Mission: The Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children (VTAEYC) advances equity and excellence in early childhood education with early childhood educators as our foundation. As a membership organization, we provide resources and advocate for policies that move early childhood education forward now and for the future.
VTAEYC works to build public awareness about early childhood education and the needs of young children and early childhood educators through advocacy and outreach.
VTAEYC represents its 500 members and partners with other early childhood organizations on the state and national levels to advance policy change in pursuit of this vision. We need your voice! VTAEYC members are invited to shape policy priorities and participate in our Public Policy Committee; join VTAEYC, sign up for our newsletter, and be in touch to get involved.
For the Vermont 2022 legislative session, VTAEYC joined Let’s Grow Kids (LGK) and the Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance to advance a shared policy agenda focused on both short-term and long-term solutions. The early childhood education workforce is in crisis, and needs immediate lifelines. At the same time, the field of early childhood education requires transformative change. Thank you for helping to ensure that our legislators understand what’s needed and what’s at stake. Please read LGK’s wrap-up summary to learn about the progress we made this session.
VTAEYC believes that “each and every child, beginning at birth, has the opportunity to benefit from high-quality early childhood education, delivered by a diverse, effective, well-prepared, and well- compensated workforce.” (Unifying Framework for the Early Childhood Education Profession, NAEYC 2020) Since 2018, we have engaged over 2000 Vermont early childhood educators in the “Advancing as a Profession” initiative to move together toward a cohesive, respected, and compensated early childhood education profession. Learn more about Vermont’s effort and get involved.
At the federal level, we partner with NAEYC to advocate for young children, their families, and early childhood educators. As an NAEYC affiliate, we offer Vermont’s perspective to NAEYC as well as our own federal delegation and we share policy updates and action alerts with our network. In 2022, we are focused on support for the priorities in the Build Back Better legislation which proposes transformational investments in early childhood education. To stay informed and take action, join VTAEYC, sign up for our newsletter, and be in touch to get involved.
