High-quality early care and education (ECE) provides a critical foundation for young children’s success in school and in life. Yet, in the United States, fewer than two out of three preschool-age children are enrolled in center-based ECE programs.

This brief highlights promising practices used in many European countries to ensure all children, including those from vulnerable families, have access to ECE. These approaches can inform similar efforts in the United States to increase the participation of young children in ECE:

• Provide strong fiscal support for universal ECE quality and affordability.
• Connect children to the ECE system early.
• Improve community connections between ECE systems and the families they serve.
• Target extra support and out-reach to immigrants and other vulnerable groups.
• Create and protect a legal entitlement to ECE for all children.

This brief, and the accompanying report, focuses on formal, center-based care.