Early learning and care is receiving historic interest and investment in California. The governor’s call for a master plan for Early Childhood Development and a newly formed Early Childhood Policy Council provide unprecedented opportunities to advocate for better data to inform programs focused on improving workforce quality.
This report describes the opportunity the California Early Care and Education Workforce Registry offers to streamline data collection on the early learning and care workforce. Regulatory and policy changes are needed to realize this potential and ensure access to high-quality, verified data crucial for local and state-level workforce reporting, research, policy, practice, and advocacy.
This report reviews the current barriers to gaining a better understanding of the early learning and care workforce in California and provides examples and recommendations of how the Registry can address those challenges and create opportunities for greater efficiencies in gathering improved data.
The California Early Care and Education (ECE) Workforce Registry is a secure, web-based data system that tracks the education, professional development, and experience of the early learning and care (ELC) workforce, which includes those working with and on behalf of young children in the various care and learning settings across the state. With more than 74,000 active users, the Registry is the largest and most comprehensive and efficient source of ECE workforce data for California.
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