For Policymakers​

Parish-Level Data

To find your parish’s fact sheet about the number of children who are served and unserved by early care and education programs, click on the name of the parish.

BESE District Data 

To find your BESE district’s fact sheet about the number of children who are served and unserved by early care and education programs, click on your district number. 

Talking Points

The following talking points support the case for increased investment in affordable, high-quality early care and education programs in Louisiana.

Federal-Level Necessary Actions 
  • Expand access to high-quality early care and education
    • Investing in high-quality early care and education is the best possible use of public dollars, with a Nobel laureate economist finding that the return on investment is over 13% per year. 
    • When parents have access to high-quality early care and education for their young children, not only do those children arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed, but parents are more productive in the workforce. 
    • A LPIC recent study, conducted in conjunction with the University of Louisiana-Lafayette’s Blanco Center, found that child care breakdowns cost Louisiana’s economy $1.3 billion every year. 
  • Expand the child tax credit
    • The federal child tax credit, which was temporarily expanded and made refundable as part of the American Rescue Plan, can lift millions of children out of poverty. 
    • Recent LPIC research, “Struggling To Recover: The Impact of COVID-19 on Louisiana Families With Young Children”, suggested that almost half of Louisiana families experienced a reduction of family income during the pandemic, and that the downturn hit families of color and low-income families especially hard. 
    • With national estimates suggesting the expanded federal child tax credit  could lower the child poverty rate by more than 40%, making this tax credit expansion permanent could have a transformative effect on Louisianans.
  • Offer families paid leave
    • Parental paid leave can increase labor force participation, help families improve their economic circumstances, and boost economic growth. 
    • Most importantly, paid parental leave improves child health and well-being. Supporting plans that can help expand paid leave will help families and improve America’s competitive edge globally.
State-Level Necessary Actions 
  • Invest $86 million to expand access to high-quality early care and education for children aged birth to three from CCAP-eligible families, with subsequent investments over a decade, as recommended by the Louisiana Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Commission.
  • Support local governments in making early care and education investments in their communities, through enabling legislation when necessary.
  • Explore new sources of revenue that can be used to support our children, our families, our businesses, and our economy through targeted, strategic investments in early care and education. 
  • Invest in:
    • Existing quality-rated child care providers so they stay in business and are able to care for as many of Louisiana’s young children as possible
    • Emerging quality-rated child care providers so we can build our child care supply
    • Families so all parents are able to access a quality-rated early care and education program if they need it
  • Utilize federal funds and also prioritize state funding streams on behalf of our youngest children.
Local-Level (Municipal/Parish) Necessary Actions
  • Make local investments to increase access to high-quality early care and education programs through allocations in city budgets, millage taxes, etc. while leveraging state matching funds from the Louisiana Early Childhood Education Fund.
  • Use locally designated American Rescue Plan Act’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund dollars for one-time early care and education-related purposes, such as providing grants to child care centers to help them reopen or stay open, increasing access to child care for working families with young children, and compensating child care workers. Click here for more information. 
  • School systems can use Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief I (ESSER), ESSER II, and ESSER III funds to create or expand early care and education programs, or partner with lead agencies to utilize CRRSA and/or ESSER II funds to support early childhood efforts.

Legislative Session Materials

2023 Legislative Session

2023 Joint Statement for Early Care and Education Asks from the Ready Louisiana Coalition
Ready Louisiana coalition’s Joint Statement, signed by over 100 organizations statewide, for legislative asks for early care and education during the 2023 legislative session

North Louisiana Voters Overwhelmingly Support Investments in Early Care and Education
Polling data showing that over 70 percent of active voters in North Louisiana think it is important for the state to increase investments in early care and education to expand access for families.

