Early Edge Blog

Early Edge Hosts Fall/Winter Regional Educator Advisory Group Meetings

March 27, 2025

Early Edge California convened its Educator Advisory Group for a series of in-person regional meetings from October 2024 through January 2025, bringing together 34 educators from the Bay Area, Fresno, and Los Angeles. These gatherings provided a space for educators across the mixed-delivery system to share their perspectives, exchange ideas, and help guide Early Edge’s policy and advocacy work.

Connecting Policy with Practice 

Each meeting opened with updates from Early Edge, ensuring that educators stayed informed about key legislative priorities and advocacy efforts. Educators had the opportunity to provide critical input on the most pressing challenges they face and how state policy can better support the Early Learning and Care workforce. Their voices and lived experiences are essential in guiding Early Edge’s policy and advocacy efforts. To accommodate participants and address timely concerns, Early Edge opted to host the Los Angeles meeting via Zoom, providing space for educators to discuss the impacts of the wildfires.

Common themes emerged across all three regional meetings, highlighting both challenges and opportunities:

• Inclusive education: Educators underscored the need for more training and resources to create truly inclusive learning environments that support all children, including those with additional needs and varying abilities.
• PK-3 Credential Pathway: There was strong support for an accessible and affordable PK-3 credential pathway that recognizes educators’ existing expertise and experience, providing the opportunity to advance career goals and skills while ensuring high-quality instruction across early grades.
• Professional Development and Training: Educators expressed a desire for expanded professional learning opportunities, particularly for administrators and educators, with a focus on developmentally appropriate practices that support young children and learners.
• Classroom Ratios and Staffing: Ongoing staffing shortages remain a concern. Educators also discussed the complexities of Transitional Kindergarten/Kindergarten combination classrooms, where balancing instructional, social-emotional, and developmental needs is particularly important.

Educators’ Voices Drive Our Work

Educators’ insights and firsthand experiences shape Early Edge’s policy and advocacy work, helping to ensure that state-level decisions reflect the realities across the field. After the series of meetings, our team synthesized key takeaways and explored how Early Edge can integrate educators’ feedback into our advocacy, policy recommendations, and programmatic efforts.

These advisory group meetings mark the beginning of an ongoing cycle of listening, acting, and advocating that we’ll be engaged in throughout the year. The insights we gather directly inform our next steps, guiding our efforts to address the challenges educators face and co-create meaningful solutions. As we move forward with our policy efforts in 2025, we remain committed to uplifting educator voices and ensuring their experiences are reflected in our work.

The next rounds of Educator Advisory Group meetings will occur via Zoom in the spring and in-person in the fall of 2025. 

Early Edge is grateful to all the educators who took time out of their busy schedules to participate in these meetings. Your voice matters, and your impact is real. Thank you for helping us strengthen California’s Early Learning and Care mixed-delivery system.