Preschool California has built a broad and growing network of organizations that support quality preschool expansion efforts for California children.  These organizations reflect California’s great strength and diversity. We work with leaders and organizations from sectors including K-12 education, parents, law enforcement, organized labor, children’s advocacy, communities of color, early care and education, the legal community, and philanthropy. See our list of partner organizations below.

K-12 Education

California School Boards Association (CSBA) is a member-driven association that supports the governance team—school board members, superintendents and senior administrative staff—by developing, communicating and advocating the perspective of California school districts and county offices of education. In its 2003-2004 policy platform, CSBA announced its support for universally available, developmentally appropriate preschool programs and early educational opportunities. Learn more at CSBA’s Preschool Web Resource Center and check out its 2005 report: Expanding Access to High-Quality Preschool Programs: A Resource and Policy Guide for School Leaders.

California Federation of Teachers (CFT) is the statewide affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers.  The CFT represents faculty and other school employees in public and private schools and colleges, from early childhood through higher education.  It also works to improve the quality of education through legislation, political action and other forms of public advocacy for students.  Visit the American Federation of Teachers First Class Teachers website and download numerous reports on preschool quality and workforce.

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Parents

Parent Voices is a parent-run, parent-led grassroots organization committed to strengthening the capacity of parents to effectively advocate for their child care concerns.  It combines leadership development, advocacy and community organizing in its efforts to increase funding, improve quality, and provide better access to child care. See the organization’s Parent Principles on Preschool for All.
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Law Enforcement

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California is a bipartisan, nonprofit, anti-crime organization led by more than 300 sheriffs, police chiefs, district attorneys and victims of violence. Its mission is to take a hard-nosed look at the research to find what really works to keep kids from becoming criminals and then share information about proven crime-prevention strategies with policymakers, the media and the public. See FCIK’s 2005 report on waiting lists at publicly funded preschools in California: Public Safety Can't Wait: California's Preschool Shortage, A Missed Opportunity for Crime Prevention (pdf)
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Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca speaking out in support of preschool for all.

Organized Labor

Labor Project for Working Families works with unions, union members, community groups, organizations and other activists on work and family issues across the country. Activities include educating unions about work/family initiatives, advocating to improve public policies for working families, and promoting innovation and partnership between unions and communities.  Read their California Updates to find out more about their preschool opportunity for all efforts.
 
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is the largest and fasted growing union in North America.  Its 1.8 million members, made up of health care workers, janitors, public employees and industrial and allied workers, have joined together to gain a voice at work in providing better quality services for our communities.  Learn more about SEIU's work on behalf of early childhood educators.
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Children’s Advocacy

Child Development Policy Institute (CDPI) educates and engages members of the early childhood education field.

Children Now works to make children the top priority at the state and federal level. Children Now is a powerful catalyst for improving the lives of children – thousands at a time. Children Now plays a lead role in the Preschool Opportunity for All movement’s policy maker education strategy, as well as producing research to inform policy development. Children Now also works on child care, education, after school, children’s health insurance, obesity, and media issues.  Read more about their preschool opportunity for all efforts.
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Communities of Color

Asian and Pacific Islanders California Action Network (APIsCAN) is a catalyst for public policy and community development that promotes health, social, economic, and political equity for the diverse Asian and Pacific Islander communities through organizing, collaboration, leadership development and education.  APIsCAN has convened an annual statewide Legislative Conference in Sacramento during the Spring for eleven years.  This year, preschool opportunity for all was one of 3 top banner issues that Asian Pacific Islander American constituents learned more about and advocated for with 19 state legislators.  APIsCAN has been successful in garnering support from public policy organizations through the passage of Preschool for All resolutions.

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) fosters sound public policies, laws and programs to safeguard the civil rights of the 40 million Latinos living in the United States and to empower the Latino community to fully participate in our society. Safeguarding the Latino community's access to public services, including early care and education, is one of MALDEF's greatest concerns.  Read more about MALDEF's efforts to promote equal access to quality child care.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – California State Conference is an organization working toward the abolition of forced segregation, promotion of equal education and civil rights under the protection of law, an end to race violence, and to raise awareness of minority issues.

National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization established to reduce poverty and discrimination, and improve life opportunities for Hispanic Americans. NCLR works toward this goal through capacity-building assistance to Hispanic community-based organizations and applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy. Read NCLR’s Preschool Policy Recommendations and Issue Brief on Achieving a High-Quality Preschool Teacher Corps: A Focus on California (pdf).  Also, please read the September 22nd press release: NCLR to Endorse "Preschool for All Act." 

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Early Care and Education

California Association for the Education of Young Children (CAEYC) serves and acts on behalf of the needs and rights of young children with primary focus on the provision of educational services and resources to adults who work with and for children from birth through age eight.  View a list of CAEYC's early childhood and technical resources. 

California Head Start Association (CHSA) provides public policy updates, program facts, professional development resources and links to California's dynamic Head Start community serving over 104,000 children and families.  Read their California Update and Fact Sheet (pdf) on early childhood education.

California Child Care Resource & Referral Network provides access to information that enables California families to make the best child care choices from an array of high quality, affordable options.  Read their Preschool for All Program Principles.

FIRST 5 California was created by Proposition 10 of 1998 to use tobacco taxes to fund programs to promote School Readiness for children ages 0-5. Learn more about  FIRST 5 California preschool for all and school readiness initiatives, including a comprehensive "How To" tool kit for use by local entities in initiating local preschool-opportunity-for-all projects.  First 5 is a state agency that is not connected to Preschool California, an advocacy organization, other than occasional collaboration on our mutual goals.
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Legal Community

The Advancement Project is a non-profit policy and legal action organization working to solve public sector problems. It focuses on issues of equity and access with the goal of ensuring that the ladder of upward mobility extends to all Californians.  The section of their website that focuses on preschool opportunity for all is still under construction.

Public Counsel is the largest pro bono law office in the nation. It is the public interest law firm of the Los Angeles County and Beverly Hills Bar Associations, as well as the Southern California affiliate of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Public Counsel's Child Care Law Project (CCLP) was established in 1986 to increase the quantity of child care spaces, as well as to improve the quality of care.
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Philanthropy

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Children, Families, and Communities Program has adopted a new central goal for its grant making: to achieve and implement preschool for all 3 and 4 year olds in California, starting with those that need it most.

Pre-K Now, created by The Pew Charitable Trusts and formerly a part of The Trust for Early Education, is a new, dynamic organization working with state advocates to advance high-quality pre-kindergarten for all three- and four-year-olds in this country.  Read Pre-K Now's fact sheets: "What Is Quality Pre-K?" and "Why All Children Benefit from Pre-K?"

The Orfalea Fund, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation is a supporting organization of the Santa Barbara Foundation. The fund’s fields of interest include early care and education, intergenerational programs, learning differences and challenges, work-life family benefits, and programs serving the underprivileged in Santa Barbara County.
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