2022 Legislative Session

2022 Legislative Session Recap
The Louisiana Policy Institute for Children’s Wins for Early Care and Education this Legislative Session

Early Care and Education: The Best Solution for Louisiana’s Economy and Children
Policy brief about appropriating $94 million of state funds to early care and education programs

2022 Joint Statement for Early Care and Education Asks from the Ready Louisiana Coalition
Ready Louisiana coalition’s Joint Statement, signed by over 95 organizations statewide, for legislative asks for early care and education during the 2022 legislative session

Early Investments Pay Off: How Funding Early Care and Education Programs Prevents Future Crime
Fact sheet about the connection between early care and education and juvenile justice prevention

Local Actions on Early Care and Education in Louisiana
One-page summary of how local entities can receive a dollar-for-dollar match from the Louisiana Early Childhood Education fund to match local investments that expand access to quality early care and education for children.

Child Care and the Economy in Louisiana, Summary
Policy brief summary about the impact of parental absences due to child care breakdowns on Louisiana’s workforce and employers (developed in partnership with the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center)

Ready Louisiana and Fight Crime, Invest in Kids Press Conference
The Ready Louisiana Coalition held a press conference in partnership with Fight Crime, to share their latest brief, Preschool Key to Boosting School Success and Enhancing Public Safety. The brief highlights an independent cost-benefit analysis that found an average per-child societal “profit” of more than $15,000—and applies it to the additional children served by the preschool provisions.

2021 Legislative Session

Louisiana Voters Support Taxes to Fund Early Care and Education: Summary
A one-page summary of key takeaways from a poll of likely Louisiana voters conducted in April 2021

Finding a Path Forward: A Sustainable Plan for Early Care and Education
Two-page summary about how Louisiana needs a long-term plan on how to replace COVID-19 federal relief funds in 2024 and invest in early care and education

Joint Statement for Early Care and Education Asks from the Ready Louisiana Coalition
The Ready Louisiana coalition’s Joint Statement, signed by over 95 organizations statewide, for legislative asks for early care and education during the 2021 legislative session

Additional Key Resources

Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Commission Reports

The Louisiana legislature established the state-level Early Childhood Care and Education Commission (the Commission) through Louisiana Act 639 (2018) which calls on the Commission to develop a vision and plan to address affordable access to high-quality early childhood education for Louisiana’s children, birth through age 4 and formalize the local governance structures (community networks) to support increased innovation in local contexts, ultimately leading to improved quality and access to funding.

The following reports are from the ECCE Commission.

Louisiana Early Childhood Education Fund

The Louisiana Early Childhood Education Fund offers local entities in Louisiana a dollar-for-dollar match on investments made to expand access to quality early care and education for children who need it most. 

This state fund, which has several dedicated sources of revenue, has been growing and the first distributions from this fund are expected to be distributed in 2022. 

Several Louisiana communities have committed to addressing early care and education at the local level. 

  • East Baton Rouge School District is exploring expanding their offerings for 4-year-olds and expanding coverage of 3-year-olds by utilizing empty classrooms in the district and partnering with local, quality-rated child care providers to staff those classrooms. The project is currently being funded with federal relief dollars, including federal dollars dedicated to developing a strategic plan to finance the expansion long-term after relief aid expires. 
  • Jefferson Parish allocated $250,000 in their parish budget to support expanded quality early care and education offerings to local residents.
  • New Orleans allocated $3 million in its city budget to create the “City Seats” program. This program provides quality early care and education to local families as well as some wrap-around services, and is modeled after Early Head Start. New Orleans first dedicated city money to this program in 2017 and doubled its investment annually between 2018 and 2020.
  • Pointe Coupee Parish leveraged school readiness tax credits to encourage greater local investment in quality programs benefiting 3-year-olds. While Louisiana averages serving half of at-risk 3-year-olds statewide, Pointe Coupee Parish serves over 90% of its 3-year-olds.
  • Shreveport engaged with local business leaders and philanthropic organizations to fundraise $1 million to support expanded quality early care and education offerings to local residents.
  • In 2022, New Orleans voters approved a property tax millage for early childhood education that will generate an estimated $21.3M annually for 20 years for the expansion of the “City Seats” program. This program provides quality early care and education to local families as well as some wrap-around services, and is modeled after Early Head Start. New Orleans launched the program with a $750,000 investment in the 2018 City budget, which doubled annually through 2020 and was sustained at $3M annually before the passage of the early childhood education millage via a ballot initiative with 61% of those who voted voting in support of it.