time and attention to your phone call.
Visit your elected officials
Personal visits are often the most effective method of communication with your elected official. This opportunity to share your message can allow for shared dialogue, presentation of supportive informational pieces, and the memory and recognition that comes with this face-to-face contact. Visits can occur at the elected official’s office (most likely at the capitol or other legislative office), or in your hometown (the “home district”).
Meetings can seem less threatening when they occur in a familiar and comfortable place, such as a local coffee shop or library. Elected officials generally enjoy meeting their constituents in their community environment and will often have more time for the visit (since they are extremely busy and multi-tasking while working at the capitol or other legislative office).
Doing a visit in the district is common – you meet at a chosen location, and you each purchase your own refreshment. Make an appointment to visit with your elected official. Be flexible – elected officials are extremely busy and have very tight schedules (just like you do!), so they may need to reschedule or adjust the time. Be prompt to your visits, to show professionalism and respect for their time and efforts. Follow up any visit with a thank you note. It is important to be gracious and leave a lasting impression, reminding the elected official of your message!
Network with advocacy in mind
When you network with other educators or parents, you may find others that share the same concerns and ideas as you and find outlets for partnership in sharing your like-minded message.
Consider joining forces with parents, neighbors, schools, and other early childhood education programs in your area. You may have the opportunity to be involved as the “expert” in the field and share your message, from-the-field stories, and researched knowledge to lead others that care about children.
Social media and letters to the editor are additional ways to spread your written messages. You can be the inspirational early childhood advocate to build public support for the needs of the early childhood community!
Early care and education professional conferences provide the opportunity to network with other educators, with the broad possibility that your message will have similar themes to the overall message of the conference attendees. The conference workshops may also provide education, research summaries, and outlets for idea sharing that may boost your knowledge and confidence as an advocate.
Your local colleagues may share the same elected officials as you and often have the same concerns and ideas that are often demographically-related.
Making intentional efforts to partner with your fellow educators in your area can provide consistent, like-minded professionals for advocacy collaboration.
For instance, multiple colleagues could attend the same elected official visit, could decide to make phone calls to their elected officials (relating the same message) on a given day, or could partner up to host a community elected official forum. Joining local advocacy coalitions may also provide toolkits and action alerts to guide and support your combined advocacy efforts. That support and sharing of responsibilities may be a positive asset for many early childhood professionals.
Every action makes a difference
Early childhood educators know more about the importance of these early years than most of the population. It's true that we are busy enough with our careers as is, and adding one more thing can feel like a tall order.
But when we decide to take action for advocacy, we can make lasting changes that ripple even farther past the lives we are already changing, one by one in our daily work.
With your decision to devote some time and energy to personal advocacy efforts, you directly influence your own professional growth and development as an early childhood educator. You are traveling beyond the walls of your own educational settings, using your message to spawn positive results that could increase access to quality programs and benefit your community’s children and families.
In the process, you will grow toward your own full potential as a devoted, confident, and respected professional in the early childhood field – all while making a positive difference!
You can also start small
If all of this feels like too much, the right first step for you might have to do with gaining more education in how advocacy for these early years works. The National Association for the Education of Young Children® (NAEYC®) offers an advocacy newsletter you can sign up for, just to read about what is happening in early childhood advocacy and broaden your understanding.3
NAEYC also offers an Action Center that lists important initiatives underway. This section names the specific acts or bills under consideration and offers templates for you to use to influence officials in your local area.
You already know that young children should be a bigger national priority. You can help others know it too!
1American Educational Research Association (AERA), https://www.aera.net/Newsroom/Comprehensive-Research-Review-Finds-Lasting-Effects-of-Quality-Early-Childhood-Education-through-High-School
2National Multi Family Housing Council, (June 2026 data from US Census), https://www.nmhc.org/research-insight/quick-facts-figures/quick-facts-resident-demographics/households-with-children/
3The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Kids Count Data Center. Data presented for 2020 through 2025 are Vintage 2025 population estimates. https://datacenter.aecf.org/data/tables/101-child-population-by-age-group#detailed/1/any/false/
National Association for Early Childhood Education of Young Children® (NAEYC®), www.naeyc.org
Children’s Defense Fund Early Childhood Development Division (CDF) www.childrensdefense.org
National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) www.nafcc.org
National Child Care Association (NCCA) www.nationalchildcare.org
Zero to Three Policy Center -National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families www.zerotothree.org/our-work/policy-center/
NAEYC® is a registered trademark of National Association for the Education of Young Children.
National Association for the Education of Young Children® is a registered trademark of National Association for the Education of Young Children.
