a report with strategies to empower program leaders, philanthropic partners, business leaders, researchers, and policymakers to advance climate solutions. Our dual organizational perspectives, which helped to deepen that report by rooting recommendations in educators’ lived experiences, are based on hearing from thousands of educators working in child care and early learning programs across the country who are experiencing the effects of extreme weather firsthand. NAEYC, with more than 55,000 members, has been hearing more and more from educators on the impact of extreme weather on their physical facilities; their staff, children, and families; and their bottom lines. LIIF, which manages the $ 350.5 million Infrastructure Grant Program( IGP) for over 3,700 child care operators on behalf of the state of California, found that 40 percent of applicants requested climate-related repairs to their facilities, including their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning( HVAC) systems, shade structures, and misting systems, to respond to extreme heat.
In this piece, we describe the urgent problems educators face. We also recognize that individuals cannot address these problems on their own. Therefore, we outline a multifaceted approach policymakers and program leaders, working together, can take to ensure programs are open, safe, and resilient environments for educators and the children they serve. These include
› Infrastructure improvements › Enhanced emergency preparedness and response › Community and workforce support and resources
The Problem
We are an all-day care center. The children need to be outside at some point. The air quality in California has been terrible due to fire. The children have been exposed to less than desirable conditions to get them out of the classroom.
— Early childhood educator in California
Early childhood program administrators often have to operate on limited budgets, making them particularly susceptible to the escalating costs of maintaining safe, resilient infrastructure and protecting the health and well-being of themselves and their workforce. Climate change magnifies these challenges, disproportionately affecting communities with low incomes where operators of centers and family child care homes are less likely to have the resources to adapt, repair, or renovate their facilities; keep up with rising insurance costs; or provide health benefits and supports to staff, families, and children. Without targeted and sustained investments, these inequities are likely to deepen cycles of injustice that can continue across generations.
There is an urgent need for resources to address robust, weather-resilient infrastructure that protects facilities, supports the health and well-being of educators and the children they serve, and ensures that current child care and early learning programs can remain open and that new programs can open to meet the needs of their communities. Addressing these challenges is necessary to create healthier, safer environments that strengthen early childhood ecosystems and ensure a more equitable future in which quality child care and early learning programs are available to children and families where and when they need them. This must be done through climate-resilient investments, insurance adjustments, policy, advocacy, and community support.
Faced with a supply crisis that makes child care too hard for families to find and afford, decision makers have allocated insufficient attention and funding to help early childhood education programs respond to the increasing threats and impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. Without help, programs cannot stay open and stay healthy.
Infrastructure Inadequacies
Many early childhood facilities, including those in centers, schools, and homes, lack the resilience to withstand harsh weather conditions. Yet these conditions are happening with increasing frequency and reach. In NAEYC’ s January 2025 early childhood education workforce survey, 45 percent of respondents reported impacts from at least one weather-related challenge, including extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme wind, severe storms, wildfires, flooding, or poor air quality.
Winter 2025 Young Children 7