Increase Investments / Updates 06/2024

Hawai’i continues to make significant investments in early childhood development and family wellbeing.

The wellbeing of young children reflects not only the decisions and practices of their families and communities, but also the investments made by a broad range of government and non-governmental agencies and organizations operating at the federal, state and county levels.

Our Network Mid-Year Update 2024 highlights recent advances in legislative support for the early childhood workforce, County and State investments in expanded access to prekindergarten, and public and philanthropic funding supporting maternal and infant health safeguards, health and nutrition programming, and building an infrastructure of peer support.

• Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke was instrumental in securing a major expansion of Preschool Open Door (POD) funding to subsidize the cost of child care from $12M to $50M. Already, $25M in POD funds have been committed to families.

• Additional major appropriations in this year’s legislative package include the $4.9M in support for salary increases for Early Intervention workers, funding to support Maui wildfire relief and recovery efforts, and continued support for the expansion of early childhood programs.

• Two additional vehicles for targeted investments in early childhood are the Early Childhood Funders’ Hui and the multi-partner effort to establish Community Centered Partnerships (CCP).

Read more in our full Network Mid Year Update 2024.