Advocacy in Action

Kidango is an early learning nonprofit committed to setting every child on a path to thrive in kindergarten and in life. As the largest child care provider in the San Francisco Bay Area, we provide children with safe, healthy and nurturing environments and relationships, fostering the social, emotional, and academic skills they need to learn, grow and realize their potential. From our position at the nexus of practice, policy and research, we advocate for evidence-based early learning and care policies that help close the opportunity and readiness gaps for our youngest learners.

Kidango’s advocacy, policy, and research team is committed to designing and moving forward policy solutions that uplift the voices and perspectives of families and child care professionals. Kidango’s advocacy process is built to involve families and child care professionals at each step of the way. Our budget and policy priorities this year were shaped by focus groups and insights directly from Kidango classrooms and staff, from departments ranging from enrollment to nutrition.

Our state has made huge commitments and policy changes to move towards an Early Care and Education (ECE) field that is professionally and financially supported to create environments where all children can thrive. Our priorities this year are grounded in our strongly held conviction that we must continue this momentum if we are to achieve the transformative system changes California has laid out in the Master Plan for Early Learning and Care. This can be seen in the issues we will advocate for on a state level, as well as our focus on implementing new policies and practices in the most beneficial ways possible for children.

FY26-27 Policy Agenda:

As a leading childcare and preschool non-profit, Kidango has been proud to partner with Governor Newsom’s administration and the California Legislature. We have made historic progress towards achieving the goals set out in the Master Plan for Early Learning and Care and becoming a “California for all kids.” We know that early care and education not only gives children a strong start in life, but also enables parents to work, thereby driving local and state economies. And yet, less than half of all children in California – and only 1 in 4 families below the federal poverty level – have access to child care.

At this critical moment, we must remain resilient and continue the momentum and progress. We emphasize the importance of helping families access and afford child care, and of improving wages for early childhood caregivers. To do this, Kidango will advocate for the following budget and policy priorities for 2026-27: 

• Fulfill the commitment to deliver the remaining 200,000 childcare spaces promised in the 2021–22 State Budget Act.
• Raise the wages of early childhood caregivers by implementing rate reform. 
• Remove unnecessary bureaucratic barriers and regulations to ensure scarce public dollars go to serve children and families. 
• Continue to strengthen the Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (ECMHC) Model across the state and support programs to utilize this approach.
• Provide more  flexible assessment options for programs so that they can  more easily promote equity, continuous learning, and child-focused instruction in a manner that best suits their needs. 

We look forward to working together and standing firm as a state on our commitment to children. To be a California for ALL and a leader in our nation, we must continue to take bold and innovative action to meet the needs of children and families.