Early Learning Is Racial Justice: Supporting Childcare Providers, Families, and Equitable Policy

Access to safe, affordable, and culturally responsive early learning is not a privilege—it is a foundation for racial equity, community stability, and collective liberation.

At RE:START Washington, we believe that supporting early learning and childcare is essential to building strong, resilient communities. For families navigating economic instability, immigration barriers, systemic racism, and intergenerational trauma, early learning is often the difference between surviving and thriving. For providers—many of whom are women, immigrants, and people of color—childcare is both vital care work and deeply undervalued labor.

The Reality for Families and Providers

Across Washington, families face impossible choices: unaffordable childcare costs, long waitlists, limited hours, and programs that don’t reflect their language, culture, or lived experiences. These challenges disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, immigrant, refugee, and low-income communities.

At the same time, early learning providers are stretched thin. Many operate on razor-thin margins while carrying immense responsibility—nurturing children, supporting families, and holding communities together. Despite the essential nature of their work, providers often lack fair wages, benefits, and long-term stability.

This is not accidental. It is the result of policy decisions that have historically treated care work as invisible and expendable.

Our Approach: Community-Led Solutions and Policy Change

RE:START Washington works alongside families, childcare providers, and grassroots leaders to push for policies that reflect the real needs of our communities. Our work is grounded in the belief that those most impacted by inequitable systems must lead the solutions.

We focus on:

• Centering providers’ voices in policy conversations that affect wages, licensing, and working conditions

• Advocating for equitable early learning funding that prioritizes vulnerable communities

• Supporting culturally responsive childcare models that affirm identity, language, and belonging

• Building collective power so families and providers can influence decision-making at the local and state level

Through organizing, education, and coalition-building, we work to ensure early learning policies are shaped by lived experience—not just spreadsheets and systems.

Care Work Is Infrastructure

Early learning is critical infrastructure. When childcare systems fail, parents—especially women and caregivers of color—are pushed out of the workforce, economic inequities deepen, and communities suffer. When childcare is supported, families gain stability, providers gain dignity, and children gain the opportunity to grow in safe, nurturing environments.

Investing in early learning is investing in racial justice, economic justice, and the future of our communities.

Looking Ahead

RE:START Washington will continue to advocate for early learning policies that value care work, protect providers, and expand access for families who have been historically excluded. We are committed to building systems that prioritize people over profit and care over punishment.

Because when we support our youngest community members and the people who care for them, we create pathways toward liberation for everyone.