Vermont’s Early Childhood Strategic Plan 2030 provides a shared vision and roadmap to ensure every child in Vermont, from the prenatal period through age 8, has the resources, opportunities, and support to thrive. The Plan is guided by Building Bright Futures’ (BBF’s) legislative mandate to steward Vermont’s early childhood system.
The Plan centers equity, belonging, and justice. It celebrates the strengths and resilience of Vermont families while confronting systemic barriers such as high costs of living, housing shortages, limited access to health and child care, and discrimination.
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Goals of Vermont’s Early Childhood Strategic Plan
Children cannot thrive without stable housing, food, income, and transportation. The stress of being unable to meet basic physiological needs such as food and shelter, often due to poverty, impacts parents’ and caregivers’ capacity to create environments that support early childhood development. To advance this goal, Vermont must develop and expand financial supports, implement paid leave and family-friendly workplace policies, remove barriers that limit access to basic resources, and address the needs of those most impacted by economic insecurity.
Every child should grow up in conditions that support health, safety, and resilience. Stable, nurturing environments help children thrive in school, build strong relationships, and grow into healthy adults. Unsafe or unstable settings, trauma, and poor health can disrupt development and increase risks of chronic illness, mental health challenges, academic struggles, and involvement in child welfare or justice systems. To advance this goal, Vermont must invest in preventative health care, ensure access to health insurance, build emergency preparedness and climate resilience, invest in community infrastructure such as parks and broadband, and center racial equity in the child protection and health and human services systems.
Every child deserves access to opportunities that nurture their physical, social-emotional, and intellectual growth. Early experiences are the foundation of healthy development, preparing children for success in school and life. Without access, too many children miss critical developmental supports, deepening disparities in learning and long-term well-being. To advance this goal, Vermont must increase equitable access and affordability of early childhood education through a coordinated mixed-delivery system, increase inclusion for children with disabilities and developmental delays, ensure access to early intervention and special education, provide support and resources to early childhood education programs and schools, and reduce or eliminate exclusionary discipline in early childhood settings.
The early childhood workforce is essential to the health and success of children, families, and communities. A strong workforce not only ensures high-quality care and learning but also underpins Vermont’s economy by enabling parents to work and employers to thrive. Without equitable pay, professional recognition, and long-term investment, the state risks ongoing shortages, instability, and lost opportunities for children and families. To advance this goal, Vermont must expand access to affordable, high-quality training, education, and professional development for the early childhood workforce; increase compensation and benefits to allow workers to meet their basic needs and to thrive; and engage in effective recruitment and retention tactics to attract a broad, stable, diverse workforce.
Families and caregivers must hold real power in shaping decisions, and families’ transitions across systems must be smooth and coordinated. Caregivers are experts on the care, services, and supports each family member needs, and their voices should guide the policies, practices, and investments that shape their lives. High-quality, up-to-date data is an essential tool for learning about and responding to the needs of children and families statewide. To advance this goal, Vermont must involve families in leadership and decision-making, improve transitions among services, invest in improvements to data systems, and promote collaboration among early childhood leaders.
Strategic Plan Committees
Strategic Plan committees help keep the Plan on track by checking in regularly on progress and listening to data, stories, and community feedback. They work together to spot what’s going well, where changes are needed, and how to better support children, families, and providers. By sharing responsibility and learning as they go, committees help ensure the Plan stays useful, fair, and responsive over time.
Families and Communities Committee (Goal 5)
Safe, Healthy, and Healing Environments Committee (Goal 2)
Early Learning and Development Committee (Goal 3)
Family Economic Security Group (Goal 1)
Early Childhood Workforce Advisory Group (Goal 4)
Data and Evaluation Committee (Goal 5)
Early Childhood Interagency Coordinating Team (Goal 5)
How to Use the Plan
Legislators, the State of Vermont Administration, and Early Childhood Leaders Can:
- Reference Vermont’s Early Childhood Strategic Plan when considering funding allocations, formulating priorities, and developing legislation.
- Reference existing efforts or best practices called out in the Plan when developing policy.
- Better understand the priorities of families and early childhood professionals.
- Identify resource gaps and create policies or budgets to fill them.
Advocates Can:
- Reference the Plan when advocating for change in a variety of settings including legislative testimony.
- Hold policymakers accountable to advancing the shared goals in the Plan.
- Demonstrate a commitment to shared priorities and encourage community involvement to ensure local voices contribute to the implementation of the Plan.
Families Can:
- Use the Plan to advocate to system leaders and policymakers to make changes centering the needs of young children and families.
- Ensure their own perspectives, and those of other families are reflected and prioritized.
- Find ideas and shared language for advocacy for issues that impact families and their communities.
State Advisory Council Members and BBF Staff Can Use This Strategic Plan to:
- Set and uphold a shared vision for Vermont’s early childhood system.
- Monitor and promote progress across all goals.
- Guide resource allocation to equitably meet identified needs.
The Early Childhood Workforce Can Use This Plan to:
- Use their perspectives and expertise to support state and local initiatives that prioritize young children and families and the early childhood workforce.
- Advocate for investments in early childhood programming, workforce development, and curriculum aligned with the Plan and lend their expertise to support implementation.
Other Partners (e.g., Higher Education, Researchers, and Business Leaders) Can:
- Develop partnerships to share data and use data responsibly.
- Influence policymaking and legislation at the state and local level in ways that prioritize young children, families, and the early childhood workforce.
- Review and align early childhood degree and credential programs and professional development offerings and make changes to better align them with the goals in the Plan.
- Revise their workplace policies as needed to better support employees with young children.
Sign On to the Plan
The success of this Plan depends on shared ownership, not top-down control. To make progress by 2030, we commit to playing to our collective strengths and honoring the unique contributions each partner brings. Partners who sign on commit to taking action within their own areas while also supporting and holding each other accountable. State agencies, community partners, and families share in both progress and course corrections.
Signing onto Vermont’s Early Childhood Strategic Plan is voluntary and adaptable, and partners may participate at different levels of stewardship. Partners may expand, shift, or sunset their commitments over time in response to evolving priorities, evidence, or capacity, ensuring the Plan remains a living document. If gaps or significant shifts are identified through monitoring, new partners can be invited to opt in to address emerging needs. Sign-on commitments will be documented and published, reinforcing accountability and demonstrating partners’ roles in advancing the Plan’s priorities.
How Was Vermont’s Early Childhood Strategic Plan Developed?
Released in 2025, this update builds on the 2020 Vermont’s Early Childhood Action Plan (VECAP) and reflects what families, caregivers, and early childhood professionals shared through intensive engagement. Nearly 200 Vermonters contributed through conversations, letters, and storytelling. They included parents, grandparents, kinship and foster caregivers, educators, health providers, and community leaders. Their input was paired with analysis of 49 statewide planning documents and needs assessments to ensure the goals are both community-driven and evidence-based. Partners also shaped iterative revisions, refining language, strengthening priorities, and ensuring the Plan reflects Vermont’s diverse perspectives and expertise.
