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EEC previews 2026–2030 strategic action plan: access, quality, workforce, stability and internal capacity
Summary
EEC staff presented a draft five‑year strategic action plan framework and sought council input on goals and sequencing for family access, program quality, workforce supports, program stability and agency infrastructure.
The Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) presented a draft 2026–2030 strategic action plan to its joint workforce and advisory councils and asked members for feedback on goals and sequencing for implementation.
The plan is organized around five strategic objectives: family access, program quality, workforce supports, program stability and agency infrastructure. Emily Connor Simons (staff member) and agency leaders said the document responds to stakeholder interviews, statutory engagement requirements and prior research, and that the plan will be finalized after further council and board input.
Why it matters: The strategic action plan is a statutory five‑year requirement that will guide EEC’s priorities, investments and implementation over the next five years. Council feedback will inform both near‑term priorities (project sequencing, year‑one targets) and longer‑term metrics.
Highlights and feedback from the meeting
- Timeline and engagement: EEC distributed a draft slide deck in advance and said the agency will collect council feedback this fall, bring a final draft to the board in December, and then continue public-facing outreach as needed. - Family access goals: EEC intends to improve information access for families (including additions to the family portal), reduce CCFA wait times where possible, and better integrate public-school preschool data into statewide capacity planning. Council members asked for clearer numeric targets and a map of funding streams to support prioritization. - Program quality: The plan names credentialing, continuous quality improvement and updates to licensing regulations as priorities. EEC emphasized it is not moving to a “high-stakes observational” accountability model but will use tools like CLASS for system-level monitoring. Council members urged attention to language access and supports for out‑of‑school‑time (OST) programs. - Workforce supports: EEC cited work on a state salary‑scale tool and an educator credential aligned with competencies; the agency said career‑pathways funding is a priority but currently funded below requested levels. Stakeholders asked for clear timelines for BRC (background record check) processing and for attention to larger employers with multiple pay scales. - Agency infrastructure: EEC has hired its first director of learning and training and plans to grow internal capacity for training, help‑desk support and IT modernization to support portals for families and educators.
Next steps: EEC asked councils to submit written comments and said the plan will remain a “living document” subject to statutory direction, funding changes and council input.
