Policy & Advocacy

Ready for K Alliance Policy and Advocacy Agenda

The Ready for K Alliance recognizes that policy and advocacy is essential to achieving systemic impact. The following agenda is rooted in our community’s shared vision for an aligned, high-quality, and coordinated system focused on ensuring healthy child development, access to affordable, quality early care and education, and empowering families and caregivers with the resources to succeed.

Healthy Development: Children are born healthy with access to resources to maintain healthy development.

2026 PRIORITIES

• Expand equitable access to doula services through reimbursement and workforce development initiatives to increase birth support options for Kentucky families.
• Partner with Metro Public Health & Wellness and Code Enforcement to expand environmental lead testing in homes and ensure timely follow-up to reduce exposure risks.
• Strengthen safe and stable housing protections for families with young children including focused eviction prevention measures, improved tenant lease protections in lead-exposed housing, and protection for children from being improperly named in eviction proceedings.
• Preserve maximum retroactive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women and children to ensure access to prenatal care and well child visits.
• Expand WIC and Head Start application support for families previously automatically income-eligible under SNAP.
• Advocate for initiatives to improve access and affordability of diapers to promote infant health and affordability for caregivers.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• Ensure safe and high-quality prenatal care is accessible, including care that reduces differences in birth outcomes for infants and addresses disparities in maternal health.
• Strengthen food and nutrition support, including eliminating the barriers to food security for all families.
• Support a definition of health that encompasses access to safe and healthy environments, including outdoor play areas, healthcare, and affordable housing.

Family and Caregiver Engagement:  Families and caregivers are equipped with knowledge and understanding of their child’s development and involve themselves in helping them thrive.

2026 PRIORITIES

• Establish statewide paid family leave opportunities that are available at least every three years that increase family financial stability and build economic equity to improve children and caregivers’ short- and long-term outcomes.
• Pass the HELP Act to strengthen and provide coordination for 2-1-1 and its referral partners.
• Offer automatic enrollment for newborns in Imagination Library of Kentucky to support family learning and literacy activities from birth.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• Elevate and support best practices that increase family and caregiver engagement in their child’s learning, including knowledge of developmental milestones.
• Invest in multigeneration education programs that improve outcomes and support workforce development and economic mobility for families.
• Develop and invest in education and training best practices that minimize debt and support the learner.

Access and Quality: Families have access to affordable, high-quality early care and education.

2026 PRIORITIES

• Maintain funding and policy solutions that support the child care ecosystem in Kentucky and enhance access and affordability to quality early learning opportunities, including CCAP, ECCAP, and the quality rating improvement system.
• Increase the early learning workforce using data and recommendations from Louisville’s 2024 Early Learning Workforce Study.
• Launch Champions for Child Care, providing resources and tools to employers to build family friendly practices for their workforce and elevate employer voice in early care and education advocacy.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• Invest in the child care sector to increase quality and compete for talent.
• Nurture and strengthen a diverse ecosystem of public and private early care and education providers, leveraging assets across the ecosystem, and promoting and supporting partnerships.
• Ensure quality measures for programming and curriculum are welcoming and supportive of all cultures, languages, and abilities.
• Increase resources for families and caregivers through equitable tax and financial vehicles.

View the Ready for K 2026 State Legislative Session Bill Tracker

Recent Wins: In the last several years, the Alliance alongside coalition partners has…

• secured significant investment in the state biennial budget to sustain Kentucky’s child care infrastructure, including:
  • Historic investment in the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP)
  • Funding for Kentucky’s Innovations in Early Childhood Education Delivery Grant Program to encourage innovative partnerships and nontraditional models
  • Continuing funding for the Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership (ECCAP), the public-private partnership that encourages employers to provide child care stipends to their employees that can then be matched by state dollars in a tri-share cost model
• supported the passage of the Momnibus bill which will expand access to prenatal care and mental health supports for Kentucky’s new and expecting parents.
• successfully advocated for increased access to paid family and/or parental leave with the passage of House Bill 179 which enables paid leave insurance products to be sold in Kentucky and make it easier and more affordable for employers to offer this as part of their benefit packages.
• successfully advocated for $5 million investment from Louisville Metro Government for Thrive by 5 Louisville, the Mayor’s proposed path to universal PreK in Jefferson County. Read more information here.
• supported the passage of House Bill 561 which encourages local governments in Kentucky to examine zoning and land use regulations to better support increased capacity and locations where child care providers can operate.
• successfully advocated to improve Louisville’s zoning to make child care more accessible where families live and work. Read about Louisville’s success with zoning reform in 2021.
• secured passage of a Lead Safe Housing Ordinance in Louisville Metro Council to add protection for children in rental homes.
• supported the passage of Kentucky’s new Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership (ECCAP).
• secured more than $4.6M to support early care and education projects, from Louisville’s American Rescue Plan funds.

Join the Ready for K Alliance Advocacy Network

Interested in receiving advocacy alerts and learning more about Ready for K’s policy agenda? Enter your contact information to be added to our list of early childhood advocates. As an advocate, you can expect to receive updates on current legislation Ready for K is advocating for and information on how you and your organization can connect with policy makers to express your support.