Blending and Braiding Funds To Support Early Care and Education Initiatives

This brief highlights the successes and lessons learned in blending early childhood funding streams. It presents financing strategies that state and local policymakers, community leaders, and program coordinators can employ to align, coordinate, and integrate discrete, categorical funding streams.

This brief is organized into four parts. The first part of this brief explores the current funding landscape for early childhood supports and services and highlights those funding streams that most commonly support early care and education initiatives. The second part describes the challenges inherent in coordinating and integrating categorical funding streams. The third part presents three strategies for overcoming challenges and effectively bringing together and aligning separate funding streams. It includes strategies that are relevant to federal, state, and local policymakers, as well as to program directors. The final part highlights key steps that policymakers and program directors can take to implement blended funding strategies effectively.