Election Day is on November 8! To help the OSSS community make informed decisions about their elected officials, we asked each candidate running for an office representing Oakland about their vision for Oakland’s Early Childhood Ecosystem. With the goal to raise awareness of ECE as an important issue, our collaborative developed a questionnaire based on “Early Childhood Education Matters in Oakland: An Informational Guide for Elected Officials and Candidates.” ​

​By Julia Forte Frudden, Research Consultant for OSSS and OUSD ECE

Over the past year and a half, Oakland Starting Smart and Strong and Oakland Unified’s Early Childhood Education Department have been meeting with parent leaders from the San Antonio Family Resource Center to discuss their local Early Development Instrument (EDI) results and learn about their advocacy work. The Resource Center’s Parent Action Research Team (SAFRC PART) is a community of multicultural, multilingual parent leaders who live or work in this Oakland neighborhood; they come together to improve services and resources for families with young children. ​

Oakland Starting Smart and Strong’s Policy & Advocacy work seeks to undo the systemic racism embedded in the field of early care and education through greater support for this workforce -- which is composed primarily of women of color -- and through making child care more accessible for each and every family. With child care funds from the American Rescue Plan coming soon -- and with the possibility of unprecedented support for early care and education  through the American Families Plan -- OSSS is laying the groundwork now to ensure that families and child care professionals most impacted by the pandemic have a seat at the table in reimagining early childhood systems that work for all. Here’s what we’re weighing in on.