Invest Early, Build Together: A 10-Year Plan for North Carolina’s Youngest Children
Every child ready to learn. Every family supported from the start.
North Carolina’s 10-Year Plan connects policy, investment, and action around one shared goal: every child entering kindergarten ready to learn, supported by families with the resources, relationships, and opportunities that support healthy development.
Readiness starts long before kindergarten.
Children’s earliest experiences, relationships, and communities shape how they learn and grow.
Kindergarten readiness begins at birth—and is shaped by far more than what happens in a classroom. Children thrive when their families have the stability to meet basic needs, when they experience safe and nurturing relationships, and when they can access early learning opportunities that reflect their needs and strengths.
Invest Early, Build Together brings these conditions into focus. By aligning action across family economic stability, healthy relationships, and early learning, North Carolina can help more children arrive at kindergarten ready to learn, build relationships, and thrive.
“Readiness doesn’t emerge from any single program or service—it emerges from a system of supports spanning early learning, family economic stability, and the strength of caregiver-child relationships.”
Conditions that shape a strong start towards kindergarten readiness.
Families have room to plan, care, and grow.
Family Economic Stability
Stable, predictable resources help families meet their needs, care for their children, and build greater stability over time.
The Plan focuses on: refundable tax credits, paid family and medical leave, and simpler access to benefits. Because strong relationships support healthy development.
Healthy, Nurturing Relationships
Children develop through consistent, responsive relationships with the adults who care for them. Families also need environments and supports that strengthen caregiver well-being.
The Plan focuses on: early relational health, home visiting and other relational supports, maternal mental health, and the workforce that supports families. Because families need early learning that works for them.
Early Learning Opportunities
Families should be able to access quality care and early learning that fits their needs and preferences, with educators and providers supported to sustain that care.
The Plan focuses on: educator compensation and career pathways, child care financing, and stronger support for home-based and family, friend, and neighbor care.
Connect what works. Build for the long term.
North Carolina has strong programs, partners, and communities already advancing this work. The Plan creates a shared direction for building on those strengths and sustaining progress over the next decade.
The work moves forward by:
- Building understanding and public will around what children and families need.
- Strengthening coordination across partners, systems, data, and advocacy.
- Advancing policy and financing that can be implemented and sustained over time.
