蜜桃影视

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The early care and education field has experienced an eventful 鈥� sometimes tumultuous 鈥�  year, placing it repeatedly in the spotlight. While some states such as New Mexico forged bold solutions to child care鈥檚 rising unaffordability, others responded to federal budget pressures by or freezing their child care programs, or walking back the very regulations meant to keep kids safe. When Head Start鈥檚 federal grant disbursements were slowed or frozen, the 60-year-old early education program for low-income families suffered a severe, existential threat. Meanwhile, as the sector continues to reel from the staffing shortages and high turnover rates that have haunted child care since the pandemic, is sending chills through the field鈥檚 workforce, which is nearly . Through these challenges, some child care providers have found themselves becoming involved with advocacy efforts to bring about change, with some even running for office.

Amid these developments 鈥� some amazing research and resources have emerged for the field. As the year comes to a close, zero2eight asked early care and education experts to share what they consider to be the sector鈥檚 must-read research of 2025. What emerged from their responses were a collection of reports, studies and data tools relevant to a number of urgent themes. These include the sector鈥檚 ability to respond to current events, new ways of thinking about preschool gains and economic analysis of some of the ongoing challenges facing the early care and education workforce. 

Here are some of the themes, studies and resources identified by the field鈥檚 insiders as essential to moving the sector forward.

1. Timely Research and Resources for Challenging Times

Steeply rising costs, and have all contributed to a challenging, fast-changing landscape for families and early educators, and reliant on public benefits. The following new research and tools offer timely insights into how such pressures are reshaping families鈥� lives and the early care and education sector, with some offering inspiration for how to respond. 

Working Paper: 

Authors: Thomas S. Dee, economist and the Barnett Family Professor at Stanford University鈥檚 Graduate School of Education

Key Takeaway: Immigration raids coincided with a 22% increase in daily student absences, with especially large increases among the youngest students. 

This study highlights the field鈥檚 鈥渁bility to innovate and be nimble to understand impacts of policy and policy enforcement,鈥� said nominator Cristi Carman, director of the RAPID Survey Project at Stanford Center on Early Childhood who studies family well-being. It examines the collateral damage of unexpected immigration raids in California鈥檚 Central Valley, documenting a clear pattern in children鈥檚 school attendance, said second nominator Philip Fisher, director of the Stanford Center on Early Childhood, adding that 鈥淚CE raids are associated with increased school absenteeism.鈥� According to the working paper, young children are expected to be the most likely to miss school, with students in kindergarten through fifth grade estimated to be far more likely to miss school as a result of immigration raids than high school students. 

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Report:

Authors: Children鈥檚 Funding Project staff, including Bruno Showers, state policy manager; Lisa Christensen Gee, director of tax policy; Olivia Allen, vice president of strategy and advocacy; Josh Weinstock, policy analyst (former); and Marina Mendoza, senior manager of early childhood impact

Key Takeaway: Facing dwindling federal funds, several states have innovated ways to provide dedicated funding for early care and education and youth programs.

With pandemic-era relief funds running out, states are in desperate need of models for how to continue supporting early care and education, said Erica Phillips, executive director of the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), who nominated this recent report. The report 鈥� from Children鈥檚 Funding Project, a nonprofit that helps secure sustainable public funding for children’s services 鈥� offers exactly that by providing a crucial, 鈥渧ery comprehensive overview鈥� of how some states are building long-term, dedicated revenue streams for child care, early education and youth programs as federal money runs dry. As the report鈥檚 authors explain, stable, dedicated funding is critical to thriving programs, letting states and providers to 鈥渂udget more than one year at a time, allowing them to make longer-term investments in quality improvement, facilities, staff education, and other key elements of evidence-based programs and services.鈥� 

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Data Tools: and

Authors: The diaper need mapping tool was published as part of a research collaboration between the Urban Institute and the National Diaper Bank Network. The affordability tracker was published by the Urban Institute. 

Key takeaway: Families are facing mounting economic insecurity 

The Urban Institute recently released two innovative data tools for policymakers, advocates and researchers that illuminate the increasing economic precariousness facing too many families, said Carman of the RAPID Survey Project. The interactive, produced in partnership with the National Diaper Bank Initiative, shows how many diapers each county across the nation needs to address diaper shortages facing homes with young children that are below 300% of the federal poverty level. illustrates the rising cost pressures facing families across various indicators, including how the price of groceries has changed in counties and congressional districts in recent years. 鈥淏eing able to see and understand scale and drivers of economic insecurity nationally is very powerful,鈥� wrote Carman. 

