Who will take care of my child while I am away?
“The unknown energy that can help humanity is that which lies hidden in the child.” – Maria Montessori
For centuries, mothers who earned wages for work outside of the home have struggled to find care for babies and young children in their absence. Traditionally, they turned to family members, including older children, neighbors or anyone who was willing and available.
During the progressive era of the 1920s, the nursery schools movement grew as an option for care. The number of women attending college was increasing dramatically, and more women entered the field of education. Many began to question the quality of nursery programs. By 1930, 44% of all college students were female. To establish standards for best practices within these nursery schools and early care settings, professional researchers and educators formed the National Association for Nursery Education (NANE).
The war effort and young children
“Many thought they [the centers] were purely a war emergency measure. A few of us had an inkling that perhaps they were a need which was constantly with us, but one that we had neglected to face in the past.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
The need for child care grew during World War II as more women entered the workforce. Federally sponsored child care programs were established with the caveat that public support would be provided only for the wartime period.
But many programs were shuttered once the war ended. Government support for families paying for child care largely took the form of a tax deduction.
NAEYC’s beginnings
“I believe we must take further steps to encourage day care programs that will protect our children and provide them with a basis for a full life in later years.” – John F. Kennedy
By the 1960s, many more women had entered the workplace. The President’s Commission on the Status of Women declared that child care would help women who worked outside of the home, but would also serve to benefit children’s development while advancing social and racial integration. Yet efforts to create a universal child care policy failed.
In 1964, NANE was reorganized as the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Enhancing professional development of the early childhood workforce, seeking to promote excellence in early childhood education for all young children from birth through age 8, setting research-based standards, and providing resources to improve early childhood program quality remain the mission of the organization today.
The first Arizona NAEYC affiliate
Research began to point to the disadvantages faced by children growing up in poverty. In Washington, D.C., experts assembled to establish Head Start. The Tucson Association for the Education of Young Children (TAEYC) was founded in 1965, joining with other groups from around the U.S. in establishing charter relationships with NAEYC. In 2004, TAEYC would become the Southern Arizona Association for the Education of Young Children (SAzAEYC).
Universal child care: Passed, vetoed, forgotten
“We didn’t want this in the United States of America. The federal government should not be in the business of raising America’s children.” – Patrick Buchanan
In 1971, then Senator Walter Mondale spearheaded a bill to make quality preschool education available to any family in the United States who wanted it. The bill proposed that the Federal government would set standards and provide backup services like meals and medical and dental checkups. Tuition would depend on the family’s ability to pay.
The bill passed, but President Richard Nixon vetoed it, claiming Congress was proposing “communal approaches to child rearing” in lieu of the traditional, family-centered approach. It would be the last gasp for a national solution to the lack of safe and affordable quality child care for decades.
More Arizona affiliates
During the 1980s, NAEYC began encouraging states to form statewide affiliate organizations. Because of the sheer size and rugged geography of our expansive state, Arizona’s local NAEYC affiliates had already formed in the concentrated population centers.
Phoenix, Tucson, Yuma, Flagstaff, Sedona, Prescott, Casa Grande, the Navajo Nation and areas along the Colorado River served these clusters of geographic areas; yet Arizona lacked a statewide affiliate.
From 1984-1987, the seeds of AzAEYC were being planted. Early education leaders across the state met, guided by Cheryl Foster and Susan Burke in Phoenix and Kay Stritzel Rencken in Tucson. They discussed the goals and objectives of forming a state affiliate. A Membership Action Grant from NAEYC, with emphasis on outreach to rural areas, supported the building of the organization.
AzAEYC established
“A world class education truly does start before kindergarten. It is our job, and our responsibility, to make sure everyone else knows that.” -Nadine Mathis Basha, Board Chair, First Things First
In October 1989, AzAEYC achieved affiliate status under NAEYC. These were the forming years as members continued to work in the role of a state affiliate among the previously established local affiliates.
AzAEYC depended solely on the work of volunteers at first but eventually enlisted the services of an outside coordinator for maintaining the database, mailings and conferences.
Expansion and growth
“Our state legislature balances a budget every single year. So, they are thinking about a very short time frame. We have to have leaders in the community, community groups, organizations, and coalitions who are thinking beyond the budget year to the future.” -Dana Wolfe Naimark, Children’s Action Alliance
During the latter half of the 1990s, AzAEYC leadership represented Arizona as a statewide affiliate by participating in several Western States Leadership Network (WSLN) conferences. In 1998, AzAEYC hosted the WSLN conference in Tucson. Affiliates formed in the rural areas of Casa Grande and Verde Valley, meeting new criteria established by NAEYC.
Board representatives from NAEYC met with representatives and friends of AzAEYC to present a plan for the state affiliate to regroup. With guidance from outside consultants, AzAEYC developed new branding that included a new logo with variations for each affiliate. New collaborative ventures, and the addition of part-time staff, enhanced early education professional development.
New CEO for NAEYC
“Based on my own experience throughout decades of work in Arizona, and the many polls that have come out, equitable access to developmentally appropriate, high-quality early learning is truly a bipartisan issue and a moral agenda.” – Rhian Evans Allvin, CEO, NAEYC
Before joining NAEYC in 2013, Rhian Evans Allvin helped to guide Arizona’s early childhood movement for more than 15 years. She co-wrote the citizen’s ballot initiative that created First Things First and later served as that organization’s CEO. AzAEYC continued to fulfill its mission and recruit members and new leaders from all over the state.
AzAEYC actively participated in NAEYC’s National Dialogue from 2010-2014 and was re-approved as a state affiliate in January 2017.
With gratitude to our past Board Presidents:
(Shared leadership 1990-2000)
- Becky Ruffner Tyler (Prescott)
- Kay Stritzel Rencken (Tucson)
- Tina Leal (Yuma) Bea Pietzsch (Verde Valley)
- Bonnie Williams (Casa Grande) 2001-2002
- Denise Lopez (Phoenix) 2003-2005
- Joanne Floth (Phoenix) 2006-2008
- Naomi Karp (Tucson) 2009-2010
- Cheryl Foster (Tempe) 2011-2012
- Dawn Craft (Phoenix) 2013-2014
- Martha Muñoz (Flagstaff) 2015-2016
- Melissa Busby (Coolidge) 2017-2018
- Dr. Eric Bucher (Phoenix) 2019
- Camille Lachar-Lofaro (Chandler) 2020-2021
- Mona Qafisheh (Chandler) 2021-2022
- Kamaie Clark (Chandler) 2023-2024
- Dr. Victoria Damjanovic (Flagstaff) 2024-Present
