A baby in a white onesie sits on a soft carpet, playing with colorful plastic blocks. A gray sofa is visible in the background.

Early Childhood Education

High quality early learning programs impact children’s future.

Our Early Childhood Education initiative helps ensure children have high-quality early learning experiences that help them succeed in school and in life.

The years between birth and age 5 are critical for brain development, and how parents and others interact with children during this time makes a difference in their future learning, behavior, and health. Nurturing, supportive relationships impact children’s academic and emotional well-being in the short and long-term.

First 5 Contra Costa offers powerful professional development learning opportunities for early educators, supports continuous program quality improvement, and works to strengthen the systems that support early learning programs, including the workforce.

Important Announcement Regarding the CA Workforce Registry

The CA Workforce Registry will be phased out due to state funding cuts. If you have a Registry profile, please download your education and training report, employment history and documents (such as certificates and transcripts) from your account by June 15, 2026.

To access the website, click here: https://caregistry.org/index.cfm
For a video tutorial on how to download your records, click here: bit.ly/workforce-registry-tutorial

Two women are sitting indoors, facing each other and smiling. One has dark hair pulled back and is wearing a sleeveless top; the other has glasses and a blue shirt. Colorful cushions and office supplies are in the background.

Quality Improvement

First 5 Contra Costa works with several partners to offer early educators a variety of training, coaching, and learning opportunities to enhance the quality of their programs. Some of these opportunities focus specifically on center-based programs, family child care programs, and informal caregivers such as family, friends and neighbors.

The Quality Matters program provides a framework, standards, and learning opportunities for early educators to continually enhance the quality of their practice.
Through the Professional Development Program, recipients receive stipends for courses and degree attainment.
We are excited to be launching a new project focused on supporting inclusive early care and education environments for children with disabilities, funded in part by local county Measure X funds.

A smiling man and woman sit close together while the woman feeds a baby from a bottle. They appear relaxed and happy outdoors, with trees and people blurred in the background.

Ready Kids East County

First 5 Contra Costa partners with organizations in East County on this multi-layered effort to reform the systems and services available to African American and Black families with children under 5 with an emphasis on school readiness and family resiliency.

The effort includes working to enhance the capacity of early childhood systems, enhancing the skills and awareness of service providers, and empowering parents and caregivers to be change agents.

A woman smiles while sitting next to a young girl who is drawing with colored pencils at a table in a bright, organized room.

Early Learning Workforce

Early educators are essential to providing children with a high-quality early learning experience that will lay the foundation for their growth and development.

Low wages and lack of benefits have created a shortage of early learning educators, and impeded efforts to recruit new teachers. Investing in early educator wages is a solid investment strategy for our early educators, our economy, and for our children.

Learn more about First 5 Contra Costa’s efforts to develop a pilot a countywide wage-boosting solution for retaining early educators.