2. New Research Reveals Preschool鈥檚 Overlooked Impacts

The body of early education research about how preschool affects children often measures child outcomes such as kindergarten readiness, standardized test scores or later graduation rates. While those are all important, Christina Weiland, professor at the Marsal School of Education at the University of Michigan and the Ford School of Public Policy, wrote in an email, 鈥渨e’ve long suspected they aren’t the full picture of preschool’s effects.鈥� Weiland nominated the following working paper as part of what she considers to be a new wave of research that explores a broader set of outcomes than the field has typically examined, such as parent earnings, and subsequent schooling environments. 鈥淭ogether, these studies suggest benefits of preschool programs that have been largely overlooked,鈥� but that are key to fully understanding the potential benefits of early learning investments for children and families, noted Weiland.

Working Paper:

Authors: John Eric Humphries, faculty research fellow at Yale University鈥檚 Department of Economics; Christopher Neilson, research associate at Yale University; Xiaoyang Ye, Brown University; and Seth D. Zimmerman, research associate at Yale School of Management 

Key Takeaway: New Haven’s universal pre-K (UPK) program raised parents鈥� earnings by nearly 22% during pre-kindergarten, with gains persisting for at least six years.

Weiland said that this notable study, published in 2024 and updated in 2025, expands the preschool picture by looking at how UPK might impact parents鈥� earnings,鈥� and uses that to estimate the program鈥檚 returns on investment. It found that New Haven’s UPK program raised parents鈥� earnings by nearly 22% during pre-kindergarten, with gains persisting for at least six years, concluding that the returns to UPK investment are 鈥渉igh.鈥� As one of the first studies looking at 鈥渆arnings data in modern-day pre-K studies,鈥� noted Weiland, it offers more evidence that the field is 鈥渓ikely underestimating the return on investment early education programs have.鈥� 

3. Spotlight on the Early Child Care Workforce

Back in the spring, child care economist Chris Herbst spoke with zero2eight about how the COVID pandemic demonstrated how the child care workforce is 鈥渓ike a leaf blowing in the wind鈥� 鈥� 鈥渟ensitive to all kinds of changes in the policy and economic environment because it is is inextricably linked to the larger labor market.鈥� Because of this, a new surge of recent research by economists has focused on the workforce, with researchers seeking to understand how early care providers respond to policy and market changes. Nominators pointed toward two such studies. 

Working Paper:

Authors: Katharine C. Sadowski, assistant professor at Stanford鈥檚 Graduate School of Education

Key Takeaway: An increase in minimum wage changes who provides child care

Combining 鈥渞ich data with sensible research designs,鈥� this study examines how an increase in the minimum wage could impact child care quality and access, noted nominator Aaron Sojourner, senior economist at W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. 

Author Katharine C. Sadowski鈥檚 findings suggest that an increase to the minimum wage doesn’t lead to a decrease in the number of child care programs or the number of people working in the sector. However, minimum wage policies can influence who provides child care: larger enterprises, such as child care centers, are more likely to open and remain in operation, while smaller, self-employed providers, such as home-based child care programs, are less likely to open or remain in business. Among the smaller establishments that do stay open, the owners are less likely to have advanced degrees, the study found, potentially impacting the quality of child care provided, according to the author. 鈥淯nfortunately, minimum wage policy is binding and too important for a lot of child care employers and employees due to chronic underinvestment in the sector,鈥� wrote Sojourner, adding that this is the first paper he鈥檚 seen to leverage 鈥渞estricted-use data available through the U.S. Census Research Data Center system to generate insights on the sector.鈥�

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Study:

Authors: Chris M. Herbst, foundation professor in Arizona State University鈥檚 School of Public Affairs 

Key Takeaway: The education of the early education workforce has dropped over time, possibly due to the sector鈥檚 low wages 

This study found that the education levels and cognitive test scores of the early education workforce have been declining over time, suggesting lower teacher quality, which could have implications for children’s development. The study links this dip in teacher skills to the proliferation of early education programs which might divert future child care workers away from four-year colleges. It also looks at how low wages 鈥� which have remained low even as wages for other jobs for similarly-skilled workers have increased 鈥� might lead highly qualified individuals to choose other occupations. 

鈥淭his is analogous to what,鈥� wrote Jessica Brown, assistant professor of economics at University of South Carolina, who nominated the study. It 鈥渦nderscores the importance of the discussion of compensation in early childhood education.鈥� Brown notes that it鈥檚 a difficult topic for the field to discuss, because 鈥渘o one wants to imply that the current workforce is not high quality. But the reality is that compensation challenges mean that child care is not a very attractive job, and that has implications for the quality of the workforce.鈥�

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