Early Care and Education Programming Overview
Pennsylvania’s early care and education system includes child care and preschool programming working together to provide children with the nurturing and academic groundwork they need for future success. The system is complex, with varying funding sources, regulatory requirements, and state oversight split between the Department of Human Services and the Department of Education. While “early care and education” can include other programs such as home visiting or early intervention, this report focuses on child care and pre-k. In Pennsylvania, roughly 680,000 children under the age of 5 could gain academic, social, and emotional skills by accessing a high- quality early education program. Of those children, over 250,000 identify as Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, Non-Hispanic two or more race groups, or Hispanic or Latino. 8 Further, of the 145,000 children under six years living in poverty across the state, more than 2 in 3 identify as American Indian, Asian and Pacific Islander, Black or African American, two or more races, or Hispanic or Latino. More than 37% of Pennsylvania Black or African American children live in poverty. 9 High-Quality Child Care DHS oversees the state’s child care system through the Office of Child Development and Early Learning. OCDEL was established in 2007 to directly link DHS and PDE and provide a single entity for child care and pre-k programs to report to. In creating OCDEL, Pennsylvania improved coordination and collaboration of programming
and operations to create a high-quality early care and education system. OCDEL’s core responsibilities include child care certification, child care subsidy and quality initiatives, evidence-based home visiting, infant/toddler Early Intervention, preschool Early Intervention, and publicly-funded pre-k through PDE.
Diversity of Pennsylvania Children Under 5 10
5%
<.5%
15%
4%
63%
13%
<.5%
Non-Hispanic White
Non-Hispanic Two or More Race Groups
Hispanic or Latinx
Non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaskan Native
Non-Hispanic Asian
Non-Hispanic Black
Non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
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2023 State of Early Care and Education
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