Strategies to Guide the Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Relief Funding for Early Care and Education

The COVID-19 pandemic created a major upheaval to an already fragile early care and education system. As a result of the pandemic, families face additional challenges accessing care and child care providers are experiencing greater financial difficulties and struggling to keep their programs open. The pandemic has also exacerbated the racial, gender, and socioeconomic inequities within the child care system. As states strive to spend these funds in ways that support the child care industry and decrease these inequities, they must decide how to equitably distribute federal recovery funds to better support child care providers, as well as families that face greater barriers to accessing care due to systemic inequities. This report provides strategies to accomplish these goals.