In 2022, Building Bright Futures led an effort to compile a statewide Early Childhood Spending Inventory by assembling data on state spending related to early childhood programs in FY2021.
Our goal was to establish a baseline of the investments Vermont is making as a state during the early childhood period (prenatal through age 8) and for families with young children—with a particular focus on, and interest in, the youngest children (prenatal to age 3) and on prevention-oriented programming.
Our data collection efforts resulted in FY2021 spending data from eight agencies/divisions with programming related to the early childhood period: the Agency of Education, the Child Development Division, the Family Services Division, the Economic Services Division, the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Corrections/Lund, and the Maternal and Child Health Division, now the Family and Child Health Division.
This project was conducted during our first year of Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) grant support. We will use this initial baseline data to monitor spending over time and to expand our team’s and the Network’s knowledge and understanding of current spending, gaps, and trends.
While not part of this initial baseline spending inventory, we recognize the value in potentially expanding the scope of this project in future years to include private, philanthropic, community, federal, and family investments being added to the system but largely going unaccounted for.
Read the data brief:
Vermont’s Early Childhood Baseline Spending Inventory: Fiscal Year 2021
