Aloha all,

This year, the ECAS Policy Team built a diverse agenda for the 2025 Legislative Session that featured measures meant to address various issues relating to early childhood development. This agenda guided our advocacy efforts throughout Session. Here is an update on the items that were included in this year’s ECAS Policy Agenda.

We would like to thank the individuals and organizations who championed measures, met with, briefed, and educated legislators, marshalled public support, and just plain hustled to advance the measures included in this year’s policy agenda.

We are all committed to creating a better future for our youngest keiki and families, and witnessing everybody’s efforts in the legislative arena is hugely reaffirming.

Mahalo to you all.

As an organization, Early Childhood Action Strategy believes in and utilizes a systems-change framework that consists of six components. These six components are grouped by the three types of change they elicit: transformative, relational, and structural.

Effecting policy is a core tenet of structural change and—since ECAS’s inception—has played a significant role in our pursuit of systems change that benefits the lives of local keiki and their ‘ohana.

Contact Jared Ellis,
ECAS Policy Lead

ECAS advocates in a couple of ways.

Since 2014, we have coordinated a process through which legislative priorities emerge from the ECAS network and partner coalitions. Our teams spend a great deal of time considering these priorities and identifying legislation to be included in our Policy Agenda. These measures are then monitored and shepherded during the legislative process before state legislative bodies.
The ECAS Policy Team, which is composed of advocates and stakeholders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, meets regularly throughout the State Legislative Session—where many of our policy priorities are considered, honed, voted upon, and—if passed—implemented.
In 2019, we launched Commit to Keiki, a non-partisan initiative that works to ensure that all gubernatorial and mayoral candidates understand the critical importance of investing in Hawai‘iʻs youngest keiki, make commitments to doing so and if elected, reflect their priorities in their first 100-day commitments and ongoing budgets. Commit to Keikiʻs Steering Committee members then work with elected leaders to help them achieve their commitments.