2026 Legislative Priorities
& Policy Agenda
2026 Legislative Priorities
CT Early Childhood Alliance calls on the Connecticut General Assembly to take meaningful action to address key systemic barriers to success for families with young children and their caregivers.
We offer the following policy recommendations:
Prioritize investment in the Early Childhood Endowment to sustain early childhood program stability and fulfill the promise of the Early Start program.
Increase General Fund appropriations for Care4Kids to address the waitlist, allowing parents to work and children to receive early education.
Establish a fully-refundable, permanent CT Child Tax Credit to provide families with relief from the economic impacts of inflation and tariffs.
Increase payment rates to Birth to Three providers to address the provider deficit and ensure access to early intervention services and developmental support for families.
2026 Policy Agenda
CT Early Childhood Alliance is committed to improving education, health, and economic security outcomes for young children and their caregivers.
In addition to our legislative priorities, we are working hard with our members and coalition partners on the following issues:
Support for Families:
Protecting infants and toddlers from the trauma of homelessness through targeted housing subsidies for families with very young children.
Sunsetting waivers for underage kindergarten entry to create a predictable standard across the state.
Eliminating administrative delays to early education enrollment for DCF-involved children, providing stability for vulnerable children and removing care-related barriers to foster placement.
Reducing Child Care Deserts:
Increasing Care4Kids payment levels in Eastern CT to allow providers to operate successfully.
Increasing provider reimbursement rates to reflect the true cost of care to ensure child care providers can raise wages for early educators and stay in business.
Coordinating facilities funding with child care subsidies to eliminate the financial barrier to opening new child care businesses in child care deserts.
Strengthening & Stabilizing the Child Care Sector
Enhancing pipeline development and credentialing incentives for early educators to reduce the impact of barriers to higher education and increase the supply of highly qualified early childhood educators.
Expediting background checks for early educators to allow newly-hired educators to start work more quickly so more children can be served.
Exploring routes to affordable liability and property coverage options so child care providers don’t have to increase parent fees to cover rising insurance costs.
Designate income-eligible early educators as a priority group for Care4Kids so early educators with young children can work, increasing the supply of teachers and available child care slots.
Establish health care and retirement access for small child care businesses to make a career in early childhood education a sustainable option for educators and attract new educators to the field.
Increase funds related to Special Education support for early educators to ensure equitable early childhood education experiences for children with special needs through provider programming, resources, and professional development.
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