DCYF’s vision for early learning in Washington state includes an integrated, mixed-delivery system of affordable, high-quality early care and education for all of Washington’s children, to support child outcomes, school readiness, and family well-being.
The Washington State Legislature tasked DCYF to develop an implementation plan that would expand families’ access to high-quality early care and education, costing families no more than 7% of their household income, and provide the early care and education workforce living wages and benefits.
The Access and Living Wage Plan (ALW) outlines a comprehensive set of scalable policy recommendations to implement a universally accessible, publicly funded child care system in 10 years. The ALW plan articulates and represents DCYF's north star, our roadmap, and specific strategies for reaching it, as resources become available.
Access and Living Wage Proviso Reports
Next Steps
- DCYF is implementing recommendations that do not currently require additional funding or staffing and leverages existing Legislative work.
- DCYF is further exploring the needs for facilities to support increased access to affordable, high-quality early care and education.
- In 2026, there will be recommendations for an implementation plan related to technical assistance, start-up supports, and other items focused on early care and education facilities that will advance the Early Care and Education Access and Living Wage Implementation Plan.
- Status updates will be provided at least once per biennium to share implementation progress, identify Legislative investments or policy changes, and refinement of strategies, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
The ECE ALW Implementation Plan builds upon the foundation of existing work in Washington including the Child Care Collaborative Taskforce, the Early Learning Coordination Plan, the Early Educator Design Team, and the Fair Start for Kids Act.
The Plan is focused on strategies for a universal, publicly funded, ECE system for all Washington families and how to uplift the ECE workforce with living wages and benefits.
The Plan outlines a comprehensive set of scalable policy recommendations to implement a universally accessible, publicly funded child care system over the next 10 years. The plan is organized into four goals with objectives for each:
- Families have access to affordable, high-quality ECE that meets their needs
- Create a child care guarantee for all families who need and choose to access care.
- Reduce barriers and ensure equitable access for families.
- Increase access to before/after school, summer, and evening/weekend care.
- Support inclusion of children with special needs.
- Support a thriving ECE workforce
- Child care providers receive living wages and benefits honoring the essential work they do.
- Support child care providers to meet requirements and deliver the high-quality care families need.
- Increase relational health and infant and early childhood mental health supports for children and providers in diverse settings.
- Leverage data and align systems
- Ensure access to high-quality data to guide decisions and increase accountability.
- Enable integrated and inclusive classrooms.
- Pair new resources with accountability to support high-quality, social justice, anti-judgmental implementation of programs and resources.
- Adequate facilities for expansion of the ECE system
- Maximize capital budget investments in the Early Learning Facilities (ELF) fund.
- Explore and implement new approaches to meet the long-term facilities needs to scale access for children and families.
The Plan outlines strategies for each objective. Strategies include a description of why it is important and how it can be implemented. See the Plan for additional details.
Per the Proviso legislation, development of the Plan was guided by a Steering Committee with representation from DCYF, Child Care Aware of Washington, SEIU 925, and consultation from families via community outreach.
Community engagement was central to the development of the Plan. In addition to direct engagement with DCYF advisory groups and staff, DCYF contracted with Washington Communities for Children (WCFC) to conduct a series of community conversations across the state to inform development of the Implementation Plan. Review the Access and Living Wage Engagement Findings Summary and Early Care & Education Access and Living Wage Proviso Report to learn more about the feedback that informed the ALW Plan.
The ECE Access and Living Wage Implementation Plan is based upon a 10-year (5 biennium) phase-in timeline with expansion of Working Connections Child Care eligibility and rate increases to align with the Cost of Quality Care Rate Model set to begin in 2029, reflecting outcomes of the 2025 legislative session and the state's current fiscal context.
Low and no-cost Implementation Plan strategies such as mapping and discovery processes will begin as resources are available.
The timeline for achieving these changes will depend upon decisions and investments made by the Washington State Legislature.
