The Arizona Early Childhood Education Association works with organizations throughout the Early Childhood field to provide opportunities for our members and their staff, improve Quality Early Childhood Education in Arizona, and advocate for our members and the families they serve.

AZECA is an alliance of 40 cross-sector partners statewide who are working together to give every Arizona child a great start in life. Together, we are Arizona’s shared and unified voice on early childhood, providing informed messages and credible resources that help leaders create positive change for our children. These efforts are designed to ensure that all Arizona children are prepared for Kindergarten and are on track to succeed by the end of third grade.

Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) meets a need that no one else does – providing the bridge between parents, providers, community leaders, and policymakers about anything related to child care in Arizona.Our Goals:
Improve the Quality of Care and Education: Through our consumer education services we provide information and education materials that help families identify, select, and secure child care that best meets their unique needs.
Promote Professional Knowledge and Skills: for child care professionals and programs through professional development, resources, and technical assistance.

Visit arizonachildcare.org for more information.

Rio Salado College has established an Early Childhood Education Program that serves undergraduate students and provides professional development for early childhood practitioners employed in early childhood non-certified settings.The Early Childhood program provides multiple opportunities for career entry or professional development. The programs are designed to be incremental and sequential – one level is incorporated into the next level. At Rio Salado it is important that we assist the early childhood professional to move from one educational level to the next without loss of credit. For additional information regarding Early Childhood undergraduate and professional development opportunities please contact Student Enrollment Services at 480-517-8580 or email us.

Visit riosalado.edu for more information.

Children’s Action Alliance is an independent voice for Arizona children at the state capitol and in the community. CAA works to improve children’s health, education, and security through information and action. Through research, publications, media campaigns, and advocacy, CAA seeks to influence policies and decisions affecting the lives of Arizona children and their families on issues related to health,child abuse and neglect, early care and education, budget and taxes, juvenile justice, children and immigration, and working families. CAA works toward a future in which all children have health insurance, no child is raised in poverty and hunger, every child enters school ready to learn and succeed, no child endures the ravages of abuse and neglect, every child has a place to call home, and struggling teens have the support they need to become responsible adults.

Visit azchildren.org for more information.

The Association for Supportive Child Care was founded in 1976 as a private, non-profit corporation dedicated to enhancing the quality of care for children in Arizona. Every program at ASCC meets a unique set of needs within the child care and early education field. The need for child care continues to be critical. Today, ASCC staff continue to help bring affordable, accessible, quality care to Arizona children and families.

Visit asccaz.org for more information.

The Arizona Early Childhood Career and Professional Development Network is a central, one-stop location to connect you with training, information, scholarships and resources to grow your skills and advance your career in early childhood.

Visit azearlychildhood.org for more information.

First Things First is Arizona’s only public funding source dedicated to exclusively to early childhood, the beginning of our state’s education continuum. On November 7, 2006, Arizonans made a historic decision on behalf of our state’s young children. By majority vote, they passed Proposition 203, a citizen’s initiative to fund quality early childhood development and health programs for kids birth to age 5, before kindergarten. Voters backed that commitment with an 80-cent per pack increase on tobacco products, so that funding for early childhood services would not be at the mercy of economic and political winds. The initiative also created the statewide First Things First Board and regional partnership councils to share the responsibility of ensuring that these funds are spent on strategies that will result in improved education and health outcomes for Arizona’s young children.

Visit firstthingsfirst.org for more information.

Southwest Human Development is Arizona’s largest nonprofit dedicated to early childhood development. Since our founding in 1981, Southwest Human Development has been a leader in providing services for children ages birth to 5 and their families in the areas of:  Child Development and Mental Health, Easterseals Disabilities Services, Early Literacy and Head Start, Child Welfare, Professional Education and Training.  Southwest Human Development serves 135,000 children and their families each year through more than 40 programs and services that focus on preventing problems before they start or, when they already exist, providing opportunities to intervene as early and effectively as possible.

Visit swhd.org for more information.

Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition (PAFCO) is an inclusive and nonpartisan alliance of health and human service agencies, faith-based communities, and advocacy networks. PAFCO was formed in 2001 to advocate for alternatives to drastic state budget cuts in the health and human service sectors. Our mission is to unite the community to be a powerful voice for Arizona’s vulnerable. Our vision is a just and thriving Arizona where all people are valued equally and living to their full potential.

Visit pafcoalition.org for more information.

TAPI is a non-profit statewide coalition of over 400 members. TAPI was formed in response to the alarming fact that in 1993, only 43% of Arizona’s two-year-olds were fully immunized against preventable childhood diseases like measles, mumps, polio and whooping cough. Through the efforts of TAPI’s partners from both the public and private sectors, immunization coverage rates in Arizona have improved dramatically, with nearly three in four children fully immunized by age two. Unfortunately, the problem never ends. Each year in Arizona almost 90,000 babies are born, and none arrive immunized.

Visit whyimmunize.org for more information.

The Bureau of Child Care Licensing, part of the Division of Licensing Services at ADHS, regulates and monitors licensed child care facilities, public school child care programs and certified child care group homes statewide. Our mission is to monitor the health, safety and well-being of children in licensed child care facilities and certified child care group homes throughout Arizona by establishing appropriate rules, monitoring for compliance, offering technical assistance and training to caregivers, and providing consumer education.

Visit azdhs.gov/licensing/childcare-facilities/index.php for more information.

The purpose of DES Child Care is to assist eligible families with child care costs, enabling parents to participate in employment and specific education and training activities related to employment, or in certain other circumstances when parents are unable to provide care. Families may choose from a variety of child care providers including Department of Health Services (DHS) licensed child care centers, DHS-certified child care group homes, DES-certified small family child care homes, and in some instances, non-certified relatives. Eligibility requirements vary with each program.

Visit https://des.az.gov/services/basic-needs/child-care-home for more information.

The Early Care and Education Consortium (ECEC) is a non-profit alliance of the leading Multi-State/Multi -Site Providers, key State Child Care Associations, and premier Educational Services Providers representing over 9,000 programs in all 50 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and selected international locations. Members serve as the unified collective voice for Providers of high-quality programs and services that support families and children from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. We are advocates for strong federal and state policies that bring quality to scale.

Visit http://www.ececonsortium.org/ for more information.

At Sherpa Public Affairs, we specialize in providing outstanding government relations and public affairs services for private corporations, trade associations, non-profits, schools and universities, think tanks and political campaigns.

Visit http://www.azsherpa.com/ for more information.

The mission of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) unit is to provide leadership and support to schools, organizations, educators, families and communities in implementing programs that assist all children from birth through age 8 to become successful lifelong learners.  The ECE unit administers the Head Start State Collaboration grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services to establish linkages among Head Start, childcare, social welfare, health and state funded preschool programs, and K-12 Education.

Visit http://www.azed.gov/early-childhood/ for more information.

At Kaplan Early Learning Company, education is the cornerstone of our family business. We provide developmentally appropriate educational products to families and we are a total solution for early childhood educators – offering everything from cribs for your infant/toddler classroom, to curricula for your preschool classroom, and family engagement materials for your elementary classroom. Outside of the classroom, we have dozens of professional development presenters, partnerships for online learning, a full-service playground installation solution and turn-key setup for opening new child care centers.

Visit https://www.kaplanco.com for more information.

Discount School Supply had its beginning in a small retail store selling educational products. Founder Ron Elliott had creative ideas about how he could supply more products to respond to teacher‘s needs. The Discount School Supply catalog was born. The original focus was simple, offer the highest quality products at the lowest possible prices, supported by an extraordinary level of service.

Visit http://www.discountschoolsupply.com/default.aspx for more information.

Early Care and Education (ECE) Providers are in a special position to empower young children to learn habits that can keep them healthy for life. ADHS developed the Empower Program in 2010 as a voluntary program to support licensed ECE facilities’ efforts to empower young children to grow up healthy.

Today, the Empower Program reaches more than 200,000 children in state licensed and certified early care and education facilities throughout Arizona. Empower has won numerous awards for being a best practice; most recently, the program received the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) National Best Practice Award.

Visit http://www.azdhs.gov/prevention/nutrition-physical-activity/empower/index.php for more information.