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Policy Platform

Community-driven policy solutions

We know our child care system isn’t working for children, families, child care providers, and the economy in Washington. We also know change does not happen over night, so Child Care for WA’s Policy Platform is our long-term vision for how Washington can build on the substantial progress of recent years to fix the child care crisis.

Child Care for WA knows that our families and child care providers are the real experts. They live the daily realities of the child care system, and they know best what changes Washington needs.  For 6 months in 2024, we met with parents, child care providers, and other stakeholders to ensure that those most impacted are the ones prioritizing and proposing solutions that will make a real difference. 

This platform serves as our North Star guide for a multi-faceted approach to make affordable child care a guarantee for all Washington families and ensure living wages and benefits for the child care workforce.  This is how we built our policy platform.
1

Outlining the Issues

Campaign partner organizations worked with parents, providers and community members to identify the questions, challenges, and opportunities Washington needs to address to fix the child care crisis.
2

Listening to Communities

For several months, we held listening sessions, community conversations, and other discussions with parents and providers. Campaign partner organizations helped organize hours of feedback into an outline of priorities shared by the community. 
3

Putting it Together

Experienced policy advocates took direction from Washington communities and translated it into a policy platform that reflects parents’ and providers’ priorities.
4

Next Steps

We are creating our 2025 Legislative Agenda with actions that we think are key first steps towards meeting the goals of the policy platform. We also committed to future refinement of the platform based on the ever-changing landscape for child care and policy in Washington.

Contributing Members

Child Care for WA is recognizes the effort and dedication of the following partners, who engaged with parents, providers and other stakeholders across Washington throughout the policy building process:

  • Child Care Aware of Washington 
  • Early Educator Design Team 
  • The Imagine Institute 
  • MomsRising 
  • OneAmerica
  • Parent Ambassadors
  • Ready Nation Washington
  • SEIU 925 
  • Start Early Washington
  • Washington Communities for Children 
  • Washington State Headstart and ECEAP Association 
  • Washington STEM 
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