NEW MEXICO EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE DEPARTMENT TRANSITION COMMITTEE Final Report and 18-Month Action Plan

NOVEMBER 2020 A MESSAGE FROM THE CO-CHAIRS As co-chairs of the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) Transition Committee, we are delighted to share the group’s final report and 18-month action plan, designed to support the state’s important work on behalf of families and young children. Throughout the spring and summer of 2020, we explored New Mexico’s significant assets, and we also explored its needs. Ultimately, we identified five overarching priorities, and concluded that to ensure the success of our early childhood system, New Mexico must:

01. Grow Investments 02. Advance a Diverse, Well-Compensated, and Credentialed Workforce 03. Increase Quality and Access 04. Achieve Equity 05. Enhance Authentic Collaboration Within this priority framework, the Committee identified 20 key actions that, if taken, will provide ECECD the strong footing required to catapult New Mexico from last in the nation in measures of child well-being to the national model that other states will follow. In just a few short months, the Department is already demonstrating progress toward making ambition a reality, with strong leadership in place alongside the state’s most important mandate – preparing the state’s young children for success in school and life. The Department’s ultimate success is dependent upon us all. It will require unprecedented collaboration. It will require a sustained commitment to excellence. And, importantly, it will require the resources necessary to meaningfully impact the lives of New Mexico’s youngest and most vulnerable residents. We are deeply grateful to Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky and her team at ECECD and to The Hunt Institute, for helping guide this process. Most importantly, we are grateful to the New Mexico leaders who carved out time during an unprecedented public health crisis to support this work as committee members and to the national experts who contributed their time and expertise to this process. Now is the time for New Mexico to act with a sense of urgency on behalf of its children. We are honored to have had the opportunity to play a part in advancing this important conversation and are committed to the long-term success of the state’s prenatal to age five early childhood system.

Lieutenant Governor Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver

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