On kidsdata.org, indicators of early childhood care and education include:

• The percentage of children ages 0-5 whose parents read with them, by weekly frequency
• Single-year estimates of the percentage of children ages 3-5 not enrolled in preschool or kindergarten, by county, and, for the U.S. and California, by age and by race/ethnicity; also available are five-year estimates for regions with 10,000+ residents and legislative districts

Kidsdata.org also provides the following measures of licensed child care in California:*

• The annual cost of child care for infants and preschoolers in child care centers and family child care homes
• The number of child care spaces in licensed facilities and the percentage of full-time and part-time spaces available
• The number of licensed child care facilities and the percentage of facilities offering evening, weekend or overnight care
• The percentage of child care requests by age group and the percentage of requests for evening, weekend or overnight care

Child care is a critically important need for many families in the United States (1). High-quality child care centers and homes deliver consistent, developmentally sound, and emotionally supportive care and education (1, 2). Research indicates that high-quality early care and education can have long-lasting positive effects; specifically, high-quality child care before age 5 is associated with higher levels of behavioral/emotional functioning, school readiness, academic achievement, educational attainment, and earnings, with improvements particularly pronounced for children from low-income families and those at risk for academic failure (1, 2, 3).

However, finding affordable, high-quality child care is a major challenge for many families, and access differs based on geography, race/ethnicity, and income (3). And the cost is high. For example, center-based infant care costs in California made up an estimated 18% of the median annual income for married couples and 56% for single parents in 2018 (1). In 2018, California was ranked the least affordable state for center-based infant care in the nation (1).

In 2016, an estimated 39% of California children ages 3-5 were not enrolled in preschool or kindergarten, similar to estimates from previous years. Over 43% of Hispanic/Latino 3- to 5-year olds were not enrolled in preschool of kindergarten, compared with less than 33% of their Asian American, white, and multiracial peers. Among counties with data in 2012-2016, the percentage of children in this age group not enrolled in preschool or kindergarten ranged from 22% (San Francisco) to 53% (Madera).

California's 36,715 licensed child care centers and family child care homes provided 976,057 child care spaces in 2019. Overall, the number of licensed facilities and spaces have been on the decline since 2008. In 2018, the average annual cost of licensed infant care exceeded $17,000 in child care centers and approached $12,000 in family child care homes. Care for preschool-age children was less expensive, but still more than $12,000 in child care centers and nearly $11,000 in family child care homes.

Early childhood is a critical period for biological, cognitive, and social development (1, 2). The quality of children's environments and experiences during these years have lasting effects (1, 2). From infancy, children learn to relate to others and their environment while developing skills to successfully navigate social, emotional, and educational challenges (2, 3). Research has shown that quality early education and child care can have positive, long-term impacts on child development, especially for children with low family incomes or other disadvantages (1, 2, 3). For example, children who attend high-quality preschools tend to have better test scores, fewer behavioral problems, and higher rates of high school graduation, among other long-term benefits (1, 2). Without access to high-quality early learning opportunities, children can fall behind their peers, creating an academic achievement gap that has been shown to widen with age (1, 2). However, many families have difficulty accessing quality early care and education, often due to a lack of program affordability or availability (1).

Policies that could improve early education and child care include:

• Increasing state funding for early care and education, tying funding to program quality and prioritizing care for infants, toddlers, and children with the greatest needs (1)
• Requiring early education programs that receive public funding to participate in a continuous improvement process that includes benchmarked quality ratings, action plans for improvement, accountability measures, financial incentives, program support, and parent education efforts (1, 4)
• Creating adequate capacity for high-quality care and comprehensive learning programs for infants and toddlers, including full-day preschool for all low-income children ages 3-4, and integrating guidelines for easing the transitions from early care to preschool to the K-12 environment (1, 2, 5)
• Improving the state's professional development infrastructure to prepare and support an effective early childhood education workforce that includes accessible, coordinated, standardized, high-quality training for educators and caregivers that is research based and focused on applying knowledge to practice (1, 2, 3)
• Making the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit fully refundable at the state level, targeting low and moderate income earners, regardless of tax liability, and encouraging other federal solutions to address the high cost of child care (6)