Introduction
Research shows that providing high quality, comprehensive early care and education (ECE) requires significant financial resources and supports (Borowsky et al., 2022). Currently, many ECE funding sources are not funded to a level that allows all age-eligible or income-eligible children to access high quality services. Young children and their families across the nation experience gaps in access to quality ECE services and gaps in opportunities to fully develop and thrive (Friedman-Kraus et al, 2025; National Academics of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2023).
One strategy to address this challenge may be to use multiple funding sources to support the cost of providing high-quality ECE. Yet, few studies have explicitly investigated the prevalence of using multiple ECE funding sources; strategies for bringing together funding at the program, local, or state levels; the policies that may encourage or inhibit the use of more than one funding source; or whether the use of multiple funding sources can increase access and enhance quality.
Purpose
This brief presents early findings from the Financing for ECE Quality & Access for All (F4EQ) project, which seeks to better understand the landscape of Head Start’s programs’ decision-making around the use of multiple funding sources as well as the local and state contexts and conditions that influence those decisions. The F4EQ project is a collaborative research venture led by NORC at the University of Chicago in partnership with Arizona State University, Start Early, and consultant Margery Wallen and funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) at the Administration for Children & Families (ACF).
Initial project activities included reviews of existing evidence and policies in order to (1) better understand the reasons why Head Start programs choose to seek multiple funding sources and (2) identify what factors encourage the decision to use multiple funding sources and what factors make this more challenging. These activities shed light on if, how, when, why, and with what other ECE funding sources Head Start programs bring together with Head Start fundingand how states coordinate the use of multiple ECE funding sources. The findings that emerged from this work shaped the F4EQ project’s design of national surveys and case studies to inform future decisions about federal and state ECE funding (especially for Head Start) and related implications for ECE policies, systems, providers, structures, and practices.
This brief may be of particular interest to those working in ECE programs and systems, including Head Start State Collaboration Office staff, national and regional training and technical assistance providers, Head Start and Early Head Start grant and program administrators, administrators of state and federal early childhood funding, and state and federal policy makers.
Key Findings and Highlights
Through the project team’s three initial activities—a literature review, policy scan, and key informant interviews—we learned that the use of multiple ECE funding sources was common among Head Start programs to support program quality and access. We also found that there were several common sources of funding often used in combination with Head Start, including Child Care Development Funds (CCDF) and state pre-K. However, few studies in the literature review clearly defined how programs make funding decisions regarding how they may use funding to support specific demographic populations named in the Head Start Act.
Findings across these study activities suggested that differences in funding source requirements presented ECE program leaders with challenges around bringing together funding sources, leading to hesitation for some program leaders who wish to use more than one funding source. The early findings also helped us pinpoint overarching knowledge gaps such as motivations for, approaches to, and outcomes associated with using multiple funding sources that require further investigation about whether and how Head Start program and state-level leaders carry out financing strategies that incorporate multiple funding sources.
Methods
This synthesis brief includes findings from a literature review, a policy scan, and key informant interviews. In the literature review, the team identified relevant content through a search using key terms to identify a range of publication types in peer reviewed and gray literature sources. The policy scan was conducted in a purposeful sample of 20 states, in which the research team reviewed Head Start policies alongside state CCDF and state pre-K policies. A more comprehensive analysis of documents related to ECE and child care financing policies was conducted in four states as an accompanying policy landscape analysis. Interviews were held with 15 key informants that included five Head Start program leaders and ten ECE leaders at the state and regional/federal levels in roles like state-level ECE administrators and regional Head Start consultants.
Citation
Blevins, D., Bucher, E. Z., Kabourek, S. Stein, A.G., Ehrlich Loewe, S.B., Barrows, M.R., & Wallen, M. (2024). “Unraveling the Complexity of Using Multiple Funding Sources in ECE: Early Study Findings on Head Start Program Strategies and Systems Factors.” OPRE Report #2024-177. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Note
As of July 2025, the version of this brief published in September 2024 has been reviewed and amended to 1) ensure full alignment with updated federal guidelines, 2) better reflect revised project terminology, and 3) incorporate the project’s modified research questions.