Commission

The Commission on Early Childhood Care and Education (the Commission) is composed of Virginia legislators and representatives from 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. Meeting information is available below.

As outlined in legislation, the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation provides facilitation of the Commission. Questions may be directed to the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF) at info@vecf.org.

History of the Commission

The Commission was established in § 2.2-208.1 of the Code of Virginia by the 2023 General Assembly via House Bill 1423/Senate Bill 1404.

The Commission has the following powers and duties outlined in statute:

Expand access to and the quality of child care statewide;
Analyze existing and potential new financing opportunities, with a focus on data-driven outcomes;
Retain, grow, and strengthen the quality of the ECCE workforce;
Gather and study information and data to accomplish its purposes;
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;
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;
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
Monitor and support ongoing research and evaluation conducted by VDOE, UVA, and VECF, and any other higher education or research institutes deemed relevant, to continuously improve ECCE quality.

The Commission meets at least four (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 on this webpage as they are available.

2026 Meeting Schedule*

2026 Dates Announced: July 7, September 1, October 14, and December 9. Additional details will be posted as they become available.

Meeting information will be posted on this website and the Commonwealth Calendar.

Commission meetings are open to the public. Meetings will not be livestreamed; however, a recording will be posted to this website after each meeting.

Oral public comment will be accepted during each meeting. Members of the public may sign up for public comment on-site. Written public comment will be accepted via email to info@vecf.org; each entry will be read and monitored on a daily basis (M-F) though responses to individual entries will not be provided.

*Please see https://vecf.org/eccecommission for meeting information and materials from 2025 and prior.

2026 Commission Meetings

Meeting Date	Time	Location	Meeting Information
July 7, 2026	10 AM – 12 PM	Patrick Henry Building East Reading Room 1111 East Broad St. Richmond, VA	Information to come
September 1, 2026	TBD	TBD	TBD
October 14, 2026	TBD	TBD	TBD
December 9, 2026	TBD	TBD	TBD

2026 Commission Workgroup Meetings

Schedule being finalized—additional information to come.

Reports

Commission Members

Non-legislative Members:

Belinda Astrop, Chair, Greensville County Board of Supervisors
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
Kristin Kane, Founding Member, Decoding Dyslexia Virginia and National Center on Improving Literacy, Boston University
Kayla LaFond, Virginia Military Spouse Liaison, Virginia Department of Veterans Services
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
Jennie Por, Educator, Henrico County Public Schools
John Salay, John Salay Consulting Services, LLC
Travis Staton, President and CEO, EO
Kevin Wattles, Head of School, Grace Christian Academy
Elizabeth Randall Winkle, Senior Vice President CoStar Product, CoStar Group

Members of House of Delegates:

Delegate Ellen McLaughlin
Delegate Joshua Cole
Delegate Debra Gardner
Delegate Elizabeth Guzman
Delegate Briana Sewell

Members of Senate:

Senator Barbara Favola
Senator Mamie Locke
Senator Stella Pekarsky
Senator David Suetterlein

Ex Officio Members:

Dr. Jeffery Smith, Secretary of Education
Jessica Looman, Secretary of Labor
Jenna Conway, Superintendent of Public Instruction
Duke Storen, Commissioner, Virginia Department of Social Services