Healthy development in the early years (particularly birth to three) provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation.    

This is AZECA’s why—to support the critical early years of Arizona’s children and to ensure they succeed in school, the workforce and in life.  

Arizona Early Childhood Alliance (AZECA) is an alliance of 50+ cross-sector early childhood champions who are working together to give all children in Arizona a great start in life. As a shared voice for early childhood in Arizona, AZECA engages with government officials on early childhood issues that impact workforce development and the economy.   

 AZECA members support state and federal agencies by providing credible information and resources to improve early childhood policy, and to inform and engage constituents to ensure that all Arizona children are prepared for Kindergarten and are on track to succeed by the end of third grade. 

AZECA’s efforts are driving results by: 

Working with Child Care Administration to eliminate the child care assistance wait list

Successfully advocating the Arizona legislature to authorize expenditure of new federal CCDBG and Covid Relief funds 

Providing unified recommendations to Governor Ducey, the Legislature and the Department of Economic Security in order to improve the access, affordability and quality of child care 

Securing $10 million in funding for the Arizona Healthy Families Program 

Leading the effort to create a statewide, shared process for recognizing national accreditation organizations 

Working with partners to create the statewide definition of “quality” early care and education programs   

Reducing duplication across early childhood services 

Fighting to prevent the use of state general funds for online preschool programs