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Any way you look at it, the early care and education (ECE) space is on the cusp of significant transformation. As Marica Cox Mitchell of the Bainum Family Foundation recently put it in a , “Transformative change is not a choice.” Cox Mitchell urged the audience to take control and shape the future. She shared key insights from the WeVision EarlyEd initiative, which is being piloted in several places around the country and has been making waves with its innovative approach to reimagining ECE systems.

Here in Minnesota, �������ϲ�ͼ�� is taking the lead in exploring how these concepts could reshape our ECE landscape, in particular the aspects that touch licensing and quality standards and assurance. Our goal is not just to tinker with existing systems, but to transform them fundamentally.

WeVision Approach to Comprehensive Quality Standards

aims to establish a more holistic approach to quality in early childhood education:

• Baseline Standards: The initiative proposes setting minimum quality standards that all early childhood education programs must meet, creating a consistent floor for quality across the system.
• Industry-Recognized Standards: Instead of reinventing the wheel, WeVision EarlyEd advocates for leveraging existing industry-recognized standards to create more coherence in the system.
• Quality as a Given: The initiative emphasizes that quality should be a fundamental aspect of all programs, not a luxury only available to some families.

Streamlining Licensing, Shifting to Industry-recognized Standards

This new approach involves streamlining child care licensing systems to focus primarily on health and safety measures (ratios, background checks, facility safety, etc.). This could reduce the number of licensing standards, allowing providers and regulators to focus on the items most critical to ensuring children’s health and safety.

In the model, the streamlined set of licensing standards is accompanied by a move away from state-specific quality standards and quality rating towards a use of accreditation standards set by professional associations such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children (), the National Association for Family Child Care (), and the .

Potential Benefits of a New Approach

• Equitable Treatment: The framework seeks to treat all early care and education programs equally, regardless of their building type. This means moving away from different standards and assurance mechanisms for center-based care, family child care, schools, and other ECE environments.
• Eases Family Burden: An important goal is to take the “Burden of Quality” off families by ensuring that all programs meet similar, high standards, eliminating the need for parents to navigate complex rating systems or to understand specific requirements for specific funding streams or building types.
• Streamlined Standards: Currently, child care licensing includes many standards that are more associated with quality than health and safety. Because most of these standards were developed a long time ago, many no longer make sense. For example, why count the blocks in a classroom when it is the way that an educator uses blocks to support child development that really matters?
• Centers ECE Profession: The vision aims to align supports and incentives to help providers attain industry-recognized professional standards, such as accreditation. This would bring the ECE profession in line with most other professions that look to professional organizations for professional standards.
• Right-Sized Oversight: An ECE professional’s time is put to best use when an educator is directly interacting with and supporting children. Regulatory and quality compliance should take as little time as possible and so the focus can be on bolstering the skills that improve educator/child interactions and relationships.

Looking Ahead

While Minnesota is just starting to think about this kind of shift, it represents a bold step towards transforming our ECE system. By combining streamlined licensing processes with professional accreditation and incorporating the voices of those closest to the work, we have an opportunity to create a system that truly supports high-quality care and education for all children.

By Ericca Maas, �������ϲ�ͼ�� Advocacy Consultant