Governors’ Perspectives on Addressing Child Care Needs - Supply and Demand Trends to Watch

Oct 15, 2026

Governors’ agendas for early childhood care and education are shifting toward strengthening supply, delivery, and access to quality child care for families, especially after the post-COVID period. Based on a National Governors Association roundtable convening 12 advisors from 11 states, the material outlines supply-side strategies and cross-sector partnerships while identifying key barriers across governance silos, data gaps, workforce retention limits, implementation hurdles tied to the CCDF final rule, and the expiration of temporary federal funding.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Key Takeaways

Ongoing Challenges

Governance

Data

Workforce

New Regulations

Expiration of Federal Dollars

State and Territory Innovations

Governors’ Perspectives on Addressing Child Care Needs Supply and Demand Trends to Watch Ten years ago, Governors’ rhetoric was focused on the importance of early childhood development and education, but especially in the post-COVID era, Governors are drilling down on their efforts to maintain supply of early childhood care, focusing on the role that delivery and availability of quality child care plays in families’ lives. Last year, over 20 state and territorial leaders explicitly mentioned early care and education in their 2024 Governors’ State of the State Addresses, and the number continues to grow; in 2025, 27 Governors mentioned either child care or early care and education in their State of the State Addresses. Across Republican and Democrat Governors, state and territory leaders are making early care and education (ECE) a bigger part of their gubernatorial agendas. Mirroring this shift, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) is focused on bringing states and territories together for peer learning on efforts to bolster ECE delivery systems. In October 2024, the NGA Center, in partnership with the First Five Years Fund, convened a full-day roundtable discussion for state and territorial childcare leaders to explore the future of state child care leadership. Convening 12 advisors from 11 states representing a diverse array of Governors, participants examined innovations, challenges, and opportunities within the state, especially during a time of transition at the tail end of historic federal pandemic relief funding. Representing Gubernatorial perspectives from Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, North Dakota, New York, Oklahoma, Vermont and Wyoming, the group delved into conversations about trends, topics and approaches related to where states and Governors are headed next in efforts to bolster the availability of child care. Key Takeaways Especially in light of leaner state budgets, Governors are focused on addressing challenges via supply-side solutions and engaging in strategic cross-sector approaches to look across the state early childhood landscape to coordinate their ECE systems-building efforts. Undertaking efforts to explore comprehensive, statewide strategies that utilize all avenues for a mixed-delivery system, Governors are working to develop broad, statewide strategies with a key focus on building strong partnerships with government bodies like State Early Childhood Advisory Councils and Head Start Collaboration offices in addition to working with employers, providers and private sector groups like Chambers of Commerce. Strengthening these collaborations is becoming an increasingly important priority for administrations. Ongoing Challenges Themes from the roundtable discussions on shared challenges that hinder Governors’ in addressing supply of accessible, affordable and quality child care included: Governance: Developing coordinated policy solutions is especially challenging when different parts of the work are siloed within different agencies. While some states have a centralized department or agency that coordinates ECE policy, others may have 2 – 5 entities that each have a piece of the ECE ecosystem. Additionally, the Head Start program, which often accounts for a large portion of state and territory preschool slots, operates outside the state/territory purview. Disjointed programming, mismatched expectations or different operating priorities between agencies adds additional layers of hazards to navigate. Discussions explored lessons learned from Colorado as the state created an entirely new department, while Maine coordinates ECE policy through their children’s cabinet. States are also leveraging Preschool Development Grants (PDG B-5) to promote systems building across their ECE programs. Data: Access to up-to-date information continues to be a challenge for state leaders looking to improve their states’ care sectors. Several st

FAQs

What change in governors’ focus is described in the report?

Governors are increasingly prioritizing early care and education (ECE) delivery and supply, with attention to how quality child care availability affects families’ lives.

Which ongoing challenge related to governance is highlighted?

Coordinated policy work is difficult when ECE responsibilities are siloed across multiple agencies or when Head Start operates outside state/territory oversight.

What creates major implementation pressure for states under new regulations?

Some states struggle to implement the CCDF final rule effectively because dedicated funding is lacking, even though the intent is to improve access for children and families.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Taylor Morgan