Featured Stories
Building an Early Childhood Policy Field: Confronting Past, Present, and Future Issues at ECPIHE’s 2026 D.C. Policy Institute
Fifty-six graduate students and faculty from 12 ECPIHE-affiliated IHEs spent four days in Washington, D.C. learning from leaders shaping the future of early childhood policy.
The systems that shape a child's early years — child care, education, health care, housing, and family economic support — were not designed to work together. And the leaders responsible for navigating those systems, while unquestionably committed to children and families, are too often asked to lead across that complexity without specialized preparation. They were trained for teaching, program management, or advocacy. Rarely for the policy work itself.
Closing that gap is why ECPIHE exists, and it is why 38 master’s and doctoral students, along with 18 of their faculty mentors, traveled to Washington, D.C. last month for the second biennial ECPIHE Summer Policy Institute.
Held from July 14-17, 2026, the four-day Institute brought students and faculty together from 12 ECPIHE-funded graduate programs – Boston College, University of California Berkeley, University of California Irvine, University of Colorado Denver, University of the District of Columbia, University of Florida, Howard University, University of Kentucky, Prairie View A&M University, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and University of Mississippi, a member of the ECPIHE Alliance – to learn from 34 expert speakers, among them early childhood policy legacies, congressional staff, federal research leaders, and voices from media, advocacy, and philanthropy. Participants took part in intensive policy panels, small-group discussions, a site visit to the Rayburn House Office Building, and a briefing on the state of higher education from Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, which collectively offered new insights into how policy shapes the lives of young children and families across levels of government and a wide variety of sectors.
Representing a wide range of academic departments, geographic regions, lived and professional experiences, the student cohort came to study the federal policies that shape on-the-ground realities they are deeply familiar with. Many participants began their careers in Head Start classrooms, home visiting programs, and health care; others actively run child care centers or manage social work caseloads; they entered graduate programs to change the broader conditions that shape these sectors and understand that those most impacted by policies should have a voice in building them. That experience is not incidental to their policy training; it is what gives their analysis its weight.
United by their shared commitment to advancing policies for young children, students gained enriched understandings of contemporary policy issues and, most importantly, the role they may play in the future of the early childhood policy field. “This institute feels like a pivotal point in my academic and career journey,” one student wrote afterward. “The lessons learned and connections nurtured during this week will inform my approach to education policy work forever.”
The premise behind the Institute — and ECPIHE itself — is that early childhood policy is a discipline in its own right, with a distinct body of knowledge and a distinct preparation to match. Decisions that set the conditions for tens of millions of young children and their families carry too much weight to be improvised by people trained for other work.
What that preparation actually requires was the substance of the week. Students traced how federal funding and appropriations are designed to work — and how they actually function in practice. They examined how the courts have reshaped the rights of children and families, and studied how research organizations, advocacy groups, and the press move and influence policy from outside government. Panels deliberately crossed sector lines, bringing housing, immigration, pediatrics, and income security into conversation with child care and early education.
Through these experiences, students came away with new insights into how policy impacts the lives of young children and families across fragmented levels, siloed sectors, and political divides.
On Capitol Hill, students met with Congressional staff working for both the majority and the minority. “I found it valuable to be in the room with someone I disagree with who also has influence --- this does not happen to me a lot,” one wrote. Another described the exchange as a first: “It was helpful to see that we could have conversations, see each other as human, and work towards the same cause. I had never experienced that before.”
The most consistent theme in written feedback was how many levels the work happens on. One student shared, “I learned so much about how policy is made and influenced at all levels of government,” while another noted: “It was such valuable information that I will use to inform and shape the research questions and methods moving forward.” That observation lands at a moment when states are, by many measures, moving faster than Washington, D.C. on early childhood issues. As one student put it, “impact is not only made at the federal level, but most often at state and local levels.”
For many, the week clarified professional directions: “I was toying with the idea of a career that mixes policy into the clinical work I will be doing,” one student wrote. “Now I'm certain that I will be going down a policy related path.” Another described the experience as closing the distance between coursework and practice: “Engaging with policy experts has bridged my knowledge gap… This allows me to re-strategize my studies.”
Others described something closer to renewal: “I feel more connected to my why,” and to belonging: “I have a much more broad, diverse, and dynamic network of colleagues and mentors now to call upon.”
For many participants, the community itself proved to be among the Institute’s most impactful offerings. Participants left with new relationships with colleagues they now expect to work alongside for years to come: “I have a much more broad, diverse, and dynamic network of colleagues and mentors now to call upon,” one student wrote. For many who have been engaged in this work independently, there was comfort in finding a community of individuals with a shared commitment for effecting change. One participant noted, “it's been reassuring to see that this isn't a burden that I carry alone,” while another wrote, “...it's been inspiring to see how many leaders across disciplines are just as committed as I am to improving the lives of young children and families.”
These students represent the future of the early childhood policy field — and, just as importantly, they are building that future together. What they carry home is not only a sharper grasp of how policy gets made, but a set of people to make it with. As one student put it: "Sustained and durable relationships are paramount to effecting change." A faculty member made the same bet on this cohort from the other direction: "Students will rise to the occasion if you give them a chance to shine."
The Institute was made possible by the Bezos Family Foundation, the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, and the Heising-Simons Foundation; by our partners at the Institute for Educational Leadership; by Danielle Ewen, who helped shape the speaker roster; and by our gracious host, the American Council on Education. We extend our thanks to the ECPIHE faculty and Center Directors, and, most of all, to the students.