In response to the state budget shortfall, the 2025 legislative session resulted in cuts to some early care and education programs as well as delays in implementation of some previously planned expansions included in the Fair Start for Kids Act.
The Plan seeks to balance the long-term goals of the proviso that no family pays more than 7% of their income and ECE workers are paid a living wage. We recognize the budget limits what is possible right now. DCYF still needs to have a road map for reaching this north star over time.
While DCYF recognizes the current fiscal context makes achieving the goals of the Plan challenging, DCYF also recognizes this is a critical issue for Washington state. The Plan serves as DCYF's long-term commitment to a universal, publicly funded ECE system to benefit our state's children and families, the committed professionals who serve them, and the overall state economy.
ECONorthwest supported cost-modeling for phase-in of the child care guarantee with living wages for educators over 10 years beginning in 2029, which aligns with updates to the Fair Start for Kids Act expansion timeline made during the 2025 legislative session.
Cost-modeling information is available upon request and will be included in future updates to the Plan.
DCYF is committed to updating the Plan every two years, which will include refinement of longer-term strategies in response to the evolving political and fiscal context. Updates will include cost projections.
DCYF has continued to take steps to ensure agency readiness to implement policy recommendations upon action from the state legislature.
DCYF has received approval from the federal agency administering child care subsidies to use an alternative rate-setting methodology. This means the state has approval to move away from using the Market Rate Survey to set subsidy rates to using the Cost of Quality Care Rate Model. This transition will require new investments from the state legislature.
Many of the strategies in the Plan require planning or discovery in collaboration with partners and impacted communities as a first step. This work will begin now.
DCYF is currently working on an Early Care and Education Facilities Exploration project. It ties to the strategies and recommendations in Goal 4: Adequate facilities for expansion of the ECE system. Through this project, an actionable implementation plan will be completed in June of 2026. Strategies and recommendations from that plan will be incorporated into future updates of the ECE Access and Living Wage Implementation Plan.
Fair Start for Kids Act (FSKA)
The Fair Start for Kids Act stabilized the child care sector and made historic progress toward increasing access and affordability to ECE opportunities for families and increasing resources for the ECE workforce. The ECE Access and Living Wage Implementation Plan builds directly upon the policies and investments of the Fair Start for Kids Act. The continued implementation of FSKA is the foundation of the Implementation Plan's phased approach.
While DCYF is still committed to the implementation of FSKA, the 2025 legislative session either reduced or eliminated investments, and delayed expansion that halts current FSKA implementation plans.
Early Education Design Team
The ECE Access and Living Wage Implementation Plan, building upon the recommendations of the Early Educator Design Team, recommends transitioning away from setting Working Connections Child Care rates using the Market Rate Survey to setting rates based on the true cost of quality using the Cost of Quality Care Rate Model, which was developed through a collaborative process with the Early Educator Design Team.
Early Learning Coordination Plan
The Early Learning Coordination Plan is designed to guide our early learning system towards goals that matter most to our children, families, and the professionals who support them. The ECE Access and Living Wage Implementation Plan recommendations align to advance the Early Learning Coordination Plan's mission and strategies.
Child Care for WA Policy Platform
While DCYF worked to develop the Implementation Plan, early care and education advocates engaged in a parallel process to develop the Child Care for WA Policy Platform. It was developed based on listening sessions, community conversations, and other discussions with parents and providers. During development of the Policy Platform, DCYF staff attended meetings of the Child Care for WA Partner Roundtable to serve as a resource for advocates on the context and implementation implications for investment and policy recommendations under consideration.
The Child Care for WA Policy Platform is the Child Care for WA campaign's long-term vision for expanding ECE access and ensuring living wages and benefits for providers. It was a key source of input for the ECE Access and Living Wage Implementation Plan. The difference between DCYF as a state agency and Child Care for WA as an advocacy campaign means that there are differences in the policy recommendations included in the Policy Platform and the ECE Access and Living Wage Implementation Plan.
To learn more about the Child Care for WA campaign, visit the campaign's website.