The Virginia Association for the Education of Young Children serves, supports, and advocates for all who care for and educate young children.
The following are some of our key policy priorities in Virginia:
Unified Virginia Quality Birth to Five System (VQB5): VAAEYC endorses Virginia’s Quality Measurement and Improvement System to measure and help improve the quality of all publicly-funded birth-to-five classrooms and support families to choose quality programming across program types.
Standards of Care: VAAEYC supports continued efforts to improve the safety of child care including national fingerprint background checks and enhanced penalties for non-compliance with regulations. VAAEYC supports the continued steps by the VDOE to improve early childhood standards.
Scholarships and Training for Early Learning Professionals: VAAEYC encourages an increased emphasis on training in developmentally appropriate practices for all professionals educating children from birth through age eight. We also support the VDOE’s continued efforts to improve child care professional training. VAAEYC supports continued and increased funding of scholarships and apprenticeships for students in early childhood training to assist in obtaining appropriate credentials.