Early Care Educators of San Francisco

ECESF’s Mission is to hold space for early care educators of San Francisco to come together in order to secure excellent working conditions, promote the understanding that good working conditions are foundational to the high-quality early care and education services San Francisco’s diverse young children and families need, and build unity with families and community allies to shape program, policies, and access needed resources.

Rooted in organizations established in the 1980s and long regarded by community leaders as the soul of the early care and education (ECE) advocacy movement, ECESF helped lead the successful passage of a local ballot measure (Baby C) that brought critical, lasting investment to San Francisco’s ECE community.

While additional resources are needed to move San Francisco toward universal child care from 0 to five for all, the increase in funds available offer opportunity to make real strides in shaping policies and programs that support the field of ECE. Focused on our mission, ECESF brings together early care educators to identify what is working and what is most needed. ECESF community-identified essential components of quality working conditions and quality service include: recognizing and strengthening the agency of early care educators at ECE sites and in the broader community; educators’ direct participation in defining and implementing quality, shaping and accessing needed support programs, policies, and development pathways; and wages and benefits that sustain an educator and their family’s current well-being and long-term needs.