Perfect Start Consulting
California Educator Policy Empowerment Program
History. Data. Storytelling. Advocacy.
Family Child Care Educators belong in the conversations shaping their work
Family Child Care educators are already carrying the work of early childhood education in their homes and communities. We care for children, support families, manage businesses, respond to change, and hold systems together in ways that are often unseen.
Yet too often, policy is written about us without us.
The California Educator Policy Empowerment Program — CEPE — is being built to change that.
CEPE is a California-based initiative focused on strengthening the connection between Family Child Care educators, policy, research, and advocacy. It creates space for educators to better understand the systems affecting their work, connect their lived experience to larger conversations, and participate more fully in shaping the future of the field.
CEPE Is for
Family Child Care Educators
CEPE is for California Family Child Care educators who want to understand more about the systems shaping their work and who believe our field deserves stronger representation in the decisions being made around it.
You do not need to have advocacy experience.
You do not need to know policy language already.
You do need to know that your experience matters — and be willing to learn, reflect, and connect with other educators who care about the future of Family Child Care.
Through CEPE, educators will have opportunities to engage with the history, data, stories, and policy conversations connected to our field.
Not as an audience.
As participants.
Educators are not an Afterthought
Policy reaches Family Child Care whether or not educators are included in the room.
Licensing decisions, reimbursement rates, subsidy systems, workforce initiatives, family-support policies, and early learning investments all affect what happens inside Family Child Care homes. But educators should not be asked to react only after decisions are made.
CEPE is grounded in a simple belief:
The people closest to the work should help shape the work.
That means Family Child Care educators deserve access to the knowledge, relationships, language, and spaces needed to engage in policy conversations with clarity and confidence.
History. Data. Storytelling. Advocacy.
Family Child Care educators have stories that matter. But our stories are strongest when they are connected to history, informed by data, and carried into the spaces where decisions are being made.
CEPE brings these pieces into conversation.
It recognizes that educators' lived experience is not separate from research or policy. It is part of the evidence needed to build systems that actually work for children, families, and the people who care for them.
CEPE Partners & Advisory Circle
Partners and Advisory Circle
CEPE is not built alone. Real advocacy infrastructure requires relationships with organizations that treat Family Child Care educators as decision-makers, not data points.
Program Partners
These organizations work alongside CEPE to connect educators to national networks, resources, and the systems where change happens.
What Partnership Means
What Partnership Means
CEPE partners with organizations, agencies, advocates, and funders who understand that Family Child Care is not a segment of the early childhood field. It is the foundation.
Partnership may include:
-
Shared learning — connecting educators to broader networks, research, and resources
-
Community engagement — helping educators reach and represent their regions
-
Research connection — grounding educator stories in data and evidence
-
Policy conversation — opening doors to the spaces where decisions are made
-
Educator outreach — ensuring the right educators know this infrastructure exists
Partners do not design the curriculum. They do not select the cohort. They do not set the agenda. Educators do that.
Partners make the work stronger by bringing what educators should not have to build alone: relationships, research, funding pathways, and access to rooms that have historically been closed.
Who Partners With CEPE:
We welcome partnerships with organizations that already treat Family Child Care educators as decision-makers, not data points.
-
Advocacy networks that center FCC in state and national policy
-
Research institutions that value lived experience as evidence
-
Fiscal sponsors and funders who understand community-driven infrastructure
-
Community organizations rooted in the same regions where educators live and work
-
Policy agencies and leaders willing to listen differently and work differently
If your organization believes Family Child Care educators should be recognized as essential community infrastructure — not an afterthought in early childhood systems — we should talk.