H636/H683 - Office of Early Childhood

The advantage of creating an Office of Early Childhood, by putting all the programs related to early childhood in one place, will allow coherence and alignment of the childcare system. This will allow better data collection, finding out which programs are most effective, and allowing better accountability. That will improve the lives of kids. This will ensure that there is a single, unified voice for kids.

Creating an Office of Early Childhood will serve Idaho families and businesses more efficiently and effectively by increasing access to the affordable, high-quality childcare needed to support Idaho’s workforce.

• A dedicated Office of Early Childhood would focus on working families with children
birth to the age of five, helping them to find and access the childcare services they need.

• Idaho’s childcare service providers are primarily private businesses, many of them small
and independently owned. They have reported that the state’s scattered oversight makes
it hard for them to do business. An Office of Early Childhood could reduce overlapping
and burdensome regulations, making it easier for childcare businesses to succeed and
serve more children. This will support the Idaho economy directly – and indirectly – as
it also allows more families to participate in the workforce.

• This legislation authorizes the creation of the Office of Early Childhood on July 1, 2024.
An accompanying appropriation for would fund the hiring of an Executive Director and
2-3 staff. The director and staff will create a plan to transition identified programs and
their corresponding budgets from the Department of Health & Welfare to the new
Office. The Office will work with legislators to finalize the details of a FY26 budget
request then launch the new Office with its transferred responsibilities.