Neighborhood Villages: 2025 Summer School
Stay tuned for Neighborhood Villages Summer School, a brand-new series and resource hub that breaks down complex topics into bite-sized, relatable, and informative pieces.
Whether you’re a parent, educator, advocate, or just someone who cares about young children, this series is for you. Over the next few weeks, we’ll share insight into:
Digesting recent federal and state legislative updates
Understanding the Massachusetts FY26 budget
Advocating for child care
And more!
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WEEK ONE
What happens when Massachusetts decides how to spend over $60 billion? This week we’re debriefing the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) MA state budget and how it impacts early education and care in Massachusetts.
First, check out a breakdown from Senior Director of Advocacy and Family Partnerships Latoya Gayle!
Then, go further to learn how the FY26 final budget continues important investments in the early education and care sector in the midst of an uncertain federal landscape. In our Budget Debrief guide, we share key funding and policy provisions in the budget and what they mean for families, educators, and the Commonwealth as a whole.
WEEK TWO
Wondering how federal programs impact early education and care in Massachusetts?
Eight programs provide over $500 million annually to the Commonwealth to support the formal child care sector and an additional $15 billion that supports families with young children and early educators. Learn more about these programs and what they look like in Massachusetts in our funding breakdown below.
WEEK THREE
Last summer, Massachusetts achieved a major victory for child care, becoming the first state to provide permanent operational funding for child care when the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) operarions grant program was made permanent.
Learn more about this program and how it works below.
WEEK FOUR
Dive into Massachusetts’ early childhood education sector statewide public funding! See how main funding for early childhood contrasts with K-12 — from amount and eligibility to challenges and opportunities.
Check it all out below.
