ZERO TO THREE Growth Chart: Winter FY26
Thank you!
Winter 2026
Leading With Courage: Strategic Plan
Achieving a better world for babies and toddlers will require Leading with Courage. That is the title of our new Strategic Plan. The plan sets a vision, priorities, and a pathway to address the challenges of our time, seize opportunities, and help babies thrive.
This five-year plan outlines eight strategic priorities. Collectively, they focus our direction to sustain progress in important areas of our work (like infant and early childhood mental health and pediatric transformation) while embracing new ideas and innovations (like leading the early childhood policy field in envisioning a better system of services and supports for babies and families in 2029 and beyond). It will take both a commitment to continuing to scale the programs and strategies we know work, while also being catalyst for the changes that families and their babies need and deserve.
This Strategic Plan is not simply a document – it is a compass that will help us stay focused on the important path ahead. We ask all Baby Champions to join us in realizing the vision of a society that has the knowledge and will to support all infants and toddlers in reaching their full potential.
Click image to enlarge.
Request a Copy of the Strategic Plan
Milestone: 30 Years of Impact
Through the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning (DTL), a generation of empowered educators have impacted an estimated 40 million children and families, including those in Early Head Start, a program ZERO TO THREE helped create in 1995.
DTL’s work has been foundational to Head Start’s success and to achieving positive, lasting outcomes for children and families across the country. Every educator trained, resource developed, and child impacted by DTL reflects our unwavering commitment to early childhood excellence.
Federal funding for DTL is being reshaped and our future role uncertain. Nevertheless we salute the professionals whose daily work makes a significant difference – that is both immediate and lasting – in the lives of millions of babies and their families.
Highlights from the last decades of service:
- 589,000 courses have been completed by 180,000 professionals through DTL’s self-paced online training system.
- 220,000 professionals have participated in DTL webinars and gained practical strategies for immediate implementation.
- 6,500 professionals have completed more than 2,100 courses through a new, free virtual prep course launched in 2025 to help professionals achieve their Child Development Associate credentials.
- 1,000 regional and national training events were held, and 700 digital resources were created, including six mobile apps.
Speaking Up for Child Care Workers
A child care center director and small business owner in West Virginia, shares her journey of opening a center to meet her family’s needs while advocating for fair wages and stronger support for child care workers.
My name is Mariah Burnley. I’m a child care center director, a small business owner in Wheeling, West Virginia, and a parent. When my family moved to Wheeling, we couldn’t find child care. So, we did something bold: we opened our own center.
I had never done anything like it before, but it became one of the best decisions we could have made for our family and our community. From the start, quality mattered. With a true full-family effort, we built a program we’re proud of, earning a Tier 2 quality rating.
One of the biggest challenges in providing quality child care is supporting the people who make it possible: our amazing staff. I’ve always wanted families to have access to affordable, high-quality care, but as a center director, paying educators what they truly deserve has been an ongoing struggle. Many families are already stretched thin, and at the same time, child care centers like mine are fighting to offer livable wages. In West Virginia, child care workers earn less on average than dog walkers. That’s not just discouraging; it’s wrong.
Since this journey began, life has gotten even busier. We welcomed our first baby girl in August, bringing our family to four children. I made the difficult decision to step away from working onsite at the child care center I own to take a full-time consulting role with Head Start. My center simply couldn’t afford an additional salary, and my family needed health insurance.
Today, I manage my center from afar while working full time, raising four kids and shuttling between school and everything else life brings. It’s hectic. But it’s also why I know how urgent this crisis is.
Child care workers deserve livable wages, respect and real support. When we invest in child care, we invest in families, communities and a stronger economy for everyone. That’s why I won’t stop speaking up for child care workers and the support they deserve.
Medicaid Changes
Get expert insight on recent Medicaid changes and how ZERO TO THREE is taking action.
Johanna Lister
J.D., M.P.H., Policy Director, HealthySteps
Medicaid is a lifeline for babies and families, covering nearly half of all births and more than 40% of children. This essential program has been the target of massive cuts through the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” While many of the key provisions will not be implemented until 2027, there are already real impacts as health systems preemptively cut key services, such as obstetrics and services in rural hospitals.
These changes strain pediatric providers and make it harder for families to find timely, quality care, especially in low-income and rural communities where Medicaid finances a large share of pediatric services. At the same time, heightened and harsh immigration enforcement is creating additional fear and uncertainty, discouraging families from seeking care, leading many to avoid taking their children to the doctor.
Babies and families are likely to face more instability and barriers. States will be required to conduct frequent Medicaid eligibility checks and implement work requirements—policies designed to cut costs by driving disenrollment, even among eligible children and caregivers. The result is increased administrative costs, interrupted care during critical developmental periods, delayed immunizations, gaps in early intervention services, and fewer pediatric visits that connect families to resources and supports.
In addition, Congressional inaction has allowed the Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire. This will have a dire effect on families, with many facing higher health care costs, coverage loss and greater reliance on already overburdened Medicaid programs—while others will fall through the cracks entirely.
We are actively engaged with Congress and the Administration while also speaking out against harmful policy proposals. The HealthySteps National Office is uniquely positioned at the intersection of pediatrics and family experience, actively partnering with providers and families to bring their real-world experiences to life and elevate their voices and stories in ways that meaningfully shape and influence policy decisions.
Impact Report
Standing Strong for Babies and Families
ZERO TO THREE’s latest Impact Report shows how Baby Champions like you bring advocacy into action, expand programs to serve more babies and families, and drive change for those who care for babies. Meet some of the many families and professionals across the country whose lives have been improved by visitingzerotothree.org/impact.
YOU Make this Possible
It takes a vibrant network of Baby Champions nationwide to make our work possible.
Thank you for being part of it! Your support gives babies joy, well-being and a foundation for life.
Did you know? This year, donors who take the standard deduction can once again receive a tax benefit for charitable giving. That applies to roughly 90% of taxpayers. Individuals can deduct up to $1,000. Couples filing jointly can deduct up to $2,000.
How You Can Help
Donate online or learn about other ways to give.
Sign up to advocate and take actions on behalf of babies.
Follow ZERO TO THREE on social media.
