Commission on Early Childhood Care and Education

The Commission on Early Childhood Care and Education (the Commission) is comprised of Virginia legislators and representatives of business, economic development, local government, school divisions, parents and early care and education programs. The Commission is charged with providing recommendations for and tracking progress on the financing of Virginia’s comprehensive birth-to-five early childhood care and education system.

Commission meetings are open to the public. Please visit www.vecf.org/eccecommission for meeting information. Questions may be directed to the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF) at info@vecf.org.

History of the Committee

• The Commission was created by the 2023 General Assembly via House Bill 1423/Senate Bill 1404.

  The Commission has the following powers and duties:

  1. Expand access to and the quality of child care statewide;
  2. Analyze existing and potential new financing opportunities, with a focus on data-driven outcomes;
  3. Retain, grow, and strengthen the quality of the ECCE workforce;
  4. Gather and study information and data to accomplish its purposes;
  5. Gather and analyze data on current and projected availability, quality, cost, and affordability of ECCE services; determine needs and priorities; and develop funding recommendations focused on family choice, access, affordability, and quality;
  6. Annually report on specific expenditures, outcomes, and impact, including children served, demographics, child-level assessments, classroom-level assessment data, educator turnover and retention, and parental employment;
  7. Support the development of an integrated early childhood longitudinal data process to capture and link access, quality, and educator data with child outcomes, and facilitate the integration of this data with other longitudinal data systems; and
  8. Monitor and support ongoing research and evaluation conducted by VDOE, UVA, and VECF, and any other high education or research institutes deemed relevant, to continuously improve ECCE quality.

  The Commission meets at least 4 times annually and will submit a report with its recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly by October 1 of each year. Reports will be posted here and on the VECF website (www.vecf.org/eccecommission) as they are available.

Commission Members

Non-legislative Members:

• Ashley Allen, Parent Representative
• Belinda Astrop, Chair, Greensville County Board of Supervisors
• Elie Bracy, III, Superintendent, Portsmouth Public Schools
• Jason El Koubi, President and CEO, Virginia Economic Development Partnership
• Simon Fiscus, Executive Director, Skyline Community Action Program
• Shakeva Frazier, Parent Representative
• Kathy Glazer, President, Virginia Early Childhood Foundation
• Edmond Hughes, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Huntington Ingalls Industries
• Sonnia Jones, Family Day Home Owner and Educator
• Kristin Kane, Founding Member Decoding Dyslexia Virginia and National Center on Improving Literacy, Boston University
• Todd Norris, Senior Vice President of Community and System Advancement, Ballad Health
• Nicholas Palacio, Parent Representative
• Stacie Parham, Principal, Westview Early Childhood Education Center, Petersburg City Public Schools
• Benita Petrella, Owner, Primrose School of Midlothian Village
• John Salay, Chief Compliance Officer and Director of Advocacy, Family Insight
• Travis Staton, President and CEO, United Way of Southwest Virginia
• Gary Thomson, Managing Partner, Thomson Consulting
• Stacie Vance, Educator, Van Pelt Elementary, Bristol Public Schools
• Kevin Wattles, Head of School, Grace Academy
• Rachael Williams, Educator, Norfolk Christian School
• Elizabeth Randall Winkle, Senior Vice President CoStar Product, CoStar Group

Members of House of Delegates:

• Delegate David Bulova
• Delegate Ellen Campbell
• Delegate Mike Cherry
• Delegate Carrie Coyner
• Delegate Cliff Hayes

Members of Senate:

• Senator Adam Ebbin
• Senator Mamie Locke
• Senator William Stanley, Jr.
• Senator David Suetterlein

Ex Officio Members:

• Aimee Guidera, Secretary of Education
• Bryan Slater, Secretary of Labor
• Lisa Coons, Superintendent of Public Instruction
• Danny Avula, Commissioner of Social Services
• Emily Anne Gullickson, Deputy Secretary of Education