A small rural town needed more Spanish-language child care. Here's what it took.

The Colorado Department of Early Childhood’s bilingual support team helps guide Spanish-speaking residents through the process of applying for a child care license, providing resources and training materials in applicants’ native language. The team is currently working with 69 professionals who are already licensed as well as 25 Spanish speakers in the midst of the application process.

Mounting evidence points to an increasing disparity in the educational achievements of those children who attend and complete pre-school, and those who do not. The Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program is a national home visiting initiative for low-income families that is working to bridge the gap. They provide learning curriculum, guidance, and parenting support for disadvantaged families in their homes, so that their children can be equally prepared to succeed in school.

Through programs across the country, nurses, social workers, or trained mentors offer support to new or expectant parents, imparting skills to help them become better teachers for their children. Through regular home visits with the families, these programs are working to close an achievement gap between rich and poor children that starts as early as just nine months into a child's life.

As parents struggle to find quality, affordable child care, faith-based centers like Chicago's Little Muslims are stepping in to fill the gap for some families. The program, which is one of about 7,500 sponsored by churches or religious organizations across the country, serves students of any religion but is structured around Islamic needs and customs, including offering halal meat and marking Muslim holidays.

Batibot Early Learning Center is a progressive daycare center that offers “socialized tuition” based on what families earn, making it easier for lower-income children to access early childhood education. The center enrolls 25 children and prioritizes hands-on support and therapy for children with developmental delays.

To help address falling enrollment and families’ lack of child care, Brooklyn Charter School extended the school day to twelve hours, providing before- and after-school activities and meals. So far, 80 students have signed up for the expanded hours and the school’s enrollment has rebounded from pandemic lows.

El Busesito, which means “the little bus” in English, operates four retrofitted buses that provide bilingual preschool education on wheels for Latino immigrant families in five neighborhoods. The free early childhood education has improved developmental progress and school readiness for the nearly 100 children it serves. Valley Settlement, the nonprofit that runs El Busesito, also offers family engagement programs for the communities.

The International Newcomer Academy provides English language learning students with a learning environment where they can catch up on their language skills before moving on to regular campuses. Teachers at the academy are specifically trained to provide language support and teach in an understandable way through visuals, repetition, and communication.

Outdoor schools are growing in popularity, but don't often reflect the diverse communities they serve. Two outdoor schools, one in New Mexico and the other in Washington state, are implementing programs and strategies to address the root of this systemic issue. Tiny Trees Preschool in Seattle has found success through its Redefining The Outdoors program, which gets more families of color involved in the outdoors, and by offering tuition assistance to families of color and those facing economic hardships.

Although Silicon Valley is full of high-end preschool options, the surrounding low-income areas have been deemed child care deserts, with most families resorting to informal care options. Educare, a model that has spread to 14 states, is trying to change that. Serving as both a preschool and a community gathering center and funded largely by public preschool funds, Educare brings play-based preschool to local students so they can enter kindergarten on a level playing field with their wealthier peers.